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Drivers & Software

fabledloon
Adept I

I lost audio after updating the display driver

In a recent search for new drivers for my card, I was advised to install Adrenalin 2020. After all, new software and up to date drivers can only make things better, right? If only.

During the installation, I noticed my sound icon said that I'd lost my sound, but it came back again so I took no notice of it - until the first time I heard the awful tinny sound my computer now produces. Rather than using my speakers (3.5mm connection to the jack port behind my PC) with the onboard sound drivers, it seems the update has decided to use the woeful, despicable built-in speakers on my monitor, running AMD's drivers.

I've been to my sound control panel in an attempt to re-select my speakers, but lo they are nowhere to be seen. The realtek drivers in device manager also seem to have disappeared, replaced with AMD's, and leaving no sign of my speakers anywhere to be found. I have tried installing new devices in device manager, but they don't show. I've looked through my playback devices in sound settings (yes, even those hidden by 'disconnected' or 'disabled') and they still don't show. I've even been to my bios and checked for the onboard sound system, to check it's enabled. It is. Yet I still cannot connect to the speakers that until this update worked perfectly every single time.

Needless to say this is putting me off ever going near anything AMD ever again at this point, but if anyone can provide an answer for me to get my sound quality back, I would be grateful for anything you have.

1 Solution

I seem to have cured it! Probably more luck than judgement.

While trawling my device manager I noticed a system device  (high definition audio bus, I think) was highlighted as faulty. Don't ask me why. I searched for a driver update, it came through and now the sound panel recognises my speakers once more.

Why all of this happens upon installing an AMD update I've no idea, but it seems to be working now.

Thanks for your help, hopefully that'll be the end of it.

View solution in original post

21 Replies

basically what you are saying is that your motherboard's Sound drivers (Realtek) are missing or not recognized by Windows anymore.

Once you post your Motherboard's Make & Model and CPU, GPU, with BIOS, CHIPSET, AMD Driver and Windows version installed I might be able to help you if possible. 

Have you tried to go to your Motherboard's Support Download page and see if they have any Audio Drivers to download and install?

Also I would see if you have the latest BIOS and CHIPSET versions installed. I recall that one Motherboard Manufacturer needed to update the BIOS to get sound to work again on their Motherboards.

I would try to install the Motherboard's Audio drivers again and see if Windows now recognizes your Motherboard drivers and your connected Audio default Device is showing and you can enable it in Windows Sound Panel.

You can go to Device Manager and either Disable or Uninstall the AMD HD Audio if you are not using it and see if the Motherboard's Audio is recognized again.

If you Uninstall the AMD HD Audio driver then you will need to install the AMD Driver package again to get them back.

NOTE: When you installed the AMD Driver package it shouldn't have removed the Motherboard's Realtek HD Audio or disabled it. In Sound Panel it should show enabled any Audio devices connected to the GPU card (your Monitor speakers) and any Audio devices (Plug-in Speakers) enabled connected to the Motherboard's Audio outputs.

Have you tried to connect the speakers to a different Motherboard Audio output port?

Thanks for replying, I appreciate your help.

Essentially, yes, the audio panel from the motherboard is getting me nowhere. My USB Bluetooth works for my headset, but the physical audio ports don't give me anything, except the general static of plugging them in. The speakers do work in other devices, so they're functioning fine, but my motherboard is just not even aware of them since the AMD update, regardless of the port I use.

I have been to my motherboard's download page, yes, I downloaded their drivers, but it made no difference. Following that, I uninstalled the AMD drivers completely and reinstalled my motherboard drivers, but that still didn't take. No matter how much I disable or uninstall the AMD drivers, the Realtek drivers just don't appear again. I really don't know why.

Throughout all this I constantly check my sound panel, for disabled and disconnected devices too, but still find no trace of my speakers. They just don't exist on the sound panel.

I haven't updated my BIOS, it's not something I'm familiar with so I've been trying every other avenue first. Looking at the support page, I find I am running an older BIOS version, but I've been leaving that as a last resort.

If nothing else, it seems I'm going to need to invest in some new speakers, but I'll keep banging my head against the wall for now if anyone else has any ideas they can throw my way. I'd appreciate it.

My sysinfo

Since you uninstalled the AMD driver and it didn't fix the Motherboard's Audio shows the AMD driver isn't at fault. 

