No sound in remote access sessions

[CaptainLaddie]

So we've been using ScreenConnect for our remote access sessions for my company since we launched (thanks for the rec, @AlNipper49!) and it's been awesome.

However, last night I was unable to hear what's happening on a remote machine. I normally use Firefox, but it didn't work there or Chrome or even Edge (which I tried for the first time).

I don't have any new firewall rules, I disabled my AV to see if that was the problem (it's not), and it's not muted in Windows system sound mixer.

I was able to log in with my laptop and my phone and am able to hear on those devices, which means it's not linked to a permission for my account (I'm the admin!).

I tried different sound/speaker devices, no luck. I switched things in ScreenConnect to use a different device for output, and nothing there either.

I'm genuinely stumped. I've rebooted (obviously), and all other programs are working fine in terms of sound.

 

[AlNipper49]

Funny you say that, Laddie. I’m in Belize and my Screen Connect has been misbehaving the last two days. I assumed that it was the location but I guess they could be having issues.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

Funny you say that, Laddie. I’m in Belize and my Screen Connect has been misbehaving the last two days. I assumed that it was the location but I guess they could be having issues.

Have you been having black screen problems? Basically where you log in and the remote machine is a black screen?

 

[AlNipper49]

That’s the exact issue that I’ve been having. I haven’t really tried troubleshooting it much and from the sounds of it I’m glad that I didn’t.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

That’s the exact issue that I’ve been having. I haven’t really tried troubleshooting it much and from the sounds of it I’m glad that I didn’t.

So, we actually solved it (temporarily). It's a weird graphics driver thing, and if your units aren't out of date in terms of Windows Update, it will work.

Create a batch file with this as the text:

@echo off
setlocal

:: Get the InstanceId of the 'HD Graphics' device
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('powershell.exe -Command "Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object { $_.FriendlyName -like '*HD Graphics*' } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty InstanceId"') do set "InstanceId=%%a"

:: Check if the InstanceId was found
if not defined InstanceId (
echo Could not find a device with 'HD Graphics' in the name.
exit /b
)

:: Disable the device
echo Disabling device...
powershell.exe -Command "Disable-PnpDevice -InstanceId '%InstanceId%' -Confirm:$false"

:: Enable the device
echo Enabling device...
powershell.exe -Command "Enable-PnpDevice -InstanceId '%InstanceId%' -Confirm:$false"

:: Set power scheme options
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 0e796bdb-100d-47d6-a2d5-f7d2daa51f51 0
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 0e796bdb-100d-47d6-a2d5-f7d2daa51f51 0
powercfg -setactive scheme_current

echo Done.

Then, upload it wherever you want (we have ours called screenfix.bat)

The syntax you put into the command line prompt on SC is:

powershell.exe -Command "New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path C:\temp; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'THE URL OF YOUR BATCH FILE.BAT' -OutFile 'C:\temp\screenfix.bat'; Start-Process 'cmd.exe' '/c C:\temp\screenfix.bat'"

It resets the graphics driver and you're all good after.

We also found that if you change the Windows graphics driver to a default one, it seems to help. Finally, if you have HDMI dummy plugs, that also fixes the problem if a command line fix doesn't work.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

@AlNipper49 you can also change the resolution in SC of a remote unit and that will fix the black screen. Tried it myself today!

 

[AlNipper49]

Fuck that’s awesome, thanks for the tip!