Vaio Z2 VPCZ21v9e HD Audio Buzzing - Windows 7 + Windows 10

[Eric.D]

Hi

I'm trying to upgrade a Vaio Z2 VPCZ21v9e to Windows 10.

It even buzzed under a fresh Windows 7 install from Microsoft DVD media

(I don't have a Sony DVD, but restoring from the Recovery Partition also buzzed)

The odd thing is that both microphone and speaker work OK before Win10 specific drivers are downloaded !

I've checked

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/windows10

http://www.sony-europe.com/support/kb/images/126760_Table_Level3.PNG

shows green for 'VPCZ2*' for Audio (and everything except 'touch' which hardware it doesn't have)

When I say 'buzz', I don't just mean a gentle 'mains hum' behind the sound, but a very loud sound like a 50Hz square-wave instead of the sound, even with 'Volume turned down to 1'.

I use Windows Sounds control panel system sounds to test.

'Device Manager' reports 'Realtek High Definition Audio'

Hardware ID = HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0275&SUBSYS_104D5600&REV_1000

Sometimes the speaker and mic appear separately as 'Audio Endpoint'

Hardware ID = MMDEVAPI\AudioEndpoints

I've tried many drivers without success - Windows 8 and 8.1 here

sony.co.uk

Intel

RealTek

I haven't tried running the installers in 'Compatibility Mode' - that has worked for the Fingerprint sensor!

Event Viewer only shows "Success" - 'Staus 0' Information-level events.

Re-installing Windows 10, with Wi-Fi disabled, it seems the default generic Audio drivers are

'UAA' -

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\HdAudAddService]

"DisplayName"="@hdaudio.inf,%UAAFunctionDriverForHdAudio.SvcDesc%;Microsoft 1.1 UAA Function Driver for High Definition Audio Service"

... which dates back to Windows XP or Server 2003 !

I haven't found a download location for the UAA driver, but requested them by email from

Microsoft.

Maybe I could find them in the Windows 10 install DVD ?

I searched for the Hardware ID in Registry Editor, and Exported 15 registry keys.

Double-clicking the *.reg files mostly worked, but failed to edit the registry for three keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0275&SUBSYS_104D5600&REV_1000]

"LocationInformation"="Internal High Definition Audio Bus"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Capture]

'microphone'

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI]

"DeviceDesc"="@audioendpoint.inf,%msft.audioendpoint%;Audio Endpoint"

I'll try editing those by hand, running RegEdit as Administrator.

(Although I'm going beyond what I understand here!)

It shouldn't be this hard!

Someone somewhere must know how to get this working!

Thanks for your help!

Eric

[Eric.D]

I've also posted this to community.sony.com

I have now tried running the installers in 'Compatibility Mode' - no help.(but not all permutations tried !)

Running RegEdit as Administrator and importing the UAA default legacy drivers' registry hives just gave errors.

Maybe in Safe Mode, or with Audio disabled/uninstalled ?

No reply from Microsoft re UAA drivers Hotfix KB888111.

Found them for download from HP, but no joy installing as XPsp2 compatible.

I tried a Hyer-V virtual machine, but it just uses the host drivers.

[Spendwell]

I am puzzled that you are unable to recover your original W7 configuration complete with drivers that are not buzzing.

Perhaps I have misunderstood you.

But if you are able to produce a working W10 installation with working quiet drivers before Windows Update kicks in to update the generic drivers.....the answer may be the Microsoft  Show or Hide Updates Tool. Use it to choose and prevent any update which is "pending".

If I have misunderstood you.....and you are able to revert to a Windows 7 installation with working audio drivers (there may be 2)....use free software Double Driver to back up these W7 audio drivers to a USB stick.

After installing 10,  go to device manager.....update driver.....point the update at your USB stick. You may need to roll back to generic audio drivers before doing this.

And then......use the Microsoft tool (mentioned above) to stop Windows 10 updating your W7 drivers.

My experience is that W10 has accepted a backed-up W7 or W8 driver (using the above method) each time I have tried. It has got me out of jail a couple of times.

Good luck.

[Eric.D]

Thanks for replying.

