Audio devices disappear after failed update

Same thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/nxtx2e/speaker\_setup\_unknownno\_audio\_drivers\_installed/

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.

There's no way we are the only ones who have encountered this for Microsoft to not have a fix for this that doesn't require us doing a clean install of windows and having to install all of our programs all over again...

Edit: So I just did a system restore from a restore point 2 days before the problem started and it still doesn't work. I'm wondering if somehow the windows update actually physically fried the onboard sound chip on the motherboard... If so Microsoft owes us new motherboards...

It sounds like a decent plan. But if you have enough space you could even shrink C and do a Clean Install to the shrink space. This will configure a Dual Boot menu so you can go back and forth as necessary while you're setting up the new install and deciding whether to keep it. If it's a keeper, then you only need to remove the old install partition using a bootable partition manager, resize the new install's space into the old one's unallocated space, remove the old install from the Dual Boot menu in msconfig > Boot tab.

Either way make sure to follow the gold standard Clean Install in this link which compiles the best possible Install of Windows which will stay that way as long as you stick with the tools and methods given, has zero reported problems, and is better than any amount of money could buy: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

The reason I suggest this is that no one who has adopted the install in the above link has ever come back to report further problems I've seen, including another version failure. This is because everything in Windows 10 is dependent upon the quality of the install, especially Version Updates which will choke on lesser quality installs, and there is no possibility of problems if you stick ONLY with the steps, tools and methods in that tutorial.

It is also one of life's great learning experiences that will permanently make you the master of your PC because you will learn everything that works best and how to keep it that way.