KB5003173 Killed my audio

Anonymous
2021-05-16T22:22:22+00:00

"No Audio Output Devices Installed"

This morning when I logged onto my pc, there was a red X over my speaker icon next to the clock in the tray.

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UPDATE 5/18/2021: SOLUTION WAS THE FOLLOWING:

I figured it out.  

I opened CMD prompt as Admin and ran the following commands.

net localgroup Administrators /add localservice

net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice

I then restarted the Windows Audio service in services.msc

And what do you know, my audio is back!

It appears windows Update removed the service accounts from the Administrators groups and never put them back.

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This must have happened sometime on 5/15 as on 5/14 there was no issue.

I checked my Sound control panel and found that there are no Output/Playback or Input/Recording devices anymore...

I then checked my audio drivers and no issues at all...

I then ran the Sound troubleshooter, and it didn't do anything to help.

I uninstalled all my audio drivers and reinstalled them, but no change.  Rather strangely, I tried installing my original version RealTek Audio driver... It would uninstall my current drivers, and then install the new ones, then prompt for restart.  After restart, it opened the installer again and asked to do the same uninstall/install/reboot.  No matter how many times I did this, the Driver MSI package kept opening on boot.  Perhaps windows was preventing it from installing?

I checked my BIOS to see if audio was disabled there, but it was enabled.

I checked Windows Update, and saw that an update KB5003173 failed and wanted me to retry.  It would not work.  I did a sfc /scannow and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth.  I checked my Aorus drivers and saw there was an AMD chipset update, so I installed it.  After reboot, the KB5003173 successfully installed.

Audio still broken at this point...

I tried to uninstall KB5003173 but it didn't work and I got this...

I then cruised this MS Answers site and found tons of other people with the same issue, but none of the proposed solutions seemed to work for them or I.  One of them even recommended doing an In-place Windows 10 Upgrade / Install.  I did this and guess what? It's still broken.

I checked my update history, and these are the only things that installed or tried to install on 5/15/21:

This originally had a date of 5/15, but I got to it work today on 5/16.

The only other things were these....

Windows Defender is my only security software.

My Hardware:

Why does this say no sound card found???????

I have also since flashed my Bios to F33J which is the newest version released just 2 weeks ago.  Audio still broken.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-05-17T04:24:58+00:00

    Thanks Carlo,

    These steps did not resolve the issue.

    Windows is unwilling to recognize my audio device no matter which driver I use.  Gigabyte and Realtek have actually published a newer driver that the one you linked available through the Gigabyte updater tool.  It was released 2 weeks ago and also is not recognized by windows.

    It is worth mentioning that along with KB5003173, I believe Servicing Stack 10.0.19041.985 was also installed.  

    I have disabled my onboard audio, and the device disappears from device manager as you might expect.  When I reenable it in bios, it reappears in the device manager.  According to device manger, windows has no issue with the drivers, but clearly, it fails to recognize then as an audio driver.  This all worked this past Friday.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-17T04:28:02+00:00

    Good Day Phillip,

    I appreciate your time getting back to this thread, try to perform System Restore.

    This process will take your computer settings back to an earlier point in time where computer is working fine. If there's any changes made on your computer that removes the service, system restore should be able to fix the issue for you. To perform system restore please follow the steps below:

    1. Open the run box by pressing the Windows key + R and type rstrui.exe
    2. Once system restore windows open, normally it will suggest a restore point (sometimes it doesn't) if it does, select the 2nd option and hit next
    3. Select your desired restore point date and time and hit next and finish Choose a restore point date before any changes made in the device.

    I hope the information above helps. Please let me know how it goes.

    Have a wonderful day ahead and stay safe.

    Sincerely,

    Carlo T.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-17T05:22:16+00:00

    Hi Carlo,

    I have already tried the restore point, but upon reboot, either it didn't revert the problematic servicing stack and/or KB5003173 or it reinstalled them before I could get into windows.  I had no earlier restore points to try.  I attempted reverting to previous win 10 build which I think just uses restore points as well, but this had the same effect as the restore point.  I have no way to reverting the Servicing Stack or KB5003173.  Both seem mandatory and my windows install will not let me remove them.

    I built this pc and installed win 10 fresh at the end of March 2021 and it has been working perfectly since, until the updates this weekend.

    As mentioned, I also did an in-place windows 10 upgrade/install, but that had no effect.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-17T05:27:52+00:00

    Good Day Phillip,

    I appreciate your time in getting back to this thread, if the steps did not work, no worries since this is an open forum, maybe someone else in the community has an idea or solution regarding with this issue. I will keep this thread open.

    Have a wonderful day ahead and stay safe.

    Sincerely,

    Carlo T.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-05-17T06:01:17+00:00

    Thanks.

    Its like Windows 10 is wearing beer goggles and can't see straight.  The driver is there, but whatever Windows component is responsible for recognizing that driver as an audio driver seems to be malfunctioning.  Must be some sort of broken intermediary.

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