Recurrent audio issue

[skagrawal4k]

My laptop has developed this sudden and recurring audio issue. All of a sudden, my inbuilt speakers stop functioning. When i hover the cursor above speaker icon, it says 'no audio device installed'. When i go to device manager, the audio driver is not there. When i scan for hardware changes, it gives no result. I run 'fix audio issues' and restart the laptop and the driver appears and speaker starts functioning. But after few hours the audio driver disappears again automatically and speaker stops functioning. Some day i would find my in-built microphone driver behaving the same way.

Basically, either my Realtek audio driver or my in-built mic driver tend to disappear automatically, reappear on running 'fix audio issues' only to disappear again. 

Also, today my mute button LED indicator stopped functioning. All other indicators on my back-lit keyboard are working fine.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help.

[ub6424]

Hello @skagrawal4k 

Sorry to hear that you are having problems ... and I would like to help you.

It happens that audio driver updates applied via <windows update> disable or render useless the current audio driver. I have fixed this already here in the forum. It's not a feature ... it's a bug !

(1) Update BIOS

HP Consumer Notebook PC BIOS Update

F.41 Rev.A

10.7 MB

Apr 10, 2022

Download

Why should you install the update ?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_4123786-2338478-16

Quote: "

Updating the BIOS is recommended as standard maintenance of the computer. It can also help resolve the following issues:

• An available BIOS update resolves a specific issue or improves computer performance.
• The current BIOS does not support a hardware component or a Windows upgrade.
• HP Support recommends installing a specific BIOS update.

"

(2) Reboot

(3) Install/Update

Intel Chipset Installation Utility and Driver

10.1.18460.8229 Rev.A

0.5 MB

Sep 7, 2021

Download

Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver

8.7.10401.16510 Rev.A

6.5 MB

Sep 7, 2021

Download

Intel Gaussian and Neural Accelerator Driver

02.00.00.1097 Rev.A

0.6 MB

Aug 31, 2021

Download

Intel Human Interface Device (HID) Event Filter Driver

2.2.1.383 Rev.A

0.4 MB

Sep 7, 2021

Download

Intel Integrated Sensor Solution Driver

3.1.0.4446 Rev.A

0.5 MB

Sep 2, 2020

Download

Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) Driver

2108.100.0.1053 Rev.A

17.1 MB

Sep 8, 2021

Download

Intel Serial IO Driver

30.100.2104.1 Rev.A

0.8 MB

Sep 1, 2021

Download

(4) Reboot

(5) Check windows <device manager> for realtek audio device, if found

- Right click "uninstall device"

- confirm

(6) Install

Realtek High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver

6.0.9191.1 Rev.A

758.2 MB

Sep 9, 2021

Download

(7) Prevent future driver updates from <Windows Update>

https://www.itechtics.com/disable-specific-driver-update/#prevent-automatic-driver-update-in-windows

See section <Prevent Automatic Driver Update in Windows>
Using Group Policy

(8) Reboot and test audio again ...

(9) Please report your results

[skagrawal4k]

Hello, thanks for your response.

I went through the first 6 steps. I could not go through the 7th step. When i type gpedit.msc in RUN, its giving an error - windows cannot find 'gpedit.msc'. make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

My built-in speaker is working fine for now (I don't know for how long though). However, my built-in microphone is still not working and the 'Mute button indicator light' is also not working.

[ub6424]

Hello @skagrawal4k 

(7)  Prevent future driver updates from <Windows Update>

See Section <Using Registry Editor>

https://www.itechtics.com/disable-specific-driver-update/#using-registry-editor

Please report your results

[skagrawal4k]

sorry to bother you but do you think editing registries will be safe? I'm not a very high-end user and have not done any such thing before. Although, i do believe i'm good at following instructions and will be able to follow the steps mentioned in the article.

[ub6424]

(1) create windows recovery <restore point>

https://www.howtogeek.com/797227/how-to-create-a-system-restore-point-on-windows-10-or-windows-11/

(2) Edit registry, then it's safe.

Follow the instructions.

[skagrawal4k]

Hello, i could not get to the 'creating system restore point and registry editing part' as I was busy with other things for past three days. But here is the thing.

Last time, I turned off my PC, This is how my device manager was looking.

And this is how it is looking today when i started my laptop after a gap of 2-3 days.

And now my PC is working fine.

Something is tinkering with my drivers in the background.

[ub6424]

Hello @skagrawal4k 

as I wrote before:

(7)  Prevent future <driver> updates from <Windows Update>

See Section <Using Registry Editor> or <Reg File>

https://www.itechtics.com/disable-specific-driver-update/#using-registry-editor

Do you need more help ?

[skagrawal4k]

Hello. Sorry to keep bothering you but few hours later my sound drivers have disappeared once again.

I highly doubt that windows update is causing this because the drivers were there today morning (as shown in the previous screenshot i posted) and my speaker and mic were working fine and windows update has not installed any new updates today (barring windows defender antivirus definition update). Yet, the drivers are gone few hours later. I don't know how. The only change that i could think of is that i turned on 'device encryption' before shutting down my pc today and when i turned it back on, the sound drivers were not there. Is 'device encryption' the root of the problem?

I must tell you, since around the same time when i started having sound driver problem, i have also been having problem with my bitlocker.

Since past month, my PC keeps asking for bitlocker recovery key at every boot. So three days back, i turned off device encryption. Today when i started PC, the drivers reappeared. Thinking that the problem might have gone, i turned on device encryption and shut down my PC. Few hours later, when i restarted my PC, it again asked for bitlocker recovery key and the sound drivers were gone.

[ub6424]

Hello @skagrawal4k 

Repeat procedure from ( 3 )

Go back -> here

You have to disable windows <driver updates> see ( 7 )

Kind regards