Sound card not seen in 32 bit upgrade, seen in 64 bit clean install

Hi, after I upgraded from Win 8.1,
1. Ashampoo programs would not find my (Conexant SmartAudio 221) sound card
- Ashampoo looking into this promising a fix after diagnostics - but for weeks now.
2. Audacity would not run beyond v 2.03 (which is reported by others on their forum).

That was 32 bits.

I tried a clean install, 64 bits, and to my surprise, no problem with Ashampoo progs or Audacity 2.1.1.

I'll be using my 32 bit installation whilst I slowly configure the 64 bit version for quite a while.

Other than clean booting, and trying to identify possible conflicts, is there any more specific area I could look at?
I have quite a lot of multimedia programs installed.
Thanks.

I would try asking Ashampoo, if they made any progress or if they needed more information to help you.

For the multimedia programs, just try, if they are working or if they are not. Should one program not be working for you, it might also be helpful to google them to see, if they are working for others and if so, how they made them work.

Hi, thanks, it's been weeks- months- since I raised this with Ashampoo and I ran several diagnostic programs they sent me.
All other ( and I have a good many) programs have no problems with sound - Aiseesoft to Zoom Player.

So I'm curious to know what diagnostic action I might take (beside a clean boot) to identify
- whether sthg is interfering (another driver e.g.)
- or whether it's a 32 bit issue alone

Note: I've tried exactly the same installer for one Ashampoo program for 64 bit OS as used originally on Win 8.1 for the 32 bit installation.

Possible cause: the audio driver was deemed old from Windows Setup and changing it to a generic driver that wasn't 100% compatible caused the issue. That is for the 32-bit upgrade. In 64-bit, there was no driver installed and the one used by Windows just worked. Try updating/reinstalling the audio driver in 32-bit and it should work. Also try to reinstall Ashampoo.

Hi, thanks, but the driver is exactly the same (v4.58.1 2008) version in both cases. There is no later available driver- Conexant HD Smart Audio 221. (The laptop originally came with Vista).
Win 10 hasn't done anything clever or unexpected with the sound card driver.
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Ashampoo software (32 bits) - even a later version. 3 programs affected.

So I'm left with (in the 32 bit case)
a. some conflict - it was an upgrade, lots installed
or
b. some difference between 32 bit and 64 bit operation