Audio devices disappear after failed update

It worked, thanks! Now we wait for Micro$oft...

I am experiencing the same exact thing. All audio devices stopped working but shows in device manager just fine. Think it also happened with the latest update for me...

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?

James I have had the EXACT same problem as you to a TEE!!! Same update failed, same page fault in non paged area error, same result afterwards with no audio. I am beyond frustrated at this point, I don't have time in my life to be chasing these kinds of stupid rabbit holes just because windows 10 forces updates on my perfectly good computer. It was not easy finding this thread as Google is overloaded with people having audio problems after Windows updates, particularly in 2018 it seems. I had to filter results to this past month to find this. And it seems all of the Microsoft support guys are just copying and pasting the same catch all audio fix posts which only go into the drivers. The drivers are NOT the problem here, they haven't changed, they are present, they all say they are working, and I use a machine that has 2 different Audio controllers, one of which is my new video card. And people are trying to tell me that I need to go through ALL of my audio drivers??? Which I have btw, doesn't make a difference, I'm sure I could go out to the store right now and buy a stand alone audio card and I would have the same issue. We need people to look into Windows, maybe a service isn't running anymore. I wish I had the answer.

I was really hoping that would not be necessary, as, due to my work in photo and video editing, I have a very convoluted install with lots of interdependent programs that I might use once every few years (and thus have forgotten how to set up properly) but, when needed, are absolutely vital. The chances of a clean install messing up my work in the future in hard-to-recover-from ways are high; unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if there's any way to avoid this now.

Nonetheless, one of my concerns is that this was caused by a consistent crash while attempting to install KB50003637, a problem that persisted even after doing a repair install. At this point, I'm not sure whether this was due to something about my installed system (a driver issue or something) or whether it might be an actual hardware problem requiring me to do a full system rebuild (which is close to being due in the first place).

The problem is that, while I agree that the reinstall should be done slowly and gradually, there are certain programs (mainly financial/accounting) I need to use every day, or at least every few days. Were I to do a clean install, I would need to be able to install and use those programs immediately. If it turns out that I do a clean install and find it is a hardware problem, having to then shut my operations down until I could order and receive parts to build a new system would be a complete non-starter. If that were the case, I would prefer to be keeping my machine in its current state, where most things outside of audio are functional, until I had the components on hand to rebuild everything.

My thought for how I could best approach this would be to temporarily pull the boot drive, replace it with a spare HD I have sitting around, and doing a clean install to that drive, including the problematic update. If everything in the bare install works well, I'll know it isn't a hardware problem and can replace the boot drive and proceed with the clean install "for real." On the other hand, if trying this technique results in more crashes with KB50003637 or some other update, then I'll have reason to suspect it's a fundamental hardware issue, and will be able to disconnect that "test" HD, reconnect my current boot drive, and be able to continue working in its current reduced-capacity condition until I have the parts in hand to do a new build.

Is there any reason why I should fear that this approach would not work, or would cause problems even after doing a clean install to my current boot drive (assuming the test install worked)? I can't see why it would, myself, but a friend who works in tech support at Microsoft suggested it could cause problems, and I thought I should run it by you before trying anything.

1. Unfortunately, I have no System Restore points before the failed update (don't know why, because I used to have them).
2. All relevant drivers installed from ASUS download page. (This did not include the VGA driver, which seemed designed for CPUs with integrated graphics.) It didn't help the issue.

The audio driver downloaded from the ASUS site (6.0.1.8158 released 2017-06-07) installation resulted in the following event:

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

I also tried installing a version, indicated as being for Windows 10 x64 (6.0.1.8186 released 2017-06-14) downloaded from Realtek's own site. That gave an identical event:

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

3. Went through all six recommended methods, without success. The one that required uninstalling the audio device and then scanning for new hardware reinstalled the same driver as before (6.0.1.8186), with the identical "Device not migrated" event:

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

4. Went through all the checklists (most of which were steps I had already taken in the sections above, or which presupposed that I had an audio device visible through Windows that I could configure, when the problem is that Windows isn't seeing any audio devices at all). Obviously, nothing worked.
5. When I click on "Open Sound Settings" after right-clicking on the speaker icon, I get the Sound settings page, with "No output devices found." If I go from there to "Manage sound devices," I just get a list of all devices that is completely blank.
6. The troubleshooter returns the message "Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem." Going to "View detailed information" simply tells me "There might be a problem with your audio device."
7. The only two drivers I have access to are the ones I already tried (6.0.1.8158 and 6.0.1.8186). Neither works, and both result in the "not migrated" event I posted above. I would note that 6.0.1.8158, the one downloaded from ASUS, appears to be the more compatible; although neither work, that version at least detects when a cable is plugged into or unplugged from an audio jack, and allows one to open the Realtek HD Audio Manager, while the driver downloaded from Realtek does not. Incidentally, when one opens the Realtek Audio Manager, all it displays is a message that "You are seeing a blank page because there is no audio devices plugged in the system. To activate GUI, please plug an audio device in the system." I tried installing that driver in Compatibility Mode (for Windows 8, which is what the compatibility troubleshooter suggested), but it had no effect.
8. Tried all the relevant steps. Unfortunately, the problem persisted.
9. I actually did a repair install before posting my thread. It had the advantage of updating my Windows from 20H2 to 21H1, but it did not fix the problem with the audio. (It also then tried to reinstall KB50003637, which failed with a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, as before.)

So, basically, I've tried everything on the list, most often several times, with no success. It seems likely to me that the "not migrated" event seems to be at the root of the problem, and that this first manifested itself after KB500003637 failed and Windows tried to roll me back to the previous state. (In fairness, I will grant that my days as a programmer were almost two decades ago, and never involved O.S. development, so I don't have a particular "crystal ball" on this issue.) Unfortunately, the only steps the WindowsReport link at the top of your reply can suggest to fix that specific problem involve either updating the driver, uninstalling and reinstalling the device, or going back to a previous system restore point, all of which I have either done with no effect or am unable to do at all. I wish I had had the foresight to create a system restore point before letting Windows Update try to do its thing, but hindsight is 20/20 and, to be fair, I've never had it create problems like this before. I thank you in advance for any help you can give me in getting this resolved without having to resort to the drastic step of a clean install.