How to deal with Windows 7 when it reports "audio device is disabled," but is not?

Solution 1:

Well miracle of miracles the solution came from here.

Not only did this solve the audio problem, but it also solved some other haunting issues such as the wireless icon in the system tray not showing properly when connecting (even though it was connecting).

Here are the steps to follow:

Click Start, search for cmd, right click `cmd.exe` and select 'run as administrator'

At the prompt, execute:

net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice <ENTER>
net localgroup Administrators /add localservice <ENTER>
exit <ENTER>

Restart the computer and you should be fixed!

Now you might hit a problem where you won't sign in properly the first time. If that happens, you may have to hold the power in and kill the computer. I then restarted in Safe Mode and upon another restart, the system started up just fine and the issues seem to now be resolved.

Solution 2:

You're looking at the device manager which is only one way to disable an audio device. There is a good chance that this is actually talking about the virtual audio device listed in the sound managers 'Playback Devices' list. You can access this by right clicking on the speaker icon in your task tray and choosing the 'Playback Devices' option. This should show you a screen similar to the following:

If you don't have an option with a green check next to it then you have no default playback device. Choose the correct playback device and you should be all set.