ZBOOK 14u G6: No audio; Intel(R) Smart Sound Technology-OED - Code 10 - yellow exclamation mark

[TBoel]

Hi, i am a company system administrator with lots of HP Zbook 14u G6 in our environment. - After installing regular Windows 10 updates (and drivers) via Windows Update we see our Zbook 14u G6 suddenly loosing their realtek audio devices / audio playback compatibility. - There is a yellow exclamation mark in the device manager at the device "Intel Smart Sound Technology - OED"  and a "Code 10" error, the Realtek audio device is not listed anymore in the device manager.

I first tried a win10 system recovery to the point before the updates were installed, but the system recovery process fails. -

Then i tried an "hp audio problem analysis"-wizard from the hp website, but no success with that tool. After that i tried to install the following drivers from the HP driver website: Latest Realtek Audio driver, latest Zbook 14u G6 BIOS, latest Intel ME Firmware but no success at the moment, no realtek audio device is actively present in the device manager and the Code 10 error at the "Intel Smart Sound Technology - OED" device stays. - I found a forum thread via google search where someone stated enabling Intel AMT/vPro in the hp bios has fixed this issue for him, but our Zbook 14u G6 with Core i5 processor are not compatible with Intel AMT/vPro, so this solution is not possible for me to test.

Anyone else with this problem ?

[TBoel]

Found a temporary fix: The Code 10 error is on the device "Intel Smart Sound Technology - OED". - You can fix this error in the device manager, by looking on the device entry just one device before the problematic device, its called something like "Intel Smart Sound Technology Audio device" and has no error, but changing this device manually back to the older driver fixes the error with the other device, and the audio playback starts working again.