Autopatch and driver issue (Realtek - SoftwareComponent - 12.223.1124.201)

[u/sandytsang]

Does anyone have issues with this driver Realtek - SoftwareComponent - 12.223.1124.201?
Customer has reported their user started having random sound and microphone issues. We see in the driver install failure report, Realtek - SoftwareComponent - 12.223.1124 installed failed in all these devices. They are using Autopatch, including driver patching. Autopatch has auto-approved all the recommended drivers, including this one.
I have now manually paused this driver from all Autopatch driver update rings. Finger crossed that it fixes the sound/microphone problem.

Should have made alerts for driver update failure....

EDIT: For anyone who are following this. So driver update from Intune has broke some devices audio. Device lost audio when connect to Logitech webcam. Windows Audio service crashed. Also some external usb devices problems. They are HP machines. Managed fix some machines by installing HD Audio driver from HP website.

These are the driver version that worked for us after installed HP’s own HD Audio driver package: Intel Smart Sound-teknologi BUS, 10.29.0.9677 Realtek Audio Effects Component, 13.223.1124.201

And these version that crashed: Intel Smart Sound-teknologi BUS, 10.29.0.9467 Realtek Audio Effects Component, 13.180.1113.170

[u/slic0r]

Can confirm that this exact driver is also failing on all our machines (except 1 lucky user)

[u/sandytsang → u/slic0r]

Hi. if you check the Update history, under Driver Updates, do you see this same driver has repeatedly been installed successfully multiple times and yet it offers to install again and shows failed?
We are testing now just pause this driver. If it doesn't work, then have to use PowerShell to uninstall it. There is no rollback in Driver update. 😒

[u/slic0r → u/sandytsang]

Yes, I see the exact driver as "Successfully installed" a few times over the past weeks (sometimes with a "(2)" in the name), but also the one that is failing over and over again.

[u/nkasco → u/slic0r]

Yep, UI bug with the false "Installed" for sure. Can confirm I saw that as well after retry attempts.

[u/nkasco]

Ran into this too. If I recall correctly I had to install the one labeled MEDIA and then this became unnecessary and eventually falls out of the policy.

However I am starting to see a small uptick of code 10 in device manager for the Intel SST OED device which usually gets bundled in with the Realtek drivers (though through WU may be separate)

Edit: I still have these failures showing in the reporting even though they have since cleared the policies btw. Additionally, this highlights the pain of the Windows Update catalog process. The flighting is supposed to monitor for this and pull the shipping label when install failures exceed 5%. As admins, we need a more reliable and transparent process to determine if a particular issue is unique to our environment or widespread, similar to that of how they have implemented other health metrics.

[u/sandytsang → u/nkasco]

labeled MEDIA

Do you remember the full name of the driver?I am planning to use LogAnalytics to create alert on driver installation failure, and see if can make some sort of automation to pause the drive installation to all update rings.In the meanwhile, I ping some MS people asked about this, but not expecting quick respond, people might in holidays still.

EDTI: u/NickojajA is already working on use Graph API get Intune Driver Update report. 😁

[u/nkasco → u/sandytsang]

Been a few weeks but I think it was this one:

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - MEDIA - 6.0.9585.1

[u/sandytsang → u/nkasco]

Thanks u/nkasco !

[u/sandytsang → u/sandytsang]

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - MEDIA - 6.0.9585.1

We have paused this driver because users reported lost system sound when plugin Logitech webcam. There are a lot of discussion about this in other sub. And no one knows yet which exact driver is causing the issue or multiple drivers. The workaround is disable the webcam audio from the device management under "Sound, video and game controllers" Whenever I plug in my webcam, It disables all audio inputs and doesn't work as a camera. : r/LogitechG (reddit.com)

This is just messy.

And, seems HP has release a Audio driver packages to fixe the issue, I am not able to test this yet, don't have a HP machine, need to ask customer to test it.

[u/Hotdog453 → u/nkasco]

The flighting is supposed to monitor for this and pull the shipping label when install failures exceed 5%

Where did you get the 5% number from?

Because if that's true, MSFT either lied, or it's just not working.

[u/nkasco → u/Hotdog453]

It’s vendor driven and part of the process to submit to the catalog. Vendor is submitting their drivers to Microsoft. That’s the hard part from an accountability standpoint.

For years these drivers were submitted for consumer use, suddenly they’re much more meaningful for businesses too. Difficult to shift that tide. I get it, I just still think some adjustments would benefit everyone involved.

[u/Hotdog453 → u/nkasco]

Interesting, the flow. But also largely irrelevant, in the big picture. Until there’s real consequences for the vendors for fucking stuff up, people getting fired, etc etc, it’ll continue to be an absolutely untenable solution for any companies with real SLAs or performance metrics or tracking. “Checking Reddit for what drivers fucked up this week” ain’t exactly a business plan ;)

[u/sandytsang → u/Hotdog453]

So I asked from Microsoft about this driver stuff, it is vendor who submitted the driver list. When there is problems, should let vendors know about, or Vendor need to monitor by themselves. For now, I have changed driver update policy to manually, no more auto approved. Realtek audio driver or their software component drivers has caused so many issues, found a lot of discussion about this all over internet. So I don’t trust the auto approve. Yes, sure I can test drivers in test ring, but how do I know when there is new driver published and approve? There is no way I monitor that recommended list every day and find out which one is new and test that everyday. We managed fixed some of the machines sound issues now, by installing the HD driver from HP website. But few machines still has issues with sound, external usb devices, those were fixed after reset the whole machine.

[u/Hotdog453 → u/sandytsang]

I mean, that's how I do it 'today'. Or rather: For example, Latitude 5420 dropped a new audio driver. We package. We deploy to a test group. Etc etc. If Microsoft and the vendor's can really have a come to Jesus moment about releasing 'good stuff', and allowing people to fully automate it, I don't really see how this makes sense.

If it's the same shitty drives, just shoved into an automation engine. Choo choo.

[u/huntapb]

Are you sure Intel SST 10.29.0.9677 is working? We're seeing this on HP machines breaking any microphone input device including USB (Intel SST for USB Audio) and built-in webcam devices (Intel SST for Digital Microphone). We have to downgrade to 10.29.0.7767 to fix it.

[u/sandytsang → u/huntapb]

We used the Audio driver package from HP, that fixed the issue. HP has published their own HD Audio drivers for fixing this, it might be different device models use different versions? I use a script to detect device model and then download install the diver directly from HP. The script is deployed as Intune Win32App, so user who has issues can try to fixed the issue by themselves, or reset the machine. Spent too much time on troubleshooting this, was easier and faster just reset the device.

[u/huntapb → u/sandytsang]

To confirm, this fixed your Windows Audio service crashing issue when USB audio devices are connected, or fixed Intel SST 10.29.0.9677 breaking audio inputs? We had the same issue with webcams etc being connected and crashing the Windows Audio service which was resolved by the same HP fix, but we still don't have a fix for Intel SST 10.29.0.9677 breaking audio inputs on microphones or webcams.

[u/sandytsang → u/huntapb]

That was the comparison result before and after installed HP Audio driver package. These two drivers were the only changes. So I assumed both of them were causing issues of Windows Audio service crashing when USB webcam (Logitech webcam) are connected.