Phil said:
Hi,
I ran the update "Conextant sound - conexant sound high definition audio"
and received an error 80070103. I went to microsoft.com to try to find
out
what the error was with no results. I now discovered that I have "No
Audio Output Device is Installed" when I place the mouse on the speaker
icon in my
task bar. I tred a restore point with no result........
Can someone please tell me what is going on???
What is going on is that you installed a driver for your sound card from
Windows Update and it isn't the right one. So now you have no sound. This
is exactly why most of us regulars/techs do not recommend ever installing
driver updates from Windows Update.
To fix the error, try either
1. Uninstalling the update from Programs & Features (if it installed
properly); or
2. Roll back the sound driver to the one that worked:
Roll Back Troublesome Device Drivers in Windows Vista from the How-To Geek -
http://tinyurl.com/346lox
3. or reinstall the sound card driver. See below for general drivers
information, including how to find your driver. Then set Windows Update to
download and inform you when downloads are ready instead of just updating
automatically. Then you can look at what downloads are offered instead of
simply getting them blindly.
The First Law of Driver Updates is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Normally if everything is working you want to leave things as they are. The
exception is that heavy-duty gamers will usually want to update their video
and sound drivers to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the
hardware to get the fastest frame rates. If you're not one of those people,
you don't need to update your drivers if there are no problems you are
trying to solve.
Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:
1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer
(HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).
Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.
To find out what hardware is in your computer:
1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model
machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc
Advisor or System Information for Windows.
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.gtopala.com/ - System Information for Windows
Malke
