Sound - speakers/headphones - stopped working on ASUS laptop

With no intervening "event" - no new hardware or software or drivers installed Following the installation of a Cisco VPN client, the sound stopped working on my ASUS laptop.

There is a red X over the speaker icon at the bottom right of the computer. Mousing over the icon, one sees "no speakers or headphones are plugged in."

The computer had Conexant audio, plus AMD hi-def audio (I don't have the computer with me now, so this could be an inexact listing).

First thing I tried was to update the drivers, but both were up to date. I then uninstalled the Conexant via the device manager and restarted. Upon restart, the red X was gone, but I was still not getting sound. I could adjust the sound properties by clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray, but there was still no sound.

I believe I tried this again, and upon restart, the Conexant was gone from Device Manager, leaving just the AMD hi-def. I tried changing the driver for this to the generic Windows hi-def audio driver, but that didn't work.

I tried just about every trick I could google up:

• Download next drivers from AMD/ASUS/Conexant's sites
• Run sfc /scannow from an admin command prompt (everything was intact)
• Restart the sound services, and make sure they were on automatic start
• Seemingly a billion computer restarts
• Many I can't remember now

None have worked. And again, Conexant had been the default audio, then disappeared (why?). Now when I go to my "Sound" from the control property, AMD hi-def is the only thing showing in the playback tab, and it says "not plugged in" with a red down arrow next to it. The system tray speaker icon has a red X over it and left-clicking on it launches troubleshooting, which (un)helpfully tells me the sound isn't plugged in, after "churning and churning" for minutes.

The optical drive is the only thing I'm comfortable "opening up" on a laptop! Is there a chance that MAYBE something somehow DID become unplugged internally?

The only "bag of tricks" angle I've not tried is a system restore to four days ago, before this condition started.

Ideas?

Hi, system restore is the obvious way to go. (Time vs a fix). However that wouldn't explain why.
If that doesn't work, then could be you have a hardware problem.

Have a look at your Update History if you've not, and check nothing is listed in the timescale of interest.

Conexant had been the default audio, then disappeared (why?)

- Update History might explain that, assuming sthg went wrong.

Do you have that reinstalled again now?

Are there any yellow triangles visible in Device Manager?

I wonder if you have a lower level problem.. pci drivers perhaps...

Have you tried the Troubleshooter?


Something quite different that you could try:
Download, create and boot from Kyhi's very useful boot disk (from the top of the Software and Apps section here.
If you have sound then, that should eliminate hardware problems.

You are supposed to boot the Kyhi boot disk and manually test if you have sound in there. That would eliminate possible hardware or other connection issues. If sound works when booted from Kyhi disk, the issue is in you instance of Windows.

Hi, Update History- bottom link:


'that' - sorry, lost in editing the post- referred to Conexant driver

Kyhi's boot disk will give you a cut-down form of Win 10 with lots of utilities. So you can use it like Win 10 - don't forget its start menu- and try your speakers etc. As it's independent of what's on your internal disk, if there's a problem, it's not there.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
These instructions may help you to create a bootable drive- but of course, use Kyhi's iso.

If you simply copied the iso to the drive, that won't work.

Or if you have a DVD drive, burn it to a DVD.

See Option 2 using Rufus.