No HDMI audio on Windows 10 VM and PCI devices without drivers

[PROJECTBLUE]

Problem 1:

I have recently finished setting up my unraid server with two Windows 10 VM's, everything is working great apart from the following:

 

I have a Radeon 290X passed through to one of my Windows 10 VM's. I use HDMI audio from the 290X to my AV receiver, which worked fine for the first day or so but now it will not "see" that I have the HDMI cable plugged in and will not play sound. (Yes I have checked the cables etc)

 

I have passed through the audio part of my GPU and also tried the MSI audio fix.

I have tried changing driver versions which doesn't help.

The device shows in device manager and playback devices inside the VM.

 

Any further information required I can supply.

 

Problem 2:

Inside device manager there are two devices on both of my VM's with no drivers loaded.

These devices are named:

"PCI Device" & "PCI Simple Communications Controller" - what are these? I have tried to install drivers of any of my PCI-E devices to these unknown devices but they don't seem to match anything I have passed through. These appear on both of my VM's.

 

Any ideas?

 

[JonathanM]

Have you completely powered down at any point in your testing after it quit working?

[PROJECTBLUE]

25 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Have you completely powered down at any point in your testing after it quit working?

 I have multiple times, I cannot keep the system running 24/7 due to power costs.

[saarg]

There are som issues with the audio driver in latest AMD drivers that cause the no sound. I'm not exactly sure what I did to fix it, but I think I Uninstaller the AMD high definition audio driver and used the Microsoft one that gets installed if no other driver present. 

[Jcloud]

9 hours ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

PCI Device" & "PCI Simple Communications Controller" - what are these? I have tried to install drivers of any of my PCI-E devices to these unknown devices but they don't seem to match anything I have passed through. These appear on both of my VM's.

 

If you have the Redhat virt-io driver disk mapped, you could try looking for drivers on the root of that disk image, perhaps it's one of the devices for your VM like the memory-balloon driver or such. 

[PROJECTBLUE]

16 hours ago, saarg said:

There are som issues with the audio driver in latest AMD drivers that cause the no sound. I'm not exactly sure what I did to fix it, but I think I Uninstaller the AMD high definition audio driver and used the Microsoft one that gets installed if no other driver present. 

 

This seems to be the issue, installed an older driver version using the "clean install" option on the driver installer then rebooted and the sound started working again thank you! Hopefully it will continue working properly when I next reboot the machine.

 

Now to figure out what these unknown PCI devices are in device manager...

[PROJECTBLUE]

9 hours ago, Jcloud said:

If you have the Redhat virt-io driver disk mapped, you could try looking for drivers on the root of that disk image, perhaps it's one of the devices for your VM like the memory-balloon driver or such. 

 

I have, it's always mounted int he VM and I've tried searching manually for drivers both in the root of the CD and each of the subfolders where the .INF files are located. In both cases it doesn't seem to find drivers for these devices.

[Jcloud]

6 hours ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

15 hours ago, Jcloud said:

If you have the Redhat virt-io driver disk mapped, you could try looking for drivers on the root of that disk image, perhaps it's one of the devices for your VM like the memory-balloon driver or such. 

 

I have, it's always mounted int he VM and I've tried searching manually for drivers both in the root of the CD and each of the subfolders where the .INF files are located. In both cases it doesn't seem to find drivers for these devices.

Oh okay. How about the hard way then?

If you double click on device to bring up properties; click on the "Details" tab; under "Property" select "Hardware Ids." Under "Value" you should see a string, something like "USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0306&REV_0112"  copy that string and paste it into a web browser search engine, you should get some kind of a hit. Follow the search engine results down to identify device; once you know what device it is you should be able to grab the drivers for it and install. 

 

While searching, DO NOT install some third-parties driver installer packages, or all-in-one driver setup/install, that's a great way of getting adware/malware on a Windows box.
 

[PROJECTBLUE]

22 minutes ago, Jcloud said:

Oh okay. How about the hard way then?

If you double click on device to bring up properties; click on the "Details" tab; under "Property" select "Hardware Ids." Under "Value" you should see a string, something like "USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0306&REV_0112"  copy that string and paste it into a web browser search engine, you should get some kind of a hit. Follow the search engine results down to identify device; once you know what device it is you should be able to grab the drivers for it and install. 

