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Run the TV’s own sound test first
Every major brand builds a sound test into the TV, and it settles the question in under a minute. The test plays a tone through the internal speakers regardless of what the TV is currently connected to. If you hear it, the speakers, the amplifier and the panel’s audio path are all fine, and your fault is upstream — the output setting, the source device, or a soundbar in the chain. If you hear nothing, the fault is inside the television.
Applies to: Any TV with no audio, low audio, or audio on some sources only — Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, Hisense, Vizio, Philips and Panasonic included. Sound test and output menu names vary by brand and model year; the paths below name the common ones.
When is there no sound?
Silence from a TV is one symptom covering two entirely separate problems, and almost everyone starts guessing before they know which one they have. A TV whose speakers work but is sending audio to a soundbar that isn’t on needs a settings change. A TV whose speakers have failed needs a repair. The built-in sound test separates them, costs nothing, and rules out roughly half the internet’s advice in one step. Do it first, then follow the branch it puts you on.
No sound from anything, on any input
Does the TV’s built-in sound test play?
Run the sound testThe sound test plays, but nothing else does
Is audio being sent to an external speaker?
Check sound outputOne input is silent, others are fine
Does the same device work on another HDMI port?
Isolate the sourceThe soundbar or receiver went quiet
Is it on the ARC or eARC port, with CEC enabled?
Check ARC1. Rule out mute, volume, and the headphone jack
Press Volume Up on the TV’s own remote and watch the screen. If the volume bar moves but nothing gets louder, audio is being routed away from the internal speakers and section 3 is your answer. If the bar doesn’t appear at all, you may be pressing buttons on the wrong remote — a cable box or soundbar remote controls its own device, not the TV — which is worth ruling out before anything else.
Check mute separately from volume, because they behave differently: many TVs keep a mute state through a power cycle, and some mute automatically when a headphone or optical cable is detected. Sony’s guidance is simply to press Mute and Volume Up on the TV’s remote and confirm the level was not left at zero, which sounds trivial until it is the answer.
Then check the physical jack. A plug left in the headphone socket — or a partially inserted one, which is worse because it looks unused — silences the internal speakers on most televisions by design. The same is true of a connected Bluetooth headphone or speaker the TV has quietly reconnected to. Look in the TV’s Bluetooth or audio device list and disconnect anything you are not actively using.
If the TV is on a cable or satellite box, adjust the volume with that box’s remote as well. A set-top box muted at source produces total silence from a TV whose own volume is set perfectly normally.
2. Run the built-in sound test — this is the diagnosis
Both Samsung and LG ship a sound test that plays a tone through the internal speakers, and both deliberately bypass whatever you have configured. LG documents that its Sound Self-Diagnosis switches the TV to the internal speakers and sets the volume to 20 for the duration, then restores your previous level afterwards. That is the reason the test is conclusive: it removes the output setting from the equation.
On Samsung, go to Settings → Support → Device Care → Self Diagnosis → Sound Test. On LG the path has moved between webOS versions: on webOS 23 and 24 it is Settings → Support → Sound Self-Diagnosis; on webOS 22 and 6.0 it is All Settings → Support → OLED Care → Device Self-Care → Sound Self-Diagnosis; on webOS 5.0 it is All Settings → Support → Additional Settings → Sound Test; and on webOS 4.5 and older it is All Settings → Sound → Sound Test. Sony and other brands typically have an equivalent under a Sound or Diagnostics menu.
Read the result carefully, because it is the whole point of the exercise. A test tone you can hear proves the speakers, the amplifier and the TV’s audio output are working, and LG says as much — a normal test result points at the set-top box or other source rather than the television. Silence during the test, with the volume raised, is the one result that genuinely implicates the TV, and it is the evidence to give support in section 6.
Samsung
Settings → Support → Device Care → Self Diagnosis → Sound Test.
LG (webOS 23–24)
Settings → Support → Sound Self-Diagnosis. On webOS 22 and 6.0: All Settings → Support → OLED Care → Device Self-Care → Sound Self-Diagnosis.