I bought the laptop as 'used', without recovery media or even recovery partition on HDD.

Clean installation of Windows7 gave buzzing audio - I never found a solution:just disabled the audio.

I had discovered 'wushowhide.diagcab', but IIRC it only showed some drivers: not RealTek Audio.

Oddly, running it again now, it shows RealTek Audio, but hiding the update doesn't seem to prevent installation.

RealTek Audio doesn't even appear in the list of hidden updates!

Perhaps I need to restart to make changes effective ?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-back-control-driver-updates-windows-10/

has another possible workaround, acting at a 'device installation' level, rather than 'windows update' level.

I'll try restarting after wushowhide.diagcab, and report back.

[Eric.D]

Restarting didn't seem to affect the wushowhide.diagcab lists.

I guess it's not a list of historical updates already applied : just those for which a (newer) update is available.

So you have to hide the update before the Windows Updater sees it - logical, I suppose!

With a fresh install of Windows 10, you can turn off WiFi to stop Updates, but showhide.diagcab needs WiFi to retrieve the list as well. So it's a race - you have to get showhide.diagcab to hide the update before WindowsUpdate sees it! If you don't explicitly run Update in Settings, it is possible (you could even disable auto-updating?).

If it is the graphics driver you want to preserve, you may have to find and kill the 'Looking for updated graphics device driver' process, as well.

wushowhide.diagcab seems to be working for me now.

I'll probably do the Group Policy 'Prevent installation of devices that match any of these Device IDs' thing, too.

It would be nice to know what the problem was - know of any "windows audio device graph" diagnostics ?

I'm guessing it's feedback - an output connected back to an input, or 'listen' to an input enabled ...

[Eric.D]

"wushowhide.diagcab seems to be working for me now."

No - it didn't work.

There seems to be an entirely separate device/driver install process that is independent of WU.

I had to do the Group Policy 'Prevent installation of devices that match any of these Device IDs' thing, too.

However I now have a Sony Vaio Z2 VPCZ21v9e running Windows 10 without Realtek HD Audio Buzzing !

Thanks for your input. Hope documenting my experience helps others.

[Spendwell]

Eric - you are right about the show/hide updates tool. It is a little bit awkward hiding the update(s) before they kick in.

From memory.....I think my solution was to allow the update to install. And then roll back the device drivers to reverse the update. And at that point.....Windows update will  pause long enough for you to run the tool.......and see the updates that you want to hide. And hide them.

Anyway......you are sorted. 

[Eric.D]

"However I now have a Sony Vaio Z2 VPCZ21v9e running Windows 10 without Realtek HD Audio Buzzing !"

"Anyway......you are sorted"

I have now come back to the laptop to install the Anniversary Update.

Speakers were disabled.

I think I was 'sorted' only so far as having a silent computer - no buzzing, but no audio at all!

Interestingly,  Anniversary Update leaves me with working audio (no buzzing), but an update to 'Realtek HD Audio' failing to install!

I'm tempted just to leave it, rather than attempt to enable installation of 'Realtek HD Audio'.

Running wushowhide.diagcab, I see no hidden updates.

Running 'Local Group Policy Editor', I don't see any 'Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs' restrictions.

So in fact there is no 'proper way' to undo either way of blocking updates. Odd !

I guess I disabled audio, rather than blocking updates.

Part of the solution is that 'Device Manager' now shows only generic 'HD Audio' version 10.0.14393.0 drivers!

Not RealTek-specific.

I guess Microsoft have re-enabled whatever it was that worked during clean-install - the old Windows XP UAA

drivers.

Since it's automagically fixed itself, I'm not going to mess around any more.

Well done, Microsoft!

Incidentally, I used wushowhide.diagcab on another PC (Acer Aspire z5763), to disable Nvidia graphics driver update to allow its 3D monitor to work. Modern drivers actually give 119Hz when it says 120Hz.

Windows Anniversary Update fails completely on that PC !

'setup.exe failed to start properly' - other updates currently in progress?

I've deferred updating it, until I have done all others.

I think I reported the 120Hz->119Hz bug - hope they fixed it.