 

While searching, DO NOT install some third-parties driver installer packages, or all-in-one driver setup/install, that's a great way of getting adware/malware on a Windows box.
 

Having worked in IT with primarily Windows for a few years now I should have thought of that... I've got too used to Windows being able to just auto install everything driver related these days, plus trying to pick up Linux/UnRAID for the past few days having not used either of them much/at all (except the occasional Linux VM to mess about with) is turning my brain into mush it seems haha. I'll give that a try when I get back home and will update the thread with the outcome, thank you.

 

Oh believe me I know, I made that mistake back in the Windows Vista days. It's like clicking "basic install" on a freeware installer... Never again.

[PROJECTBLUE]

3 hours ago, Jcloud said:

Oh okay. How about the hard way then?

If you double click on device to bring up properties; click on the "Details" tab; under "Property" select "Hardware Ids." Under "Value" you should see a string, something like "USB\VID_0BB4&PID_0306&REV_0112"  copy that string and paste it into a web browser search engine, you should get some kind of a hit. Follow the search engine results down to identify device; once you know what device it is you should be able to grab the drivers for it and install. 

 

While searching, DO NOT install some third-parties driver installer packages, or all-in-one driver setup/install, that's a great way of getting adware/malware on a Windows box.
 

Okay the "PCI Device" was the Balloon driver & "PCI Simple Communications Controller" was the serial driver. I don't know why it didn't pick these up when I pointed it at the VirtIO CD (including the individual folders) but at least I know for next time, thanks for the help!
 

My HDMI audio still doesn't start when I first start the VM though... I have to disable the device in device manager then re-enable it for it to work...

[Jcloud]

15 minutes ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

My HDMI audio still doesn't start when I first start the VM though... I have to disable the device in device manager then re-enable it for it to work...

No clue on that one, perhaps an uninstall and reinstall of your graphics drivers? (pot-shot in the dark)

 

Good luck, and have fun with your VMs.

[saarg]

58 minutes ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

Okay the "PCI Device" was the Balloon driver & "PCI Simple Communications Controller" was the serial driver. I don't know why it didn't pick these up when I pointed it at the VirtIO CD (including the individual folders) but at least I know for next time, thanks for the help!
 

My HDMI audio still doesn't start when I first start the VM though... I have to disable the device in device manager then re-enable it for it to work...

 

You need to uninstall the AMD high definition driver and let windows install its driver, as I told you in my last post. You can use the latest AMD graphics driver, but need to do my workaround every time you install a new driver. 

[PROJECTBLUE]

20 hours ago, saarg said:

 

You need to uninstall the AMD high definition driver and let windows install its driver, as I told you in my last post. You can use the latest AMD graphics driver, but need to do my workaround every time you install a new driver. 

I have tried this and I can't use the Windows drivers as they only allow Stereo audio. The AMD drivers allow me to use 5.1 channel output to my AV receiver.

[Terrified Addict]

I went and downloaded the oldest Windows 10 drivers on AMD's site since I don't use it for gaming and merely use it for a HTPC.  I also have this audio issue which started about 2 months ago after working flawlessly for 2 years.  I tried recreating the VM, using a different BIOS, using a different AMD card, etc.  The only way I have found to get audio is to turn off the unraid server and turn it back on.  Then on the initial start of the VM i have audio but if the VM has to reboot for anything I am hosed until I do a reboot on the unraid server.

 

I might try the removing of AMD high definition driver next time I want to waste a Sunday but I have little to no faith that will help since I reverted to 2 year old drivers and STILL got the same problem.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Terrified Addict

[PROJECTBLUE]

14 hours ago, Terrified Addict said:

I went and downloaded the oldest Windows 10 drivers on AMD's site since I don't use it for gaming and merely use it for a HTPC.  I also have this audio issue which started about 2 months ago after working flawlessly for 2 years.  I tried recreating the VM, using a different BIOS, using a different AMD card, etc.  The only way I have found to get audio is to turn off the unraid server and turn it back on.  Then on the initial start of the VM i have audio but if the VM has to reboot for anything I am hosed until I do a reboot on the unraid server.

 

I might try the removing of AMD high definition driver next time I want to waste a Sunday but I have little to no faith that will help since I reverted to 2 year old drivers and STILL got the same problem.

