If you have a Samsung TV, sometimes, very rarely, you may find that the TV screen has pictures but no sound. I’ve found myself in this situation many times, it’s not a malfunction, and it’s usually easy to fix if you proceed as planned so you don’t do something wrong yourself and make the situation worse.
Troubleshooting Samsung TV without sound
To fix the sound in your Samsung TV, I recommend the following steps. Start with the simplest one, the reason may be quite trivial. These are the cases in which you may encounter no sound on your TV.
- You are watching a TV channel, and at some point, the sound disappears, and there is only a picture.
- You are watching a streaming video such as Netflix or Amazon Video during a movie, and the picture freezes, and there is no sound, or the movie continues, but there is no sound.
- The sound on your soundbar goes out while I am watching a movie.
Let’s take a look at these situations and the reasons why they may occur.
Make sure the sound is turned on:
First, check to see if you have accidentally pressed the mute button on the remote control. A crossed-out speaker will appear on the TV screen, but you may have yet to notice it or have been distracted for a while; the speaker appears on the screen only briefly and then disappears. Press the mute button on the remote control to turn the sound on or off. On TVs with Smart remotes, there is no mute button; these remotes have a sound adjustment button that can be accidentally pressed, and because it works like a joystick, accidentally moving the button down can turn the volume down to zero, turning off the sound.
Take the remote and turn up the volume; if this is the cause, you will see the volume increase and hear sound on the TV.
Check for sound on other channels:
The situation of no sound when watching TV may not be related to the TV. There may be a problem with the broadcasting of TV programs. Try switching the TV to another channel. If there is sound on the other channel, there is nothing wrong with the TV. If you are watching a streaming video, it is understandable that you do not want to interrupt your viewing and then wait for it to load. In this case, it’s easier to go back a few minutes to the part of the movie where the sound was; if the sound is back, it’s not the TV.
The easiest case is to check if you accidentally pressed mute on the remote control. The TV certainly shows a crossed out speaker, but maybe you just didn’t notice it. Press the “Mute” button on the remote, you will turn the sound on or off.
Check which audio output is set:
Your TV has several audio output options
TV speakers
Soundbar (external speakers) Optical or HDMI connection
Bluetooth speakers or headphones
When the sound is output to external speakers, the TV is muted, but this is not the case with Samsung TVs that work with Q-Series soundbars, as the TV and soundbar work together.
Check that the sound is transmitted to the Bluetooth headphones. You may be able to hear sound in the headphones. This shouldn’t happen while watching a film, but if your Bluetooth headphones are paired with the TV, and you accidentally turn them on, the TV may automatically switch the sound to the headphones.
Check the sound settings – you should only do this if you have previously made changes to the settings.
Connecting wired headphones:
Older Samsung TVs usually have an audio output to connect wired headphones. Modern TVs do not use this output because they are designed to use Bluetooth. If you are using such headphones, make sure they are not connected. The TV mutes the speakers when headphones are plugged in, and there is a physical contact in the headphone jack that opens when is turned on, cutting off the sound output to the TV speakers. Also, if you use headphones frequently, the headphone jack in the TV may break, and the TV may not detect that the headphones are disconnected. Plug in the headphones and listen to the sound from the headphones. The headphone socket is broken if you can hear sound in the headphones but not on the television. It can be cleaned.
Audio driver failure in the TV:
If we make an analogy with a computer, this situation happens with a computer. In a TV, this happens, but very rarely; the TV also has a sound chip and drivers to make it work. But unlike a computer, which is more flexible for customization, the sound drivers in a TV are stored in permanent memory when the OS is installed or updated and cannot be changed by the application. If you doubt whether your TV is working correctly, reboot it. There are three ways to do this.
- Turn the TV off and on using the button on the remote control. The TV will reboot without clearing the cache memory.
- Unplug the TV for 1-2 minutes. The cache memory will also be cleared when you turn on the TV.
- When turning on the TV, hold the power button for 20 seconds—clearing the cache memory when the OS boots.
No sound when watching video from a media player, laptop, or Blu-ray player
When using an HDMI connection to send video signals to a TV, it is common to have video signals but no sound. The problem occurs because when you connect to a TV via HDMI, the TV must determine the video and audio codec used to compress the stream. The TV’s processor processes video and audio; the TV always processes video, and audio may pass through the TV on the way to the soundbar. There are times when the TV does not detect the audio codec correctly. If this happens, disconnect and reconnect the HDMI cable. If this is not possible, restart the device sending the video to the TV. The sound will then appear.
The sound on the TV will stop a few minutes after the TV is turned on: If the sound on the TV stops a few minutes after the TV is turned on, this is usually an indication of a software or technical problem. Unplug the TV for two minutes and then plug it back in. If it happens again, it is most likely a technical problem.
Sound problem on the soundbar
You should know that soundbars have sound processors and process the sound stream. You usually use the eARC audio return channel on an HDMI or optical connection to connect a soundbar. Bluetooth can also be used, but due to the additional encoding and decoding required, you may notice a delay in the sound from the video. Modern televisions have built-in video delay software that syncs the video and audio.
So if you experience audio problems, switch the TV’s audio output to the internal speakers and compare the sound. If the sound is fine on the TV but bad when you switch to the soundbar, look for a problem with the soundbar. You may need to update the soundbar’s firmware, and everything will be fine.
Samsung TV sound self-diagnostic program
Samsung TVs have a self-diagnostic program. Depending on the TV model, the call of the diagnostic program may be different. But in most TVs, it can be found as follows. Press the “Menu” button on the remote control, then select the “Support” menu. Select “Self Diagnostics” and then select “Sound Test .”The TV will play sounds from the built-in speakers. If you can hear the sound, the sound problem is unrelated to the TV. If you don’t hear a tune, the sound problem is probably with the TV.