Did you use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) without the Internet connected to remove the AMD Driver and deleted C:\AMD folder in the Root Directory?

I know there are adapters that convert USB>3.5MM Audio.  You can try that to see if your speakers work with your motherboard.  In case you can't get the Motherboard Audio to work (Possibly defective Motherboard).

Here is a HDMI>VGA with a 3.5MM Port for Audio to Speakers: https://www.amazon.com/FDG-Transmission-Converter-Projectors-Displayer/dp/B07QDYGFV2/ref=sr_1_18?dch...  (You can connect it to the AMD GPU Card HDMI Output.

Here is a USB>3.5MM Audio Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Headphone-Microphone-Aluminum-Compatible/dp/B00NMXY2MO

If your Speakers works with other device then even if you get new Speakers it may not work on your motherboard until the Motherboard Audio drivers are recognized by Windows.

Is it possible to run DXDIAG.exe and save the DXDIAG.txt file and upload it to your next reply. Maybe it might indicate what is wrong with your Audio and will show which files (Windows and Non-Windows files) that are having problems.

I seem to have cured it! Probably more luck than judgement.

While trawling my device manager I noticed a system device  (high definition audio bus, I think) was highlighted as faulty. Don't ask me why. I searched for a driver update, it came through and now the sound panel recognises my speakers once more.

Why all of this happens upon installing an AMD update I've no idea, but it seems to be working now.

Thanks for your help, hopefully that'll be the end of it.

I made an account for this reply almost 7 months later. I recently updated my drivers to play Cyberpunk and could no longer get audio from my monitor.

Lo and behold my "High Definition Audio Bus" was corrupt.

I just uninstalled it completely, rebooted, and everything was back to normal.

Hi, i have exactly the same error. 

Did you uninstall the "High Definition Audio Bus" or the Driver?

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do you have a step-by-step guide on how you resolved this?

I am having the same problem, hoping that you are kind enough to share.
Thanks in advance

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Check my comment from 19 Dec 2020.

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**** SOLVED ****

Just had the same problem for the last hour. after installing a radeon rx550 w/ adrenaline, it hijacked the sound from my 7.1 soundblaster soundcard, deleted it from my sys & changed it to my samsung tv (im watching on a 76" tv... that has crappy sound which is why i have an audio receiver!)

any had NO clue how to fix.. not much help online. but i saw you going into the device manager. so i went there.

no red exclamation points. crap.

BUT, instead of looking under "Audio Inputs & Outputs", go to "Sound, Video & Game Controllers". your original audio card should there, along with 2 AMD entries ("AMD High Definition Audio Device" & "AMD Streaming Audio Device". ( pic attached)A-HA!A-HA!

DISABLE THE 2 AMD DEVICES (right click, Disable Device).

VOILA! My soundblaster z is now the audio source and even got put back into my "Audio Inputs & Outputs".

DEVMGR2.jpg

PERFECT! (NOW my big problem is my old card had a 1776x1000 setting. which fit inside of my screen perfectly. This Radeon doesnt have that friggin setting, so It's set to 1920x1080. except now the vid is a little too big for my screen! AARRGGHH! TRYING to figure out a way to shrink it somehow... all the other resolutions look like crap. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT that a 12+yr old radeon HD4300/4500 card had more display resolutions available than this spiffy brand new card & more expensive card. F*** MY LIFE!)

GLTA.

(found the fix to my sizing problem in the adrenaline software by shrinking the HDMI size to 5. PERFECT! better than my last card now! BACK TO !!!!)

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Go to sound/playback device..right click anywhere and enable "show disabled/disconnected device.

 
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Verissimus
Journeyman III

I registered specially for replying here, to you.

 

I'm glad you solved your problem, and then wrote about it, thus helping me solve same problem too!

I searched for HD Audio Bus in Device Manager. Found it under System Devices (not in it's usual place - Sound, Video and Game Controllers).

Mine had TWO instances, in conflict. I've uninstalled one of them, deleting driver when prompted. For the one that remained, updated the driver. After this step sound came back on and sound devices appeared once again in Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Hope this helps somebody! All the best!!!

Bless your soul! Actually such a big help. 

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govcharov
Adept I

Have another solution. Nothing helped me from the previous answers. I had upgraded my AMD drivers to the newest 20.12 and HDMI Audio to my TV disappeared. The solution for me was to downgrade to my last driver version (as far as I remember) 18.1.1 https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-18-1-1Maybe I will be able to upgrade to a higher 18.xx version but I don't want to take that risk anymore.

