Hi All,

Thanks for all your help, unfortunately it wasnt anything that had already been suggested. I dissected the problem down and i can say the KSTHUNK.SYS was the problem all along. What was happening was that on Windows start-up, the OS was trying to read the file KSTHUNK.SYS but instead was wiping/deleting all of its information, such as version number, manufacturer etc. Hence after logging on, the audio drivers were trying to verify KSTHUNK.SYS but couldn't find any information in the file so it didnt load the audio drivers.

To solve this issue I did the following:


  1. Uninstalled VIA HD Audio Driver and HD VDeck Tool.
  2. Ran the Guru3D Display Driver Removal Tool: Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 15.3.0.0
  3. Ran CCleaner Registry Cleaner To Remove Left Over Keys.
  4. Went into C:\ and deleted any leftover NVidia or VIA Files.
  5. Went to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ksthunk.sys and renamed in ksthunk.OLD (Had to tweak permissions to let me rename it)
  6. Disabled automatic driver installation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2500967
  7. Restarted Computer.
  8. After restart I went to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ > Windows had loaded a backup version, I right-clicked and verified that it had version information, manufacturer etc then MADE A COPY ON THE DESKTOP - Just in case it was needed.
  9. Then I Installed the latest VIA Audio Drivers & NVidia Display + 3D Vision + Audio + Physx Drivers
  10. Re-enabled the automatic driver installation
  11. Went to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ksthunk.sys, Properties then set KSTHUNK.SYS to READ-ONLY.
  12. Restarted Computer.

Hopefully if anyone else comes across this problem then the above instructions may help!


Thanks again for your help.


MistUnleashed