Keep losing sound Windows 10

Don Awalt

Don Awalt

Hunter
For awhile now, about once or twice a week I lose all sound on Windows 10 running on my MBP/Mac OS. This happens now on Parallels 13.0.1, but it has happened prior. A restart of Windows restores sound, but this is incredibly annoying.

It happened this morning, and nothing was running over night (apps or anything I Have done I mean...) - Last night I ran Quicken, all was fine. This morning, no sound.

I have checked:
1. No errors in Device Manager
2. Parallels Audio Control is visible there and without error
3. Using Windows Sound under Control Panel, clicking 'Test' for different sounds, shows nothing. Several apps have no sound that normally do.
4. Reinstall Parallels Tools doesn't fix it (a limited test of sorts, since it does require a restart which on its own will fix it. I tried doing 'Postpone' and testing sound, and there was none).
5. No errors or warnings that appear to indicate a problem in Event Log (in fact very few errors/warnings of any type as I don't use the VM much.)

Is this a know issue, any ideas how to track down the issue, or chance it will be fixed or a config change can eliminate this problem? Thanks..
 
In lieu of just creating new VMs as an attempt to fix this, I did my own further testing, and I found that in the Control Center Settings for the Sound, I changed output from Default to Built-in Output, and that restored the sound that had again stopped. So this seems to be a Parallels bug (I restarted many relevant services within the VM and that did not help, seemingly eliminating Windows from the problem possibilities).
 
As an update about a month later, the sound goes out about every day or two. I do what I mention in post #3, and it immediately comes back. It is not reproducible, I don't know what causes it to go away, or when it will go. I only use the VM for one app (Quicken) once or twice a day. I can come to the laptop in the morning and the sound has stopped, without even doing anything from a user perspective since the use of the VM the prior evening when the sound worked.

This is an extremely aggravating bug. Creating new VMs etc. to troubleshoot is not an option for me, maybe someone else can. I wish that Parallels had some error/warnings, logs, anything to detect what the problem can be instead of asking me to just start from scratch and see if the problem goes away. For now I'll just have to say it's buggy and live with it.
 
This is really deplorable service. I have said this problem is not reproducible with a specific set of steps, yet it happens every day now. All I have to do to get sound back is go to Control Center/Setting/Hardware/Sound, And just toggle Output - either from Built in Output to Default, or vice versa. That gets it back on. There are no errors in the Windows 10 Event log of relevance. It just happens, some times when I have not even been at the computer. So I can't reproduce it, I think it is ridiculous if the only choice is create. new VM, that is. lot of work for me and if the problem reoccurs, what have we learned? if it doesn't reoccur, what was the problem, as it could come back at any time?

Is there nothing I can check, no logs, no Parallels info the would help track this down?Do you know how frustrating it is to constantly lose sound, only to get it back by toggling a setting, yet Windows reports no errors?

If this is the best Parallels can do, I am gone as a user, I have spent my last dollar. I have never seen such a situation where the only choice is install fresh or tell us how to reproduce a problem that is not reproducible, and not a single offer to help/investigate/follow up in over a month. Is that the best I can expect?
 
This happens to me ALL THE TIME! And it is why I would love to ditch my Mac and just get a Windows PC. I seriously love my Mac but hate IOS. I do not recall this happening before the big Parallels update of recent. It has been happening for I think a couple months now. This is what I have found and it seems very quirky. The ONLY way I have found to get sound on the windows side is to restart in windows. When I do not have sound on the windows 10 side, I do have sound on the mac side. From what I can determine, the sound goes out on the windows side whenever the macbook goes to sleep. I do not have a million hours to spend on the phone with support and have rarely found support to be helpful so I have just be creating my own work around until some update fixes this. However since that didn't seem to be happening I decided to get on this forum to see if I can figure something out. Doesn't sound like this issue has been fixed. UGH!
 
I feel for ya, ShannonK1! There is a quicker workaround than a Windows restart- go to the Parallels Control Center/Setting/Hardware/Sound, And just toggle Output - either from Built in Output to Default, or vice versa, depending which setting it was on. Then just go back to your Win VM and it works. IMHO this shows how it is clearly a Parallels issue, as just toggling one of their settings fixes it. I hope they fix it soon or I too may be gone to another VM solution.
 
Hi Guys! Thank you for your help. We have found the problem and it will be fixed in nearest update. As workaround you can use Devices menu and select already selected sound Output or Input (marked with checkmark) and it will fix the issue (unfortunately till the next sleep or lid close).
Thank you for you patience.
 
alexg said:
Hi Guys! Thank you for your help. We have found the problem and it will be fixed in nearest update. As workaround you can use Devices menu and select already selected sound Output or Input (marked with checkmark) and it will fix the issue (unfortunately till the next sleep or lid close).
Thank you for you patience.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the update. Please release this update as soon as possible. This is happening on a daily basis for me.
 
I just updated to Version 13.2.0 (43213), and in limited testing of putting my Mac to sleep and checking, the sound seems to be fine, no need to restart it! Thank you!!!
 
I have the same problem and was glad to find this page, but when is this alleged update supposed to become available?? Please!
 
I'm here because I just experienced this problem this evening, except I'm using Windows 10 on Parallels 11.2.3 (32663). Thankfully, DonA2's "toggling solution" worked for me on the first try. Fingers crossed going forward. Perhaps V11 need the same update.
 
Seeing this issue with Parallels 15.1.4
The fixes above don't seem to make any difference. The only way to get the sound back is to do a full shut down of Parallels and restart.
I use Windows 10 to run JAWS and NVDA screen-readers so sound is critical.
 
I am facing the same problem. Is there anything I could try to avoid this annoying problem?
I'm using the below environment:
- MacOS Catalina 10.15.6
- Parallels 16.0.1 (48919)
 
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