HP Laptop - lost my sound after installing updates

[five256]

Sometimes, after installing MS updates or other apps, I lose my sound.
The only way I get it back is to use System Restore to a point where the
sound worked. However, then I don't have the updates or apps. This
tells me that it's a software problem with Vista - not a hardware
problem. Now, I am about 11 MS updates behind - and no sound. Also, the
System Restore doesn't work anymore (I no longer have a Restore point
where the sound worked). I've Googled and have found that many people
have similar problems with their HP laptops. I am using Vista, SP-2. I
am now going to ionstall the updates since I can't go back to get the
sound. I've checked in Device Manager (no problem) and made sure I'm
using the most recent signed driver. I can't find any text indication
that I have a problem but when I go to Playback Options and try the sound
Test, I get a message which says the sound didn't play. Hope I included
all the relevant information. If not, please tell me. I've tried
everything I know of. I have a full backup of my hard drive - but don't
see how that can help. Perhaps one of you can help me or point me in the
right direction. I don't know where to go from here.

 

[Andrew Murray]

Sometimes, after installing MS updates or other apps, I lose my sound.
The only way I get it back is to use System Restore to a point where the
sound worked. However, then I don't have the updates or apps. This
tells me that it's a software problem with Vista - not a hardware
problem. Now, I am about 11 MS updates behind - and no sound. Also, the
System Restore doesn't work anymore (I no longer have a Restore point
where the sound worked). I've Googled and have found that many people
have similar problems with their HP laptops. I am using Vista, SP-2. I
am now going to ionstall the updates since I can't go back to get the
sound. I've checked in Device Manager (no problem) and made sure I'm
using the most recent signed driver. I can't find any text indication
that I have a problem but when I go to Playback Options and try the sound
Test, I get a message which says the sound didn't play. Hope I included
all the relevant information. If not, please tell me. I've tried
everything I know of. I have a full backup of my hard drive - but don't
see how that can help. Perhaps one of you can help me or point me in the
right direction. I don't know where to go from here.

This seems to be caused by the Windows update; however you should really
contact the HP support people, since they are supposed to support the
hardware and OEM Windows edition that was preinstalled on the computer when
purchased (assuming you haven't installed a standard retail edition).

They will probably suggest you update the hardware drivers from their
website; it's not advisable to rely on, or allow Windows Update to update
drivers for sound or video hardware, especially for laptops from OEM's like
HP, Acer, Dell etc with integrated "onboard" sound or video. They should
have the drivers available from their websites.

In the meantime try going to Control Panel and to the Device Manager and
double check the "author" of the driver is HP rather than Microsoft; if it's
the MS driver, try to use the "rollback" feature to load the previously used
driver for the sound card/chip.

You might want to change the updates options to notify you they are ready to
install rather than automatically installing, since Windows will probably
try and install anything it thinks needs updating including hardware drivers
(although hardware updates are usually "optional" rather than "critical" or
"important") but these should be downloaded separately from the manufacturer
website as mentioned above - don't rely on Windows Update for the device
drivers that it offers.

One last thing you can try, delete the sound item from Device Manager, close
down and restart the computer, and it should reboot and reload the drivers.

If the laptop came with a sound utility, e.g. "Realtek" which produces
sound hardware has a utility that might be included that can be used to
diagnose issues with your sound - but HP might have a similar utility that
was included with your laptop.

 

[five256]

This seems to be caused by the Windows update; however you should really
contact the HP support people, since they are supposed to support the
hardware and OEM Windows edition that was preinstalled on the computer when
purchased (assuming you haven't installed a standard retail edition).

They will probably suggest you update the hardware drivers from their
website; it's not advisable to rely on, or allow Windows Update to update
drivers for sound or video hardware, especially for laptops from OEM's like
HP, Acer, Dell etc with integrated "onboard" sound or video. They should
have the drivers available from their websites.

In the meantime try going to Control Panel and to the Device Manager and
double check the "author" of the driver is HP rather than Microsoft; if it's
the MS driver, try to use the "rollback" feature to load the previously used
driver for the sound card/chip.

You might want to change the updates options to notify you they are ready to
install rather than automatically installing, since Windows will probably
try and install anything it thinks needs updating including hardware drivers
(although hardware updates are usually "optional" rather than "critical" or
"important") but these should be downloaded separately from the manufacturer
website as mentioned above - don't rely on Windows Update for the device
drivers that it offers.

One last thing you can try, delete the sound item from Device Manager, close
down and restart the computer, and it should reboot and reload the drivers.

If the laptop came with a sound utility, e.g. "Realtek" which produces
sound hardware has a utility that might be included that can be used to
diagnose issues with your sound - but HP might have a similar utility that
was included with your laptop.

Thanks so much. I have updated the sound driver(s) a number of times and
have not paid attention to the author. I have been using a utility which
notifies me when my drivers are out of date - and offers updated drivers
for download. I wasn't aware that there were different authors and not
to assume MS drivers were good. Actually, I haven't been to the hP site
yet to see what drivers they have. I have two drivers in the Device
manager which relate to sound. One is: IDT High Definition Audio CODEC.
The other is Intel(R) High Definition Audio HDMI. Are they both sound
drivers or should I only be concerned about one? Thanks!