Win10 Anniversary update - no sound, driver problem or something else?

An update: the sound now seems to work for 5-10 mins on the Windows HD audio driver, then cuts out completely. However, if I put my laptop to sleep, then resume it, the sound comes back for another 5-10 mins before cutting out again.

The volume control works perfectly with no lag when the sound is working, but starts to lag to inputs when the sound cuts out.

Was the installation an upgrade or a clean install? Have you tried searching for another driver version, not necessarily on HP's website? Please give me HW ids

Usually a complete uninstall/reinstall of your audio software should solve these problems. Also, try the Troubleshooter at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Hardware and Sound.

Find the audio device in Device Manager and try auto-updating the driver from there.

Have you muted the sound output - silly but worth a mention?

I've tried all of the things you've mentioned: according to Windows, there's nothing wrong with the audio. I've totally uninstalled then reinstalled the driver countless times to no effect. I was under the assumption that some startup process might have been conflicting with the driver, so I booted Windows up in clean boot mode with only Windows services, still the sound cuts out almost immediately after startup.

It's worth mentioning that this problem occurs with both the IDT audio driver and Microsoft's generic HD audio driver, and that sometimes the audio works for longer periods of around 5 mins but ultimately cuts out again. When it does, the slow and laggy volume control and sound control panel occur, where before they were responsive and not laggy. Not sure what's going on here really.

At this point I would start suspecting a hardware problem or poor connection inside your laptop.Do you get audio OK from the headphone socket? If so, this means the sound chip on the motherboard is OK and you might be having problems with the speaker connection.

When the sound goes, it goes from both headphone jack and speakers. I have suspected that it might be hardware issue, but the reliability of which I can get sound back (briefly every time upon restart and resuming from sleep) made me think it was more likely a software issue?

When the sound goes off, does a gentle tap or shake of the PC bring it back (don't be too violent)? This is a well known engineering solution for diagnosing bad connections! You might also want to peruse the relevant HP Forum or post there to discover if there are known hardware problems specific to your laptop.

Tapping or shaking the laptop doesn't bring the sound back... I have noticed that this problem has been documented a few times on HP Forums, though none of the fixes described (usually just some variant on reinstalling the audio driver) have fixed my issue. Still not entirely convinced it's a hardware issue though. Thanks for your help so far!

It could still be a hardware issue. On the software front, you could try one of the driver cleaners recommended on this Forum to remove all traces of your sound drivers. Then install the latest W10 driver / utility for your laptop from HP.

Another trick would be to delete your sound device in Device Manager. Then reboot and let W10 find it and install the driver W10 chooses.