my acer notebook extensa 2508 has an audio problem

I bought my acer laptop 6 months back I tried to post my question to the acer contact service but they just responded with irrelevant links.
About 10 days ago I switched off my laptop as usual when I turned it on again the sound icon had x in it and it wrote no audio device installed, when I went to device manager, I clicked on sound video and game controllers and only high definition audio device was visible. I chose update and chose from my laptop browser, nothing happened still, so I clicked to the sound icon next to clock again and only wrote no headphones or speakers plugged in, what I did is to uninstall realtek from programs turned off the laptop when I turned it on again sound was there. As I thought everything was fixed I switched off at night in the morning sound gone again(no headphones or speakers plugged in). I wnt to the acer website downloaded all the drivers including realtek(windows 10 drivers as my laptop is windows 10) I installed them. Switched of my laptop and on the sound was the everything worked perfectly. Turned it off again when turning it on sound gone under sound, videos and game controllers only high definition audio appeared.
I'm really out of options your help will be appreciated

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IronFly

Do you have any antivirus installed?

TH1

To think of it I experienced the problem right after my avg anti-virus expired, and I considered the possibility that the problem might be caused by malware or virus so I quickly installed smadav antivirus it did full scan detected 1 virus and registry errors clean them. Right after that installed the drivers from acer website( all of them) it did work after switching it off it went back to square one (no headphones or speakers installed) realtek did not appeare from sound, video and game controllers. Seems like my laptop sets itself after switching it off or something

IronFly

uninstall any third party antivirus and don't let any application fix or erase thing on windows registry, this probably corrupted the Realtek installation.

please use windows antivirus (integrated on windows 8 and 10).

at this point....uninstall Audio drivers from windows programs and features, reboot and re-install it.

TH1

So should I uninstall smadav and use windows defender only?

IronFly

Yes!

TH1

Thanks for your time, much appreciated. Will let you know how it goes.

IronFly

You welcome.

TH1

I don't know what causes this sound instability yesterday I did as you said uninstalled smadav antivirus when I tried to uninstall realtek cardreader and realtek high definition driver from programs and features they would not uninstall, just an error message "an error (-5005: 0x8000ffff) has occured while running the setup. Please make sure you have finished any previous setup and closed applications. If the error still occurs, please contact your vendor. Realtek semiconducter corp". so I shut down my laptop and turned it on after this error the audio was there, I watched movies listened to music I had no problem. In the morning when I turn on my laptop there was a crackling noise coming out of the speaker but sound gone. I really don't know now sir.

TH1

I just did the soft reset, it reinstalled my windows but still no sound, installed the sound drivers no sound. I ran dxdiag, and the notes for sound there were " no sound card found . If one is expected, you should install a sound driver provided by the hardware manufacture". How so? Cause I just installed all the drivers from acer website

IronFly

open device manager

click on View and choose Show hidden devices

check if any yellow exclamation mark is present

also check if any sound card is present

if both question are negative, give Acer support service a call, i think you have an hardware issue.

TH1

Thank you for your prompt response, I tried what you suggested, after showing hidden icons did not even see realtek under sound, video and game controllers. will definitely give the support service a call. Out of interest would you recommend laptop reset to the windows that came with laptop(8.1) ?

IronFly

yes, a reset can be a good choice since you mentioned a registry editing, so this can fix that issue.

TH1

Which reset do you recommend: Keep my files; Remove everything; restore factory settings(removes everything and reinstalls the version of windows that came on this pc)...

IronFly

you can do "keep my files" but if you don't have a lot of personal data, i would prefer to backup them to an Flash drive and remove everything.

TH1

I did the reset, " keep my files" and it didn't solve the audio problem. The problem seem to be the realtek audio driver not incorporating well in my laptop system because I also installed realtek card reader and it does show under universal serial bus controller controller

IronFly

no more ideas, sorry.

TH1

I found a temporary fix by uninstalling high definition audio controllers under system in device managers the install realtek audio driver switched it off and on and the sound works but when I keep the laptop on sleep for about 7 hours sound goes off againt(no speakers or headphones plugged in) when I switch it off then sound goes off quicker maybe an hour. I called the acer service centre I was told to book in for hardware diagnosis. Thanks for your patience and time.