LG (webOS 5.0 and older)
webOS 5.0: All Settings → Support → Additional Settings → Sound Test. webOS 4.5 or older: All Settings → Sound → Sound Test.
3. If the test plays, check where the sound is being sent
A TV that passes its own sound test but is otherwise silent is sending audio somewhere else. Every brand has a single setting that controls this, under a slightly different name: Sound Out on LG, Sound Output on Samsung, and Speakers on Sony. Set it back to the internal speakers — LG’s wording is Use TV Speaker, Sony’s is TV Speakers — and the sound should return immediately.
LG describes a useful tell for this state: if the on-screen volume display does not change as you press Volume, an external speaker is set as the output and the TV is not the thing controlling the level. Sony puts it more bluntly still — if Speakers is set to Audio System, sound will not come out of the TV’s speakers at all, by design and not by fault.
This setting changes itself more often than you would expect. Turning on a CEC-capable soundbar, connecting Bluetooth headphones, plugging in an optical cable, or running a software update can all move the output, and it stays moved after the other device is switched off. If the setting keeps reverting, disable HDMI-CEC — Anynet+ on Samsung, Simplink on LG, BRAVIA Sync on Sony — long enough to confirm that is what is doing it.
LG
Set Sound Out to Use TV Speaker. If the volume display doesn’t move as you press Volume, an external output is selected.
Sony
Set Speakers to TV Speakers in the Sound settings. Set to Audio System, the internal speakers stay silent by design.
Samsung
Set Sound Output to TV Speaker. Anynet+ can move it back when a connected device powers on.
4. If only one input is silent, isolate it
Sound on the built-in apps but not on the console, or on every input except the cable box, moves the whole investigation away from the TV. Start on the source device itself: check its own volume and mute, then its audio output setting. Consoles, streaming boxes and disc players all have a menu that chooses between PCM and bitstream formats, and a device set to output a format the TV cannot decode produces silence rather than an error.
Then separate the port from the cable exactly as you would for a video fault. Move the same device and the same cable to a different HDMI port. If the sound returns, the original port is at fault; if it doesn’t, keep the port and change the cable instead. Samsung will do part of this for you: Settings → Support → Device Care → Self Diagnosis → Signal Information → HDMI Cable Test reports whether the connected cable is the problem. Samsung’s own no-audio guidance also suggests connecting a different device with the same cables, which is the cleanest way to tell a broken source from a broken input.
Audio-only faults on HDMI are frequently a handshake problem rather than a hardware one. Samsung’s documented fix is a cold boot — press and hold the Power button on the remote until the TV turns off and comes back on — which reinitialises the input in a way that switching inputs does not. If picture is also missing, the fault is broader than sound and the no-signal path is the better starting point.
5. Soundbars, receivers, ARC and eARC
An external audio system adds three things that can fail independently: the port, the control protocol, and the audio format. Start with the port, because it is the most common miss — audio return only works on the one HDMI port labelled ARC or eARC, and a soundbar moved to a different port during a tidy-up will pass video perfectly while carrying no sound back at all.
Then check HDMI-CEC is enabled at both ends, since ARC depends on it. Every brand names it differently — Anynet+ on Samsung, Simplink on LG, BRAVIA Sync on Sony — and it is commonly switched off during troubleshooting for something else and never switched back. Sony’s ARC guidance covers this along with confirming the TV’s audio output is set to the audio system rather than the TV speakers, which is the mirror image of section 3: for a soundbar setup, Audio System is the correct setting.
If ARC still refuses, an optical cable is a fast and useful test. Optical carries stereo and compressed surround but not the higher-bandwidth formats, so if sound returns over optical you have narrowed the fault to ARC specifically rather than the soundbar. From there, the usual causes are a cable not rated for eARC, a device in the chain that doesn’t pass it through, or a format mismatch — set the TV’s digital audio output to PCM as a test, since a receiver being handed a format it can’t decode goes silent rather than complaining.
