Updates(?) Killed Audio on Two Computers

[SaurusX]

I have a Windows Vista box that I use solely as a DVR and then a Win8 machine for my home office. Yesterday I come to find that both have reboot and both have their system audio completely disabled. Nothing I did (reinstalling drivers, etc) would bring back the audio.

Both machines had made automatic restore points before applying updates and I was able to roll things back and get everything working again. Of course, in my panic to get things up and running I never looked at what updates were recently applied.

Has this been a problem for anyone else? I'm not entirely sure it WAS an update given that is happened on two different machines at the same time. I've done full virii scans with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes and both found nothing. Scary.

 

[mikeymikec]

It logically follows (if it was an update) that those updates will be installed again unless one takes steps to avoid that scenario. Furthermore, you can just uninstall a Windows update (Control Panel > Programs & Features > view installed updates).

I don't recall encountering an update knocking sound out before; of course, there's always a first time for everything

Do these PCs have anything else in common? E.g. audio hardware?

 

[SaurusX]

It logically follows (if it was an update) that those updates will be installed again unless one takes steps to avoid that scenario. Furthermore, you can just uninstall a Windows update (Control Panel > Programs & Features > view installed updates).

I don't recall encountering an update knocking sound out before; of course, there's always a first time for everything

Do these PCs have anything else in common? E.g. audio hardware?

One is an Intel machine and the other is AMD, but I'm not sure if my office machine is Realtek audio like the DVR machine, though. Beyond that there's the additional problem of the power blinking off the night before due to some storms rolling through. Maybe it was a perfect storm. I'll keep a close watch on what updates are being installed in the future.

 

[Ketchup]

piasabird had an issue with Windows updates on his Windows 7 machine recently, but it was an entirely different problem:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2471380

If you feel like helping the community a little, install the updates again. If the problem returns, tell us what updates were installed.