Solved help! Dolby Audio Driver not working after 8.1 update

[janesdf]

I updated to 8.1 because supposedly, it was to offer features similar to win 7. Instead, it's even worse than win 8. Now, the sound quality on my laptop is lousy because the Dolby Audio driver receives an error message and isn't working. I went to Lenovo (I have a Ideapad N Series 580) and followed these instructions from Lenovo and microsoft, which unfortunately didn't help. I'm still getting the same error message. I wish I had never heard of windows 8.1! Many have had this same problem after installing 8.1. HELP!

This instructions are from Answers.Microsoft, but didn't work.

Open Device Manager. (Right-click on the Start button and choose Device Manager).
Expand the Sound, Video and Games Controllers section.
Right Click on the Conexant Smart Audio HD item and choose Uninstall.
Still in Device Manager, click on Action>Scan for new Hardware.
The Conexant Smart Audio item will re-appear.
Right-Click on it and choose update driver.
Navigate to d:\drivers\audio.
When that's done, close Device Manager.
Open File Manager and navigate to D:\drivers\Audio\DolbyGUI and install Dolby Home Theater.

These instructions are from Lenovo and didn't work.

Open Device Manager. (Right-click on the Start button and choose Device Manager).
Expand the Sound, Video and Games Controllers section.
Right Click on the Conexant Smart Audio HD item and choose Uninstall.
Still in Device Manager, click on Action>Scan for new Hardware.
The Conexant Smart Audio item will re-appear.
Right-Click on it and choose update driver.
Navigate to d:\drivers\audio.
When that's done, close Device Manager.
Open File Manager and navigate to D:\drivers\Audio\DolbyGUI and install Dolby Home Theater.

 

[fireberd]

I would try installing it in a compatibility mode and see if that helps.

I have a recording studio, and I'm seeing reports that many audio devices will not work with 8.1. I have a Roland Octa-Capture which is a USB connected recording interface unit and fortunately Roland had an 8.1 driver update. I've also seen some registry tweaks to make devices work in 8.1.

You may have to wait for Lenovo to issue an new 8.1 version.

 

[Nemix]

Go into Control Panel > Program and Features and uninstall the Conexant Audio Driver, reboot.

Go into Control Panel > Device Manager expand Sound, video and game controllers...right click on Conexant Audio Device and uninstall, check mark Delete the driver software for the device and click OK, reboot.

Download the following updated Conexant Audio Driver for Windows 8.1 (choose the one with date 25/9/13): Station-Drivers - Conexant

Once you the new audio driver downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file and install the new audio driver, reboot.

Download the following Dolby driver for Windows 8.1: PCEE4

Once you have Dolby downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file then install the Dolby version for your laptop (Advanced Audio or Home Theater), reboot and all done!

Please give a reputation if this worked for you because I had to create a Mediafire account just to try and resolve this issue since I know how frustrating it can get to not have features that originally came with your computer not working correctly in Windows 8/8.1.

 

[janesdf]

I followed the instructions, got as far as "Once you have Dolby downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file then install the Dolby version for your laptop (Advanced Audio or Home Theater" and then the message "need to install PCEE" appeared AFTER I had already downloaded and extracted the files. I have now attempted this five times and still the same result. I very much appreciate your help and realize that this is frustrating for you, but believe me, it's even more frustrating for me. Photo attached.

 

[Nemix]

Uninstall the Conexant audio driver and Dolby with the above instructions and give this version a try (first one at the top is for Windows 8.1): Drivers and software - Lenovo G500 Notebook

The above Conexant audio driver package link includes Dolby also, just extract the downloaded file and install the audio driver then in the same extracted Conexant audio driver package folder look for a folder called "PCEE4" and install the version of Dolby you laptop has and reboot.

