Marcus Mears III / How-To Geek
The most typical repair for sound points while you join your Home windows-running Steam Deck to your TV is opening System Supervisor, finding the Excessive Definition Audio Controller, and both enabling it or scanning for {hardware} adjustments. If that does not work, reboot your Deck, examine your connections and output settings, and replace your drivers and Home windows model.When you run Home windows in your Steam Deck and expertise audio points when hooking it to a TV, you’ve come to the best place. Our troubleshooting information options 9 potential options, one among which ought to clear up your audio points when connecting Steam Deck with Home windows to a TV.
Strive the Excessive Definition Audio Controller Repair
Many customers affected by the no audio on TV difficulty, together with us, have discovered that tweaking the “Excessive Definition Audio Controller” settings in Home windows System Supervisor fastened the issue.
Start by right-clicking the “Begin” button — this works the identical in Home windows 10 and Home windows 11 — then click on on the “System Supervisor” button on the record.
As soon as in there search for the “System Units” tab and double-click on it. The tab ought to develop with one of many gadgets listed being the aforementioned “Excessive Definition Audio Controller.”
Proper-click on the “Excessive Definition Audio Controller” button after which click on on both “Allow System” if it’s disabled or “Scan For {Hardware} Adjustments” if the gadget is enabled. One of many two actions ought to make Home windows acknowledge your TV and clear up your difficulty. Scanning for {hardware} adjustments fastened the difficulty in our case.
In Home windows 11, you’ll be able to affirm whether or not Home windows now acknowledges your TV by right-clicking the fast settings button (the one with Wi-Fi, battery, and audio icons) within the taskbar after which clicking on the speaker icon.
You need to see your TV among the many “Sound Output” gadgets.
Verify Whether or not All the pieces’s Engaged on the TV Facet
If enabling the “Excessive Definition Audio Controller” or scanning for {hardware} adjustments didn’t work, guarantee every little thing works on the TV aspect. Verify your TV settings, and ensure the sound system — for those who use any — your TV is linked to works because it ought to, or that your TV isn’t muted.
As an example, the soundbar our TV is linked to works nice more often than not. On sure events, although, it is going to fail to robotically activate as soon as audio begins taking part in on the TV. Typically it’s not whilst difficult as that, although. One time, the battery contained in the soundbar distant died, so we thought there was one thing flawed with our PC till about half an hour later after we turned on the soundbar by urgent the facility button on it as an alternative of attempting to make use of the distant.
Reboot Your Steam Deck
If every little thing’s okay along with your TV and sound system, reboot your Steam Deck. You’ll be able to restart Home windows 11 and reboot Home windows 10 by going to clicking the Begin button, then the facility icon, adopted by “Restart.” A reboot can clear up a surprisingly massive variety of points, together with audio-related ones.
One other instance from our expertise is that SteamOS in desktop mode can generally randomly drop audio or bug out the touchpads, so you can not use them for shifting across the desktop. And if that occurs on SteamOS, comparable points can come up on Home windows.
Check Your Steam Deck’s 3.5mm Audio Jack
If rebooting didn’t assist, it’s time to examine whether or not the audio output function works in your Steam Deck. To do that, plug a 3.5mm audio output gadget — audio system, headphones, or earbuds — into your Steam Deck and see if there’s audio popping out.
When you hear audio, it’s probably an issue along with your connection and never the Steam Deck or Home windows itself. In that case, take a look at your dock or cables for issues as we’ve defined under. When you nonetheless hear nothing, it’s time to examine whether or not you might have the Steam Deck Home windows audio drivers put in.
Verify Steam Deck Home windows Drivers Are Put in
When you don’t have the Steam Deck Home windows audio drivers put in, the audio icon within the taskbar ought to present a small X subsequent to the audio icon in Home windows 11 taskbar. On Home windows 10, you must see a small pink X subsequent to the audio icon.
