Dolby Home Theater Not Working after Windows 10 Upgrade on Lenovo PC

by · August 4, 2015

Most of Lenovo desktops and laptops come with Dolby audio decoder and Dolby Home Theater software is the interface that you have been using to control the profiles and sound enhancements.

Dolby Home Theater

Dolby Home Theater User Interface

If you have recently upgraded from Windows 8.1  to Windows 10, there is a high chance that the Dolby Home Theater is missing and you won’t even see the Dolby icon on Taskbar. This happened to my Lenovo IdeaPad U530 laptop, and the following steps solved the problem.

IMPORTANT:

  1. Note that this fix is only to be applied on Lenovo computers which was once running Dolby Home Theater on Windows 8.1 and the program went missing or isn’t doing anything after Windows 10 upgrade. 
  2. In the process we are going to uninstall audio drivers and install it, so it is a good idea to create a System Restore point before proceeding with the following steps. Incase if something goes wrong you can revert to your earlier system state.

First thing to do is to check if your computer has some hints of corrupted Dolby Home Theater program leftover or not. So click on Action Center and then click All Settings.

All Settings

All Settings

Click System > Notifications & actions and then click on Select which icons appear on the taskbar.

Notifications and Actions

Notifications and Actions

Scroll through the list and look for some process that has comments Dolby Home Theater (ON). The icon may be messed up and you may be seeing a USB peripheral icon in place of Dolby icon! Take a look at below image, some other icons are messed up too like for Bluetooth it shows VLC Player icon! This is a messed up settings after Windows 10 upgrade.

Dolby Icon Taskbar

Dolby Icon Taskbar

Since this article focus is on fixing the Dolby Home Theater, let me show you how to fix it.

Fix Audio Drivers after Windows 10 installation

Before heading to fix Dolby Home Theater, it is recommended to first fix the audio drivers, though audio is just working fine on your computer. The problem is Windows may be installing some other audio driver while upgrade that is not compatible with Dolby.


1) Type Device Manager in the taskbar search and hit enter.

2) Expand Audio inputs and outputs and right-click on Speakers ..(something). In my case it as Speakers (RealTek High Definition Audio).

Uninstall Audio Driver

Uninstall Audio Driver

3) Go to C:\Drivers > Audio and run the setup.exe file. Don’t worry about the location of Drivers folder in the image below, I moved that folder to D: drive.

Lenovo Drivers

Lenovo Drivers

4) You need to restart your PC during the process.

Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Setup

Realtek High Definition Audio Driver Setup

5) Once complete, you will see the Speakers (RealTek High Definition Audio) back in device manager, but this time it is the drivers that is compatible with your Lenovo PC.

Install Dolby Home Theater

1) Download Dolby Home Theater program for Lenovo PCs:

Download Dolby Home Theater (for Lenovo)

2) Run the file that you downloaded gaas05ww.exe.

3) If your Lenovo PC had Dolby Home Theater earlier, you will see the program shows Repair and Remove options. Click on Repair and proceed to Finish it.

Dolby Home Theater V4 Setup

Dolby Home Theater V4 Setup

4) Now to check if it solved the problem, go again to the Notifications & actions and look for Dolby… Looks at the corrected icon in my Lenovo laptop, it says Dolby Profile Selector (Dolby Home Theater (ON), and this is how it should be.

Dolby Home Theater Icon Corrected

Dolby Home Theater Icon Corrected

5) You will also see the Dolby icon back on taskbar!

Dolby Home Theater Icon on Taskbar

Dolby Home Theater Icon on Taskbar

Did it fix your problem? Do let us know in comments below.

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Kiran Kumar

Hi there! Kiran Kumar is an Engineer by profession, and loves blogging primarily on Microsoft Windows operating system and also enjoys reviewing software and products. Currently, he is exploring Windows 10 and you will see a lot of articles on know-how about it. When he is not writing for TWP, he enjoys time with his Family, listens to lot of music, enjoys Biking, and occasionally plays racing games on Xbox One.

  • BosonStark

    Hi Kiran,

    Like you, I lost the taskbar icons to Dolby Home Theater v4 on my Lenovo laptop when I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. I got the icons back and profile selector lighting up after uninstalling, and then reinstalling the app, however, it didn’t work. In other words, I could change sound profiles and got nothing. The app isn’t actually working.

    Are you sure it is really working on yours?

    This app was my favorite of the apps that came with my Lenovo laptop. As it wasn’t working, I downloaded an open source equalizer to fill in until I got it working. Now I’m wondering if that is the problem now. If someone responds that got the Dolby Home Theater v4 working using your method, I might try uninstalling the open source one. However, I can’t ever do exactly what you did since I uninstalled the software, instead of just “repairing” it.

