Windows 10 Upgrade Killed Headphone Jack Connection, Then I Uninstalled All Audio

Hi, 

Make sure your system is running the latest Bios version, click here for the download link (this Bios is for the Alienware 15 R2, if you have the R1 click here). Go to Device Manager and uninstall all of the audio drivers that you show under sound, video and game controllers, then restart the system. When it boots back up, install this driver and test the audio to confirm it works again.

I clicked through to the 2nd BIOS update link and that was the one that was correct, and it has now been installed successfully... thank you for that advice!

I then deleted everything from sound, video, game controllers in device manager.

After installing and restarting, now the new driver is listed there...

but it's still reading no audio output devices and there's no sound...

what to do next? i tried clicking update driver and check for problems...

Hi, 

Right click on the speaker/audio icon on the taskbar and select Playback Devices, what do you show for the default device?

Thank you for the reply.

It says no audio playback devices installed.

I have also continued to select which driver update the device manager should use, and have also attempted to utilize the original high definition audio device option too.

When I run the soundcard diagnostics check the below message is shown when the test does not successfully complete.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Home/Index/SoundCard 

We are unable to find the selected device. The device driver for your selected diagnostic is either not installed or installed incorrectly. Please ensure your device is enabled through your device manager or go to Drivers and Downloads to install the latest driver.

2015-11-15 09:13:37, Info CSI 00000cd9 [DIRSD OWNER WARNING] Directory [ml:80{40},l:78{39}]"\??\C:\WINDOWS\diagnostics\system\Audio" is not owned but specifies SDDL in component Microsoft-Windows-AudioDiagnostic, pA = amd64, nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

2015-11-15 09:13:21, Info CSI 00000bee [DIRSD OWNER WARNING] Directory [ml:92{46},l:90{45}]"\??\C:\WINDOWS\diagnostics\system\Audio\en-US" is not owned but specifies SDDL in component Microsoft-Windows-AudioDiagnostic.Resources, pA = amd64, Culture = [l:10{5}]"en-US", nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

This is from the diagnostic check on sfc /scannow

I have also continued to select which driver update the device manager should use, and have also attempted to utilize the original high definition audio device option too.

When I run the soundcard diagnostics check the below message is shown when the test does not successfully complete.

;

We are unable to find the selected device. The device driver for your selected diagnostic is either not installed or installed incorrectly. Please ensure your device is enabled through your device manager or go to Drivers and Downloads to install the latest driver.

still no sound

Hi,

Can you post a screenshot of what you show under sound, video and game controllers in Device Manager?

Hi,

Thanks for providing the screenshot. If you show something regarding Sound Blaster on the Programs and Features list, please uninstall it. Also uninstall the Sound Blaster driver from Device Manager again. Restart the system and install this driver. Let me know how it goes.

Though I'd likely have to uninstall all of the other options to get it to show in the list, and it has definitely previously been included there before, the recommended july update did not repair this problem.

There's a reason why majority, if not all, power users recommend a clean install following an upgrade... previous OS drivers are not compatible with the new OS.  

• The problem with running an upgraded OS is it's about 75% new OS, 25% old OS.
  •  All the Windows 8 drivers and their system files and dll's are copied from the Windows 8 Windows directory to the Windows 10 Windows directory.  
  • It's impossible to track them down since most have been renamed to oemXX (where XX is representative of numbers).
• All users running upgraded Windows 10 installs are running Windows 10 with incompatible Windows 8 drivers installed, of which is the cause of majority of the issues end users are having with Windows 10.

While you can manually uninstall all Windows 8 system drivers, you're now left with a conundrum since the Windows 10 versions of those drivers not only must be installed in a very specific order, they must be installed prior to installing Windows Updates or other applications.  

I uninstalled from programs and features. both the soundblaster and soundblaster extra was listed, and both were uninstalled by uninstalling one of them. sound devices were also removed from device manager with uninstall from programs and features.

when the cpu restarted, the soundblaster pack was again listed in device manager, but not in programs and features.

if, before updating and installing new drivers, i am to delete sound blaster from device manager first, do i also click this box to uninstall software as well??

Yes.  That box causes the installation infs to be deleted as well, ensuring when you reboot or scan for hardware changes, it doesn't install the version you're trying to get rid of .  If Windows has generic drivers for the specific hardware, it will install those instead.  if not, the hardware should show up with a yellow question mark.

Once you uninstall from from programs and device manager, reboot the PC, and then install the new drivers.

i uninstalled everything and restarted

then installed and restarted

which drive to choose to update? i chose newest july release.

nothing works

here is updated current situation

There's a reason why majority, if not all, power users recommend a clean install following an upgrade... previous OS drivers are not compatible with the new OS.   The problem with running an upgraded OS is it's about 75% new OS, 25% old OS.  All the Windows 8 drivers and their system files and dll's are copied from the Windows 8 Windows directory to the Windows 10 Windows directory.   It's impossible to track them down since most have been renamed to oemXX (where XX is representative of numbers). All users running upgraded Windows 10 installs are running Windows 10 with incompatible Windows 8 drivers installed, of which is the cause of majority of the issues end users are having with Windows 10. While you can manually uninstall all Windows 8 system drivers, you're now left with a conundrum since the Windows 10 versions of those drivers not only must be installed in a very specific order, they must be installed prior to installing Windows Updates or other applications.

Please clarify if you're installing the drivers per a driver application package and are using the second window to provide the version information for the driver you installed, or are you using device manager to install drivers from Windows' driver store?