Acer Aspire A515-54 "No Output Audio Device is installed". Factory Reset did not help!

Dear all

My Acer Aspire 5 has lost sound after Windows 10 update in late August 2021.
Factory reset did not help!
"No Output Audio Device is installed" is displayed next to the speaker icon with a cross.
Nothing is listed in the input or output devices in my sound settings.

My Acer laptop info here:
Windows 10 x64, Acer Aspire A515-54, Model N18Q13

Factory reset via Acer care center did not fix it!
I think windows 10's "Factory reset" is not a real "Factory reset" as
it automatically incorporated new windows security fixes, which I think are breaking the build-in Realtek audio.

The funny thing is that I can sometimes get the audio to work in the middle of re-installing the
Realtek sound driver downloaded from the Acer support site! Yes, it will play full sound during the middle
of the install as long as I do not reboot. The speaker is dead again after reboot! This is somewhat repeatable and it looks like the
audio hardware is not damaged.
It appears that somehow the Realtek driver is not working well with the new Windows 10 update. (August 2021)

In addition, an external USB audio adapter would work and a BlueTooth speaker would also work.

Please help!

Thank you so much!

Accepted answers

JackE

I didn't expect it to fix the sound, just eliminate another variable in which RAM is not fully cleared on shutdown and the BIOS is bypassed. Keep it in the slow start state until we're done troubleshooting.

I'm still not convinced of a hardware problem due to Control Panel's Device Manager results indicating driver issues, not hardware issues. I find Device Manager detection is more reliable than Settings. With that said, have you downloarded and tried any freeware driver tools like iobit's DriverBooster to see if they pick up any better drivers on line?

John91836

Wowwwwwwww! The sound is back! You are amazing, Jack E!!!
I am so lucky to have run into you!

I have rebooted the laptop 4 times from full shut down and the sound is staying put.

What I did were as follows:
1) Installed and ran Intel Driver and Support Assistant
-updated the graphics driver
-still no sound
2) Installed iobit's DriverBooster and updated only the Realtek sound driver and the Intel SST driver.
-Voila! The sound is back!! Can't believe a driver problem is not fixed by a factory reset!
It appeared so much like a hardware problem and it is an eye-opener for me!
3) Created a system restore point while sound is working

The only problem now I can see is that the cold boot-up time is unusually long! 5 minutes maybe!
I then turned on fast-boot again and it came down to 2 minutes perhaps! It is still too long I think with an SSD!

Somehow the Intel SST driver is still shown broken but I don't really care if the sound is working now!

Should I go ahead and update the other 10+ drivers suggested by the wonderful DriverBooster?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/c8/akwxm3cv0h4y.png

All comments

JackE

Shut down Windows normally. Unplug charger. Insert paperclip into reset pinhole on bottom for 60 seconds. Plug charger back in. Test again.

John91836

Thank you Jack E for your advice! Yes, I forgot to mention that I had tried the paperclip trick before
for about 30 seconds. After I saw your post, I went back and held down the paperclip for 120 seconds just
to make sure! Unfortunately, the sound problems remained.
Then I re-installed the RealTek driver once again. Nothing!

Not only was the speaker not detected, but the built-in mic was also not detected! No devices except my bluetooth speaker (Dining room speaker)
showed up in the "sound settings".

Another clue I have noticed is that the reboot time of the laptop has got much slower after I got this audio problem.

Look at the device manager, an Intel SST OED device seemed not working. (pic attached)

Deleting this device and the SST audio controller did not help. The Intel driver support assistant quickly asked me to
update the driver and I did. Same problem (exclamation mark) after the update.

Any more ideas I would gladly try!

Thank you once again!

JackE

>>>Factory reset via Acer care center did not fix it! >>>

Open Control Panel. Search 'restore point'. Click 'create a restore point'. Is SystemProtection turned on in the box that pops up? If yes, how long ago did you do this factory reset?

John91836

Oh yes, thanks for asking, Jack. I forgot to mention I did perform a system restore after I got this audio problem around and after Aug 27, 2021. It took me all the way back to Aug 15, 2021, but it did not fix the problem!! Then I performed a factory reset on Aug 31, 2021. Did not fix it!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/dg/6gc9crvdz1ps.png

John91836

the speaker icon should show a cross, if my bluetooth speaker (Dinning room speaker) is not attached. My apology for the confusion.

JackE

Yes I understand. But I still need to know if SystemProtection was turned on IMMEDIATELY after you did the ACER factory reset?

John91836

"But I still need to know if SystemProtection was turned on IMMEDIATELY after you did the ACER factory reset?"

That I really don't know. Honestly I didn't do anything to the SystemProtection when it was reset.

Just checked on the system protection status and it is on with drive C. Seemed like it was turned on automatically.
It only showed one restore point which is "Windows update" on Sept 4, 2021.

I suppose I could re-do the factory reset to find out if needed.

John91836

device manager view

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/w3/lqoi95lb1r8i.png

JackE

Arguably the best way to rule in or rule out a hardware problem (which is unlikely) is an ALT+F10 cold boot erase-everything factory reset completely outside of the Windows environment & the AcerCareCtr app. Then IMMEDIATELY checking that the audio hardware is indeed recognized and that SystemProtection is turned on BEFORE any errant Windows updates can mess things up again.

John91836

Thanks once again for your advice, Jack E. I can try the Alt+F10 cold boot factory reset.
Do you have a step-by-step procedure? Do I need to download win10 in advance in order to bypass the acercare?
How do I keep the windows license?

JackE

(1) Shut down machine normally.

(2) Turn it back on and immediately press and hold the ALT key while tapping the F10 key.

(3) A menu should appear that looks like the same menu used with the AcerCareCtr inside the Windows environment.

(4) Choose the erase-everything factory reset option. It should retrieve and install the original factory ACER OEM Win10 installation from a hidden partition on the boot drive.

(5) If successful, immediately check to make sure SystemProtection is turned on in ControlPanel's restore point app since the original factory installation default may be turned off.

(6) See if audio hardware is detected. If it is detected, it will probably disappear again with an errant update which we can hopefully identify with the restore point app. Then we can remove the update and temporarily block it from being re-installed until a future update fixes it.

John91836

Thank you, Jack E once again for the detailed instructions! Let me make some backup and give that a try. Sounds easy enough.

John91836

Bad news! The audio is broken right after factory reset using the alt-F10 method.
I picked Local Install option (install from this computer)

However, it asked me for internet connection during Windows install and I had to setup wifi before it
can move forward. It was still possible that Windows got some updates before it started the first time.
Not sure.
It would be ideal if I could factory reset the Acer without connecting to the internet!

Anyway, I turned on system protection on C drive immediately.

What should I do next?

Thanks for your patience, Jack E!

John91836

BTW, I did the alt-F10 reset twice just in case I missed something. Same results.

100laptops

hi there
i think that the built in drivers are never crashed but you must should have some miss use or virus attack.
https://100laptops.com/ for more details.

JackE

Please post a screenshot of DeviceManager again with sshow hidden devices checked in the View tab.

John91836

Here are the screenshots:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/pv/etnl0aj9z9c0.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/p2/kj7lcctcxo9w.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/xi/ieqv782ovizn.png

JackE

Sorry. All I need to see is DeviceManager as it opens, not expanded but with show hidden devices checked in the View tab. At first blush, I'm not seeing any red hardware or yellow driver warnings or even that Realtek audio hardware is missing.