"No speakers or headphones are plugged in" message on DC7900 Win 10

[AndyR83]

Hello, I recently installed Windows 10 x64 on an HP DC7900. It was previously running Windows 7. Since the OS switch, there is no longer any audio output. There are no external speakers. The device's internal speaker is not functioning. Windows reports "no speakers or headphones are plugged in" which is technically true, but not really a surprise since I am attempting to use the internal speaker. The audio troubleshooting utility also just return the "not plugged in" message. 

ALREADY TRIED THE FOLLOWING:

1. Uninstalled and reinstalled the device from the machine. Not successful. 

2. Downloaded and installed the latest Realtek HD Audio driver for Win 10 x64. Not successful. 

3. Looked on these forums and saw some similar posts that were resolved by installing an Intel MEI/SOL chipset update.

    Noticed that HP does not offer any Windows 10 drivers for this machine.

    Downloaded Intel's chipset device software and attempted to install it. Install failed on both attempts.

    Wept softly.

4. Gave up and decided to write this post even though I suspect there's no Win 10 version of the solution I need.  

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The dc7900 does not use the Realtek audio driver.

You need to install the W7 Soundmax audio driver from your PC's support and driver page, then restart the PC.

I have a dc7900 SFF, and W10 works just fine with it, with the internal speaker, or by plugging in a set of external speakers.

You will need to go into the control panel>hardware and sound>manage audio devices, and set the speakers as the default after you restart the PC if you still have no sound in windows.

I also have a dc7800 CMT which uses the same audio driver as the dc7900 and W10 works fine on that model too.

[AndyR83]

This was successful. Thank you!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.