Just installed Win7, now NO Sound: dv2810us with Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221

[itsmitch757]

Hi everyone,

I know we are all somewhat skeptical and excited about Windows 7.  I just got my copy and installed it to my dv2810us.  All factory performance and hardware, no changes.  After installing Win7 (full custom install), windows obviously ran its updates and put on Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221. I believe this is new as I don't keep up with the sound drivers updates usually. Immediatly when I first boot up to Win7 for the first time,

I now have no sound!  It shows the driver is working correctly, and shows the volume bar.  I've rolled back drivers, installed old versions, etc. and I have nothing.  There is also not a drivers page for win7 for my hp laptop (yet) so I have nothing to base my drivers off of other than vista driver pages.  I've also tried with headphones and still nothing.  Any help would be greatly appreciated because I am now stuck.  Thanks greatly!  

[MikeHolli]

You're LUCKY I installed it and I can't get rid of the volume control amplet. (turn volume up or down) and it takes over the laptop completely. Went over to coneant the maker of my soundchip/card and they sent me here (HP's website)  to get it fixed, and get here and THERE is NO support for Windows 7 for my laptop what-so-ever! I would THINK being a 5x buyer of HP's computers (desktops, and laptops) I would be able to get support for this minor issue. I have an old gateway that first came pre-installed with Windows XP. and did my upgrade to Windows 7 and EVERYTHING worked right out of the box. (so to say) WHAT makes this worse is that my laptop was a pre-qualified model for the free update to Windows 7 went thru the upgrade and then this started to happen. One would THINK HP would verify that what they send to their customers would work RIGHT! I think HP should trash the Conexant High Definition Smart Audio 221 and get a sound card/chip that CAN be upgraded/updated.  HP you can write me back at [text removed for privacy] and GIVE me a way to resolve this problem that YOU created.

[MDJD]

This is a copy of a previous post I made that might fix your problem:

My son and I have the L2000 laptop that came with 32 bit XP and used the Conexant chipset for Audio. I had been using an SB Audigy PCMCIA card so I am not sure when Audio was really lost; however, he noticed it when I upgraded his PC. I scoured various forums looking for 64 bit  Windows 7 drivers for Conexant audio but to no avail. Microsoft and Conexant both said that HP should supply the drivers. By the way HP, the Conexant website says that they do not supply drivers even though they make the chipsets "at the request of the OEM's." Another post said that HP was not going to supply these drivers for Windows 7. The solution from HP for my model and Windows 7 was the "HP Software Advisor" which was 67MB and totaly useless. It appears that this is a very common problem. Anyway, here is what you do:

 

First you need 2 files which ironically enough come from HP, they are SP35558.exe and SP35558.cva They contain the Conexant drivers for Vista x64. (I subsequently have found the 32 bit drivers and the procedure should be very similar except the files are SP34789.exe and SP34789.cva). Type the following into your browser address bar ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp35501-36000 About half way down you will find these files. Just right click each one and save to your desktop.(The 32 bit files are in a different subdirectory at ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp??????-??????)

 

Double click SP35558.cva and tell Windows to use Notepad to open it. Scroll about half way down to "[Operating Systems]" and after "WV64UL=OEM" insert:
W764HB=OEM
W764HP=OEM
W764PR=OEM
W764UL=OEM

( For 32 bit systems use W732HB=OEM, etc.)

 

I next went up about 10 lines to "[System information]" and added

SysId3=0x3091
SysName3=HP Pavilion ze2000 series
SysId4=0x3096
SysName4=Compaq presario M2000 series
SysId5=0x3097
SysName5=Compaq Presario M2000 series
SysId6=0x3097
SysName6=HP Special Edition L2000 series
SysId7=0x3093
SysName7=Compaq Presario M2000 series
SysId8=0x3093
SysName8=HP Special Edition L2000 series

I got this information from another cva file on my PC at C;/swsetup/ This is the directory where HP updates default to.

 

After modding the cva file, I saved it to C;/swsetup/sp35558/

 

I then executed the SP35558.exe file. It did not work the first time -- I missed a line in my cva file. However, I then manually installed the Conexant drivers as follows and voila I had sound, nice crisp clear sound.

Under Device Manager, right click "Multimedia Audio Device" under "Other" and choose "Update Driver" Then "Browse your PC" and "Choose from a list". Select "Sound, audio and game controllers", then "Conexant", then "Have Disk". Browse to C:/swsetup/sp35558/ and open "cp6308Ba.inf" (64bit remember). Now choose "OK" and ignore any warnings about incompatibility, WHQL, etc. Give it plenty of time, you might think you are in a loop, but you are not. Congratulations, you are done.


The use of the cva file is to streamline the driver install and it is kind of cool if it works. If you cannot find it or you are not successful the first time or you do not want to bother with modding anything, do not worry, the manual install will work for sure. Run sp35558.exe to extract everything and let it strike out. Then go to Device Manager and update the driver manually as I described in the paragraph above.

[kwatson20]

Hi, I tried to install and update my sound drivers.  Then I decided to complete "un" install and then reinstall the new drivers and now it all works!  Give that a try.

[CharlieNielsen]

Thank you so much for your posting.  Your directions were concise and clear.  I got it to work just as you described!