Audio playback error Restart computer on YouTube - how to fix it?

Sometimes when watching a video on YouTube, an error may occur: “Audio playback error. Restart your computer »or, in English: Audio renderer error. Please restart your computer.

This tutorial details how to fix the YouTube audio renderer black screen error and what you can try to prevent the issue from happening again. The solutions will work for Windows 11 and Windows 10, whether you use Google Chrome or any other browser.

Ways to Solve "Audio Playback Error" Problem on YouTube

YouTube itself suggests "Restart computer" in the error message. Sure enough, restarting usually helps. However, if the error occurs frequently, restarting each time is not the best solution. Here are some ways to fix the audio playback error without restarting:

1. Close the browser where the error occurred. Press the keys Win + R on your keyboard (or right-click the Start - Run button), enter the command mmsys.cpl in the "Run" window and press Enter. Select the default playback device and click "Properties". In the "Advanced" tab, uncheck the two "Monopoly Mode" boxes and apply the settings.
2. If the playback device settings window has tabs responsible for additional effects and spatial sound, disable all those effects.
3. If the error didn't occur until recently, try rolling back your sound driver: right-click the "Start" button and select "Device administrator«. Under “Sound, game and video devices” double-click your sound card, for example Realtek Audio and check if the “Rollback” button in the “Driver” tab is active. If so, use it and check if the error reappears after the rollback.
4. To fix the audio playback error once without restarting, you can use the following method: close the browser, press the keys Win + R, enter services.msc and hit Enter. In the list of services, find "Windows Audio", right-click on the name of the service and select "Restart" from the context menu. Reopen the video after restarting the service.
5. Try disabling hardware acceleration in your browser.
6. You can try using automatic audio troubleshooting (right-click the speaker icon in the notification area - troubleshoot), but it rarely helps.

These are basic options that usually help with the problem. But not always. If the error still occurs or has not been fixed, pay attention to the following nuances and possible approaches:

Hopefully one of the suggested solutions will work for you and prevent the problem in the future.