A Conexant audio device could not be found.

[zip19709]

I am getting the dreaded "A Conexant audio device could not be found. " error on boot.

I have a ZBook 17 G3 (Energy Star). Running Window 10 Pro (64bit).

I've tried all previously recommended fixes and nothing works. I check BIOS and audio is enabled. There is no Conexant audio device in device manager. I have reinstalled drivers and have run the troubleshooter.

In Device Manager, I can't disable/enable the driver for Conexant because it isn't present.

I don't understand why this problem persists. I see the first reported case back in 2010. Why can't this get fixed?

[GBL84]

Hello zip19709,

Every time when you start your computer, if you get error message saying “Failed to create Conexant Audio Factory, The SmartAudio will now exit”， you can find the solutions here how to fix this issue.

The error message may also appear like this: A Conexant audio device could not be found. The application will now exit. 

This issue would occur if service “CxUtilSvc” is not running when you start Windows. “CxUtilSvc” is short for “Conexant Utility Service”. It is developed by Conexant Systems, Inc, the manufacturer of Conexant sound card. So if this service isn’t started, you would meet the issue. You can check and see if the service starts. Start it if necessary then the problem issue should resolve.

Following steps are for your reference how to start service “CxUtilSvc”.

1. Press Win+R (Windows key and R key) at the same time. A Run dialog will appear.

2. Type services.msc in the run box. Click on OK button. Then Services window will open.

 

3. In Services window, check the list for “CxUtilSvc” and double click on it. The Properties window will open.

4. In Properties window, click on the Start button if the service is stopped.

Change the Startup Type value to Automatic.

5. Click on Apply and OK button.

6. Restart your computer.

The error would also occur due to driver issues. The audio driver you have installed may be corrupted or incompatible with your operating system. To resolve the problem, you can try uninstalling the Conexant audio driver and installing it again.

You can follow steps below to uninstall the Conexant driver.

1. Press Win+R (Windows key and R key) at the same time. A Run dialog will appear.

2. Type devmgmt.msc in the run box. Click on OK button. Then Device Manager window will open.

3. Expand category Sound, video and game controllers. Under this category, you will find Conexant High Definition SmartAudio Drivers. Right-click on it and then select Uninstall.

4.  In the Uninstall window, check the box next to Delete the driver software for this device. Then click on OK button.

5. After uninstalling the driver, restart the computer. Usually, the windows will load the audio driver automatically after it reboots.  Then update the driver to the latest version.

Conexant High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=8693767&swItemId=ob_174693_1&swEnvOid=419...

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

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Thank You,

GBL84

I am not an HP Employee

[zip19709]

The problem was that some applicaiton changed a BIOS setting. The display was changed from Hybrid to Discrete. This  disabled the audio on one of the display chips. Changing the display back to Hybrid fixed the problem. Crazy.

[Kemmerling]

I tried to follow the steps, but I could not even uninstall the driver since there was no category such as Sound, Video... in the device manager.

(Background: I get the conexant audio device message now, and cannot reproduce sound any more, since I updated my windows last night)