HP ZBook 17 G6 No Sound Devices caused by Intel SST OED

[NigelThornberry]

Hi

I manually upgraded my SSDs in my ZBook 17 G6, and I downloaded all of the right drivers from the website, and I am having problems getting the audio working.

I tried:

- https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4407429-3338330-16

- https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Zbook-17-G6-no-audio/td-p/7849621

- https://support.hp.com/ro-en/document/ish_4407429-3338330-16

- https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/No-Audio-Output-Driver-is-Installed-for-HP-ZBook-17-lap...

I even tried some things I found on Reddit and using ChatGPT. It seems like Intel SST just is a worthless technology that does nothing but cause problems.

How do I fix this? Does anyone have the stock HP image for this laptop?

[Jupitero]

Hello.

HP has their Cloud Recovery Client software which is used to create a USB stick which you boot with and reinstall OS with drivers.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4374279-4216685-16

Your laptop BIOS also has option called Sure Recover. This will download and install the factory image from HP.

Restart the laptop, and when the HP logo appears, press F11.

[NigelThornberry]

And this is why I love ZBooks. Corporate support environment even when buying used.

Absolutely preem, thanks.

[NigelThornberry]

right just reinstalled windows, no dice. Still no sound.

[Jupitero]

Hi,

This is just a forum for HP users. HP doesn't really offer any sort of support in this forum, although some agents apparently lurk here. I'm just a regular geezer with some background of using and servicing HP computers and other things.

In any case, still getting no sound even after recovering factory OS appears sounds rather odd.

0. Update your BIOS to latest version.

1. If you have an external display or dock connected, disconnect them. Some displays have headset socket and will advertise itself as an audio device, possibly overriding that Intel audio in Windows.

2. If your laptop speakers don't output anything, try the audio jack on the side of the laptop for headset, active speakers or what have you. Do not test with USB audio/headset since it doesn't rely on the internal Intel audio at all. If you get audio via the audio jack, then it is likely that the speaker component has failed. The good news is that the part is replaceable.

3. Check the Windows Device Manager: Do you see a Sound, Video and Game Controllers category there? If you do, what devices are listed there? Is there a "Other Devices" category? If it exists, then you are missing drivers.

Take a screenshot of both of those categories expanded and post in your reply.

4. Check the BIOS settings for disabled audio. Reset BIOS to factory defaults. Try giving your laptop a "Power Reset".

5. For further hardware testing, download and HP UEFI Diagnostics. Once installed you can invoke it by restarting you computer and pressing repeatedly ESC key during boot (when HP logo is shown), and the F2 from the menu. This is a comprehensive test software with Audio  tests as well.

6. If you get through steps 0-5 with no solution, try with a Linux USB stick for troubleshooting. (Linux Mint for example). The USB stick can be booted into a full "live" Linux OS without installing anything on your SSD.

(Similarly you might try Windows 11 as well since your laptop is eligible for the free upgrade.)

Report back with your findings.

[NigelThornberry]

yeah it's just the Intel SST OED driver in device manager with a Code 10.

Installing the normie Windows builtin driver over that results in a sound device but no actual sound.

Apparently this is a known issue with this notebook. Also for what it's worth, the windows image didn't actually come with any drivers despite me selecting to do so and the tool downloading them.

The laptop also froze while updating the camera firmware. So this thing is apparently a mess.

You can't be that old, even if you were 60 you'd not be that far from me.