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My computer (i7-6700K, ASUS Z170-Deluxe, 16MB ram) was working fine until it tried an update to KB50003637. During the update, it BSODed with a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA error, after which it notified me that the update had failed and attempted to return to its previous state. However, when Windows restarted, I was getting a red X over the speaker icon on the taskbar, along with "No audio output device is installed" and "Speaker Setup (UNKNOWN)" messages when you hover or right-click on the icon, respectively. Running the Audio Troubleshooter only tells me they're sorry that they couldn't fix my problem. I've been using the standard on-board Realtek High Definition audio, and first tried reinstalling the driver, but the problem continued. I checked Device Manager, and both the "Audio inputs and outputs" and "Sound, video, and game controllers" sections had the Realtek device listed, along with the comment that "The device is working properly." I then tried a installing a USB DAC (LH Labs Geek Out 450) I've had sitting around for some time, along with its driver software. Same problem: that device is "working properly," but Windows itself still gives the red X and "No audio output device is installed," etc. messages. Now, this USB DAC has an ASIO driver as part of the software, and apps that can use ASIO (Foobar2000, JRiver Media Center) can be configured to use it via ASIO, and can play audio through it just fine -- but, at the same time, according to Windows, I don't have any audio devices, so none of the programs that don't have ASIO support (the vast majority of them) can't play audio on my computer at all.
Needless to say, I made repeated efforts to reinstall the drivers, with no success. I also repeatedly uninstalled the devices and restarted, but, after the restarts, I had the same devices in place, all "working properly" according to device manager, but unavailable through Windows. I also tried stopping and restarting the "Windows Audio" and "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder" in Services, but that didn't have any effect either.
I checked out the details on each of those drivers in device manager, and found both of them were reporting that the devices could not be migrated because of "due to partial or ambiguous match."
The Realtek device had the following error message in "Events":
Device HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0900&SUBSYS_1043868F&REV_1000\4&27952083&0&0001 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.
Last Device Instance Id: TUSBAUDIO_ENUM\VID_2522&PID_0007&KS\00000040
Class Guid: {4d36e96c-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Location Path:
Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFFFFFFF132
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000719
while the LH Labs Geek Out had:
Device SWD\MMDEVAPI{0.0.0.00000000}.{8cb2f8d3-e308-4d89-b3e6-84c96dc89425} was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.
Last Device Instance Id: SWD\MMDEVAPI{0.0.0.00000000}.{1b978cd4-4584-49a4-a00b-b64c043eccc1}
Class Guid: {c166523c-fe0c-4a94-a586-f1a80cfbbf3e}
Location Path:
Migration Rank: 0xF00000000000F100
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000451
Can this give any clue on how this problem can be fixed? I've tried every "standard" step for such problems, and am completely at a loss right now. Is there a way I can get back my audio without having to take the drastic step of a clean install?
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.
I have the exact same issue. I have no fix for the problem itself but found a temporary workaround that might help targeting the problem.
check my youtube link and give feedback if that also worked for you: (Sorry for windows to be in german but you can probably guess what I was clicking.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJZaesOqoZk
unfortunately you'd need to repeat the process after every restart, but atleast it kindaaa works (for me).
let me know!
I can confirm that this workaround works also for me (I had the same problem as described by other users).
Also, for a more permanent fix, I used the solution pointed out in a comment of the video above:
which consists on changing a field in the Windows Registry.
The registry fix worked like a charm! My audio is back where it should be after a restart. :-)
I can imagine not everyone has another working pc at hand, so this is the content of the reg file to change the value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations] "ConsoleSecurity" as described here: https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Latitude-5400-no-sound-after-May-2021-Windows-update/m-p/7999487/highlight/true#M35018
*************************************start of reg file*****************************************************
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations]
"ConsoleSecurity"=hex:01,00,14,80,9c,00,00,00,a8,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,00,\
00,02,00,88,00,06,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,01,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,\
04,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,bf,03,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,00,\
00,14,00,89,00,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,13,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,81,00,\
00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,14,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,bf,03,0f,00,01,02,00,\
00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,20,02,00,00,00,00,18,00,21,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,\
00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,2b,02,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,\
01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00
***********************************end of reg file******************************************************
Make a backup of your registry or create a restore point.
Open notepad, copy & paste the text between the ******** (not the *************** themselves!) into the new document and save as a file with a .reg extension. Double click the newly created file, confirm the pop-up questions and your registry has been repaired.
How does an Win 10 update ruin my audio output and if so many report it many places does MS not fix it? I am older and read all of this but does that mean my pc is ruined for sound? bc i am not a techie? who is responsible for this? It is definitely damage to my perfectly working machine and no support has contacted me after repeated help responses.
my device manager says all my sound devices are there .. found .. and drivers not need updated. Someone is responsible for this and the non response from MS for so many people have same problem.
I can confirm that this workaround works also for me (I had the same problem as described by other users).
Also, for a more permanent fix, I used the solution pointed out in a comment of the video above:
which consists on changing a field in the Windows Registry.
The BIOS is at its current version already.
I think I may have inadvertently sent you down a rabbit hole with an unclear comment about display drivers. I wasn't talking about the display driver for my GTX 980; indeed, I updated that to the most current version this past Friday. What I was referring to was the VGA driver from ASUS, which is only used when you're using the CPU's Intel HD Graphics instead of an external graphics card. When you have a GPU plugged into a slot in the motherboard, as I have, the Intel HD Graphics are disabled in the BIOS, don't exist as a device in Device Manager, and therefore cannot have a driver installed -- the install program terminates with an error message that the computer's hardware does not support this. The Intel HD Graphics had never been enabled during the lifespan of this computer, and can only be enabled by a custom toggle in the advanced section of the BIOS which can itself cause further problems when you are using a separate GPU.
I went through all the links you provided. I was originally going to include a step-by-step run-through of all of them, but, while I will do so if you want me to, it really would be a substantial waste of your time, because virtually every link has almost the exact same list of steps (update the device to the current driver, update the chipset drivers, run SFC, reset the BIOS to default), all of which I've already done, usually many times. The only additional suggestions were to "run Windows Update" (which, of course, is what caused this problem in the first place; it only showed up after KB5003637 BSODed my machine and Windows attempted to roll it back) or to "reset the O.S." -- which, as far as I'm concerned, would be my absolute last resort, as trying to reinstall the many different programs I use (some of which are dependent on several others, particularly in my photo and video editing work) would be an absolute nightmare.
I continue to be struck by the fact that this showed up after the failed update. While all of the methods in those links above seem to work from the assumption that it's the device/driver itself that is the problem, the fact is that, in this case, those exact devices and drivers were working perfectly before the failed update and then the automated rollback. I can't help but think that something in the rollback itself didn't work right, and corrupted something that didn't get fixed by the repair install I tried before my last response.
Thanks for continuing to work with me on this. If you want me to include the file where I went through each of the links you provided took notes, I'll be glad to, but I think all it would establish is that, indeed, I actually read them all.
