Windows 10 (8/8.1) SoundMax Microphone Fix

[MrCloud]

Windows 10 (8/8.1) SoundMax Microphone Fix

I did this on a TouchSmart 300-1060a but from experience I think this may be a near universal fix.

I upgraded a family members HP PC to Windows 10 and found her microphone wasn't recognised. It seemed universal for all SoundMax cards on Windows 10.  The Windows 7 driver from HP (or otherwise) will not allow me to install it (even with normal work arounds.)
 
Microsoft uses a generic driver and the microphone is no where to be found.
  
It may look intimidating split into so many steps but it will take about two minutes in total.
 
Ideally you will want your specific PC/Laptop manufacturer's driver (Acer/Asus/Dell etc.)
 
In this case it's HP.
 
Step 1.)
 
Download SoundMax Windows 7 Driver 
 
64bit 
 
http://whp-aus1.cold.extweb.hp.com/pub/softlib/software11/COL30087/pv-74807-2/sp44371.exe
 
 
Step 2.)
 
Download 7zip (Open Source) 0/52 detections on VirusTotal.com 

VirusTotal.com Results
 
http://www.7zip.org
 
http://www.7-zip.org/a/7z920-x64.msi
 
Step 3.)
 
Install 7zip (Double click on it, click "Install")
 
Step 4.)
 
Right click on downloaded driver file and extract using. "7zip > Extract to"
 
Step 5.)
 
Open device manager.
 
Click
 
Sound, video and game controllers >  High Definition Audio Device
 
Then
 
Update Driver > Browse my computer for driver software > (Select extracted folder with Windows 7 SoundMax driver in it.)

Step 6.)

Done. I even got a tidy "Successfull" window.

My microphone is now in the "Sound" control panel box and under "Recording devices" when I right click the system tray icon. Skype recognises it etc.

Leave comments with what specific desktop and laptop models this does or doesn't work for to help others.

 .

32bit SoundMax HD Driver from HP (I have not tested this method using the 32bit version)

http://whp-hou9.cold.extweb.hp.com/pub/softlib/software10/COL29027/pv-71674-1/sp43082.exe
 
Screenshots

http://oi63.tinypic.com/e88srb.jpg

http://oi66.tinypic.com/pk01.jpg

http://oi65.tinypic.com/359xoc3.jpg

[Ushoda]

LOVE YOU! ❤️

[Timiboy]

Awesome man! I knew there is a workaround. Works like charme on both an IQ500 amd IQ800!!!

It is a pitty HP technicians do not know about this!!!

[bitkahuna]

mr. cloud - had to login to say THANK YOU.  was driving me nuts not having the microphone on win10 upgraded old touchsmart 300-1120.

awesome detective work!!!!!

[Jerico55]

It worked:)   Been messing with this all day.  OutStanding!

I have the HP Touchsmart 300-1020 All-In-One Desktop.

I Upgraded from Win 7 Home to Win 10. 64 bit

Finally i just Downloaded win 10 to a USB and booted from there. Much Better.

It seemed everyting was peachee until i missed the microphone for Cortana.

Thanx MrCloud

[hawker11]

I was wrestiling with this for a long time and gave up.  Did a clean install of Win10 32-bit on my IQ507 (max 4Gb of ram, so 32-bit is just fine) and I thought I'd take another stab at it.  Thanks for your post, I had been messing around with various other solutions and installition in compatibility mode etc.  This solution rocks.  Thanks. 🙂

[davedicko]

I have been searching for a solution for about three weeks and then i stumbled upon this post,i'm glad i did thank you very

much 'Mr Cloud' for your post:smileyvery-happy:.......................Dave.

[BillGates3]

Thank you so much.  After hitting this problem with my All-in-one IQ525 I took it to PC World  who unhelpfully decided that a perfectly good hard drive needed replacing, and gave me back the machine with the original Vista installation.

Upgrading again to Windows 10 brought back the same problem, but this fix nailed it!

Why don't HP provide a driver for Windows 10?  It's evidently not a hard task, since the code extracted by this roundabout method does work.  Presumably HP are too busy modifying ink jet drivers to sneakily skewer users of 3rd party cartridges?  Really, HP is no longer the company it used to be.  😞