I have tried to fix my laptop's audio but nothing worked, feels like i will have to use some external speakers.
So my laptop audio completely stopped working (the volume icon is grayed out with a red X, and it says no audio device is installed). I tried troubleshooting it for a while and did a bunch of deep fixes, but nothing worked. Here is everything I've already tried so you know where it's at:
Tried reinstalling the drivers: I downloaded the official Lenovo Realtek audio drivers and ran the installer, but Windows still didn't see the hardware.
Checked Device Manager: The standard Realtek audio controller is completely missing from the list. The only thing showing up under sound is "Intel Display Audio" for HDMI.
Tried to force-install it: I went into Device Manager and used the "Add legacy hardware" option to manually force-inject the driver file (HDXLVSST.inf). My laptop instantly crashed into a black/blue screen screen of death and restarted, and the audio was still broken when it booted back up.
Did a motherboard hard reset: I shut the laptop down, unplugged everything, and used a paperclip to hold down that tiny emergency reset pinhole on the bottom of the ThinkPad for 15 seconds to drain the static power.
Checked the BIOS: I booted into the BIOS menu and went to the port settings. "Integrated Audio" was already turned on, but I toggled it off and on anyway, and then hit F9 to reset the whole motherboard to factory setup defaults. Still nothing.
Looked for Intel SST: I checked under "System devices" in Device Manager to see if an Intel Smart Sound Technology driver was blocking it, but there isn't even an Intel audio controller listed there at all.