Windows 8.1 Pro N "No audio devices are installed"

Sininini

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Jan 25, 2015
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4,510
I had this same issue with Win 8.1 Pro N about year ago as well and I somehow fixed it, but I can't recall what I did at all besides that it was big headache to figure out. Now yesterday since I got a SSD I installed Windows again and that problem is back.

What I checked first:
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Nothing to see here...

Then I tried troubleshooter:
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"Hardware changes might not have been detected"
That's not very useful

Let's check out Device Manager:
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Shouldn't it be in sound devices category with some other entries? I have that category missing altogether.

Properties:
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"This device cannot start (Code 10)"
I tried uninstalling drivers and restarting many times already

Let's let Windows search for new drivers:
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Outside of that I've tried to install two different versions of Realtek driver packages. Multiple times. One from Asus site that's latest for this particular laptop but officially has support only up to Win7. (I had that driver before so it works with 8.1) and other is from Realtek site that officially supports Win8.1 as well. No success.

I even restored BIOS factory settings even though there aren't any sound related settings there.

Windows Audio service is running. Checked that.

I re-installed Windows 3 times. One of them was just old Win 8 Pro with no updates included, second was latest Win 10 preview, and finally I installed Win 8.1 Pro N back. None of them had working audio.

Windows 7 didn't have that issue and I know that my hardware is fine because everything works under Ubuntu.

I hope I posted this in correct section because I had multiple candidates.
 

Sininini

Reputable
Jan 25, 2015
2
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4,510

I actually only now noticed that they both deleted almost everything in program files/realtek/drivers/ folder after finishing installation.


It has to do something with Windows. Realtek drivers don't install properly and Win should be able to use sound card no matter what with its generic drivers.