Desktop Audio

Hello,

My computer tells me I have no output or input devices found for sound. I have the little "x" in the red circle by the volume button. No sound comes out at all, for anything. I've sunk hours upon hours into searching and attempting fixes to no avail...hoping someone has a magic wand. Details (at least the ones it occurred to me to provide) follow, including all the steps I have already taken.

HP Envy All-In-One on Windows 10. I have never customized audio hardware or software; I have never attached external speakers or connected to bluetooth with this computer. The computer was not used for a few months earlier in the year, and when I turned it on again of course it needed updates. I'm not sure if the sound was working then or not. When I turned it back on after the updates it definitely was not, but I can't say for certain if those updates caused it, or something else. I wasn't doing anything unusual on the computer. (I am a fairly basic user -- word processing, internet, old-school games (ie not high-powered gaming.)

Sound Settings: No output devices found. No input devices found. "Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem."

Computer has been restarted dozens of times over the course of various attempts based on responses to other people's similar questions.

Based on online instructions for others' similar problems, I uninstalled the Realtek driver in Device Manager. At that point, per the instructions, Windows should have automatically downloaded another driver. It did not. (I no longer remember exactly which Realtek driver I uninstalled.)

Next, on the HP website, I downloaded the most recent Realtek audio driver listed for my computer. Nothing happened. In fact I have probably downloaded this driver about 6-8 times total, with no result. In case there was some problem with that particular driver, I also downloaded the second-most recent Realtek driver (a late 2019 driver) identified for my computer. No effect from that, either. It's as though they were never downloaded. They do not show up in Sound Settings or in Device Manager. The last time, I noted where the file was saved (I used the default, I wouldn't know where to save them): C:\SESETUP\SP98196.

I reset the BIOS to default settings. No effect.

I downloaded an updated BIOS from the HP website. No effect.

(I made another attempt at downloading the audio driver at this point, in case the BIOS had something to do with it. No effect.)

Following another set of online instructions, I attempted to use the Add Legacy Hardware function in Device Manager. Multiple Realtek drivers were listed in the Sound, video, and game controllers > Realtek folder (including multiples, possibly from each time I downloaded one of them?), but each time I attempted this (I think 4 times total), during the Install phase I got the BSOD RTKVHD64.sys stopcode. I tried with both the 2020 and late 2019 Realtek drivers, same results: crash, no (other) effect.

What is showing on Device Manager:

(1) "Sound, video, and game controllers" only visible after clicking Show Hidden Devices. Listed underneath are only:

-Microsoft Streaming Clock Proxy

-Microsoft Streaming Quality Manager Proxy

-Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy

(2) "Other devices" has 3, each of which say status "Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45) To fix this problem, reconnect this hardware device to the computer." Driver Provider: Unknown, Driver Date: Not available, Driver Version: Not available, Digital Signer: Not digitally signed. Clicking on Update Drivers gets message "Windows has successfully updated your drivers, Windows has finished installing the drivers for this device: [see below for details]." There was no effect from going through the process of clicking on Update drivers.

-Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus -- Windows identifies and supposedly installs Intel(R) Display Audio

-Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus -- Windows identifies and supposedly installs Realtek High Definition Audio

-Intel High Definition Audio -- Windows identifies and supposedly installs Realtek High Definition Audio(SST)

I am probably forgetting some things I tried, I only started taking notes on that today.

HELP, I'm at my wits' end with this. So many people have asked about this online, but I can't find any responses with information that resolves my problem.