The Modern Warfare 2 voice service unavailable error is causing players some issues when playing a multiplayer game with friends. When you team up with people you know, or even strangers, communication is vital to winning an FPS game, so you'll understandably want to fix this issue as soon as possible.
There can be many reasons why you are getting the Modern Warfare 2 voice service unavailable error. It could be a tampering with your current game settings, an over-sensitivity of your antivirus software, or perhaps an even more serious problem in Modern Warfare 2. If it's the latter, there are ways around the problem, and we've listed them below.
Troubleshooting Modern Warfare 2 Voice Service Unavailable Error
We'll go into a bit more detail on each of these points, but here's a checklist of all the ways you can fix Modern Warfare 2's voice service unavailable error on PC:
- Check if your microphone is muted, both on the headset itself and in the game.
- Check your in-game audio settings - are you in the correct voice channel and is push-to-talk enabled?
- Restart Modern Warfare 2.
- Restart the computer.
- Start the game in safe mode to check if your user settings are the source of the problem.
- Check if an antivirus program is interfering with the microphone.
- Update your computer drivers.
- Check the microphone with other software.
- If you're teaming up with friends, install an alternative voice chat program like Discord.
- Contact Activision Support and wait for a fix.
Have you turned off the sound?
This may seem painfully obvious, but microphones are like printers: they sometimes do things you don't expect, and without any prior warning. If you've been in a Zoom meeting in the last year and started speaking only to have someone say, "You're on mute," then you're well aware of how temperamental microphones can be. This is doubly true if your microphone is higher-end and has its own automatic mute button.
Check your game settings. To avoid any interruptions, make sure your microphone device settings are set to your microphone and not System Default Device. This will ensure that the connection won't be interrupted if you connect another device with a microphone, such as a PlayStation 5 controller. If you're still having problems, open the in-game launcher and click on the gear to go to settings. Tap on the audio option and scroll down to voice chat settings. Here you can check if your microphone is working, as well as general voice chat settings, in particular the voice chat recording mode.
Did you turn it off and on again?
Closing and reopening Modern Warfare 2 might also work, but if you find that it only fixes things temporarily or doesn't work at all, there's a chance that the immortal words of all IT pros might be the answer. First, turn off your computer and then turn it back on after about 30 seconds. This will allow your system to update and possibly fix the problem.
Check if problems persist in safe mode
If the problem persists, it may be in the settings. Try starting the game in safe mode if it crashes and see what happens. Since this version of the game uses the default game settings, you can check if you have changed any custom settings that are interfering with the voice chat.
Check your antivirus and firewall settings
Those who encounter this error even in safe mode will have to look elsewhere for the answer. First of all, it is an antivirus or a firewall. There is a chance that it may automatically block your microphone. Most of these protection programs will give you a message if they think this is potentially harmful to your computer, so make sure you select the option to allow access when you start the game. If it doesn't, you'll have to go into your antivirus/firewall program to change some settings. You can add Modern Warfare 2 to your antivirus/firewall exceptions list and see if that helps.
Update your drivers
If this does not help, check if the manufacturers have received firmware updates for your video card and microphone. Use GeForce Experience (Nvidia graphics cards) or AMD Radeon update tool (AMD graphics cards) to get the latest graphics drivers. If that doesn't help, try installing clean graphics card drivers and see if that helps.
Most of today's high-end microphones have launchers that make it easy to download updates, so make sure you have both installed. If your microphone is older, you may need to go to Device Manager, find the device under the Audio Inputs and Outputs tab, and right-click on the microphone. You should see an option to update drivers.
Testing with other software
If all of this doesn't help, there's a surefire way to find out if it's an issue with Modern Warfare 2 or your microphone settings. First, ask someone to help you test your microphone on another service, such as Discord. If you can talk to them there, suggest using this service. If you decide to go this route, disable the microphone settings in Modern Warfare 2 before proceeding.
This isn't ideal since you'll only be able to talk to your friends and not your entire team, but it's better than nothing. It also won't work for all settings, especially if you're playing with friends using Modern Warfare 2 crossplay. However, it appears that PlayStation 4 users are also experiencing "audio continuity" issues, so they may want to check out an alternative service.
Contact Activision Support and expect a fix
If the game still doesn't work after all this, it's worth contacting Activision support to see if they can help you with their side. Be sure to describe all the steps you have taken so far, and perhaps they can help with further steps unique to your configuration. Chances are you're not the first person to ask for help with this situation, as this tweet shows.
If you are still having problems, unfortunately the only thing you can do is wait. Given that this issue is affecting a lot of people, a fix for the “voice service unavailable” error will likely arrive sooner rather than later. In the meantime, play around with the Modern Warfare 2 settings to make sure you have the optimal parameters.
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