In today’s article, we will explore the symptoms, identify the cause, and suggest a possible solution to the problem that Windows 10 does not install specific drivers for USB audio devices the first time you connect.
The symptom of this problem can be diagnosed as follows. When you connect a USB audio device to a Windows 10 computer for the first time, the operating system detects the device but loads the standard USB 2.0 audio driver (usbaudio2.sys) instead of the specific device driver.
In Windows 10, a USB Audio 2.0 driver is now provided. It is designed to support the USB Audio 2.0 device class. The driver is a WaveRT audio port class miniport. USBAudio.Sys integrates into the larger Windows USB Audio architecture, as shown.
USB audio drivers will not be installed
This problem occurs because the USB 2.0 audio driver (usbaudio2.sys) is not classified as a generic driver in Windows 10. Therefore, the system assumes that a compatible, non-generic driver is installed for the device even if the driver is actually generic.
This problem also forces Windows 10 to postpone the search for other compatible drivers via Windows Update, which usually occurs immediately after installing a new device.
To resolve this problem, Microsoft recommends using one of the following methods.
- Make sure the latest cumulative update is installed on your Windows 10 computer.
- If the device-specific driver is distributed through Windows Update, you can manually update the driver using Device Manager.
- If the device is not yet connected, first install the device-specific driver, for example using the appropriate installer. Once the device-specific driver is installed, Windows 10 will select this driver instead of the standard USB 2.0 audio driver when the device is first connected.
- If the driver is not distributed via Windows Update, you can manually reinstall the driver. To do so, follow these steps:
- Install the device-specific driver (see method 2).
- Open the Device Manager.
- Right-click (or press and hold) the device name, then select uninstall.
- Restart the PC.
Upon restart, Windows will try to reinstall the device using the device-specific driver.
I hope this helps you!
Related Reading: Troubleshoot and resolve device driver issues.