  1. Download AMD Cleanup Utility https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601#faq-Using-AMD-Cleanup-Utility. Run it to uninstall and clear all current driver versions.
  2. Download old drivers - try to remember what was your last driver version before the update and download it. Search in Google for the version, as finding it on the AMD website is complicated to nearly impossible.
  3. Install the old drivers and reboot. I did nothing more and after the reboot, the TV was in the menu - the same as before, along with my monitor audio out. Winning!

Screenshot 2020-12-20 000433.png

P.S. I tried to update my BIOS to the latest version, to install AMD 17.xxx drivers, to update Audio Bus from Device Manager - and nothing helped.

Originally posted in ticket NEW RX570 NO AUDIO OVER HDMI

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AMD needs to absolutely remove or make audio drivers an optional part of their driver package.  The issues with audio affect my system every time I install a driver since moving to AMD earlier this year.  I've tried their "Vote on features" tool built into the driver but it is very specific to what it allows us to vote on, and therefore is not very useful.  I've run out of ideas how to suggest these things to their driver team, if anyone has something new to try please speak up and let's collaborate.

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its not just AMD. its most if not all graphics card manufacturers now. the solution isnt hard to fix with some googling. i laid out exactly how to fi x the issue in a prior post. dont hold your breath for ANY changes from AMD.. 

Jcrickett
Journeyman III

My solution was to go to the device manager, which can be found by simply searching in the start menu. select your computer, it should be the top option. Then click the action tab at the top and select scan for hardware changes. Everything came back after that.

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WxlfExists
Journeyman III

Hello!

Another solution for the people who could not find the fix

I was insanely scared when downloading the amd drivers (*cough* *cough* killing computer history *cough*)

But I found a fix

Go to control panel -> sound -> click on the audio device that isn't working -> drivers -> roll back drivers

Worked for me

only rolls back to previous drivers, not all of them so don't worry

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Axton
Challenger

I found another workaround on my system that appears to have solved the random USB sounds it was making: similar to the solution above except in device manager I uninstall the AMD devices and choose to "delete driver files for those devices" when it asks.  

This all stems from AMD's insistence to include their own audio drivers in the Adrenalin driver package.  If AMD would recognize this and make the audio portion an OPTIONAL install during a driver upgrade/downgrade we'd all be better off!!

999Przemek
Adept I

Update: The new adrenalin version 23.2.1 fixes the issue with sound (I "clean installed" it and kept my settings). However windows is still updating it's own driver over it after installation XD so you just have to "back" it in device manager (which is what I did) and it all works fine.

GJ AMD

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I just had a similar problem  I'm working on a (relatively) old Windows 7 system which has an AMD processor, AMD graphics on the mother board (not being used), a Radeon HD 6450 OEM card which feeds video and audio through an HDMI connection, and also Realtek built-in audio.  It hadn't been updated for some time when it came to me, but it was working reasonably well: I could direct audio output to either the AMD HDMI device or the Realtek speakers (or both).  But it was due for an upgrade so I ran whql-win8.1-win7-catalyst-15.7.1-oct30.exe . This made some significant improvements to the video graphics: but, as others have noted, the HDMI audio output stopped. The Sound Playback Devices allowed me to select the default device, but it would not output anything. Running "test" said that the device could not be setup or tested because some other application was using it: but there was none.

I tried the fixes other people have, such as rolling back the driver to an earlier version (according to Device Manager), but that didn't fix the problem.  I tried de-installing the device, but it always came back with the same driver and the same problem of no sound.  When I try Update Driver it says I have the latest version.  They only fix I could find was to use System Restore to roll back to the restore point I had created before installing Catalyst.

I've seen a web article that said to install Adrenalin using a custom install to only update the drivers I want. This was an article about installing only the audio driver, but I would want to install everything EXCEPT the audio driver. However, my system is apparently too old to use Adrenalin at all.

Could this be done with Catalyst? I don't remember being given an opportunity to select what Catalyst installs.  Alternatively, is there another way to update just the graphics / video software and leave the audio driver alone? Or, is there a way to manually get the AMD HDMI audio device to use the current Windows Driver?  As far as I can tell from going through this discussion, the fixes that worked for others didn't work when I tried them, but I'm open to any suggestions.

 

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