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Audio driver not working

Hello,

After installing Windows 10 20H2 on my Mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro, I still can't get the audio (speakers and microphone) working, even after trying to install the version 6.1 and 6.2 support software. Everything else, such as the camera, seems to work fine (except for an issue where I get a BSOD when updating the graphics drivers through Windows Update, but for now I disabled updates).


This is a fresh install (the second time) and my MacOS version is 10.15.7 Catalina.


I tried manually installing the drivers from the Cirrus folder, but no luck... I simply get the error that the "best driver (the default Microsoft one) is already installed." Neither .inf files I extracted from the Cirrus installers seemed to work when manually "updating" the drivers.


I suspect this is because the Cirrus driver I'm trying to install comes is from circa 2015-2016, but the default Microsoft driver is from 2019, but my MacBook Air, for example (same version of Windows), is doing fine with audio.


I tried removing all files associated with the default Microsoft audio driver, but when I remove the "High-Definition Audio" device(s) from device manager (as I've already tried several times), after restarting or refreshing devices, they just come back, still trying to use the Microsoft driver.


Any tips on how I can get the audio working, like for example, force-installing the driver? I honestly don't care whichever driver may end up working, but it seems like the Microsoft one is not working at all (failed to start service, if I remember the error from Device Manager correctly).


Neither Apple or Microsoft were able to figure any kind of solution out, so those are not options.


Thanks!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 12:08 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 27, 2021 2:39 PM

No, Catalina/BCA used the "EFI Boot" partition as default.

Anyways, I found a way to fix everything without any reinstalling.


So this is what I did:

  1. Ran gdisk from a USB drive in OS X Recovery Mode to create a hybrid MBR: I entered "r", then "h", and made MBR entries for every single partition listed on the GPT, leaving all codes as the default ones and only marking the primary NTFS partition "bootable". Then I entered "w" to write the changes to my disk.
  2. Booted into Windows Recovery from a USB stick, being careful to select the "Windows" option (the one with the blinking cursor on the top right corner), rather than the "EFI Boot" option. From the command prompt, I did the following (I doubt all of them were necessary, except for 3 and 6 maybe):
  3. bootrec /FixMbr
  4. bootrec /FixBoot
  5. bootrec /ScanOs
  6. bootrec /RebuildBcd
  7. When rebooting, I made sure to select the internal "Windows" partition, and not the internal "EFI Boot" partition, which also works, but boots into windows in UEFI mode.


My only remaining question is, how do I get rid of the "EFI Boot" option in the boot menu, to avoid accidentally booting with it? (Other people use this computer too.)


Other than that, thanks for your help, the audio is working as expected now.


Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 27, 2021 2:39 PM in response to Loner T

No, Catalina/BCA used the "EFI Boot" partition as default.

Anyways, I found a way to fix everything without any reinstalling.


So this is what I did:

  1. Ran gdisk from a USB drive in OS X Recovery Mode to create a hybrid MBR: I entered "r", then "h", and made MBR entries for every single partition listed on the GPT, leaving all codes as the default ones and only marking the primary NTFS partition "bootable". Then I entered "w" to write the changes to my disk.
  2. Booted into Windows Recovery from a USB stick, being careful to select the "Windows" option (the one with the blinking cursor on the top right corner), rather than the "EFI Boot" option. From the command prompt, I did the following (I doubt all of them were necessary, except for 3 and 6 maybe):
  3. bootrec /FixMbr
  4. bootrec /FixBoot
  5. bootrec /ScanOs
  6. bootrec /RebuildBcd
  7. When rebooting, I made sure to select the internal "Windows" partition, and not the internal "EFI Boot" partition, which also works, but boots into windows in UEFI mode.


My only remaining question is, how do I get rid of the "EFI Boot" option in the boot menu, to avoid accidentally booting with it? (Other people use this computer too.)


Other than that, thanks for your help, the audio is working as expected now.


Audio driver not working

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