No sound from Steam games in external display, but everything else has sound

[Mode8fx]

When plugging my laptop into a TV through HDMI, no Steam games have sound. However, everything else has sound through the TV, including Big Picture Mode's menu. How do I fix this? I'm using Windows 10.

[Satoru]

Normally most games would use the "Default Sound Device" to pipe out all their audio.

Some games might have an option to manually select which sound device to go through but htat's kinda rare

BPM doens't seem to have an option to pipe audio to a different device by default so that shouldnt be an issue.

If you launch games directly from steam (not through BPM) do they have sound?

I guess maybe start by updating your audio drivers.

Do you have any audio enhancement programs? Its possible one of those might be doing something wonky? I've seen some take over when you run a game and make everything 7.1, which if you're running stereo headphones basically makes it sound liek nothing is going on.

SteamVR has options to change around audio devices but I don't see any VR games in your library so its porbably not that

[Mode8fx]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Normally most games would use the "Default Sound Device" to pipe out all their audio.

Some games might have an option to manually select which sound device to go through but htat's kinda rare

BPM doens't seem to have an option to pipe audio to a different device by default so that shouldnt be an issue.

If you launch games directly from steam (not through BPM) do they have sound?

I guess maybe start by updating your audio drivers.

Do you have any audio enhancement programs? Its possible one of those might be doing something wonky? I've seen some take over when you run a game and make everything 7.1, which if you're running stereo headphones basically makes it sound liek nothing is going on.

Games only output sound from the laptop's speakers, even if the TV is set as the default speaker. Everything else (internet browser, BPM, etc) outputs from the default.
Launching directly from Steam makes no difference.
I've tried updating audio drivers.
No audio enhancement as far as I know.

[Mode8fx]

I've found that some games do work through the TV, such as Half Life, but others don't.

[Satoru]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881136905406886/#c458604254444743919

seems like its an incompatiblity wtih some drivers that hook the audio away from the HDMI

[Mode8fx]

Originally posted by Satoru:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881136905406886/#c458604254444743919

seems like its an incompatiblity wtih some drivers that hook the audio away from the HDMI

That didn't work, either.

[Satoru]

The 'really hacky' way is to dsiable all audio devices beofre you play games which prevents whatever is switching the audio to not do it.

[Mode8fx]

I've tried disabling all speakers except for the TV, and I've tried uninstalling everything in "sound, video, and game controllers" followed by restarting. Nothing works.

[Satoru]

Ultimately some kind of program is swichgin the audio on you. Unfortuantely you'll likely need to tradck that down

[Mode8fx]

Then what could it be switching to? Literally all other audio outputs are disabled.

[Becerra]

Did you solved this? I am having the exact same trouble with some games.

[Mode8fx]

Originally posted by Becerrasdf:

Did you solved this? I am having the exact same trouble with some games.

No, I gave up and just played it on my laptop's display instead.

[mussawar.a]

Originally posted by Becerrasdf:

Did you solved this? I am having the exact same trouble with some games.

Originally posted by GateGuy:

Originally posted by Becerrasdf:

Did you solved this? I am having the exact same trouble with some games.

No, I gave up and just played it on my laptop's display instead.

I finally found a solution after working on this for a couple days trying it out on destiny 2.

press Win + R, type control.exe mmsys.cpl into the run box. Then click on your laptop speakers (or whatever speakers you don't want to use), click Properties in the bottom right corner. In the new window go down to the bottom "Device usage:" and select "Don't use this device (disable)".

This has now worked for me on every game that i was having this issue with, hope this helps everyone out.

[Lucy Photon]

Literally just started playing games today and this problem! Everything is perfect! Sorry for being random but this works wonders! Thanks!

[Taevarth]

Originally posted by mussawar.a:

Originally posted by Becerrasdf:

Did you solved this? I am having the exact same trouble with some games.

Originally posted by GateGuy:

No, I gave up and just played it on my laptop's display instead.

I finally found a solution after working on this for a couple days trying it out on destiny 2.

press Win + R, type control.exe mmsys.cpl into the run box. Then click on your laptop speakers (or whatever speakers you don't want to use), click Properties in the bottom right corner. In the new window go down to the bottom "Device usage:" and select "Don't use this device (disable)".

This has now worked for me on every game that i was having this issue with, hope this helps everyone out.

You are a life saver lmao.

D2 wouldn't play the sound through my TV which is plugged up to my laptop. but it works this way, just annoying having to constantly enable and re-enable.