Good luck,

 

[janesdf]

While following your instructions above, I went into Device Manager and Conexant was not there, I neglected to capture the image, there was an audio file (can't remember the name), but again, it was not Conexant and the audio I did have was tinny. Maybe something downloaded from PCEE? Anyway, I went back to Lenovo and downloaded Conexant again for 8.1, the install was flawless, and I now have the Dolby Audio back which I can tell from the sound quality. I still plan to switch to Win7 as this problem with 8.1 never should have happened and took entirely too much time from all of the people who tried to help me as well as my own time. Windows 8 isn't worth it. Thanks for all of your help which I very much appreciate.

 

[Nemix]

Glad it worked out for you, yes Windows 8.1 is very picky with some hardware and even some older software.

Still some of this problem is Lenovo's to blame since they fail Lenovo fails to update their driver downloads for older laptops, the link above that worked for you was taken from a Lenovo G500 laptop (2013 model) which comes with Windows 8/8.1 per-installed and has the exact same Conexant audio chipset and Dolby feature as your laptop.

Lenovo could have just updated that same G500 Conexant audio driver to the download section of your laptop the N580 for Windows 8/8.1 but they fail to do so and it's not only your model that's has this problem non-updated download links for older Lenovo laptops.

 

[techestupido]

i have this problem as well for my ideapad n585...im just wondering do i uninstall for the internal and external microphones, speakers and headphones or is it a specific one?

 

[Aoin]

I went to my "File Explore" and went to "Lenovo"(or whatever your computer will be called) then selected "Drivers" went to "Audio" and then to my "DolbyGUI" folder and clicked on ''DolbyHomeTheater" then went to install it again and got an error message saying that there was another "PCEE" installed, so Dolby exited out of the install program. On the "DolbyAdvancedAudio" I could repair it but nothing happened. So I looked up "PCEE" on my computer itself under the "Drivers" folder and seen that I had TWO of the same file called "PCEE4Parm". I deleted one of them and kept the other(After deletion you will probably see both of them when/if you look it up again later). I went through and tried to install it again, this time it let me do it.

I hope this helped you some if anything.

 

[Caineghis20]

Go into Control Panel > Program and Features and uninstall the Conexant Audio Driver, reboot.

Go into Control Panel > Device Manager expand Sound, video and game controllers...right click on Conexant Audio Device and uninstall, check mark Delete the driver software for the device and click OK, reboot.

Download the following updated Conexant Audio Driver for Windows 8.1 (choose the one with date 25/9/13): Station-Drivers - Conexant

Once you the new audio driver downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file and install the new audio driver, reboot.

Download the following Dolby driver for Windows 8.1: PCEE4

Once you have Dolby downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file then install the Dolby version for your laptop (Advanced Audio or Home Theater), reboot and all done!

Please give a reputation if this worked for you because I had to create a Mediafire account just to try and resolve this issue since I know how frustrating it can get to not have features that originally came with your computer not working correctly in Windows 8/8.1.

Your post helped me a lot! On my lenovo laptop I got this problem and the step with the conexant driver helped me very much. But I didn't made use of a driver from the given link. I just found one on the homepage of lenovo.
Thank you very much!

 

[avada]

Go into Control Panel > Program and Features and uninstall the Conexant Audio Driver, reboot.

Go into Control Panel > Device Manager expand Sound, video and game controllers...right click on Conexant Audio Device and uninstall, check mark Delete the driver software for the device and click OK, reboot.

Download the following updated Conexant Audio Driver for Windows 8.1 (choose the one with date 25/9/13): Station-Drivers - Conexant

Once you the new audio driver downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file and install the new audio driver, reboot.

Download the following Dolby driver for Windows 8.1: PCEE4

Once you have Dolby downloaded, navigate to the download folder and extract the downloaded file then install the Dolby version for your laptop (Advanced Audio or Home Theater), reboot and all done!

Please give a reputation if this worked for you because I had to create a Mediafire account just to try and resolve this issue since I know how frustrating it can get to not have features that originally came with your computer not working correctly in Windows 8/8.1.

Running the installer from this gives the same "PCEE needs to be installed" error. So I don't know how it should help.
By the way. WTF is PCEE? and where do I get it from?