Which driver messes with media keys on Dell 9550?

Question

System info

Dell XPS 15 9550 with Windows 10 19043.

Problem

I made the mistake of unnecessarily updating drivers with the program Snappy Driver Installer. It changed about 30 drivers. The problem is that the media keys — the keys on the function row, F1-F12 — no longer work properly. This shows itself in 4 ways:

1. using volume keys no longer shows a volume popup window.
2. using screen brightness keys no longer shows a brightness popup window.
3. the brightness keys change the brightness in large, discrete steps of 10% (before it was a smooth change). sometimes when pressing the brightness keys the right-click a popup menu appears.
4. pressing the play/pause, next or previous buttons no longer shows a media popup.

Some wrong driver causes the problem. Which one is it?

Attempted solutions

Already tried using Dell SupportAssist, Dell Update, Windows Update. Tried reinstalling HID, display, Realtek audio drivers.

Answer 1

First, please don't ever use that kind of shitty software/driver updater, always use Windows/Manufacturers.

Try to use System Restore. If it is disabled or you don't have a valid restore point, try to uninstall Snappy Driver Installer from Control Panel/Programs and Features.

1. If you see anything weird or related to that shit as drivers, go ahead and remove all you can find installed on the same date.
2. Restart Windows, and let it load default Windows 10 drivers.
3. Then go this.
4. Register/Login and download the proper drivers and tools for your device.

If that doesn't work, backup all your stuff, and reinstall with a clean Windows 10 using Create Windows 10 installation Media downloaded from Microsoft and using Rufus to create a Bootable Media (USB stick).

Answer 2

From your list of drivers, I would guess that these are to blame:

26. Logicool HID Keyboard Power Key
27. Logitech HID-Compliant Keyboard
28. Logicool HID Keyboard Consumer Controls
29. Logicool HID-compliant Cordless Mouse

These are all Logitech drivers, so pertain to the keyboard and mouse. You need to remove them from the computer.

• Run Device Manager
• Click on the View menu and turn on "Show Hidden Devices"
• Expand the node that represents the type of device to uninstall, perhaps "Human Interface Devices"
• Right-click the device entry for the device to uninstall and select Uninstall
• On the "Confirm Device Removal" dialog box, to also remove the driver package in addition to uninstalling the device, select "Delete the driver software for this device".
• Click OK.
• Repeat for other likely devices, keeping the mouse to the last.
• Reboot the computer - after this the keyboard and mouse might become unusable, and in that case press once the Power button to shutdown the computer.
• On the next boot Windows will install its own drivers.
• If the media keys are not yet functional, search for a driver on the Dell website.

Create a System Restore point before starting, for backup.

Answer 3

Deleting the program DroidCam made the brightness and media popups reappear. This program had 2 audio device drivers. Strange, because the problem clearly started after using the driver program and I didn't do anything with or related to DroidCam in the meantime.