How to Disable Built-in Speakers on a Monitor? (4 Easy Steps)

Due to the often inadequate quality of the built-in speakers in a monitor, most users opt to connect better quality external speakers to their Monitor.

Connecting these speakers is all good and dandy, but the problem with connecting external speakers is that you also have to disable the internal or built-in speakers to be able to enjoy the quality sound coming from your external speakers.

Failure to do so often results in sound coming from both the built-in and external speakers, which is not ideal for obvious reasons.

And disabling the built-in speakers is no cakewalk either for those of us who aren’t that good with tech-related stuff.

Thus, to help you with your troubles, we’ve come up with a short guide on how to disable the built-in speakers on your Monitor if you’re running a Windows OS. So, without any further ado, let’s get straight into it.

Table of Contents

How to Disable Built-in Speakers on a Monitor – Step by Step

To refrain from overcomplicating things, we’ve come up with a step-by-step guide to take you through each and every step you need to take to finally disable your built-in speakers and enjoy the full quality of sound from your external speakers.

Keep in mind that once again, this guide is only for those who’re running a Windows OS on their system. If you’re running some other OS, then I’m afraid you’ll have to look for your solution somewhere else.

Use the Windows Key or Access the Start Menu to Get to the Control Panel

If you’ve just turned your system on, you’ll most likely be taken to the desktop of your system. Now once the operating system has successfully brought you to the screen and is done booting, click the windows key on the bottom left of your keyboard to open the start menu.

In case you can’t find the key, you can also directly point to the start menu at the bottom left of your screen with your mouse and click on it.

Once you’re in the start menu, type the control panel in the search bar and click on the control panel icon that pops up to be taken to the control panel window.

Enter the Hardware and Sound Settings

Once you’re in the control panel, you’ll see plenty of different setting options that’ll include System and Security, Network and Internet, User Accounts, etc.

But you need to click the third option in the column, the one that reads “Hardware and Sound.”

Find and Click on Manage Audio Devices

Once you’ve clicked the hardware and sound option and gone into the settings, you’ll again see a menu with a bunch of different options that take you into further sub-menus related to different settings.

Out of all these, you should only be concerned with the Sound option. Specifically the manage audio devices option under the Sound settings.

Once you see it, just click on it to view all the different audio devices you have attached to your system.

Find and click on the Monitor you’re Using in the Sound Menu.

Sound Menu to Disable your Monitor Built-in Speaker

As we previously alluded to, once you click the manage audio devices option, you’ll be taken to a small sub-menu containing all of the audio devices you have connected to your system.

Now, we should warn you that if you’ve connected multiple monitors or audio devices to your system, then you need to carefully choose the Monitor whose speakers you want to disable.

Once you’ve found the Monitor you need, right-click on it, and a drop-down menu should appear in front of you. All you have to do now is find and click on the disable option, and you should be good to go.

Disable Built-in Speakers on a Monitor – Conclusion:

Disabling the internal speakers on your brand new Monitor can be quite a hassle and quite frustrating if you’re not familiar with the process and not that tech savvy.

Especially if you’ve just bought a new monitor and run into this problem as it starts making you second guess your decision about buying that specific Monitor.

That’s precisely why we came up with this guide on how to disable built-in speakers on a monitor to save you from the trouble of having to figure it out yourself.

Hopefully, now you won’t run into any more problems while disabling your internal speakers, as this is a pretty comprehensive guide that covers everything right down to the most minute details.

FAQs:

Why Should you Disable your Monitor’s Built-in Speakers?

Most of the time, the need arises to disable your Monitor’s built-in speakers if their sound quality is seriously low or the max volume they offer is just not enough for your needs.
Some users also don’t like the fact that you can’t customize the speakers at all, as they can’t be pulled out from inside the Monitor.
Due to all of the above reasons, users prefer to purchase a set of customizable external speakers along with their Monitor for their enhanced sound quality and better volume settings and thus decide to disable the internal speakers, which most of the time are quite inferior.

Are Built-in Speakers Always Low Quality?

If you’ve visited a lot of online forums and seen responses to this exact question, you’d probably think that all built-in speakers are low quality and that you should always connect external speakers to your Monitor and disable the built-in speakers.
However, we’re here to tell you that’s not always the case with built-in speakers. Yes, most monitor manufacturers don’t focus much on built-in speakers and try to increase the value of any specific monitor by focusing on its other more important features like resolution, ports, and refresh rate.
But if you look hard enough, you will eventually find a few monitors that have seriously good built-in speakers that are comparable to even the best external speakers.
And as the number of monitors being created has steadily started increasing, the overall quality of built-in speakers has also started to improve.