New
#1
Cannot get Realtek 2.58 to install!
Baffling.
Before this latest 2.58 [mis-]adventure, I had been using 2.53. That was the last version of the driver I had installed "cold" it appears.
I've been downloading more recent versions as they've become available, but have never installed them. And the reason for that is that each install loses the previously created "custom EQ" settings, and I'd rather have a working stable somewhat back-level driver that works fine for me, than the latest-and-greatest if I have to re-create my custom EQ's each time.
To make it harder on users, Realtek's EQ doesn't provide digital values for the slider positions (either as flyout help or as values presented at the top of each frequency column) which would really be great. That way we could absolute take very little time to recreate them when a new driver gets installed. Instead, I have JPG screenshots of my EQ's, and can therefore really only "approximate" what they are supposed to be. Good enough, I guess.
Anyway, today I decided to upgrade both my Win7 and WinXP partitions to the latest Realtek driver.
In the past, if you wanted to upgrade a driver, you had to run the new driver installer file twice: (1) once, to uninstall the old driver, then reboot, (2) run the new driver installer again, which this time would actually install it, and then reboot again. After this second reboot completes, the orange HD Audio Manager icon should appear in the system tray indicating that you've successfully installed the Realtek audio software. Right-click on the speaker icon, select "playback devices", make sure the "speakers" item is checked, push Properties, Configure... etc.
Ok. So I ran the 2.58 installer. The onscreen description this time looked a bit different. It suggested that you didn't actually have to manually re-run the installer file the second time yourself after that first re-boot.
Yes, you still had to run it once to uninstall the current driver, and then you had to re-boot. But apparently the re-running of the installer file that second time is now automatic!! And that implicit automatic re-running of the driver actually will install the driver, but then you have to once again re-boot.
And after that second re-boot, now once again you'll see the orange HD Audio Manager icon, and right-click on the speaker icon and select Audio Devices to go through Properties, Configure, etc., just as before.
So, except for the automatic re-run of the installer that now seems to occur after that first re-boot, and the much more normal (but less obvious) "new hardware detected" and "installing Realtek HD Audio drivers" and other messages pertaining to Realtek, this seems like it should be as before with earlier driver versions. I didn't mind manually running the file the second time, because the messages on the big blue window told me it was INSTALLING instead of the first time when it told me that it was UNINSTALLING. Now, it's actually a bit confusing.
Well, after this whole new 2.58 process completed, I find that I still have driver version 6.0.1.6215. I thought I was supposed to have 6.0.1.6299! In fact, 6.0.1.6215 is what I had before I started... which I thought was 2.53.
It almost seems like I uninstalled and reinstalled MY PREVIOUS 2.53 driver, and that 2.58 never really got installed at all.
I'm confused.
What have I done wrong? Is it my system that's hosed, and that is preventing me from uninstalling the old driver and installing the new driver?
What is the actual internal (info) version number of 2.58??
Thanks.