Post update to W11 64 bit Pro- 24H2-SmartAudio crashing

[Ferrumic]

After updating from W11 23H2 to 24H2, I am getting errors from the HP SmartAudio application. This results in a crash dump file in Appdata\Local\Crashdumps and an error in the Event Viewer, of which I attach a screenshot.

I have run this through WinDBG and there is a pointer error in API dll file.

I am not clear what makes SmartAudio run on its own, as the errors occur at random times, including when I am nowhere near the machine. Nor is it clear what useful function SmartAudio fulfils. I should add that this problem never arose in 23H2.

Answers, please.

[BeemerBiker]

There are no windows 11 drivers listed for your laptop but try the ones mentioned here

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Conexant-Audio-Device/td-p/8516873/page/2

[Ferrumic]

@BeemerBiker

Thanks for your reply.

My machine is a desktop model, and I don't think the problem is to do with drivers. The system worked perfectly under W11 23H2 and this has only cropped up since updating to 24H2. The sound system seems to work OK, but the SmartAudio ancillary management program has begun crashing since the update.

Looking at the Windbg information, it is a problem within the program itself (or one of its dlls) rather than anything else. In this scenario, going to Control Panel>audio etc, the management program by default is SmartAudio, but if I access it this way, then it doesn't crash. I suppose I could disable it, but I don't really want to do that.

It seems that HP are very slow to deal with anything in their systems that relates to W11.

[BeemerBiker]

I had searched using google for problem with that Conexant driver and found several reports of problems with windows 11 and that driver version 4.0.104.0 was mentioned in one.  Most of the reports were on laptops.  Since you have a desktop you probably have some slots available and have the option of installing a premium audio board. 

I do not know of any newer Conexant audio drivers to download.  Our senior expert @Paul_Tikkanen might know of one.  Try the following

1 - general help

Here is Microsoft's general help for audio problems
Does the device manager show any problems like a red "X" ?

You installed an update and some devices are no longer working. You need to either uninstall the update or alternately roll back the device driver to an older one that was working before.

2. Either uninstall the problem update or even better just fix the device.

3. Rollback the driver that the Device Managers shows as failing or is the wrong one.

4 - try the original window 10 driver 

I hate to say this but if a PC was working before a windows update and failed after the update then the problem is where the update came from.  Just because Micro$oft says your PC will run windows 11 does not mean it will run perfectly.

[Ferrumic]

@BeemerBiker

Thanks for your suggestions.

All the audio side is functioning normally, with the Conexant driver being 8.65.282.55, which fixed another set of problems some time ago. As I mentioned, I have been running this in prior releases of W11 without problems until the latest update to 24H2 (which has caused a lot of problems in several other areas). I don't think it's a driver problem, or if it is, that's just part of it.

The error arises from a background run of SmartAudio and one of its faulting software dlls. I would like to know how and why SmartAudio starts up and runs in background, as the front end from an interactive run just gives the rather dull HP audio control application. This, oddly, doesn't crash  when run interactively.  There are other ways of managing audio, which for me is unchanged apart from turning volume up or down as required.

The Windows diagnostics don't reveal any problems, despite crash dumps and application errors in the Even Viewer.

I suppose I could rename SmartAudio.exe and see what happens, but I'd like to know more about what makes it run in background. It's not for instance in the Task Scheduler, but looking at registry, it could be something to do with a shell entry.

[BeemerBiker]

This is all I  could find on that smartaudio3 

https://www.file.net/process/smartaudio3.exe.html

If it is listed as a startup app then uncheck it so it does not run.

Else click on properties** and set startup to manual or just disable it.

** right click and select properties or select the tab "services" and look for smartaudio3

good luck!

[Ferrumic]

@BeemerBiker

Thanks again for your investigation and input.

This is not listed in Startup items, either in the Task Manager, Nirsoft Whatsinstartup or other utilities. However, according to Process Explorer, it runs with switches and may be run from Registry. It can be suspended in Procexp without apparently causing any problems, and might be a spawned process from svchost.

I'll see if any of the Sysinternals programmes help, but I suppose another approach may be to rename the exe to something else and see what happens.

What puzzles me is this. The error that causes it to crash and dump isn't implicit, but something it does causes it at apparently random times. If the error were untriggered, then I would expect SmartAudio.exe to crash the moment it runs, which it doesn't.

As I mentioned before, this problem has arisen only since updating W11 from 23H2 to 24H2. This machine has previously gone through all updates from W10 to W11 24H2 and it is only the latter that has led to this. I have checked all compatibility settings and can't see any problems there.

I should say that I've been in IT for many decades, which means that I detest seeing errors for which I cannot attribute cause and then fix them.

[Ferrumic]

@BeemerBiker

I've looked into this a bit more. According to procexp64, the parent of SmartAudio3 is cxaudiosvc - Conexant Audio Service, and I've disabled this.

I also ran the Compatibility Troubleshooter on W11 24H2, which appears to think that there may be an issue in the Audio area, and asks me if I want to apply a fix. However, the troubleshooter offers zero information on which item it is dealing with, and I'm reluctant to just OK a fix "in the dark".

I'll see what happens without the Conexant service, but I get perfectly OK audio on this machine when it is stopped anyway.

[BeemerBiker]

Please let me know what you find out.

[Ferrumic]

@BeemerBiker

Without that service, I no longer have SmartAudio crashing, but the system runs OK and audio is fine. I hope it stays that way.