After you connect a TV or a monitor to your computer with an HDMI cable, you can’t hear the sound from the TV/monitor, and find that HDMI is not showing in Playback devices. What to do to fix the error? Read on to find the solutions.
Before you try the solutions, ensure your all hardware works fine. You can follow these steps to troubleshoot:
- Plug the HDMI cable to another HDMI port (if your computer has) and see if the error still occurs. If the error is gone, it means the cause is a damaged HDMI port.
- Try another HDMI cable (if you have) and see if the error still occurs. If the error is gone, it means the cause is a damaged HDMI cable.
- Connect your TV/monitor to another computer and see if the error still occurs. If the error is gone, it means the cause is the faulty computer settings, then you can try the below methods to fix it.
Try these methods
Method 1: Restart your computer and reconnect the device
Method 2: Show and enable the device manually
Method 3: Update the HD Audio Device driver
Method 4: Update the graphics card driver
Method 5: Reinstall the HD Audio Device driver
Method 6: Roll back the HD Audio Device driver
Method 7: Disable the Hyper-V feature
Method 1: Restart your computer and reconnect the device
When you connect the TV/monitor to your computer, if the computer is turned on, the HDMI sound may not work and may not show up in Playback devices. To fix the error, you can try restarting the computer and reconnecting the device. To do so:
1) Turn off your computer.
2) Unplug and plug the HDMI cable again. Ensure the cable is plugged in both the computer and the TV/monitor.
3) Ensure the TV/monitor is on.
4) Turn on the computer and check to see if HDMI shows up in Playback devices.
If Method 1 doesn’t work for you, continue to try Method 2.
Method 2: Show and enable the device manually
The HDMI device can be disabled and hidden in Playback devices. If that’s the case, you need to show and enable the device manually. You can follow the below steps to make all disabled devices show up. If the HDMI device is disabled, it will show up too.
1) Open the Sound window and go to the Playback tab.
2) Right-click anywhere in the window and check if both Show Disabled Devices and Show Disconnected Devices are selected.
If you see a check mark placed on them, it means they’re selected . If you don’t see a check mark placed on them, click them to place a check mark. Then check to see if the HDMI device shows up. If it shows up, right-click on it and select Enable, then set it as default.
If Method 2 doesn’t work for you, continue to try Method 3.
Method 3: Update the HD Audio Device driver
Some Windows users have reported that updating the HD audio device driver helped them fix the error. You can also try updating the HD Audio device driver and see if it works for you. To do so:
1) Open Device Manager (learn how to access Device Manager).
2) Double-click on the Sound, video and game controllers category to expand it. Right-click on the HD audio device and select Update driver.
TIP: The HDMI audio is controlled by the graphics card, so the name of the HD audio device depends on the graphics card you have. It can be Intel Display Audio, AMD High Definition Audio Device or NVIDIA High Definition Audio Device.
3) Select Search automatically for drivers. Then Windows will search for and update the driver automatically.
4) After updating the driver, check to see if HDMI shows up in Playback devices.
If Method 3 doesn’t work for you, continue to try Method 4.
Method 4: Update the graphics card driver
The HD audio device driver is a part of the graphics card driver package. If you can’t update the HD audio device driver with Method 3, you can try updating the graphics card driver.
Go to the device manufacturer’s website (Intel, NVIDIA or AMD) to download the latest driver for your graphics card. Once download is done, double-click on the downloaded file and follow the instructions on the screen to install the driver.
Method 5: Reinstall the HD Audio Device driver
Updating the drivers might not work for you. In that case, you can try reinstalling the HD audio device driver. To do so:
1) Open Device Manager.
2) Right-click on the HD audio device (Intel Display Audio, AMD High Definition Audio Device or NVIDIA High Definition Audio Device) and select Uninstall device.
3) Tick the box next to Delete the driver software for this device and click Uninstall.
4) After uninstall is done, restart your computer.
5) Check to see if the HDMI missing from Playback device error still occurs.
Method 6: Roll back the HD Audio Device driver
The driver can be caused by a newer version of the driver. You can try rolling back the HD audio device driver and see if the error can be resolved.
1) Open Device Manager.
2) Double-click on the HD audio device (Intel Display Audio, AMD High Definition Audio Device or NVIDIA High Definition Audio Device) to open the device Properties window.
3) At the Properties window, click the Driver tab then click the Roll Back Driver button.
4) Click OK to apply the changes.
5) Close the Properties window and check to see if HDMI shows up in Playback devices.
Method 7: Disable the Hyper-V feature
If none of the above methods works for you, the last resort you can try is to disable the Hyper-V feature. Hyper-V is an optional feature in Windows 10 which allows you to create and run virtual machines. It’s reported that this feature interferes with the HDMI audio. If it’s on, the HDMI audio may not work properly.
To fix the error, you can try disabling the Hyper-V feature. Here’s how to do it:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key.
2) Type “windows feature” then select Turn Windows features on or off.
3) Check if Hyper-V is selected. If it’s selected, click the checkbox to deselect it, then click OK to apply the changes.
4) Check to see if the error is resolved.
Hopefully you can fix the HDMI not showing up in Playback devices error with the above steps. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below. I’ll get back to you ASAP.