

The only thing that worked in the short run was to reset my computer back several days as a “restore to an earlier date” fix in the Recovery (START then put “recovery” in the search box, and then pick the “Restore to an earlier date” BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO WIPE YOUR COMPUTER CLEAN with “Recovery” here – which will reinstate a factory version of Windows WITHOUT all your software, updates, and your files! which is a more extreme option that can take days to get working properly and if you don’t have copies of your software, a backup of your files, etc.

I tried numerous approaches to fixing this error – no audio component available after a Windows Update.
