Sound device randomly disappears

Question

My sound device disappears randomly after last BIOS update. Windows says 'no sound device installed' and sound mixer has a red cross. Latest driver  from Dell for Audio is installed. Also tried the workaround to select 'High Definition Audio' as driver for the Intel SST Audio Device. Worked once, but randomly the sound disappears and in the meanwhile, the trick with SST switch to HD Audio won't work anymore. So, sound is gone completely ...wwhats is wrong with this ? Never ever had a poor product like this. Every startup new surprises and annoying stuff.

filbert · Answer

My inclination would be to uninstall the driver(s) and any related software, reboot and reinstall.

JimPanse · Answer

i already did ... no realtek stuff in the software secion, already deinstalled the sst device with 'remove also drivers' option ... no change

JimPanse · Answer

The sound came back suddenly today morning whit the Intel SST Device (not the windows default HD Audio), but any bet, the sound will disappear the next days again. Currently its the driver version 10.23.0.2427 from 22.02.2019 ... seems there is no newer version available on Dell download page.

What i also noticed the last time: on every restart the Notebook boots twice: First, Dell Logo, after this the message "Thunderbolt PCI-E enumeration mode has switched to native". Then reboot, dell logo and normal boot. Also tried to enable and disable auto switch mode in BIOS, no change at all ... i think, the BIOS update introduced all this issues. It is so annoying. whenever there is a update available from Dell, nothing is working as before anymore.

JimPanse · Answer

I've been glad too early. Sound worked 5 minutes, then the mixer still detected the audio device but no sound at all. After restart -> no sound device detected again ...

Error on SST sound device:

Beim Start des Geräts PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A348&SUBSYS_087C1028&REV_10\3&11583659&0&FB ist ein Problem aufgetreten.

Treibername: oem6.inf
Klassen-GUID: {4d36e97d-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Dienst: IntcAudioBus
Untere Filter:
Obere Filter:
Problem: 0x15
Problemstatus: 0x0

JimPanse · Answer

Okay, tried to revert 1.25 BIOS to 1.23 or so to rule out this as a reason ... does fail for any reason, further infos not provied ... windows automatically installing 1.25 again ... driver isn't an issue and annoying thunderbolt message will not disappear.

Also i tried thunderbolt firmware update. Also fails without any additional info. Spent whole sunday without a working machine in the end.

I think i will drop this piece of scrap on monday and will consider a working device from another vendors . I never ever thought a product of 2000 EUR can be that worse, but never say never ...

JimPanse · Answer

Sound reappears today morning, worked for 5 minutes and is gone again. Seems its an hardware issue probably showing with increasing heat when starting up the machine. Anyway, will qualify the device for the trashcan. By by Dell ... by by money ...

I.M.Retired · Answer

VERY OLD TOPIC but I suddenly over the last few weeks began having the same issue. Audio Device Unavailble on XPS 13 9370. The laptop has been working flawlessly for years. It has never left my desk!

I have totally removed Win 11 and did a clean install. same problem. Now I am trying to go back to WIN10 just for the heck of it.

All clean installs. Beginning to think it may be a hard drive issue. It's driving me nuts. There also seems to be a VERY LARGE amount of users all over the web with the same issue.

I.M.Retired · Answer

Just to add.  Going into CMOS and resetting 'AUDIO DEVICES' off then on gets sound back for 5 minutes then it goes away again both in WIN10 and WIN11.  I also noticed there was a bios update 11/23 which may be when this all started.  Sound 'works' to the extent you can see the level bars moving but nothing comes out of the speakers.

athm99 · Answer

@I.M.Retired​ Have you figured this out?  i lost my sound, updated my drivers on Wednesday, and sound worked.  I just lost sound this morning.

BillRPA · Answer

@athm99 , @I.M.Retired ,

Same issue here on a Dell 9440 2-in-1. Seems to have started with Windows Update updates on 5/9. I've tried all updates and combinations of installing/uninstalling, etc. yet the issue persists.

zmortensen · Answer

@BillRPA​ having the same issue on the 9440 2-in-1 starting today; was on a Teams call, everything fine, then went to join the next call, 'No audio device is installed'

mim100 · Answer

same issue here, this time with a brand new laptop m16 r2, i reinstalled completely the realtek high definition audio driver and now everything seems fine for a couple of hours, by reading everything it seems that the problem is a BIOS update problem since my problem appeared the second i did an update. Will anyone ever find a solution ? it might be related to bad electric wires if there's no virtual solution ...

WhyAreLaptopsSoBadin2025 · Answer

The horror story continues.

For me, audio works the first few hours after a restart, and then the audio device pretty regularly disappears after that. Restarting brings it back, only for the cycle to continue.

Reading the comments here, it sounds like a BIOS rollback would be the only thing that could maybe fix this.

WhyAreLaptopsSoBadin2025 · Answer

I should specify that mine is a Dell XPS 17' 9710.

I.M.Retired · Answer

This is what finally drove me to Apple after over 40 years as a PC person.  Now 100% Apple and Windows 11 runs even better than on a WIN device under Parallels.   I ended up selling my Dell XPS 13 9370 after this started 'as-is' on eBay.

XPS

Sound device randomly disappears

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