Since Conexant does not release drivers for its audio devices on its own website, you are going to have to download the new driver package from the official Support website of the affected computer’s manufacturer (Acer or HP – for example). In order to do so, you are going to have to first download a driver package for your computer’s Conexant audio device that is not only newer than the one already installed but is also guaranteed to be compatible with Windows 10. This issue can be fixed by simply updating the Conexant audio drivers on the affected computer, but since that didn’t automatically happen during the Windows 10 upgrade, you are going to have to do it manually.
The cause of this problem, in almost all cases, is that the Conexant audio drivers on the affected computer are incompatible with Windows 10, and Windows was unable to upgrade the drivers during the Windows 10 upgrade. This issue has been known to plague a good percentage of all the users with Conexant audio devices who upgrade their computers to Windows 10. Users are advised against manually updating using the 'Update now' button or the Media Creation Tool until this issue has been resolved.If your computer has a Conexant audio device and you upgrade it to Windows 10, there is a slight possibility that the computer may no longer be able to play audio following the upgrade. The company also says: "As of January 14, 2021, we are adjusting this safeguard to allow certain devices with the affected driver to update to Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2". Microsoft says that it is continuing to work with Synaptics to come up with a resolution which will follow in due course. If this occurs, you should attempt to update to Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2 again. If updated drivers are not available for your device and you are offered Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2, a small number of devices might roll back to the previous version of Windows 10 when attempting to update. To mitigate the safeguard, you might need to check with your device manufacturer (OEM) to see if an updated driver is available and install it. The company then provides details of the workaround: If your organization is using Update Compliance, the safeguard ID is 25178825. To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on Windows 10 devices with affected Conexant or Synaptics audio drivers installed from being offered Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows Server, version 2004 until the driver has been updated. The affected driver will be named Conexant ISST Audio or Conexant HDAudio Driver under Sound, video and game controllers in Device Manager and have file name uci64a96.dll through uci64a231.dll and a file version of 7.231.3.0 or lower. Windows 10 devices with affected Conexant ISST audio driver might receive an error or experience issues while installing the update or after the device has updated. Synaptics and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues with certain versions of drivers for Conexant ISST audio driver and Windows 10, version 2004 (the Windows Update). On the Windows 10 support pages, Microsoft explains the problem that some users are experiencing: But while Microsoft has offered up something of a solution, it is not something that is going to work for everyone, and a proper fix is still to be released in a future update. The workaround comes some eight months after the problems were first discovered. Microsoft is bringing a great new look to Settings in Windows Terminal.
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