z77x-ud5h: Multiple High Definition Audio Device entries

[stardustrider]

Earlier today I was having a bit of trouble removing an old webcam driver that wasn't particularly fit for Windows 8.1, when I started having audio problems after a system reboot. Given that I had been playing around in the registry, I attempted to do a system rollback, repair and a refresh, however after each successive attempt, in the device manager, there would be 5 "High Definition Audio Device" entries under "Sound, video and game controllers", as well as 2 "High Definition Audio Controller" entries under "System Devices".

My main soundcard is Creative's SoundBlaster Z, so I've always had the on-board audio disabled, and after checking again, it was still set as such.

After a few attempts at 'fixing' it, I did a full format and reinstall of Windows 8.1 to try and sort it once and for all, given that nothing would carry over. Wrong. They're still there, which is leading me to think that it's possibly a hardware issue? Maybe some odd failure somewhere? (Which would suck, hard, if that were the case.)

I'm still getting sound through the card itself, but I cannot set it to anything higher than stereo (must be the norm whenever proper drivers aren't present?), and trying to install the drivers themselves is fruitless. They'll install perfectly fine, but when I come to opening the control panel, it says that it cannot find the required hardware.

Any ideas?

[stardustrider]

Okay, so I've managed to get past this by disabled driver signature enforcement, go through the "High Definition Audio Device" list and "High Definition Audio Controller" and find which ones where the SBZ ones through process of elimination (Disabling them until it had an effect). Manually updating/specifying the drivers and BAM. Fixed.

It is far from ideal though, especially if I ever need to wipe my PC at some point in the future.

[stardustrider]

I should also point out that when removing the soundcard, obviously one the devices disappears, but the rest remain, which lead me to believe that it's a motherboard/hardware issue.