Can't start Dolby Audio driver after upgrading to Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-10-18T07:27:19+00:00

Lenovo U410 wirh Windows 8 pre-installed.

Upgrade to 8.1 went flawlessly, but every time I re-start or boot up the machine I get this:

I've uninstalled and re-installed Dolby Home Theater, done an extensive local and web search about this.

There appears to be NO mention on my machine anywhere for a Dolby Audio Driver" or anything that uses it.

I've been on the Lenovo forum and there's a thread there that says to disable driver signature, which I've done to no effect.

I still get this message.

Can anyone throw any light on this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-10-28T16:20:59+00:00

Hi Everyone!!

I did something to my laptop and it worked!!! After messing around the fix was simple!

Of course make sure your computer has all the windows updates. I don't know if that's gonna be a contributing factor, but it was part of my methods.

After that go into your "D Drive" which is found under "My computer" --> "Drivers" -->"Audio"

Once you're in the audio folder, you're gonna scroll down, you will see a computer icon that says "setup" click on that. Once you do that you will follow the instructions. It seems by doing this it updates the conextant audio driver. I don't know why it didn't update in the device manager as others have suggested. But after I did this, I checked to make sure it was fixed

You can see if it was fixed by:

Going into your control panel and clicking the Dolby theater which can be found in the sounds, games, etc. --> you should see the actual program pop up instead of the error message!

I am so glad I finally fixed this! If this helps you, please label it as the answer so everyone else can fix theirs too! It seems to be a major issue

Have an "error" free day!

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Anonymous
2014-02-04T00:06:17+00:00

Hi,

Lenovo has updated the Conexant Audio Drivers for Windows 8.1 to correct this error.  You can download the updated drivers for your device at http://support.lenovo.com/en\_US/downloads/default.page.

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147 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-06T12:08:33+00:00

    I had tried many other procedures given by others for this question, but I finally found yours and it worked like magic. Thanks a LOT :D My audio now works again properly and I don't get the error message on start up. thanks a ton again :D

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-10T13:37:30+00:00

    After I uninstalled the Conexant Smart Audio did not re-appear, so  I could not update the driver.

    (By the way my Device Manager didnot give the option  of Action>Scan for new driver, only Action>Scan for hardware changes)

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-11T19:27:04+00:00

    Anyone have a solution for an Acer Aspire V5-551?  Reading this thread I must be the only person in the world who has one and not a Lenovo.

    It's Dolby Advanced Audio I had, the sound is all just a bit tinny now since I upgraded to 8.1.  The error message I get is "Unable to start the Dolby audio driver.  Please restart the computer or reinstall the driver if the problem persists."

    Thanks

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