Conexant audio driver randomly disappears

[KizerSoze]

I posted about this problem on October 9 and am happy to report the problem appears to have resolved with a Windows 10 update in early November. The "red x" was happening just about every day before then but hasn't occurred since. 

Driver version 9.0.140.1 now seems to be working fine for me. Not a techie but makes me think it was a Windows problem and not a Conexant problem? Hope my resolution of this frustrating issue stays resolved and that you all have similar results very soon!

Update: Or perhaps it wasn't Windows after all but a SoftPaq that took care of it? HP reported most recently on Nov. 7 that it has resolved some problem with the Conexant driver. Looks like they have listed links to the patches for a wide variety of machines.

"HP has provided software updates for Conexant HD Audio Driver. Impacted HP products are shown in the table below. We will update the table as SoftPaqs become available."

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05519670

[RickeyH35]

Yeah I saw the post earlier, but it never worked, so hopefully this will be the solution.  Considering it is still good after 45 minutes I think it is better than what I was dealing with before!  Thanks again!

[rnclark]

I too just did the big windows update of November.  Indeed, it seems as thought this was a Windows problem, not an HP or Conexant problem. I'm just glad that it seems to be working now...but I am a little scarred and will continue to wait for it to stop for some time now...

[RickeyH35]

Good news is that the disappearing sound feature is now gone, the bad news is that the sound quality is not as good as before.  The boost that you had from the Bang and Olufsen speakers are worse, I would never have the sound higher than 30 to watch a movie, now I need to increase it up to 80.  Hoping that I can get a fix that takes care of the main issue but allows for the sound to be what it once was. 

[coach_0]

This link worked perfectly for my system envy x360.  Even though the download indicated it would be the current driver I had, I downloaded and it downgraded my sound driver to 9.0.134.1.  I was having issues with 9.0.140.1.

[RickeyH35]

Yes, I'm having issues with the 9.0.140.1 driver as well.  I even checked the link that was above that had the replacement driver but didn't find my laptop, which is a HP Envy x360 Convertible 15-aq173cl.  Still hoping that HP puts a link up for this one.

[KizerSoze]

DOH! Sadly, after a few weeks of no "red x's" yesterday it happened again. So, the November major Windows update was not the complete fix I had hoped it was. Hoping these instances will at least be farther between now and that they don't start happenening daily again as they were before. 

[RoyJrTech]

The Windows 10 update on 10/17/17 (version 1709) did not fix the disappearing driver problem on my ENVY x360 Convertible 15-aq100 CTO.  The driver version 9.0.140.1 is as originally installed, and I have not made any attempts to update or back off the driver version since following this forum has not yet shown any fixes that appear permanent.  I'm still waiting for Conexant (or HP) to release a verifiable fix.  What I don't get is that the disappearance of the driver is unpredictable, at least in my case.  Sometimes, the driver will remain a day or two; other times it will go away after an hour or so.  The only predictable behavior is that it will eventually disappear.

[Tori56]

Sorry to tell you, RoyJrTech, that I gave up on my Envy x360 Convertible 15-aq100.  Fortunately for me, it was still within the 30-day return period.  Hours and hours of ultimately futile troubleshooting from Tech Support, updating drivers, BIOS, hardware diagnostics, trying suggestions posted on this forum, etc, and the dreaded red "x" would always reappear (very unpredictably, just like your experience).  Even though I had the system for only two weeks, the 15-aq100 was no longer available on hp.com.  Hmmmm.  I got an Envy x360 Convertible15-bp0xx instead.  It has worked perfectly, and I am very pleased.  As frustrated as I was with the "help" from Tech Support, I have nothing but praise for Sales Support, who processed the return and replacement quickly and smoothly and helped me to get an equivalent system for nearly the same price.  If you have the option to return your laptop, that's my recommendation.

I'd been suspicious and giving it a giant "maybe" that the big Windows update resolved the problem, and your post-update failure unfortunately confirms that.  I applied that upgrade a few days AFTER receiving the replacement laptop.  I had not experienced a speaker failure beforehand, but it had been only a few days. It's my guess that the Windows update may be part of the story, but it is not the whole story.

Good luck getting a solution that works for you!

[ourgangmn]

Here is a source for alternate drivers you can try to use. I installed them a week ago and so far have not lost my audio driver even one time--practically a record for this three month old laptop.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp82001-82500/sp82074.html

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp82001-82500/sp82074.exe

Forum member Laura-01 for posting this solution originally.