Alienware 15 (2015) no sound through HDMI since fresh install

Hello,
Long story short, due to an issue in driver compatibility, namely intel thermal management from Dell and Windows 10, I got stuck in a BSOD loop. Eventually I gave up on trying to recover the system and deleting the conflicting drivers, I did a fresh install of W10.

Now, I have almost everything working, and I blocked the installation of Intel thermal management from Dell.

However, the real fun part begins here, I cannot get the sound out of the TV hooked up through HDMI cable (consistently). Headphone jacks work, built-in speakers work.

Before the fresh-install I didn't have any issues like this. I always had consistent sound coming out of the TV on demand when I changed the default sound device from the speakers to the TV.

I tried re-installing the drivers, deleting the drivers related to sound, and re-installed using the drivers from Dell's website. Once a while, I randomly get sound from the TV and I can't explain why or how and when I reboot, the sound from TV is then gone. I did also try to restart the Windows audio from services.

According to dxdiag, the sound hardware that I am having trouble with is : hdaudio\func_01&ven_8086&dev_2807&subsys_80860101&rev_1000

I also posted at Windows 10 forums https://www.tenforums.com/sound-aud...ndows-10-producing-sound-but-no-sound-tv.html

Also to give you an idea, when I test the sound through the "sound" options from Windows, the driver is sending sound but I hear nothing. I should also add that the TV sound and HDMI cables are just fine as it works with other computers without an issue.

I could really use some help here because it's driving me crazy.
Thanks.

 

Just to fill my curiosity, I tried thunderbolt, same result. However the TV sound works fine with other computers.

 

I found a "fix", I am testing whether it works consistently or not. It's a very weird sequence:

1. Open the "Sound" option.
2. Get to "Playback" tab.
3. Go to properties of the TV connected through HDMI.
4. Go to Advaced tab.
5. Restore Defaults then apply.
6. Change the default format to 16bit, 44.1kHz then test.
7. Change the default format to 16bit, 32kHz then test.
8. TV miraculously makes sound. Hit apply and close all options.

So far this survived one reboot. I will consider this solved if it survives more than 10 without me having to go through this again.

This is so strange, what could cause this?

 

Playing with input frequency is not a permanent solution, it stops producing sound while booted.

 

New discovery, if I am watching a video on youtube, and a new video starts after the one that I am watching, the sound on HDMI goes out. However if I quickly switch to headphones then back to HDMI, the sound on HDMI works again. Any clues?

 

Does your laptop have Optimus?

 

Yep with GTX 970m with latest driver from Nvidia. I also narrowed down the issue to some sort of permission issue.

Sound on HDMI works when using 32kHz until I need to do anything requiring admin permission. Then the HDMI sound goes out until reboot.

 

On the Nvidia control panel, does it show the HDMI port with the dGPU or the iGPU? If I'm not mistaken, the HDMI should pass from the dGPU, which means you have a driver issue. When you installed your Nvidia driver, did you use the express or custom option and are you familiar with DDU?

 

on the control panel, HDMI is set to "automatic" and device manager shows that the HDMI is ported through Intel iGPU+associated audio.

As for installing Nvidia drivers, I typically use express option and I am not familiar with DDU. I typically use device manager for driver management.

 

I highly recommend NEVER using the express option. I've found that anytime I've had a problem with my GPU drivers, it was because I used the express option.

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

That's a driver uninstaller utility that needs to be run from safe mode. It will obliterate all traces of the installed driver and allow you to do a true "clean install" of the driver. This removes any chance of an old registry setting or errant .dll causing issues.

If your HDMI routes through the iGPU, you need to update your Intel iGPU drivers too.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/80939/Graphics

 

Honestly, I have zero problems with the Nvidia card right now. Regarding updating the iGPU, there's an issue. Basically driver from Intel refuses install because it detects the existing Alienware driver for Intel GPU and refuses to install the newer driver from Intel because it thinks I should only use manufacturer's driver.

 

This indicates a problem with the Nvidia driver because it shouldn't block the Intel driver.

 

You misunderstood. Intel GPU driver from Intel refuses install because it detects Intel GPU driver from Dell. Nothing to do with Nvidia driver...

 

To be clear with you I am attaching a screenshot of how my TV is set up through the "AAA" and how the Intel iGPU driver from Intel refuses to install all in one

 

You may have had a point with the clean install of Intel driver with the latest one. I just tried deleting all Intel iGPU/Audio drivers with internet off and force-installed Intel's GPU driver from 2020 and it locked the HDMI sound to 32kHZ, 16 bit and seemed to work well.

Until I re-plugged internet then Windows decided to auto downgrade to 2017 driver.

I need to somehow the lock the new driver. I did so for now uding "roll back drivers" feature in device manager. I am going to test the driver from 2020 and report back if it "fixed" the problem.

 

Unfortunately, the clean install with the newest 2020 driver didn't solve the problem.

I think this is some sort of permission issues through Windows 10.

 

Okay, this time I used DDU to uninstall EVERYTHING, Nvidia and Intel alike GPU drivers AND the sound card drivers using DDU and re-installe everything with internet off. Let's see how it goes.

 

Clean installing following DDU to delete everything didn't work

In addition, now my device manager has "NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)" now.

 

And this is on the older AW15? The thicc boi, right? I have one and never came across this problem. All this happened after a clean Windows install. This must be something in 20H1 version (I'm assuming that's what you installed). Dude, I'm stumped.

 

Yep, the 2015, AW 15 without the revision "R".

Yeah... The HDMI sound works fine on the Linux side. It must be something Windows 10. I am stumped too. I've never had this happened to any other machine.

One funky detail is that I still have an "Unknown" driver for PCI Data Acquisition and Signal Processing Controller (PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C03&SUBSYS_06851028&REV_06
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C03&SUBSYS_06851028
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C03&CC_118000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C03&CC_1180)
without a driver, this seems to be a consequence from the wrong Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Manager.
(PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C04&SUBSYS_06851028&REV_06
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C04&SUBSYS_06851028
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C04&CC_060000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0C04&CC_0600)
Windows 10 somehow mismatched this with Intel Xenon processor DRAM and PCIE controller.

If I install the proper Dell/Alienware's version I get a BSOD loop. If I somehow manage to downgrade to Alienware's version, W10 sneakily "updates" to this driver and sends me to another BSOD loop. That was actually the cause of the fresh install.

I am not sure if the above has to do with the sound issue at all because like I said, it seems to stop working either on its own or after doing anything requiring admin privilage.

Worse yet, no issues whatsoever through the headphones or on board speakers.