HP ZBook SmartAudio3.exe 4.0.141.0 crash every minute

[r4v3n6]

HP ZBook SmartAudio3.exe crash all the time. I have checked for new drivers in HP Assistant and Windows Updates optional updates, but no new drivers offered. Is there any solution for this issue? Is there a newer version I can install manually or should I disable/uninstall something instead? I mainly use Sennheiser USB headset so I don't need the speaker sounds. 

Application Error 1000 in eventlog happening every 1-2 minutes 😞 : 

--------
Faulting application name: SmartAudio3.exe, version: 4.0.141.0, time stamp: 0x6126382c
Faulting module name: SmartAudio3.ni.exe, version: 4.0.141.0, time stamp: 0x6126382c
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000092ea6
Faulting process ID: 0x0xAE9C
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1D8D7C37AC89A81
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\CONEXANT\SA3\HP-NB-AIO\SmartAudio3.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\SmartAudio3\5701ad6fbc890149600c009b90d90b93\SmartAudio3.ni.exe
Report ID: 13330eeb-5fc5-40d0-9446-ec6720c84140
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
--------

Application: SmartAudio3.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException
at SmartAudio3.EntryPoint.Main(System.String[])
--------

Fault bucket 2268305957608728853, type 5
Event Name: CLR20r3
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: SmartAudio3.exe
P2: 4.0.141.0
P3: 6126382c
P4: SmartAudio3
P5: 4.0.141.0
P6: 6126382c
P7: 9
P8: 10d
P9: System.NullReferenceException
P10:

--------

Perhaps CxHDAudioAPI.dll file is missing? Should it be there? How can I get a complete installation? 

procdump.exe -ma -e 1 -f "" -w smartaudio3.exe
procdump.exe -ma -e 1 -f "NullReferenceException" -w smartaudio3.exe
[11:58:12] Exception: E0434F4D.System.IO.FileNotFoundException ("Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {E0E52BFA-A8FB-4420-89FB-028994A1349C} failed due to the following error: 8007007e The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E).")
[11:58:12] Exception: E0434F4D.System.NullReferenceException ("Object reference not set to an instance of an object.")

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E0E52BFA-A8FB-4420-89FB-028994A1349C}\InprocServer32
    C:\Program Files\Conexant\SA3\HP-NB-AIO\CxHDAudioAPI.dll

dir "C:\Program Files\Conexant\SA3\HP-NB-AIO\c*"
Directory of C:\Program Files\Conexant\SA3\HP-NB-AIO

25/08/2021 20:11 51,512 CnxtNotify.exe
25/08/2021 20:11 274 CnxtNotify.exe.config
22/08/2022 15:40 25,350 CxAudioSvc.ini
25/08/2021 21:34 158,088 CxHidAccess.dll

[mikeres]

The events happen exactly 1.5  minutes between failures. 

right before the 1000 crash you get a runtime error with ,net

event id 1026 application log

.net runtime source

Application: SmartAudio3.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.NullReferenceException
at SmartAudio3.EntryPoint.Main(System.String[])

then you get event id 1000

application error is source

Faulting application name: SmartAudio3.exe, version: 4.0.141.0, time stamp: 0x6126382c
Faulting module name: SmartAudio3.ni.exe, version: 4.0.141.0, time stamp: 0x6126382c
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000092ea6
Faulting process id: 0x0x83D8
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1D8DDE8A3518730
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\CONEXANT\SA3\HP-NB-AIO\SmartAudio3.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\assembly\NativeImages_v4.0.30319_64\SmartAudio3\5701ad6fbc890149600c009b90d90b93\SmartAudio3.ni.exe
Report Id: c3229592-e899-4a7a-98b5-53dbdc4d7681
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[r4v3n6 · Accepted solution]

I contacted also Bang & Olufsen, who wrote the application, but they refer to HP to fix this issue as the laptop is coming from HP. 

In the end on this computer, I uninstalled all related to sound, cleaned up some registry related to this application to get away from this performance issue. Now I have no more crashes and my headset sound / Teams works fine. I haven't tried speakers as I don't use this in the shared office environment. 

I did visit the HP Windows 11 support pages where this is known issue for sound after upgrade, but it didn't help to use HP Assistant -> Fix Audio issues. 

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4407429-3338330-16

Can you update the HP Assistant to take care of this problem? 

[Dr_stud]

Same device, same problem.

[Jojolancien]

I had the same Bug; to remove it you have to download the new version sp119373 of the Driver for Windows 11 on https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Or download here https://support.hp.com/fr-fr/document/c06588970