No Audio Output Device is installed

system · 2017-02-15T10:32:34.000Z

Hi,

I don’t know what’s going on here. My sound was fine, but my computer hung up after a network glitch while accessing a network drive. On restart the sound icon has a red x and a message ‘No Audio Output Device is installed’.

I went back to the recovery point which amazingly was just the day before, but the fault still occurs.

I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers many times to no avail.

My virus scans appear clean including the malwarebytes one I’ve just done.

Eddy · 2017-02-15T10:49:41.000Z

What OS/SP ?
Is it a soundcard or onboard ?
How did you removed the drivers ?
Any error(s) in device manager ?

system · 2017-02-15T11:05:01.000Z

Ah yes, not enough detail!

It’s a Compaq Presario CQ61 laptop running Windows 7 SP1

Device manager shows errors on the High Definintion Audio devices with message:-
‘Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)’

I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers using Windows and also HP.

It’s onboard.

Eddy · 2017-02-15T11:27:24.000Z

Delete the drivers and do a thorough cleanup of the registry.
See if that is solving the problem.

system · 2017-02-15T13:19:36.000Z

Hmm! How do I do a thorough cleanup of the registry?

Eddy · 2017-02-15T13:27:14.000Z

CCleaner is doing a pretty decent job.
Don’t know if it will be enough though, but give it a try.
Run the scan for registry issues multiple times till nothing is found anymore.
After each scan, have CCleaner fix the things.
When nothing more is found, reboot and run CCleaner again.

system · 2017-02-15T17:57:54.000Z

Oh, I’m very nervous about doing this.

Eddy · 2017-02-15T18:02:16.000Z

Don’t be, it is only software not a pacemaker

system · 2017-02-15T18:31:41.000Z

I’ve run CCleaner and restarted, but it’s made no difference.

Eddy · 2017-02-15T19:07:24.000Z

This was only the start.
If you run CCleaner (registry scan), does it still find things ?

If not, get and run Farbar and attach the logs (FRST.txt and Addition.txt) to your next post.

system · 2017-02-16T01:54:29.000Z

I’ve reinstalled Windows and the problem is sorted!!!

Eddy · 2017-02-16T08:47:43.000Z

A bit drastic and it wasn’t needed.

system · 2017-02-16T09:39:04.000Z

Well, CCleaner didn’t sort it out. It works now!

system · 2017-02-16T09:48:32.000Z

I’m really nervous about registry cleaners and if that was the problem why didn’t going to a recovery point sort it out?

Eddy · 2017-02-16T09:54:12.000Z

CCleaner is safe to use.
In all the years I’m using, I’ve never seen it screw up.

Only a limited amount of things is kept in a restore point.
If you want a real good “restore point”, create a image of a good working system.

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