HP EliteBook 840 G8 Realtek Audio Speakers sound quits working, sometimes pending windows updates

[FrankOH]

We've had a problem with SOME of our EliteBook 840 G8 laptops since using Windows 11.  A small number of employees have the audio completely quit working through the RealTek internal speakers after some event, but we can't pin it down.

Other external audio devices seem to work, but no sound will play through the internal speakers via the RealTek driver. It just quits at random times ... can't pin down what causes it. Going to the sound panel and running the 'test' sound, it visibly shows that there SHOULD be a sound playing, but nothing does. No 'dink' for moving the volume slider either.  No error messages, and I can't force re-create it, it just happens every couple of days to these people.  Nothing short of a restart seems to fix it.  I tried just now messing around with all the sound settings while it was happening on a local computer, and cannot get the speakers to work without a restart.

I have noticed that MOST of the time there are Windows updates waiting, requiring a restart, but no other system I've ever worked on ever broke the sound all the time while it's waiting for a Windows udpate restart.

This is really impacting a few people with conference calls, and I can't figure out the answer.  We've updated everything you can update: Windows 11, HP BIOS / firmware, hardware drivers, etc.  The problem seems to come back on a few computers after a week or two.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or has a solution.  Driving me nuts not knowing what is causing this or how to avoid it!

Thanks all, and have a good day!

[BjornarJakobsen]

Same experience here, and also a restart in itself doesn't necessarily fix it. Going to device management and uninstalling HD Audio devices (Realtek Audio didn't even show) then restarting brings the sound back. This is a workaround and not a fix, though.

[FrankOH]

I hadn't even noticed the Realtek Audio not showing in device manager ... I'll have to look next time.  Sadly, this doesn't help some of our users that have this happen because our employees are not administrators on their laptops, so they can't accomplish this, I don't think.  We've been using HP EliteBooks and ProBooks for about 3 years now, and have been MOSTLY satisfied, except for some annoying issues like this.

I will try your suggestion next time.

Thanks, and have a good day!