No sound at all: the checklist
Nothing plays, anywhere. Work down this list in order — it is arranged so the free checks come before the expensive ones.
First, prove it is silent
Run the sound test and watch the waveform while a tone plays. A moving trace means the browser is producing a signal and handing it to the system, which already rules out half the possible causes: the page, the browser and the tab are fine, and the fault is downstream in the output device or the hardware. A flat line while a step is running means the browser never started, which usually means the page has not had a click yet.
That distinction is worth thirty seconds because it splits the problem in two, and everything below is ordered by how likely and how cheap each cause is.
1. The wrong output device
This is the single most common cause on a desktop computer, and it almost never looks like a device problem. Connect a monitor over HDMI or DisplayPort and the system may decide that monitor is now the default audio output. If it has no speakers, your sound is going somewhere that cannot play it.
On Windows, click the speaker icon in the system tray and check which device the volume slider names. On macOS, open Sound in System Settings and look at the Output tab. Pick your actual speakers or headphones, then test again. Plugging headphones in does not always switch the output, particularly on USB and Bluetooth devices.
2. Something is muted that you did not mute
There are at least four independent mute states on a modern computer: the system volume, the per-application volume in the mixer, the browser tab's own mute, and the hardware mute on a keyboard or headset. Any one of them silences everything without touching the others.
Check the browser tab first: right-click the tab and look for an unmute option. Then open the volume mixer, which on Windows lists every application separately, and confirm your browser is not sitting at zero. A headset with an inline control or a mute button on the cup is worth checking with your hands rather than your eyes.
3. The physical connection
Push the plug in fully. A 3.5 mm jack that is one click short makes partial contact and typically gives you one channel, a thin sound, or nothing. If the socket is on the front of a desktop case, try the one on the back: front-panel headers are frequently unconnected inside the case or wired to a separate device the system treats as its own output.
Then flex the cable near the plug while a tone plays. Crackling or stuttering in time with your hand is a broken conductor, which is where nearly all headphone cables fail.
4. Bluetooth specifics
A Bluetooth device can be connected for calls but not for media, or connected to a different device entirely — earbuds will happily attach themselves to a phone in your pocket while you sit at a computer. Open the Bluetooth settings, confirm the device is connected, and if in doubt disconnect it everywhere and pair again.
If sound arrives but only in one ear on a wireless set, that is usually a pairing problem rather than a hardware failure; the Bluetooth guide covers the reset sequence.
5. Drivers and system audio services
On Windows, an audio driver that has updated badly shows up as a device that appears present and plays nothing. Open Device Manager, expand Sound, video and game controllers, and use Uninstall device with the option to remove the driver, then restart — Windows reinstalls a working generic driver on boot. This is less drastic than it sounds and it fixes a real share of cases.
On macOS, quitting the coreaudiod process from Activity Monitor restarts the audio system without a reboot. On both systems, a full restart is worth trying before anything more involved, because audio services can end up in a stuck state that nothing else clears.
6. Phones and tablets
On iOS, check the ring/silent switch, the volume while media is actually playing (the volume buttons control different things depending on what is active), and whether a volume limit is set under accessibility. On Android, check the separate media volume slider — the ringer and media volumes are independent, and turning the phone down during a call sometimes turns down the wrong one.
7. Confirm with a second device
If everything above fails, borrow a second pair of headphones and a second device. Four combinations settle it: if your headphones work on another device, the computer is at fault; if another pair works on your computer, the headphones are. Do this before buying anything, because the answer is often the opposite of what people assume.
Once anything plays at all, run the sound test again to check both channels and the range, since a partial recovery is easy to mistake for a fix.
Last reviewed 2026-09-22.