No sound at all, or sound from the wrong thing. This is one of the most common calls we get, and it is almost never a broken speaker. Nine times out of ten the audio is playing perfectly well, just somewhere you are not listening.

Work through the list in order. It is arranged from most likely to least likely, so stop as soon as sound comes back.

Try this first

1. Check every volume control, not just the one on screen. There are usually four. The Windows volume, bottom right of the screen near the clock. The volume inside the app itself, which YouTube, Spotify, Teams and Zoom all have separately. The wheel or slider on the headset cable or earcup. And the knob on the speakers or the monitor. Any one of them at zero silences everything.
2. Look for the physical mute. Most headsets have a mute button on the cable or a boom arm that mutes when you flip it up. Many desk speakers have a mute button that gives no obvious sign it is on. Press it once and listen again.
3. Check the per-app volume. Right-click the speaker icon near the clock and choose Open volume mixer. Each running app has its own slider. It is common for one app to be muted while everything else is fine.
4. Check which output Windows is using. Click the speaker icon near the clock, then click the arrow or the small icon next to the volume slider to show the list of outputs. Pick the one you are actually listening to. If your headset is not in the list, unplug it and plug it back in, then look again.
5. If your monitor is plugged in with an HDMI cable, look for the monitor in that list. HDMI carries sound as well as picture, so Windows often decides the monitor is the speaker and sends everything there. If the monitor has no speakers, the sound goes nowhere. Choose your headset or desk speakers instead.
6. Check which socket the headset is in. On a desktop computer, the headphone socket is usually green and the microphone socket pink, and they are easy to mix up, especially at the back of the machine. If your headset is USB, try a different USB port and plug it directly into the computer rather than through a hub, dock or keyboard.

If it is a Bluetooth headset

Bluetooth headsets run in two modes: a music mode with good quality sound and no microphone, and a call mode with a working microphone and noticeably flatter sound. Windows switches between them and does not always get it right.

• Open the output list as in step 4. If your headset appears twice, with something like Stereo on one and Hands-Free or Headset on the other, choose the other one and see if the sound returns.
• Turn the headset off and on again. That is the fastest way to make it reconnect cleanly.
• Make sure it has not silently connected to your phone instead. Most headsets will happily grab whichever paired device woke up last.

If it is only in Teams or Zoom

Teams and Zoom keep their own device settings, entirely separate from Windows. Everything else on the computer can sound fine while a meeting stays silent.

• In Teams, click the three dots beside your picture, choose Settings, then Devices, and set the Speaker to the headset you are wearing. There is a test button on the same screen.
• In Zoom, click the arrow beside the microphone icon, choose Audio Settings, and use Test Speaker.
• Do this while the headset is already plugged in. If you plug it in mid-meeting, both apps often stay on the old device until you change it by hand.

If that didn't fix it

1. Restart the computer properly. Click Start, then Power, then Restart. Shutting the lid or choosing Shut down is not the same thing on most laptops.
2. Try a different headset or pair of speakers if there is a spare, and try your headset in a phone or another computer. Between those two tests you will know whether the hardware or the computer is at fault.

If it still fails, log a ticket and tell us: whether it is every app or one app, what you have plugged in and how, whether the headset works on another device, and whether the trouble started after a Windows update. That last one usually points to the driver, which is the small piece of software that lets Windows talk to the sound hardware. Drivers are ours to fix, not yours.

Still stuck?

Log a ticket at portal.yougrowit.com.au or email support@yougrowit.com.au. If it is stopping you working right now, call 03 9028 4358.

Support hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm Melbourne time, excluding Victorian public holidays.