How to Fix No Sound in Forza Horizon 4

Forza is a series of racing video games which is published by Xbox Game Studios and is supported in Xbox consoles and Microsoft Windows. The series is divided into two parts; Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsports. The game’s first version was released in 2005 and has worked its way up since then.

Despite the game being developed by Microsoft itself, we came across numerous instances where there was no sound transmitting from Forza Horizon 4. This came to be a very common issue with very less guidance on the internet. In this article, we will go through all the reasons as to why this issue occurs and what the workarounds are to solve the problem.

What causes No Sound in Forza Horizon 4?

After investigating all the cases and combining user reports, we came to the conclusion that the issue occurred due to several different reasons. Some of the reasons why you might not get any sound in Forza Horizon 4 are but not limited to:

Before you start with the solutions, make sure that you have an active internet connection on your computer and are logged in as an administrator. Furthermore, you should follow the solutions from the top and work your way down; each one is listed according to precedence with the first one having the highest.

Solution 1: Disabling/Turning on Sound Enhancements

Sound enhancements are add-ons for your sound. They make your sound better bypassing the sound stream through some predefined process. These enhancements can really help you out if you don’t have a good set of speakers. However, it seems that these enhancements conflict with Forza Horizon 4. Instead of making the sound better, they seem to block it or cause stuttering noises whenever the game outputs any sound.

Forza Developers officially recognized this issue in forums and even said that they are working on some fix by Microsoft Developers. Now there are two variants where meddling with sound enhancements will fix your problem; you can either disable the sound enhancements or enable them. According to our research, we found both cases fixed the problem in different situations.

First, we will go through the options on how to access enhancements in older Windows operating systems.

1. Locate the sound icon present on your taskbar. Right-click on it and select sounds. You can also access the sound options through the control panel.
2. Once the sound options are opened, click on the audio device connected to your computer. Right-click and select Properties.

   

3. Now head over to the Enhancements tab and uncheck all the enhancements enabled (you can also check the box which says “Disable all enhancements”).

   

4. Now select the Advanced tab and uncheck the exclusive mode where applications are allowed to override the settings. Save your changes and exit.

Restart your computer and the entire game. Now try launching Forza Horizon 4 and check if the issue is resolved.

If you have the latest Windows operating system (1903), there are chances you will not find the sound settings as in the previous solution. Follow the steps below:

1. Right-click on the sound icon present on your taskbar and select Open Sound settings.

   

2. Once in sound settings, click on Sound Control Panel present at the top-right side of the screen.

   

3. Now click on the Advanced tab and uncheck the button of Enable Audio Enhancements.

   

4. Now, click on Spatial sound tab and turn off the sound. Press Apply to save changes and exit.

   

5. Restart your computer completely and try running Forza Horizon 4. Check if the issue is resolved for good.

Note: If your sound enhancements are already turned off, we recommend turning them on and then try playing Forza. If this doesn’t help, turn the settings back off and then try again. Even though these actions sound bizarre, we came across numerous instances where this trick helped a lot of users solve their problem.

Solution 2: Updating Windows and Forza to the Latest Build

Before you try anything else, it is recommended that you make sure that Windows is updated to the latest build. According to Forza developers, the game was conflicting with Windows Audio settings itself and because of this, there was no sound output. According to Forza, an update was being worked on which was due to be released in the later iterations of Windows and Forza both.

Furthermore, newer Windows also brings about improved features and bug fixes so if your computer is having issues on its own, they will be fixed.

1. Press Windows + S, type “update” in the dialogue box and open the Settings which return in the results.
2. Once in the Update settings, click on the button of Check for updates.

   

3. Now, Windows will start checking for any potential updates. If any are found, they will be installed automatically. If prompted, make sure that you restart your computer as well.

Now that we have installed the latest updates for Windows, we will move on and install the updates for Forza Horizon 4. Here, we have assumed that you have downloaded the game from Microsoft Store.

1. Press Windows + S, type “store” in the dialogue box and open the entry of Microsoft Store from the results.
2. Once the store is opened, click on the three dots present at the top-right side of the window near your profile image and click Downloads and Updates.

   

3. Now, click on the button of Get updates so all the updates begin to download automatically on your computer. If there is an update for Forza, it will be downloaded.

