Audio Output Issue on New Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5

[mbressman]

I have an end-user with a brand new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 (running Win10 v2004). We only received it about 2 - 3 weeks ago, and I set it up as I normally do for end-users. Delivered to him and everything was working fine until a few days ago when audio completely stopped working on the unit.

No audio output over laptop speakers, or when plugging in headphones. Device manager does not show any issues and Realtek Audio and Intel(R) Smart Sound Technology both showing up as working. Windows is showing active audio and allows for volume up/down, etc. despite no audio being output. I have a remote access program that allows me to pipe audio from the remote computer to my local computer, and that doesn't work on this laptop either (leading me to believe the issue is software or driver related).

Have already spoken to Lenovo tech support (and escalated tech support) and didn't get anywhere. They seem to think it's a Windows issue, and the next step they are advising is reload the entire OS (which is a gigantic hassle that I'd like to try avoiding). I've tried removing drivers, changing them to basic "High Definition Audio", using optional Windows drivers under Windows Update (although they don't provide much information about these optional drivers so I'm not entirely certain the one I installed was related to audio).

I don't have this laptop in my possession, so I'm a bit limited as to my troubleshooting (although I can get it if necessary). The next step I was going to try was booting from a Linux USB to see if audio works through that (which would pretty much confirm it's a software or driver issue). Even if that does confirm it, I'm still stuck at how to resolve.

Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts? Thanks in advance!