 

That sucks, did it start after a certain Windows update or UnRAID update?

The only way I can fix mine is to uninstall the AMD drivers and reinstall them upon every reboot of the VM's/UnRAID. As you can probably tell this is a very frustrating thing to have to do, especially when it's on two VM's at a time. (I use this machine as a dual headed gaming machine)

 

[saarg]

6 hours ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

 

That sucks, did it start after a certain Windows update or UnRAID update?

The only way I can fix mine is to uninstall the AMD drivers and reinstall them upon every reboot of the VM's/UnRAID. As you can probably tell this is a very frustrating thing to have to do, especially when it's on two VM's at a time. (I use this machine as a dual headed gaming machine)

 

 

For me it happened after updating unraid. So I think it's libvirt or qemu related. 

[PROJECTBLUE]

9 minutes ago, saarg said:

 

For me it happened after updating unraid. So I think it's libvirt or qemu related. 

Which version of unraid did you not have issues with? I'm tempted to just roll back to a known working version... Spending 20 odd minutes every time I want to use my computer with suitable audio is a pain to say the least.

[saarg]

4 hours ago, PROJECTBLUE said:

Which version of unraid did you not have issues with? I'm tempted to just roll back to a known working version... Spending 20 odd minutes every time I want to use my computer with suitable audio is a pain to say the least.

 

It's too long since, so don't remember. 

[PROJECTBLUE]

On 4/9/2018 at 7:32 PM, saarg said:

 

It's too long since, so don't remember. 

 

I've managed to get the sound working reliably, after days of Google searching I stumbled upon a reddit thread with someone who had the same problem.

He changed his machine type from i440fx to Q35 and all was good. I did this and now my HDMI audio with the actual AMD audio drivers are working correctly even after VM/Host reboots!

[Terrified Addict]

@PROJECTBLUE I tried to find a release history of unraid but I didn't find it quickly and honestly gave up to fast.  That being said I would venture to guess if you tried a version of unraid from December of 2017 it would likely work.  I want to say this issue started for me in late January or early February of this year.  I am almost at the point of buying one of those mini computers off Newegg and just giving up trying to use any Virtual Machines on unraid.

[saarg]

54 minutes ago, Terrified Addict said:

@PROJECTBLUE I tried to find a release history of unraid but I didn't find it quickly and honestly gave up to fast.  That being said I would venture to guess if you tried a version of unraid from December of 2017 it would likely work.  I want to say this issue started for me in late January or early February of this year.  I am almost at the point of buying one of those mini computers off Newegg and just giving up trying to use any Virtual Machines on unraid.

 

I think you have to go further back than December. I think it was around August I noticed it. 

[PROJECTBLUE]

1 hour ago, Terrified Addict said:

@PROJECTBLUE I tried to find a release history of unraid but I didn't find it quickly and honestly gave up to fast.  That being said I would venture to guess if you tried a version of unraid from December of 2017 it would likely work.  I want to say this issue started for me in late January or early February of this year.  I am almost at the point of buying one of those mini computers off Newegg and just giving up trying to use any Virtual Machines on unraid.

Try my solution of changing the machine type from i440fx to Q35. I was about to give up on unraid too but now everyhting's working perfectly and I plan to buy the license if it continues to work for the rest of the week. I'm just going to avoid using i440fx as it seems to be for older machine types anyway. Q35 from my understanding has better support for PCIE and emulates more modern hardware. i440fx on the other hand emulates older hardware and was built to support PCI.

[miicar]

On 4/11/2018 at 8:52 AM, PROJECTBLUE said:

Try my solution of changing the machine type from i440fx to Q35. I was about to give up on unraid too but now everyhting's working perfectly and I plan to buy the license if it continues to work for the rest of the week. I'm just going to avoid using i440fx as it seems to be for older machine types anyway. Q35 from my understanding has better support for PCIE and emulates more modern hardware. i440fx on the other hand emulates older hardware and was built to support PCI.

 

LMAO
So, what if you are already on Q35 and this AMD/HDMI Audio is still a plague (worse then the old VM on i440fx)?????   It used to be random...now its every time i shut down the VM, i have to re-install the driver.

I'll re-install the driver (again) while i wait for anyone to chime in...