- Windows 11's latest update breaks the sound on some PCs
- The September update also messes with File History
- Microsoft is working on a fix for the audio glitch, but we don't have an ETA
Windows 11's new update is breaking the audio on some PCs, thanks to the latest nasty bug that Microsoft has let slip through the QA testing net.
Windows Latest spotted that Microsoft has admitted that the September update has torpedoed the audio on some systems, in a post on the Windows release health dashboard.
Microsoft explains that: "Some USB Audio Class 1.0 devices might fail to start or produce audio."
As well as your speakers being eerily silent, the September update can also render the Sound panel in the Settings app unresponsive, which hardly helps when troubleshooting the issue.
One way you can check if your device is affected by this bug — assuming it has no audio, and you want to rule out other possible causes — is that in Device Manager you'll see a 'code 10' error ("this device cannot start") for your sound controller.
Windows Latest also informs us that this bug can affect microphones, as well as the PC's speakers.
It's not the only glitch with the September update, either, as users have reported problems with GPUs, and the File History feature going awry and failing to work.
File History is a capability that allows you to back up your files to an external drive (or elsewhere), so it's pretty important for those who use the functionality.
Analysis: negative vibes
Microsoft says this audio bug could manifest in other ways, so you might get sound when using standard stereo, but that audio might disappear when switching to multichannel playback. This means it's worth checking what your audio output is set to, and changing it back to stereo if it's currently using a different playback mode, which might just resurrect your sound.
Otherwise, there's not much that can be done, other than trying different audio output options on your Windows 11 system (Windows Latest observes that wireless audio devices don't appear to be affected). The other alternative is to remove the September update until Microsoft fixes this issue, although that will leave you without security patches.
When might we get a fix for this issue? Microsoft tells us: "We are working on a resolution and will update this documentation when more information is available."
This is a somewhat widespread problem by all accounts, and the File History bug is even more so, although the latter hasn't yet been acknowledged by Microsoft.
The reaction on Reddit is much as you might expect in terms of Windows 11 users blaming Microsoft's increased use of AI in coding the desktop OS, and observing that these kinds of bugs are why people don't want to migrate to the newer operating system.
As one Redditor observes: "And they wonder why people don't want to move from Windows 10."
Another notes: "Microslop can keep vibe coding all they want, I'm already on Linux."
Windows 10 is a sounder (ahem) bet for avoiding bugs, seeing as Microsoft isn't adding new features or messing with the codebase much, and ks only applying security fixes and essentials. That said, this of course doesn't mean Windows 10 is immune to glitches.
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