Windows 10: Win10 Anniversary update - no sound, reinstalling drivers doesn't work

I have an HP Envy 15 laptop running Win 10, and a few days ago the sound just cut out. I've tried the usual reinstallation of both the IDT HD audio driver and the generic Windows audio driver, as well as finding the latest drivers on the HP website, to no avail. On the occasional restart, I have sound briefly upon boot for about 10 seconds, then it disappears. There seem to be other effects too: volume control in the taskbar seems to be very slow and laggy to respond to mouse clicks, and the control panel sound window also lags. When I test the speakers in the control panel, the volume bars light up as usual, and Windows troubleshooting seems to indicate nothing wrong with my audio, despite there being no sound.

Really frustrated as there seems to be nothing else I can do, anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

:)

 

Badly distorted sound after Win10 Anniversary Update

My computer is an HP Notebook running Windows 10. The issue is NOT one of incompatible sound drivers. The drivers are marked for Win10, and the problem occurred before and after the update to the drivers (the problem did not occur before the update to Anniversary
edition). The drivers installed are marked for Win10. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers to no avail, and I tried the basic sound driver for Win10 and that made the problem worse.

 

how to contact system administrator

It doesn't make sense why can't use the latest Win10 ISO with the anniversary updates, it fails, so I cannot use Windows Update to install anniversary updates, I cannot upgrade using the ISO so what's my option? Reformat and reinstall Windows 10? That
doesn't sound right.

 

An update: the sound now seems to work for 5-10 mins on the Windows HD audio driver, then cuts out completely. However, if I put my laptop to sleep, then resume it, the sound comes back for another 5-10 mins before cutting out again.

The volume control works perfectly with no lag when the sound is working, but starts to lag to inputs when the sound cuts out.

 

Was the installation an upgrade or a clean install? Have you tried searching for another driver version, not necessarily on HP's website? Please give me HW ids

 

Usually a complete uninstall/reinstall of your audio software should solve these problems. Also, try the Troubleshooter at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Hardware and Sound.

Find the audio device in Device Manager and try auto-updating the driver from there.

Have you muted the sound output - silly but worth a mention?

 

I've tried all of the things you've mentioned: according to Windows, there's nothing wrong with the audio. I've totally uninstalled then reinstalled the driver countless times to no effect. I was under the assumption that some startup process might have been conflicting with the driver, so I booted Windows up in clean boot mode with only Windows services, still the sound cuts out almost immediately after startup.

It's worth mentioning that this problem occurs with both the IDT audio driver and Microsoft's generic HD audio driver, and that sometimes the audio works for longer periods of around 5 mins but ultimately cuts out again. When it does, the slow and laggy volume control and sound control panel occur, where before they were responsive and not laggy. Not sure what's going on here really.

 

At this point I would start suspecting a hardware problem or poor connection inside your laptop.Do you get audio OK from the headphone socket? If so, this means the sound chip on the motherboard is OK and you might be having problems with the speaker connection.

 

When the sound goes, it goes from both headphone jack and speakers. I have suspected that it might be hardware issue, but the reliability of which I can get sound back (briefly every time upon restart and resuming from sleep) made me think it was more likely a software issue?

 

When the sound goes off, does a gentle tap or shake of the PC bring it back (don't be too violent)? This is a well known engineering solution for diagnosing bad connections! You might also want to peruse the relevant HP Forum or post there to discover if there are known hardware problems specific to your laptop.

 

Tapping or shaking the laptop doesn't bring the sound back... I have noticed that this problem has been documented a few times on HP Forums, though none of the fixes described (usually just some variant on reinstalling the audio driver) have fixed my issue. Still not entirely convinced it's a hardware issue though. Thanks for your help so far!

 

It could still be a hardware issue. On the software front, you could try one of the driver cleaners recommended on this Forum to remove all traces of your sound drivers. Then install the latest W10 driver / utility for your laptop from HP.

Another trick would be to delete your sound device in Device Manager. Then reboot and let W10 find it and install the driver W10 chooses.

 

I booted Ubuntu from a USB drive, and Ubuntu detected no sound card on my laptop. Provided I didn't screw something up in Ubuntu, it seems to confirm it's a hardware issue then.

 

Suggest you email HP support for help to confirm whether you have a software or hardware issue. Normally laptops (like my Dell) have hardware diagnostic utilities - have you run the audio diagnostics? Do you have a sound module plugged into the motherboard or is there an audio chip embedded in the motherboard? If the latter, then a new motherboard would be needed if you have a hardware fault which may not be a cost-effective repair.

 

I tried running HP audio diagnostics but apparently my laptop model doesn't support them, pretty baffling as to why they exist for this laptop then. I'll email HP support and see what they say. Thanks for your help!