Windows 7: "No Audio Output Device is installed." after HDD clone

I used Macrium Reflect to clone a hard drive with some bad sectors to a better working one. I had to do some registry fun times and get the new C: drive to actually be a C: drive (that was a fun activity.)

After I fixed that as well as a wireless problem, I still cannot figure out what is going on with my laptop's onboard audio. Windows says "No Audio Output Device is installed." and a red X near the volume icon in the taskbar. When I click, troubleshooter comes up, and that tries to fix the problem "Audio device is disabled" which fails. When I right click, I can open up the Playback devices window and I see my main audio device, enabled as default. When I open that and click properties, it looks fine, but there is nothing in the Levels tab.

I have also tried reinstalling the audio driver multiple times, as well as the Mr. FixIt that Microsoft has, which reports that there is both a Low audio device volume and Audio device is muted, neither of which gets fixed. The device shows up without any problems in Device Manager.



What is happening? I'm good at computers (well for the most part...I did fix the drive lettering issue!) so I will be willing to do anything at all. My computer is a Lenovo T61 running Windows 7 Home Premium. The chipset is a SoundMAX. Any thoughts? I'm thinking it's all software because my sleep chirps and boot beeps when my hard drive decides not to init properly (???) all play through just fine.

If you did clone properly... it is an exact copy... so works the same. Did you clone all partitions or only 1 or 2? Was old drive also connected when booting from new disk? Normally macrium clone modifies ALL references to old disk on the new created disk. It does it even if you clone only one partition. After booting from cloned Windows 7 you only have to adjust drive letters refereing to old disk. But since you removed the old faulty disk, this is unnecessary as well.

Don't know what happened. All drivers, documents,programs should still work! Did you clone without errors? Did you disconnect a cable accidentally when replacing harddisk?

Do you hear no sound at all? The beeps on boot are from internal speaker!! Not the soundmax

In registry goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices
Can you read that key and all its subkeys?

I have a laptop (in my specs) that did the same thing when going to a new SSD. the problem was with the firmware for the driver. I would go to the Lenova website and get not only the driver, but the program that the audio uses.

i.e. realtek driver and realtek audio center

reinstall both and see if that gets it going.

Here is that registry thing. I just exported it from regedit, so hopefully that's ok.http://www.osxdude.com/MMDevices.txt

Also, those are the drivers I'm installing: the ones direct from Lenovo. In fact, they are installed right now, but I still have no sound.

Also also, the beeps are from the internal speaker, however it's a laptop which doesn't actually have an internal speaker: the signal from the "internal speaker" is sent through the onboard audio outputs.

Also also also, I cloned the whole drive to the other drive. No errors, just some drive letter fun times. As in the new drive was D: and the old was C: but everything was still pointing to C:

I don't think I went into enough detail. and I don't know if my problem was related, but I am not sure steps are being taken in the method that I was trying to convey.

The sound driver and program that your laptop use are licensed for that laptop and that laptop only. when it is installed at the factory, or via reinstall CD, the driver and program note the system components (probably also the BIOS) to make sure it is the required hardware that is within its terms. The software will install fine, but will give a prompt "No audio device installed" which is a little vague, but is a general error message for the program.

Uninstalling completely and reinstalling the drivers and software package should make the system go through the process of checking the hardware and confirming that it is ok to actually be running on your system.

Since you did a complete clone, the software has the same values in its files. So when it compares to the new hardware it is sitting in is, it says the hardware is not the same as the hardware it was installed on.

Again, I may be way off here, so I hope I'm not wasting your time...


I was able to get mine working, but it might take the reinstall CD from lenova and installing from the CD. making sure it all works then updating the drivers....

He wrote he did clone HDD. So he still has same bios, motherboard.... all hardware is still the same!

I see exactly where you're coming from, Thorsen! I suspect in that very registry file I posted, some of those GUIDs are incorrect which is leading to a non-existant device, or, in your terms, "the hardware is not the same as the hardware it was installed on". However, the hardware is all the same. The computer is a refurb and I don't have a CD; only a recovery partition. The drivers were pre-installed on the computer and I used the refurb key (which is actually just a retail key) to activate Windows. I did re-download the drivers from Lenovo's site, but I did notice that whoever refurb'd the computer left the Audio drivers in a folder. I'll try those next.

EDIT: I just opened the installer. I heard the UAC sound come out of the speakers. WHAT. I opened up Playback Devices and there are THREE of everything.

But you do have different hardware.. the HDD and that might conflict with data in the BIOS or the registry keys for the software. I looked in the registry file, but I couldn't make heads or tails, cause its all jumbled together in the txt file (For me it is at least)

See if a system restore will get rid of the duplicates. then try uninstalling and installing the driver and software package in safe mode. Use REVO uninstaller (trial should be fine) to uninstall any sound programs: Revo Uninstaller Pro - Uninstall Software, Remove Programs easily, Forced Uninstall, Leftovers Uninstaller

Can you list all of the specs for this laptop either in your "My system specs" or in a new post so they are easy to find. Please include all the info for the model number. I am finding a few different model #'s for Lenova T61. Also if you have 32x or 64x

You can fill in specs here: http://www.sevenforums.com/profile.php?do=extra

You can make an install CD from the windows install disc here: Microsoft

You might not have to do a full reinstall.. there are a few options in the recovery console on the CD.

I have never seen an audio/graphics or whatever driver dependend of your system specs. Of course you must have the device attached the driver has been made for.

However software can be specifically bound to your hardware. For example your cpuid or network mac address. You have to buy the software key and developper doesn't want you to install it on more pc's. This is not the case with drivers. Drivers are on install CD and on internet for free.

And even if it's bound to some special system specs... then it's the bios id, cpuid or something like that. Not a graphicscard id or disktype.

Maybe I'm totally wrong but I can't believe it.
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I've cloned many harddisks and SSD as well and after cloning put them in same system. Never had any issue!

Replacing harddisk can be seen as:
-attaching a new keyboard
-attaching a new mouse

It will not affect any driver or software!