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Disabling High Definition Audio

25K views 17 replies 4 participants last post by  CCT 
#1 ·
I'm trying to disable: 'MS UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio' in Task Manager, but every time I restart, the disablement gets cancelled and its back on again.

Have also tried uninstalling the driver, but it gets reinstalled when Windows next starts up.

Is there any way I can stop this happening?

It seems disabling this driver could be the answer to the high CPU readings I have been getting when installing ATI graphics driver.
 
#2 ·
Rather then disable it, why not update the audio driver from your computer manufacturers support/download drivers site.
If you want to disable the driver, go to Device Manager and open Sound, Video and Game Controllers and right click the driver here and choose Disable.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply.

I should have written: 'Device Manager' and not "Task Manager" (my mistake) in my first post, i.e. I should have said that I have been trying to disable HDA in Device Manager, but with every re-start it just switches back to 'enabled', or re-installs the driver having: "found new hardware" upon restarting.

According to some posts I have found on the net, disabling HDA could be the solution to a problem found on some ECS mobos, i.e. unexplained high CPU usage due to an issue with HDA on certain HD cards.

Updating the driver is not a solution, it needs to be disabled .
 
#4 ·
Have you tried going into 'Device Manager', opening 'System devices', right clicking 'Microsoft UAA Bus driver for High Definition Audio' and selecting 'Device usage' as 'Do not use ths device (disable)' and clicking 'OK'?

note: it sounds like you did but the specifics of actions taken are important
 
#5 ·
Thanks for your interest CCT - yes, that's the one I'm referring to.

I've tried the 'disable' mode, and I've tried uninstalling the driver a number of times, but every time I restart the machine the setting is either back in 'enabled' mode, or the removed driver just gets automatically re-installed under the "found new hardware" facility.

According to some advice given to another user in another forum who had the identical problem to the one I'm having with this ECS board, disabling this driver and restarting cleared the problem of high CPU usage.

The details of the problem were all the same as mine, i.e. same ECS board, and even the same graphics card.

I don't understand why the 'disable' setting gets reversed on start-up - is there perhaps a auto-re-set facility that needs switching off?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Mine stays disabled (XP Pro) so I don't know.

What I do see is that my Realtek HD Audio driver disappears as well when I set that switch to 'do not use'. Which is logical since the UAA is a Bus Driver, ie, it is needed apparently to transport the Realtek audio.

Have you tried disabling audio in Bios?

edit: this issue is discussed here -> ATI HD Audio Driver / Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio - Guru3D.com Forums

Apparently when the CCC starts, it re-enables the UAA.
 
#7 ·
Yes, did try disabling audio in the BIOS, but made no difference.

As I understand what I'm reading about this, the HDA only comes in to play when a HDMI cable is connected.

I've been trying to turn off the Windows re-load driver action through gpedit.msc, but having followed the links as given down through 'system' I can't find anything relating to "device installation", which apparently is where the option to turn off exists.
 
#10 ·
Just tried that satrow - unfortunately it hasn't made any difference, i.e. whenever I re-start the machine HDA is back on.

When I disable HDA the high level of CPU usage in TM drops straight away, so it does look like the solution.

The options seem to be: 1/ leave the computer on all the time; 2/ disable HDA on every start up; or 3/ find out how to cancel the auto-installation of devices on start up!

But I will put a virtual pint behind the bar for CCT and yourself, because progress has definitely been made!

:4-cheers::4-cheers:
 
#11 ·
Just throwing out a few possible hacks/workarounds here that would probably need to be used in combination, perhaps with items I've probably missed, I currently don't have enough free time to research any of them:
Thorough removal of ATI graphics and HDA drivers via DriverSweeper (Majorgeeks still have it)
Hacking the *.inf file(s) to remove any auto installs of the HDA driver (needs to be looked for in the standard Windows inf files and cabs too, I think)
Insulating the correct AGP card connector strip(s) to block detection/installation of the HDA drivers
 
#12 ·
Try removing the ATI Graphics drivers and Catalyst Control Center, restart so you are using the default VGA drive, then remove the Audio Driver and restart. Now install just the ATI driver and restart. If that works now install Audio driver.
 
#13 ·
If the above doesn't work, run regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ HDAudBus , right click that key, Export to somewhere you'll remember and name it CCSetHDAudBus (it will be assigned the .reg appendix) and save it.

Then (you'll be back in the registry) right click it again and delete it.

I've tried this, UAA doesn't get enabled AND no resources are assigned for it.

If it doesn't solve the issue, then simply double click the file you saved and it'll reinstall in the registry.
 
#15 ·
No, didn't work CCT.

I took out the key that you identified and restarted, but HD Audio still appeared in Device Manager and the problem remained. If I disable it, the CPU usage drops as before, but whenever restarting it's back 'enabled' again!

So I went back and took out the whole of the HDAud folder - there is no HDAud folder showing in the Registry now, BUT HD Audio still appears in Device Manager and the problem continues.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Go here, read about and then download the devcon.exe package - download it to a NEW folder under My Downloads and name it, say, devcontrol.

edit: The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager end of edit:

Unzip it there and copy the devcon.exe to C:\.

In Notepad, copy the following and save it as UAAOFF.bat in C:\Documents and Settings\AllUsers\Start Menu\Programs\Startup:

---------
cd\
devcon disable pci\cc_0403
---------


pci\cc_0403 is an identifier for UAA

This should turn UAA off at boot. A bit cumbersome, but it works.
 
#17 ·
Thanks CCT, I may give that a try.

Does devcon replace Device Manager? I'm a bit wary of changing to something I don't know.

Also, I'm wondering again about the value of trying to get this set-up working. Even with HDA disabled, and with the full capacity of the CPU and card available, the HD graphics in BBC iPlayer are still not smooth. They are much better than they were, and can't now be described as "choppy", but they are not smooth and fluent as they should be.

I have looked for minimum specs on the BBC site, but couldn't find any for HD.

I would have thought that the Athlon 3200+, with the HD5450 with 1 GB of DDR3 on the card, would have been enough, but it seems not. TM shows 98 to 100% usage with BBC HD running, and it lacks fluency. I'm thinking that this ECS mobo is not facilitating the full power of the HD5450.

Feels like I'm trying to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear! :ermm:
 
#18 ·
"Does 'devcon' replace Device Manager?"

No - think of it as a separate and programmable\manageable doorway - it is a MS routine so has 'no worries'.

As for the BBC HD streams, unless you have a fast web connection
you might see staggering and pauses as it caches (I can't get BBC smooth because there is no setting to allow lower res (ie, NOT 740 nor 480 but 360 works best for my connection speed) like Youtube has (many sites suck that way).
 
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