If that’s the case, you didn’t set up the audio drivers. To put in them, go to Valve’s Steam Deck Home windows Sources web site and obtain each audio drivers. Unzip the 2 archives utilizing 7-zip or some other unzipping instrument you might have available, after which set up the 2 drivers by following Valve’s pointers.
For the primary driver, discover the “cs35I41” file that has “Setup Info” listed as its kind, right-click it, and choose “Set up.”
To put in the second driver, find the “NAU88L21” file that has “Setup Info” listed as its kind, right-click it, and choose the “Set up” choice.
If you have already got the 2 Steam Deck Home windows audio drivers put in, attempt reinstalling them to see whether or not that may do the trick concerning the lacking audio difficulty when linked to a TV.
RELATED: Replace Audio Drivers on Home windows
Verify Home windows Sound Settings and Troubleshoot if Wanted
If putting in drivers didn’t clear up the difficulty, open Sound Settings on Home windows 11 by right-clicking the fast settings button on the taskbar after which clicking on the “Sound Settings” button.
On Home windows 10, merely right-click the speaker icon within the taskbar and click on “Open Sound Settings.”
As soon as there, examine whether or not you’ll find your TV among the many record of output gadgets by clicking the “Output System” button.
It’s also possible to attempt scrolling to the “All Sound Units” tab, clicking on it (or on Home windows 10, click on “Sound Management Panel” below Associated Settings), and checking in case your TV is listed there.
Whether it is, however you don’t have any audio, it could be disabled. Proper-click in your TV icon after which click on on “Allow.” When you can’t discover your TV on the record, right-click on any gadget proven there and click on the “Present Disabled Units” and “Present Disconnected Units” buttons.
If that didn’t work, in Sound Settings discover the “Troubleshoot Widespread Sound Issues” tab and click on the “Output Units” button in Home windows 11, or the “Troubleshoot” button below Output in Home windows 10. Comply with the troubleshooting process and see if troubleshooting made your TV seem within the “Output Units” record.
In case your TV nonetheless isn’t exhibiting, it’s time to check the gadget you’re utilizing to attach your Steam Deck to the TV.
Check Your USB Dock/HDMI Adapter and HDMI Cable
We reckon you’re both utilizing a USB-C dock or a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter to attach your Deck to your TV. If not one of the recommendation we’ve supplied up till now labored, it might be that you simply’re utilizing a defective USB dock or HDMI adapter.
Check the dock or adapter with one other gadget, similar to a laptop computer, if in case you have one, or discover a gadget with which you’ll take a look at the dock or adapter.
If the dock or adapter doesn’t work, change it. If it really works, take a look at the HDMI cable you’re utilizing. If the cable doesn’t work, change it. When you nonetheless face audio points it’s time to maneuver to the following potential answer.
Set up Home windows Updates
If nothing up to now has labored for you, go attempt putting in the most recent updates simply in case there’s a repair that’s come down the pipe. To do that, simply kind “Home windows Updates” into the “Search” tab on the Home windows taskbar and as soon as there, obtain and set up each out there replace. After you put in each replace, both let Home windows robotically restart your Steam Deck or restart the Deck manually.
As soon as Home windows reboots, search for your TV within the “Sound Output” record.
Hook up with the TV With SteamOS As an alternative
In case your TV nonetheless doesn’t present up in your output record, discover out if SteamOS is ready to output audio when connecting your Deck to your TV even when Home windows can’t. So, both boot into SteamOS (for those who run Home windows from a microSD card) or reinstall SteamOS utilizing the restoration picture Valve offers. As soon as it boots, join your Deck to your TV and see if the audio’s taking part in in your TV.
If it doesn’t, the one choice you might have left is reinstalling Home windows 11 (or, for those who want, reinstalling Home windows 10). If audio points persist, even after reinstalling Home windows together with Steam Deck audio drivers, there’s a giant probability one thing’s flawed with the USB-C port in your Steam Deck. If that’s the case, we advocate contacting Valve concerning your Steam Deck guarantee.
RELATED: Set up Home windows on Your Steam Deck