   

4. Once Forza is updated, restart your computer and launch the game. Check if the sound issue is solved.

Solution 3: Using Speakers

Another interesting finding which we came across was where the sound was not being transmitted through the Headphones. Instead, it was being transmitted through normal speakers. Yes, you heard that right. If you are using headphones to listen to the in-game sound, try playing the game with in-built speakers if you have a laptop or plug external speakers into your computer and try with them.

External speakers are usually stereo 2.1 speakers which are powered by their own power cable but are connected to the computer using an audio jack. Make sure that you plug the jack into the green socket and then check whether the audio gets transmitted.

Solution 4: Changing Frequency of Output

Another common issue which seemed to be the problem was the frequency settings of sound in Windows operating system. Windows allows you to set ‘sampling rate’ on your computer. Sound is produced in analog signals but when we convert it to a digital representation, the result is not always exact. In theory, the more sampling rate you have, the more exact sound is going to be.

Some users seemed to fix the problem of Forza’s sound by changing the sampling rate on their computer to low levels. Follow the steps listed below:

1. Press Windows + R, type “control” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Once in the control panel, click on the category of Sound. Make sure that you select the option of View by: Small icons from the top-right side of the screen.

   

3. Once in sound settings, click on Playback tab and select your output device. Right-click on it and select Properties.
4. Now click on Advanced tab from the top and underneath the Default format, change the value to the following:

16 bit, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality)

4. Once you have made changes, click on Apply to save changes and exit. Restart your computer and now check if the issue is resolved.

Note: We also came across several instances where this format didn’t work. You can try changing the sampling level on your own will and see if any of them work out.

Solution 5: Checking Third-party Programs/Controllers

Another thing which you check before we dive into the drivers is whether there are third-party programs or controllers interfering with the sound output from the game. In numerous cases, we came across controllers or software of third-party headphones/headsets. These modules take the input from the computer and before passing out to you, they process it. A pipeline is created.

This process might sometime conflict with the sound and hence cause issues. Here, we don’t have any definite solution for you to try but you should check whether such programs/modules exist or are preset. Below is the method of how you can uninstall them.

1. Press Windows + R, type “appwiz.cpl” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Once in the application manager, search for the program which is causing the issues. Right-click on it and select Uninstall.

   

3. Restart your computer and launch Forza again. Check if the issue is resolved.

Solution 6: Reinstalling Audio Drivers

If all the above methods fail to work and you are still not able to hear the sound from Forza Horizon 4, we can be a little certain that the issues lie with your audio drivers. Furthermore, if you notice that the sound isn’t transmitting on other programs/games as well, this further strengthens our case. If the drivers are problematic and are having issues, you will not have issues in Forza, but in other programs as well. In this solution, we will navigate to the device manager and reinstall the Audio drivers completely and see if the issue is resolved.

Before we reinstall the drivers, first we will simply to enable/disable the drivers. If this doesn’t work, we will move on and install the default drivers. If even they refuse to work properly, we will move on and make sure that the latest ones are installed.

1. Press Windows + R, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Once in the device manager, expand the category of Audio inputs and outputs, right-click on your sound device and select Disable Device.

   

3. Now, wait for a few moments before you enable the sound again. Now launch Forza Horizon 4 and see if the issue is resolved.

If simply enabling/disabling the drivers don’t work, this signifies that there is an issue with the drivers indeed. Now, we will try to install the default drivers on your computer.

1. Right-click on the sound hardware and select Uninstall device.

   

2. After you are done uninstalling the drivers, right-click anywhere on an empty space and select Scan for hardware changes. The computer will now scan for any new hardware. It will definitely find the sound hardware and notice that its drivers are not installed. It will attempt to install the device drivers automatically.

After the default drivers are installed, launch Forza Horizon 4 and see if the issue is resolved. You should restart your computer before proceeding. If even this doesn’t work, you can right-click on the hardware and select Update driver. If Windows Update doesn’t do the job of updating the driver, you can navigate to your manufacturer’s website and download the drivers from there.

Note: If even after following all the methods the issue doesn’t get solved, you should head over to Forza and Microsoft forums. If you see a pattern, it means that the issue is global. You can either wait for an update or try reinstalling the game altogether.