    • Kiran Kumar

      Hi Boson,

      Dolby is now working fine on my laptop. I think your problem like most of other Lenovo users is the problem with the Audio drivers. I will update this article with a fix to that problem as well. I am sure that it should fix your problem too! Stay tuned and watch back in a hour or so when I finish publishing it.

      • BosonStark

        Maybe I did something wrong, but I couldn’t get it to work. As soon as I uninstalled the drivers, it prompted me to reboot. So, I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to install the old audio driver first — it’s on on my D drive also — or reboot. I think I tried it both ways.

        My old driver is a Vista64 driver from 2012, and when that is installed, the sound doesn’t work, which is what I would expect. When I reboot and it upgrades to the new driver, the sound comes back on. But still no Dolby Home Theater v4 icon in the lower right. I just use the same one as before, the one I created for the desktop, and the equalizer doesn’t show live, nor do any of the settings work, although it turns on and I can switch settings.

        I might recommend to anyone trying this that they set a system restore point before doing anything with the driver. Something seemed messed up and I ended up using a restore point from before the first major update to Windows 10 came in (not the initial upgrade to Windows 10 but a big update to the initial upgrade) so I ended up having to go through the whole download for the Windows 10 update, after doing a system restore which took over an hour.

        One of the annoying things about Windows 10 is that it takes nearly 5 minutes to reboot, which is twice as long as Windows 8.1. Even so, there’s no going back for me.

        On the Lenovo website board, the initial post of the person who had this problem has over 500 views, and the Lenovo rep answered with a PROBLEM SOLVED by saying people who lost the Dolby Home Theater should revert to Win 8.1. LOL, I am not doing that. Other than the longer booting time and having to use an open source equalizer, I like too many things about Windows 10 to ever go back.

        I can be quite the nutter in these matters, and would ordinarily try something different, like deleting the Dolby Home Theater app, and trying the driver thing again. But, this time I think I’ll wait.

        Hopefully, someone in my situation (who deleted their Dolby Home Theater app) will get your method or a variant of it to work, leave a comment here, and then I will try again.

        I appreciate your effort, and again, it’s possible that your tip would work, and I just did something wrong. You might add to your post that people are supposed to load the old driver without rebooting the first time it prompts you to after uninstalling the driver, if that’s what they’re supposed to do..

        • Kiran Kumar

          I do also have the old Vista64 audio driver, but it still works fine for me. Seems like Lenovo has never updated these drivers since Vista time! Bad luck that it didn’t work for you, but I suggest you to (1) install Dolby theater, (2) uninstall your current driver and then (3) install the lenovo audio driver from D: drive. Hope it works. BTW, I forgot to tell you, I have the Dolby working 100% including music animation.

        • Jerome

          I spent too much time trying to fix this issue as well. Go to the “DolbyHomeTheater” installer file from Lenovo (D:) > drivers > Audio > PCEE4, right click on it and then go to the Compatibility tab; click on “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” previous version of Windows. Apply, run and voila!

          • Jerome

            Forgot to add, you must follow Kiran’s procedure to uninstall the current audio driver before you re-install (following the steps above) the driver on compatibility mode.

  • http://stackoverflow.com/users/814702/informatik01 Levan

    Thanks!
    I don’t have a Lenovo PC, but I have a external sound card Asus Xonar U7 which also came with Dolby Home Theater v4. So I downloaded the file you provided (without uninstalling the sound driver using Device Manger), run it, chose “Repair” and it did the job without any problem!

    Thanks again!

    • Kiran Kumar

      Thanks for leaving your feedback. It helps.

  • Mayank Kataria

    thank you buddy,its working now, never required to install that Dolby again , mine earlier Dolby home theatre is working now, is it necessary to install which you recommended to download and install, please let me know

    • Kiran Kumar

      The latest Dolby Home Theater version for most of Lenovo PCs is V4. If you have the same version, there is no need to reinstall the same, especially when everything is working fine. Appreciate your feedback though.

      • Mayank Kataria

        thanks…

  • Michael Gerard Hernandez

    Hi. My laptop is Lenovo Z50-70. After downloading and running gaas05ww.exe, I encountered an error message “PCEE needs to be installed” and the Dolby Home Theater v4 Setup Wizard ended prematurely. I haven’t reached the Dolby “Change, Repair or Remove Installation” window.

    • eternaldragonx

      me too, I still havnt figured out a solution

      • Tawhid

        Yep, same problem here as well( Lenovo G5080)

    • V-sal Enrique Tsubedi

      i got the same problem

    • Aaron J Mixon

      Hey, is your Dolby working now? I was wondering if you could help me out. I encountered the same problem today. Have you found a solution?

