Updating to Windows 10 Version 2004/Conexant Drivers

I would put blame on Synaptics too, but they seem to have passed everything off to MS and MS willingly took the baton, ran with it then promptly tripped. It appears MS only took a partial ownership of the drivers.

Audio Driver

But under Sound, Video and Game Controllers

This is what is blocking my update.

Conexant HDAudio Driver under Sound, video and game controllers in Device Manager and have file name uci64a96.dllthrough uci64a231.dll and a file version of 7.231.3.0 or lower.

I have a 7.217.0.0 with an uci64a217.dll.

I agree with you to a point, MS messed up big time, but Conexant was acquired by Synaptics in 2017 and I personally put most of the blame on them. I'm guessing Synaptics kept only a small handful of Conexant employees/contractors, and let the rest go. There is probably no one left that knows the inner workings of the old drivers. Synaptics feels shielded from criticism as well since their name isn't on the product.

Anyway, if you research this thread carefully you'll find posts from people that forced the 2004 update onto their systems. I did, but it was so long ago I don't recall exactly how I did it but it wasn't very elegant. I believe that several ways to do it were documented. I later installed the 20H2 update without a hitch when it showed up. I never had any hiccups. I believe that the old Conexant driver is still the one I use.

Disclaimer: I don't do gaming on my 5+ year old laptop, only MS Office and Firefox stuff.

This is a total failure by Microsoft. Almost 10 months since the 2004 release, no fix. 20H2 released, still no fix.

I see drivers for Conexant issued by Microsoft in 2019 on my system, not the original ones provided by Dell. I would complain at Dell, but since Microsoft appears to have issued the current drivers on my 3 YEAR 8 MONTH old Laptop I expect they should be the ones to update the drivers. All other Windows computers in my household are updated but mine. This includes a couple older than the laptop I use!!!

Win 10 Users should not have to

• fix drivers in a hacky way, period
• worry their laptop or desktop won't at least get the latest Windows features for less than 5 years

I think my post is number 300 in the 255 days since the original question was asked. More than 1 per day and here we all are, sitting and waiting for a resolution to this issue.

HP Envy desktop 795-0010 - W10 1909 Pro

Following the various threads and discussions here, I decided to try the "fool WU by removing Conexant stuff" method to get to the latest Windows. I'll detail the steps I used in case they are of interest to others.
FIRST STEPS

1. In Device Manager, changed the Audio driver to the MS default which should be the other besides Conexant on the machine. Before doing so, I found the Conexant device IDs in Device Manager, and copied them for pasting in 2) below.
2. Applied the driver update lock for the Conexant device ID using GPEDIT.
3. As various other Conexant processes still run despite the MS driver, I turned off the 2 Conexant Services and the two Conexant tasks that run from Microsoft>Conexant in Task Scheduler. This prevents the irritating "Conexant audio device not found" message from repeatedly popping up.
4. I then checked for updates via WU daily, but no Feature Update was offered after several days.
5. I then went to Windows>System32 and renamed the related Conexant driver file UCI64A189.dll to Conexant-UCI etc (so that I could quickly find it if needed).

At this point the machine was running OK, and no problems with Audio using the MS driver.
NEXT STEPS

1. The day after renaming the UCI file and checking via WU, I was offered 20H2, which downloaded and installed without a glitch, taking close to 3 hours to do so. I had turned off all connected devices like USB hubs and external drives beforehand, and any scheduled stuff like SyncbackPro, as these often delay the update restarts if they are enabled.
2. The system updated to 20H2, but the tray audio icon showed an error.
3. Checking Device Manager, there was an audio driver with error, and the reason for this was that it could not update.
4. Obviously, this was because of the Conexant device block applied via GPEDIT, so I then disabled that entry.
5. Immediately the Conexant HD Audio reappeared in DM Sound video and game controllers, with the same version (8.65.282.54) as before.
6. I then re-enabled the various things turned off as per 3 above in FIRST STEPS.
7. The "proper" UCI dll (per 5) had reappeared in System32 alongside the renamed version.
8. Audio runs OK.

The next steps are to check everything is operational, and especially see what MS clutter, previously removed from my 1909 installation, has found its way back in.

I hope that this is clear. Various posters here have gone through this, or a similar process, and had the same result as me i.e. OK. I notice that others have had problems whilst following the same route, but it is difficult to see why. Just luck, perhaps.

I had thought about the Media Creator approach, but I'm naive enough to think (hope?) that updating via WU, if it can be persuaded to appear, is a little more "under control".

PS As far as I can see, this sort of workaround will be required for future W10 updates IF the Conexant drivers problems are not fixed, thus enabling everyone to be able to update to 2004 or 20H2 via Windows Update, and then on to future releases. It isn't an acceptable situation, especially since many of the machines affected are quite recent.

Lenovo T510 with Conexant Audio on Win10.1909.

No update offer. No information from MS. No hope.

So I bought an MacBook M1 now.

Ciao Microsoft.