Windows 7 Windows Audio Endpoint Builder stuck on Starting, no fix until hard reboot

[PajamaFrix]

Hello all,

Just recently, I've been experiencing some issues with my installation. I'm running Windows 7 Professional and it seems that every time I power up my computer, the following things happen:

1. The audio service isn't running
2. The Theme defaults to the Windows Classic theme, with Windows 7 Basic and Aero themes being disabled.

I checked in Event Viewer for any problems, and I notice an error mentioning "The Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service hung on starting." and "The Windows Audio service depends on the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service which failed to start because of the following error: After starting, the service hung in a start-pending state."

I can restart the "Theme" services, however I can't stop nor force stop the Audio Endpoint Builder service without having an error saying "The operation could not be completed. Access is denied." The only way around this for me is to hard reset the computer after booting into Windows.

I have looked through different Google searches and such for any information on how to fix this without doing a hard reset, with no avail. Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the first place? I don't want to reinstall Windows or anything.

Thanks,

PajamaFrix.

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