Audio Driver issues on an Asus Zenbook (Windows 7) after screen/monitor replacement?

[JUL3]

Hey guys.

Last night my GF's laptop (Asus Zenbook UX31E) fell on the floor and cracked its screen. We're holidaying in Vietnam at the moment, and are really reliant on her laptop while here. So we took it to a computer repair shop where, after being told a bunch of times that the part needed to be ordered in ("take a long time", "cost a lotta money", etc.), we were surprised to find someone who could replace it.

He replaced the entire screen/monitor/(top-half?), visually it's almost a perfect replacement, but we've had a few unexpected problems besides.

The main problem seems to be the removal of the audio drivers. Since rebooting with the new monitor, the audio icon in the notifications tray (where you'd normally adjust the volume) just displays a red X and the message "No Audio Output Device is installed".

I've browsed other forum posts and tried a few times to install various RealTek drivers (none of which appear to have any effect). I'm beginning to think it might be a hardware problem, since the laptop's speakers are attached to the monitor. Before I take it back to the guy though, I just want to be certain. Is there some way to verify if it is a software or hardware problem?

I can post any extra information that might be important.
Thanks heaps.

 

[Ikagara]

Go to Asus's website and re install the audio drivers. If the speakers are attached to the laptop lid then they may not have been plugged in properly. If that is the case then all you would need to do is plug it back in. the person who replaced the screen is aware of the sound issue?

 

[JUL3]

I tried that. Downloaded the audio driver from here: www.asus.com/au/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX31E/#support_Download

However the driver they provide on the website, despite having selected Windows 7 64bit, appears to be for Vista 64bit. Can drivers cross OS'? Because when I install this driver, nothing seems to happen. But I don't know if Asus are stooging on the driver, or if I'm just incorrectly installing it.

Nah we went back to our hotel before we realised there was an issue.

Do you know, is there some way to check the status of a driver?

 

[JUL3]

Actually, I think the problem must be software-related. Because the problem persists when I plug in my headphones, which is effectively plugging in a set of speakers, albeit lightly different to built-in speakers, right?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Possibly...although the headphone jack (and microphone jack) are usually mounted on the sound board. So if the power cable had been left out the soundboard, Windows wouldn't be able to detect it and play via the internal speakers or headphones.

I bought that exact laptop for my girlfriend weirdly enough, hers is Windows 8 though. There are Windows 7 and 8 drivers specifically for it, which I think you should be using.

I would recommend you first check Device Manager and check again the audio devices to make sure there are no yellow exclamation marks or red triangles next to them. If there are, you should install the drivers via this route, it's likely Windows won't be able to 'automatically find drivers' for you.

I've had this page bookmarked for some time, incase my partner decides she is sick of Windows 8 and wants to roll back to Windows 7, perhaps try the drivers from here too: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/680250-asus-ux31a-fresh-install-guide.html

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Also, you said you 'rebooted' the laptop. Some people use rebooted as a synonym for 'reformated'. Do you mean you reformed and started from scratch? If so, did you manually install windows or use the recovery partition? The latter comes with the built in drivers etc and would work right away. If you did a manual install of windows your problem is more likely to be drivers / software.

If everything above fails then, yeah take it back to the guy to check the plugs.