No sound from speakers, red cross on speaker icon

[George73]

Help!!

I have a new (ish) laptop and everything has been fine until a couple of days ago when a red cross appeared on the speaker icon.  I've run the diagnostic tool by clicking on the icon but only my Bose wireless headphones appear in the list, and the tool is unable to resolve the probem with the speakers.  When I use the Bose wireless headphones, the red cross goes and the headphones work fine. 

I've tried the Device Manager too to clear the red cross issue, but cannot find a way for it to help resolve the problem.

The laptop doesn't have any sound from the speakers, nothing.  If I plug normal/ regular headphones into the jack, then the Bang & Olufsen message appears on the screen to notify that the headphones have been connected, but there is no sound from the headphones and the cross remains on the speaker icon.

If I hover over the red cross then a message appears "no speakers or headphones are plugged in"

[GBL84]

Hello @George73,

Before we go to the software part of this red x volume icon we will first have to check if your hardware is operating in the necessary parameters.

Move the mouse pointer over the lower right side of the screen for the “Charms” bar to open.

Left click or tap on the “Settings” feature you have in the charms bar.

In the search box you are presented in the “Settings” feature you need to write “Device Manager”.

After the search is finished you will need to left click or tap on the “Device Manager” icon.

If you are prompted by a window you will need to type in the administrator account and password to go further with the steps below.

Double click (left click) on the “Sound, video and game controllers” feature in the device manager window.

In the expanded menu in the “Sound, video and game controllers” feature look to see if you have there a sound card and if it is properly installed.

Note: if it is not properly installed you will see a yellow sign next to it or you won’t have a sound card present in that menu.

If you have a yellow sign next to the sound card you will need to left click on that icon.

Left click on the “Properties” feature after you clicked on the sound card.

Left click or tap on the “General” tab you have in the properties window.

You will have a box under the “Device status” feature and you will see in that box what exactly the issue with the sound card is.

Note: In most of the cases you will need to update the sound card driver .

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 

[George73]

Thanks GBL84

I followed your instructions but I dont think a soundcard was listed in Device Manager.  Under "Sound, video and game controllers" there are the following:

Conexant ISST Audio

Intel (R) Display Audio

QuietComfort 35 Hands-Free

QuietComfort 35 Stereo 

All the above are showing that they are working okay.

Any more advice?

[George73]

Update:

I uninstalled the driver via Device Manager, restarted laptop, ran diagnostic test which re-installed the drivers, restarted laptop again, and everything seems to be okay.  Sound is working

[GBL84]

Hello @George73,

Iam glad its working  !!

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We appreciate your feedback. It's what keeps our community such a helpful, vibrant place for our members.

All the Best !!   Thanks for being a member!

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Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Thank You,

GBL84

I am not an HP Employee

[levendel]

I have a temporary fix. The base for the solution is to disable the driver et reenable it. This clears the red x.

However, I programmed a little script based on devcon.

I have pinned the script to the taskbar and I click on it when the red X appears and I am back in business within 1/2 a second. No need to save things and restart the laptop.

I think that this is a bug in the driver or in the firmware of the audio.

I opened a chat with HP and this was a disaster: they wanted me to reinstall windows!

[Fortr]

Wow. I have the same issue and one option is to re-install a neutral OS without all the HP programs. I do not yet want to explore that option hoping Hp will release an update that will resolve this sound problem.

In the mean time, can you give me some help with the script you programmed based on devcon?

[levendel]

The following site explains how to create a script for flipping the touchscreen on and off.

http://joequery.me/guides/windows-8-toggle-touch-screen/

Follow the instructions and the examples.

For restarting the audio driver I did the following script which you should use instead of the touchscreen script:

net stop AudioSrv
net start AudioSrv
set "audioID=INTELAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_2008&SUBSYS_103C82B7"
devcon disable "%audioID%"
devcon enable "%audioID%"

I called it  Restart_audio.bat

Then I created the shortcut as instructed.

[Fortr]

Thanks. I will try this out. 

[levendel]

I forgot one thing: some windows updates wipe devcon.exe.

So, always keep a copy in a safe place.