  • Rizal Mahbizar

    Mine just need to be repaired, go to installation file and hit repair. Bam! its done and working properly. Inspired by your stuff here i guess, and my lazyness.

    • Kiran Kumar

      Thanks for leaving your feedback. It helps.

  • Rajeev Shreenidhi

    Thanks a lot it works. Wonderful to see a solution which is given so easy sequence of steps and even people in microsoft blog is not prefect.

    • Kiran Kumar

      Thanks for leaving your feedback and overwhelming compliments! Have a good one.

  • Charan Reddy

    thnx man for giving this fix thnx it was fixxed my problem thnx man man you are the man man give me your phone no thnx man for giving this solution

    • Kiran Kumar

      Hey Charan, You are welcome! We are going to give you all a good news! TWP will have a Question & Answers Community section very soon where you can post questions and even help others! Watch out for our updates on Facebook page and this site.

  • Mikkie

    Is this going to work on Acer Aspire V5-572PG ? I tried everything already and nothing works :/ I have only Dolby Digital, but I read somwhere that is not the same as Home Theater.

  • Conrad Scofield

    It works! Thanks 😉

  • HannyS

    Not working for lenovo G580 :(

  • eternaldragonx

    Had this working before but upgraded to W10. I tried following instructions but its says pcee not installed. Lenovo yoga 11s

  • Korn “S” Lufear

    windows 10 driver for Y500 give dolby digital plus instead of home theater v4 how to fix this even though i install HTv4 profile selector noting happen but i can enable dolby through speaker properties http://imgur.com/eHQTg65

  • Alina Aldoshina

    Thank you so much for the help! Actually in my case it was enough just to uninstall and install back the Realtek drivers and Dolby started working again!
    // I have Lenovo Y580.

  • exogenesis

    I followed the steps and have dolby on my taskbar but i don’t think its working cause the sound-bar is not moving when i play a video or music.

    • Kiran Kumar

      I suggest you to (1) install Dolby theater, (2) uninstall your current driver and then (3) install the lenovo audio driver from D: drive. Hope it works. I have the Dolby working 100% including music animation.

  • Alfredo Anchondo

    Thanks that works in a Lenovo ideapad P400 touch

    • exogenesis

      is your sound bar moving?

  • Mike Cañedo

    Thanks a lot! It works! I have a Lenovo Z480 😉

  • Ced Ista

    It works. I’m using Lenovo S400T i3 HD4000 Dolby Adv V2. Thanks! I’ve been looking this kind of article for a long time.

  • Владислав Андреев

    Hi Kiran! I have Acer Aspire V5-552G laptop, and after reinstalling Realtek and Dolby I didn’t see the offer to repair Dolby components, it was typical installing. And Dolby doesn’t work, it launches but not work. What I need doing to make that?

  • Tony Sabu

    That was great. I was looking for a solution to this problem of mine after I upgraded to Windows 10. Thanks .

  • Tim Notfullname

    I also could simply repair it. press windows key + X , choose “programs and features”, choose Dolby Home Theatre 4 ( just highlight it ) then the option to REPAIR appears, then click REPAIR .after that follow pictures to enable DOLBY symbol in notification area..Thanks for this it really helped

  • Jim

    Hello, Thanks for posting this. It got me closer than ever to having my Dolby Home Theater back after upgrading to windows 10 (Latest version). My laptop is a Lenovo Y50-70, Dolby is running in the background,I got the icon and everything but It’s not working or animating. I would appreciate any help.

    • Kiran Kumar

      No problem Jim, I suggest you to (1) install Dolby theater, (2) uninstall your current audio driver and then (3) install the lenovo audio driver from D: drive. Hope it works. I have the Dolby working 100% including music animation.

  • andrew

    lenovo ideapad z500. did everything, uninstalled, reboot, instal and still nothing…. PCEE needed…and when i try to instal PCEE driver, sorry, it stopped prematurely ….

  • Matt Daubresse

    On my lenovo y580, I just went into the control panel>programs and features> right clicked dolby then hit repair. It now appears in my start menu and opens properly. Thanks for this post though.

  • serqio1000

    after kiran’s procedure, i went to dolby digital plus file (C:/Program Files/Dolby Digital Plus) and ran the ddpe.exe file and it worked with the old version of dolby home theater like in win8.1 i hope it’ll work on you. Thanks Kiran! btw, my laptop is a Lenovo z50-70 :)

  • Alvaro Uribe Jimenez

    That´s terrific, you´re the cream of the crop! Thank´s (Y)

  • Aaron J Mixon

    Mine says “PCEE needs to be installed” what is this? Need help, I tried everything and my Dolby Home Theater still does not work. :(

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