No sound after Windows 10 update? Here's the solution.

Thousands of people over the world have reported problems with Windows 10 operating system especially with Microsoft rolling out these updates for free for the older PCs/Laptops running Windows 7. All of these problems have their roots in the older driver softwares that interface the peripherals like speakers, display, touchpad(mousepad), card reader etc. not being compatible with the features offered by Windows 10.

Coming to our main problem, people having Conexant SmartAudio HD driver as their main sound driver in HP and Dell laptops, faced this problem the most.

I have 2 solutions for this, first is extremely simple with some tweaks to the sound properties and the second one is for slightly advanced users with uninstalling faulty drivers and installing new ones.

Solution 1: Disable sound enhancements.

Step 1: Right Click the sound button on the bottom right of your task bar. Select 'Playback Devices'.

Step 2: Right click on your default speakers which will read 'Conexant SmartAudio HD Device' and select 'Properties'.

Step 3: Select 'Disable All Enhancements' and click 'Apply'

Your sound will be back! However this is with compromise in loudness of sound, since you disable the Bass Management, Virtual Surround and Loudness Equalization. Second solutions helps you keep these settings and turn your sound on,

Solution 2: Install Conexant Driver given by Lenovo for Windows 10.

This solution was posted by 'Darkbreeze' on the 'tom's GUIDE' Forums and is reported to be working by several users. Thanks a million to him! :)
Link - Darkbreeze's answer on tom's GUIDE.

Step 1: Download the Conexant Drivers from Lenovo from this link. download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles/audio143w81.exe


Step 2: Hit Windows + X key (only for Windows 8/8.1/10) and select 'Device Manager'.  Right click on 'Speakers' and select 'Properties'.

Step 3: Go into the 'Driver' tab and click 'Uninstall'. Do this for all the audio devices ('Internal Microphone' in my case as shown in screenshot).

Step 4: Install the driver you downloaded from Lenovo. Restart your laptop.

Your sound will be back with all the enhancements! :)

How to check Windows product key(BIOS injected and normal).

The laptops/branded PCs sold after 2010-11 started to not have the Windows product key sticker if it came pre-installed. This is because while manufacturing the product key was injected into the BIOS itself, so that people would not lose it and while installing the OS it would detect it automatically from BIOS and not ask the user. The contrary has happened.

This started to create problems for advanced users who keep installing different OS and replace the pre-installed one. If they did not note down the product key, then it would cause problems while re-installing the original OS if they did not have the DVD of the same Windows version as a different version of other build number does not accept that product key even if edition of Windows is same.

This recently happened to one of friends who lost her Windows Activation as she hadn't noted the key. We did some research and managed to bring it back.

Solution 1 : For BIOS injected product key.

Step 1: Go to rweverything.com and download their free software

Step 2: Install software by running the 'SetupRW.exe' file inside the zip folder. Start the application after installing.

Step 3: Click on 'ACPI Tables' and a dialog will be displayed within the app.

Step 4: Select 'MSDM' in this dialog and your bios data will be displayed with the injected product key written on the last line and beside the hex values as shown. I have blurred out my key for security reasons.

Solution 2 : If you are running pre-installed OS and just want to check keys

Step 1: Anywhere on the desktop or other drives right click and select 'New' and 'Text Document'. This will open up notepad.

Step 2: Paste the following in the notepad.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 Step 3: Save it and close. Change the extension from '.txt. to '.vbs'. If you double click this it will run as a Visual Basic Script file identified by Windows itself and you will see the product key from the Registry. This is the product key of your current OS and NOT your BIOS injected key.

If you are running the pre-installed version of Windows then the BIOS injected and VB Script product keys will be same.

However once you update to Windows 8.1 or 10 it will change as Microsoft gives a new product key for a different version of Windows.

As I have shown here the pre-installed Windows 8 product key in BIOS and updated Windows 10 key is different! Look at the starting and ending characters.