No audio suddenly on my HP All-In-One

[Writer14]

I've just done a System Restore to a point last night, and that has fixed the problem.  No idea what actually had disappeared as all the drivers look the same as before the restore.  Or even why a computer that was sitting idle decided to forget about it's own built in speakers.  But it's working, and that's the main thing!

[WillAlspach13]

Do you hp driver and bios update before windows updates

[Writer14]

I hadn't done any updates at all.  All very strange.

[AlexanderJames]

Hi everyone! I never know what should be installed first - windows' updates or HP's, so I install them as they come. The problem is that I do not use this Envy every day, so when I boot up after two weeks windows starts installing its updates in the backgroud while I install the HP's myself. Complete mess. May be that's the problem. I would say to install Windows's updates first. I am sure anyone will have an opinion, but does anyone know for a fact whose updates should be prioritised?

[WillAlspach13]

Do I know for a fact, no. But what I do know is that I did windows first and the tech said the windows update Uninstaller the sound hardware bc of a compatibility issue with hp drivers and I couldn't install the sound card hp update after the issue happened until it was fixed. I know for a fact that windows before hp update doesn't work. Also, they had a new bios update on hp the day after my problem and the tech had to use my bios image to repair/reinstall my sound device. Hopefully HP gets this fixed. I love my Envy and just bought the best Spectre to compliment it. 

[JoeFuture]

It's completely unreasonable to expect us to install updates in a particular order. Windows updates itself all the time. I can't check it 24/7 to make sure there aren't any HP updates to install first. HP needs to fix this mess for free.

[TechGurus · Accepted solution]

I think I have the solution -- I just encountered and fixed this problem.

Quick answer:  The driver's on HP's page are a list of one Realtek HD audio application & driver installer, and all the rest are just driver pushes -- the problem is tied into the driver application plus driver, so you need the original package

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Full solution guide:

0. Note: Upgrading from Win 10 1903 to 1909 did NOT fix the problem.

1. In my Device manager I had it show hidden entries (View -> Show Hidden Devices).  It listed Intel High Definition Audio, as well as two similar hidden entries, and an entry in the ACPI section. I removed all of those.

2. Uninstall from Apps -> "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver", you may need to use a tool like RevoUninstaller to accomplish this as the uninstaller may be broken. C:\Program Files\Realtek\ should now be empty.

3. Go to your HP's Software & Drivers page and under "Driver-Audio" don't download the latest package for your Win10 build, -- that is just a push of the latest drivers, not a full driver install package. Instead you're going to need to get the original driver set
(e.g. for my HP ENVY All-in-One - 27-b214  https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-envy-27-b200-all-in-one-desktop-pc-series/193905...
I downloaded Realtek High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver 6.0.1.8560 Rev.A sp92732.exe https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp92501-93000/sp92732.exe)

4. Run the installer and reboot when done. You should now have audio.

5. (optional) You could now go back to your driver support page download and install the latest driver push package specified for your Win 10 build. In theory Windows Updates may do that for you later, but I'm not certain.

[PeterOFTL]

My HP ENVY All-in-One 27-b214 lost audio after I did the bios update recommended in HP support assistant.  My Realtek HD Audio device disappeared from my system.  Message was no audio device installed.  After many tries of other "solutions" the TechGurus post of 12-13-2019 solved my problem.  THANKS!  Btw, my system also went out of warranty about a month ago.  Odd that so many on here with the problem experience it in that time frame.

[JoeFuture]

Thank you TechGurus! On my All-In-One, all I had to do were steps 1-2. Once I did that and rebooted, I now have audio. I'll try installing the original audio drivers again just to be sure, but that definitely unblocked me. Thanks for the tip! I think uninstalling the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver is what got me working again.

[Franky616]

HP ENVY All-in-One - 27-b205na, Win10 64

Thanks for the above TechGurus, it got mine working after a month or so now without sound 🙂

My method was to:

1. In my Device manager I had it show hidden entries.
Under "Sound, video and game controllers" was listed about 10 things. I removed/uninstalled reltek's entry.

2. I checked within "programs and features" so if needed I could Uninstall any Realtek sound entry (found none).

3. Checked too:
C:\Program Files\Realtek\ was empty (had Audio folder so deleted it).
C:\Program Files (x86)\Realtek had stuff... I left as nothing seemed sound realated to me.

4. Rebooted

5. I had downloaded Realtek High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver 6.0.1.8560 Rev.A sp92732.exe https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp92501-93000/sp92732.exe as per above link

Ran and it rebooted, with another reboot after that.

Notes:
Had to run it twice as my first attemt didn't work - think I didn't reboot after uninstalling from within device manager, and I had wifi off on the first attempt too, so no internet connection.

They do make it nasty for us don't they - was using a portable bluetooth speake - which sucked(sound did't sync to picture).

Hope this fix lastes too, as I reset to factory last time... and think it was a microsoft update that knocked out sound for me, both times.

Thanks again.