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.

I have checked my windows system and found several of the offending .dll files, (see screenshot below). Should I delete these files and hope for an update or delete them and force an update or yet again delete them, go back to MS high def drivers and hope for the best?

In my experience, I just moved the affected .dll's -- I actually had two in the specified range -- out of the top level System32 folder only (not from any of the subdirectories). I'd kept the MS HD drivers in place for a week and nothing, but once I removed the .dll's, I was offered an update to 2004 within 24-48 hours and it installed with zero issues.

After update, however, the Conexant driver was reinstated and one .dll reappeared, and the same approach has failed to get me an offer to update to 20H2 even after several days.

Thanks for the info, it would appear to still not be a complete resolution to the issues so I have decided now, to leave well alone and await Microsoft to come up with a resolution to this problem. I figure I have waited this long and I dont have any issues with version 1909, I can afford to wait a wee while longer. Thanks again to all.

I have checked my windows system and found several of the offending .dll files, (see screenshot below). Should I delete these files and hope for an update or delete them and force an update or yet again delete them, go back to MS high def drivers and hope for the best?

In my experience, I just moved the affected .dll's -- I actually had two in the specified range -- out of the top level System32 folder only (not from any of the subdirectories). I'd kept the MS HD drivers in place for a week and nothing, but once I removed the .dll's, I was offered an update to 2004 within 24-48 hours and it installed with zero issues.

After update, however, the Conexant driver was reinstated and one .dll reappeared, and the same approach has failed to get me an offer to update to 20H2 even after several days.

What is the Intel driver that you are trying to update? 

How are you "Manually" checking update to the said intel drivers; through "Optional Windows Update" or from within "Device manager"? 

Following my upgrade to 2004, whenever I ran "Check for Updates" from Windows Update (in Settings), it would attempt to install Intel display driver 26.20.100.7325 and I would receive the "Your current driver is better" error; no additional updates could be retrieved.

I was able to find more info and a fix (RememberFlight19's answer) here, however, in case anyone has the same issue following their update to 2004:

Intel Display Driver 26.20.100.7325 Update Error

As per your previous reply, I take it that you are on version 2004. I would suggest you first upgrade to the 20H2 version, which is the latest Windows build, and then try updating the Intel Display drivers and see if it does solve the issue.

Also, I would suggest you use the "Intel Driver & Support Assistant" Tool to try to update the said drivers. It's an Intel supplied software that will search for the best drivers update for your specific pc/laptop.

Download the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant.