ASUS Zenbook suddenly no speaker sound

JohnB47

Baffling this one.

ASUS Zenbook, rear labelled Model:UM433D, 'settings' says LAPTOP - AC2TVK91, running Win 10 Home Version 21H1, Installed on 16/11/2020.

All was OK until yesterday, then no sound from speakers - but headphones work OK.

The sound system is Realtek(R) Audio and I've checked everything under the sun. I've uninstalled the most recent Win 10 updates, then rolled back the Realtek audio driver, then updated it again. At each stage I restarted but with no success.

Everything I check suggests the sound system is working OK. No 'mute' settings anywhere. Troubleshooting finds no problem. Sound tests produce nothing from speakers.

If I right click on the speaker icon (task bar) and choose Volume Mixer it shows sound activity on Speakers and Chrome (I'm playing a youtube video at this point). So the system thinks it's playing music - there's just nothing coming out of the speakers!

Any thoughts please?

Edit: Actually I'm wondering if the laptop should be using Realtek audio. I've just found a video showing how to stop Microsoft automatically sending updates to that, which may have forced the ASUS to try using Realtek instead of the system it was shipped with. Does that sound likely?

CoastingHatbox

Sounds like you need to confirm what sound device(s) the laptop has.

Search the start menu for "System Information". Expand Components in the left hand pain and click on "Sound Device". What is displayed there?

JohnB47

Thanks, I'll check that later when at home.

I'm thinking that I don't really know about sound devices/drivers etc. For example, it seems that 'High Definition Audio Device' may in fact be what the ASUS was shipped with but somehow (perhaps something I did early on while trying to fix the problem) Realtek shoved itself in there.

I suspect that when I check as you've suggested, it will say Realtek(R) Audio. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that what was what the ASUS came with.

I might see if can Recover to a previous point where the problem didn't exist.

I've also found this advice on-line:

https://appuals.com/how-to-disable-windows-10-from-automatically-installing-realtek-drivers/

CoastingHatbox

I've encountered a few issues with Realtek sound cards and drivers in my time.

I usually:
* open device manager
* right click the sound controller
* click 'uninstall driver'
* reboot the machine
* reinstall driver from the laptop manufacturers website

9 times out of 10 that solves the problem

If it doesn't, then I wonder if it is a 'jack detection' type problem where, for some reason, the sound controller permanently thinks there are is something connected to the headphones socket.

The 'High Definition Audio Device' is usually present on devices with other sound controllers to support sound over HDMI.

JohnB47

Well, I have success here but not in the way suggested. I checked your suggestion CoastingHatboxand it says Realtek(R) Audio. I'm not sure if that means that that is the default system sound device, but there it is.

I then tried following the advice on the website I found - didn't work.

Then I just tried uninstalling the Realtek, in Device manager and when asked, I said yes to removing the driver for that device. I then restarted and it works!

If anyone has any idea what this is all about I'll appreciate it. For now I need to take note of what I did and set a system restore point.

Thanks to everyone who had ideas here but really, what are we to make of PCs that just decide to go AWAL like this? I can help with this sort of thing because I'm curious and reasonably tenacious but what happens for someone who is not tech savvy?

CoastingHatbox

I'm glad you got the problem solved.

I don't really hold Realtek in high regard. I can recall many instances where I've had to solve problems like this with Realtek devices. I've no idea as to why. Perhaps they are incredibly reliable, but just so common that when there is a problem it's likely to be with a Realtek device.

Maybe next time I have a problem with one, I'll dig a bit deaper.

JohnB47

OK thanks. 

Actually, I've just remembered that I posted, earlier in Nov, about a keyboard problem on my Toshiba laptop. The fix for that was similar to the fix for the sound problem on the ASUS. Go to device manager, uninstall the problem then restart the laptop and let it reinstall.

So here's the question - what exactly is happening during the restart in that sequence? Does the laptop go to the web and get the required software and driver and reinstall that?

If not, why is that better than my uninstalling just the driver, then reinstalling from a driver stored in the laptop?

CoastingHatbox

What I suspect is happening, is that the drivers are storing state somewhere, probably in the Windows registry.

At some point, the state stored in the registery become corrupt and inconsitency between the actual state of the device and what is recorded in the registry causes the driver to break.

When the driver is removed and reinstalled, the state stored in the registry is reset.

JohnB47

Thanks for that.