Power-cycle the soundbar and the TV together rather than separately. ARC negotiates when both come up, and a soundbar that woke before the TV finished booting is a routine cause of sound that vanished after a power cut.
6. Firmware, power cycle, and what to tell support
Before concluding anything, do a proper power cycle and a firmware check. Sony’s instruction is to turn off the TV and the connected audio device, unplug both from the wall for a few minutes, then reconnect and power them up. Turning the TV off with the remote is not enough — it stays energised in standby, and the audio state you are trying to clear survives. Then check for a software update: Samsung’s no-audio guidance lists updating both the TV and the external device, and audio dropouts on HDMI are a genuine category of firmware bug.
A factory reset is the last software step and rarely the right one. It clears every setting and sign-in, and it cannot repair a failed speaker or amplifier board. Only reach for it if the sound test fails, firmware is current, and you want to rule out a corrupted settings store before booking a repair. Sony also suggests resetting just the sound settings — Home → Settings → Sound → Reset — which is a far smaller step and worth trying first.
When you contact support, lead with the sound test result, because it is the one piece of evidence that separates a repair from a settings problem. Tell them whether the test tone played, whether any input produces sound, what the sound output setting is, whether a second device on the same cable is also silent, and what the HDMI cable test reported. Those five answers are the difference between a technician visit and a two-minute menu change.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my TV have no sound?
Most often the audio output is set to an external speaker that isn’t on, something is plugged into the headphone jack, or the source device is muted at its own end. Run the TV’s built-in sound test first — Samsung: Settings → Support → Device Care → Self Diagnosis → Sound Test; LG: Sound Self-Diagnosis under Support. If the test tone plays, the speakers are fine and the fault is the output setting or the source.
What does it mean if the TV’s sound test works?
It means the internal speakers, the amplifier and the TV’s audio path are all working, so the television almost certainly doesn’t need a repair. The test deliberately bypasses your settings — LG’s switches to the internal speakers and sets the volume to 20 for the duration — so a tone you can hear puts the fault upstream: the sound output setting, the source device, or an external audio system.
Why does my TV have picture but no sound?
Video and audio travel the same HDMI cable but are handled separately, so one can fail alone. Check the sound output setting first — Sound Out on LG, Speakers on Sony, Sound Output on Samsung — then the source device’s own audio format setting, since a device outputting a format the TV can’t decode goes silent rather than showing an error. A cold boot of the TV clears a failed audio handshake.
Why did my soundbar stop playing TV audio?
Check three things in order: that the soundbar is on the one HDMI port labelled ARC or eARC, that HDMI-CEC is enabled at both ends — Anynet+, Simplink or BRAVIA Sync — and that the TV’s audio output is set to the audio system rather than the TV speakers. Testing with an optical cable narrows it: sound over optical means the fault is ARC specifically, not the soundbar.
Why is there no sound on one HDMI input only?
Either the source device, the cable, or that port. Move the same device and cable to a different port: sound returning means the port failed. If it doesn’t, change the cable and keep the port. Samsung’s HDMI Cable Test, under Self Diagnosis → Signal Information, reports whether the cable is the problem, and connecting a different device on the same cable tells you whether the source is at fault.
Should I factory reset my TV to fix no sound?
Not until much later. A reset clears every setting and sign-in and can’t repair a failed speaker or amplifier. Try a full power cycle — unplugged at the wall for a few minutes, not standby — and a firmware update first. Sony’s Sound → Reset restores only the audio settings, which is a much smaller step and often enough.
Sources and review notes
Checked on . Compiled by Glitchary from manufacturer troubleshooting documentation. Menu paths vary by brand and model year — LG in particular has moved the sound test between webOS versions, so check the manual for your exact model. The sound test and cable swap tests are diagnostic checks rather than a guarantee of repair, and any work inside the television should be done by a qualified technician. Glitchary is independent of Samsung, LG, Sony, and the other manufacturers named here.