Installing Windows 11: "A media driver your computer needs is missing."

[kelmi1]

Hi there!

I have an HP EliteBook x360 1040 G6 that I bought some two years ago roughly, and I'm having trouble installing Windows 11 on it. Note that I've had Linux running on it for quite some time now and that I've deleted the Windows 10 Pro system that was preinstalled on it.

I have downloaded a Windows 10 ISO image from the official Microsoft website and flashed it onto a USB drive. After booting into it and selecting language and keyboard settings, I am getting the following error:

"A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD, USB or Hard disk driver. If you have a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with the driver on it, please insert it now. Note: If the installation media for Windows is in the DVD drive or on a USB drive. you can safely remove it for this step."

After doing some research, I have tried all of the following steps:

- Plugged the USB drive into another port (note that this is a laptop and only has two USB ports)

- Checked the integrity of the ISO file by comparing its SHA256 checksum to the one given by Microsoft (it matches)

- Flashed the image again on several other USB drives, and also at slower speeds

- Looked around in BIOS for any SATA/AHCI/RAID-related settings, but unfortunately couldn't find anything

- Downloaded Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers from Intel's website on a separate USB drive. Windows actually found these when I pointed it to the folder containing them, but told me they couldn't be used/don't work

- Entered my serial number on HP's website and downloaded every single driver related to my device on a separate USB drive. This time however, Windows didn't pick up a single one of them, saying it didn't find any drivers.

- Tried all of the same with a Windows 10 (not 11) disk image. Got the same unsatisfying results 😕

As you might have guessed, none of this has proved successful. Where do I go from this ? What can I do ? Obviously I'm guessing that I'm missing a driver somehow, but where can I download the right one ? I know my computer is capable of running Windows 10 (because it came with Windows 10 preinstalled and worked perfectly fine at the time), so that driver has to exist somewhere. Does anyone have a clue?

Many thanks

Michael

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, Michael:

What I recommend you do is to use the HP cloud recovery client utility to create a bootable USB recovery drive that will reinstall W10.

This package provides the Cloud Recovery Client for supported computer models running a supported operating system. This Client Utility enables users to download the Recovery Kit from the cloud

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp113001-113500/sp113100.exe

I have attached the instructions for use below.

[kelmi1]

Thank you so much! I've got W10 up and runnning again now. This totally worked. However, there are two small issues:

- I do not get any audio. There is a symbol in the taskbar that says "No Audio Output Device is installed"

- Display brightness controls are not working (like the physical ones on the keyboard)

Do you have any idea how to fix this ?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I am surprised there are problems because the recovery media should have installed all of the drivers.

The only suggestion I can offer, would be to install the latest audio driver from your notebook's support page...

This package contains the driver that enables the Realtek High-Definition (HD) Audio in supported computer models that are running a supported operating system.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp113501-114000/sp113551.exe

For the hotkeys, see if installing the latest hotkey software works for you...

HP HotKey Support (HPHKS) software provides the support for handling the Hotkeys and bezel or cap-sense buttons (fixed notebook buttons that provide quick access to a particular function when pressed) for HP business notebooks. This package is provided for supported computer models that are running a supported operating system.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp112001-112500/sp112462.exe

[kelmi1]

Well actually I got a bunch of Windows updates shortly after re-installing, and then it suddenly all ended up working. But thanks for your help!! 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.