Solved Win11 21H2 on Legacy BIOS: Audio constantly requires un-muting


GameX

New member
Local time
5:10 AM
Posts
2
OS
Windows 11 / Windows 10 / macOS Monterey / Linux Mint
Hi all,

Curious case, and I'm trying to understand the cause behind it:
Installed Win11 21H2 on my 10yo Lenovo Thinkpad E420 (support Win10 great). So far, WiFi driver is crashing but that's another thing.

When I boot the system, I get no audio. Driver is "Conexant 20671 SmartAudio HD" which is installed properly and audio is not muted, also levels are moving in the mixer while sound is playing. Increasing volume has no effect. Audio must be manually incresed with the keyboard combo Fn+F3, then audio will start to work again, that is until the next reboot.

I figured that it's possible to mute and un-mute the BIOS beeps using Fn+F1 (Mute) while in the BIOS. Additionnally, the problem can also be resolved by pressing Fn+F3 key at the Windows Boot Manager screen (BOOTMGR) even before the system actually launches. Then, we'll get to hear the Windows 11 boot sound. That is, until the next reboot, until we manually press the Fn+F3 key again.

I'm confused as I don't think I've experienced this before - Is this something others can reproduce too?
Trying to understand, as I don't think it's fixable (Another workaround would be to emulate Fn+F3 keypress on boot, but I don't think Fn key can be reproduced via batch file?).

Explained differently: When un-mutting via Fn-F3, sound return but it's as if Windows 11 is not able to send the request to the BIOS to unmute globally as well, as the BIOS beeps remain muted after the reboot too (Reminder, they can be re-enabled with Fn-F3 in the BIOS too, just no visual cue). And since Win11 doesn't support Legacy BIOS officially... I mean, could be something like that, I have a Hackintosh too on a different partition with no audio configured yet as well...

Is this a Legacy BIOS > Win11 incompatibility? No big deal but I thought it was curious?

EDIT: Tried a clean install again, no driver whatsever - I get the same behavior, I need Fn+F3 to be pressed at least once every boot for sound.

Thanks
 
Windows Build/Version
Windows 11 21H2
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 / Windows 10 / macOS Monterey / Linux Mint
Several other users have reported this same issue on this forum. There are about 1200 complaints on the feedback hub about it and many more across the web. According to a Microsoft Engineer, the issue has been fixed in the latest Dev ring build. So hang tight, a fix should be released to the masses soon.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3296
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 7080
    CPU
    i9-10900 10 core 20 threads
    Motherboard
    DELL 0J37VM
    Memory
    32 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    none-Intel UHD Graphics 630
    Sound Card
    Integrated Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1tb Solidigm m.2 +256gb ssd+512 gb usb m.2 sata
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell Premium
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    so slow I'm too embarrassed to tell
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045.3930
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 9020
    CPU
    i7-4770
    Memory
    24 gb
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    256 gb Toshiba BG4 M.2 NVE SSB and 1 tb hdd
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell factory
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Internet Speed
    still not telling
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium
Several other users have reported this same issue on this forum. There are about 1200 complaints on the feedback hub about it and many more across the web. According to a Microsoft Engineer, the issue has been fixed in the latest Dev ring build. So hang tight, a fix should be released to the masses soon.
Ah wow - Sorry about this. I didn't knew what to look for, since the sound driver was actually working fine, only I needed to manually press a key on every boot. I'll look into it a bit more and also wait for the upcoming MS fix (it's a old laptop anyway, I have my primary triple-boot desktop as well).

Will mark as solved for now. Thank you! :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 / Windows 10 / macOS Monterey / Linux Mint
hang tight, a fix should be released to the masses soon.
I get this occasionally, even on a fully supported PC. Sometimes when I resume from hibernation the speaker icon has a X on it. Looking forward to that fix....
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
I'm getting it too since the latest round of updates. I didn't notice it after upgrading to W11, it seemed to happen a few weeks later.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Prime B350 Plus
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AM4 Hex Core Processor 3200GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime B350 Plus
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR4 2666 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit - Red
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    DELL U2412M
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 EVO SSD 120Gb
    Seagate 2 TB
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, 80+ GOLD 750W, Fully Modular
    Case
    Chieftec Scorpio TX 10BWD Mid Tower
    Cooling
    Arctic F8 PWM Rev.2
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    72.35 Mbps Down - 18.53 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Update! I watched to see what would happen at start-up today but my audio worked fine. I could hear the start-up sound normally and the audio device did not have an 'X' on it denoting it had been muted. This is different to what happened the last few days and yet I'm not seeing any newly installed updates which might have fixed this. Maybe it's an intermittent issue?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Prime B350 Plus
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AM4 Hex Core Processor 3200GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime B350 Plus
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR4 2666 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit - Red
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia Geforce GTX 1050 Ti
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    DELL U2412M
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 EVO SSD 120Gb
    Seagate 2 TB
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2, 80+ GOLD 750W, Fully Modular
    Case
    Chieftec Scorpio TX 10BWD Mid Tower
    Cooling
    Arctic F8 PWM Rev.2
    Keyboard
    Logitech K520
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    72.35 Mbps Down - 18.53 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Maybe it's an intermittent issue?

The only reason I knew this is I sometimes have this problem myself and had already researched it. So I'm waiting along with everyone else for a fix. For some, the problem is intermittant and for others it's all the time. For most people it seemed to happen after a computer comes out of sleep.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3296
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 7080
    CPU
    i9-10900 10 core 20 threads
    Motherboard
    DELL 0J37VM
    Memory
    32 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    none-Intel UHD Graphics 630
    Sound Card
    Integrated Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1tb Solidigm m.2 +256gb ssd+512 gb usb m.2 sata
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell Premium
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    so slow I'm too embarrassed to tell
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045.3930
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 9020
    CPU
    i7-4770
    Memory
    24 gb
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    256 gb Toshiba BG4 M.2 NVE SSB and 1 tb hdd
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell factory
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Internet Speed
    still not telling
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium

Latest Support Threads

Back
Top Bottom