Windows Update Breaks RealTek Audio

Indianatone said:

Here is the list of updates from this month:

Advanced Windows Update Notification for December 10th 2013

Thanks. I don't see anything that could impact the sound card for Windows 7 64-bit. Everything seems to be a security update for IE.

matts6887 said:

Also might want to check the device manager and see if there are any question mark or exclamation points next to the sound controller and or sound card. If there are try completely uninstalling it and letting windows re-detect it(hopefully). If that still does not work i would consider what computergeek mentioned about the possible corruption of the audio application and or driver(s).

Device Manager shows HD Pro Webcam C920 (a Logitech webcam that includes a microphone), High Definition Audio (Windows process), and Realtek High Definition Audio. Right-clicking on these shows no problems.

The Control Panel Troubleshooting utility "Troubleshoot Audio Playback" does not identify a problem.

@motorfingers,

Some reported a windows kernel driver update have mess-up with sound drivers this month and could be kb2887069.

Try HERE or HERE to see if you get an answer.

ComputerGeek said:

@motorfingers

...

/* EDIT */
p.s. the controller is a PCI device. You can verify its detection using PCI-Z. If you want to Export it and zip its output i can look at it for you. Can verify the HD Devices later.

Whoooa. I see the RealTek ethernet card in the list but I do NOT see the RealTek sound chipset.

EDIT: BIOS says that audio is enabled. "SB HD Azalia Configuration," device ENABLED, Azalia Front Panel HD (alternative is AC97), SPDIF Out Type SPDIF (alternative is HDMI).

NEW EDIT: Line 11 of PCI-Z output is the Azalia PCI device, attributed to AMD instead of RealTek.

NoN said:

@motorfingers,

Some reported a windows kernel driver update have mess-up with sound drivers this month and could be kb2887069.

Try HERE or HERE to see if you get an answer.

I un-installed the KB2887069 update, no joy. I ran the ASUS audio driver installer, which un-installs whatever is there, reboots, and re-installs, reboots again for the new driver installation, and again no joy. Windows Update wants to re-install KB2887069. I guess I will let it.

To clear the air and provide refocus, onboard RealTek sound worked fine for a week, then stopped working with a Windows Update that required a reboot. The symptoms are no sound on the speaker jack, and an endless notification loop when a headset is plugged into the front panel jacks in which the RealTek HD Audio Manager notifies me that a headphone has been plugged in, then a microphone, then the headphone and microphone are dropped and I get notifications of that, then the headphone and microphone are detected again and I get notifications, and the process repeats until I unplug the headset.

BIOS, drivers, and consistent use of HD Audio (never AC97) throughout has also been checked, and Windows sees no problem with audio playback.

It all started with a Windows Update Tuesday morning. I lost the restore point by re-installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit before I thought the whole thing through. I've got too many WU files installed to work backwards with any expectation of anything except wasting my time until I crash the system completely.

Workaround is that I have a sound card coming Tuesday. If I can't get the on-board RealTek audio working by then, I'll disable it in BIOS and use the sound card. I'll test it from time to time, particularly if RealTek comes out with a new driver, and if and when it ever works I'll move the sound card over to an old Linux box that never has had sound.

motorfingers said:

NEW EDIT: Line 11 of PCI-Z output is the Azalia PCI device, attributed to AMD instead of RealTek

I'm guessing you ran PCI-Z when the driver was uninstalled?

fyi.. Device names are for the benefit of us humans. As far as Windows is concerned, the name is just a comment
> When a driver's installed, Windows uses the name it finds in the driver file
> When there's no driver, you're seeing the name burned into the chip firmware by the vendor.
Since you saw AMD, not Realtek, I'm guessing no driver was installed when your ran PCI-Z?

Next. You should uninstall Realtek audio yourself, verify the uninstall looks "clean" and then reinstall using the latest audio driver on the ASUS site
> Uninstall the audio driver from Programs and Features
> Next verify the driver package has been removed from the Driver Store. Open a admin cmd prompt window. Enter pnputil.exe -e. Check that Realtek audio is no longer there. More info see How To Remove a Driver Package from Driver Store
> Now look in Device Manager. The m/b HD Audio devices should now have yellow question marks if their drivers were removed. (You should still Nvidia audio though)

I'll take a look your device manager too. Run DevManView. Click Ctl-A to select all, Ctl-S to save. Save As Tab Delimited Text. Zip and upload the file. (You MUST change default to Save as Tab Delimited Text! for me to use that file)

Then reinstall the latest Audio driver version from the ASUS support site.

/* EDIT */
Here's the direct link to download DevManView 64-bit version

Actually the PCI-Z run was with the drivers installed. This is the line with the driver installed:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4383&SUBSYS_84361043&REV_40 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)

I did everything you said. Attached is a ZIP archive with outputs from pnputil -e (obtained by piping output to text file) and from DevManView (in tab-delimited text format).

In Device Manager, without the RealTek driver installed, I get three devices under "Sound, video and game controllers:"

• HD Pro Webcam [Logitech] C920 [which has a microphone]
• High Definition Audio Device [Microsoft driver]
• Realtek High Definition Audio

Without the Realtek driver installed, the third one is missing until I reboot, then it it replaced by a Microsoft driver. There is no yellow question mark. Possibly if I removed everything, I would get that; I haven't done that. At first, the Microsoft driver does not recognize that my speakers are plugged in. I plug in my microphone, and it recognizes that it is plugged in, but there is no sound output. Unplugging the microphone produces recognition of the speakers, but there still is no sound.


Installing the latest driver from the ASUS web site, it recognizes that the speakers are plugged in. The soft background noises from the speaker quiet after a soft click during boot, telling me that the audio jack is enabled, but there is no startup sound, and I can't get sound out of the speaker. Right now, I can plug in the headset and I do not get the headset recognized as a device. Nor is the Realtek Audio Manager in the hidden icon list. It's there in Hardware and Sound, and, invoking it, I get recognition of the headphone and microphone, but no sound. Under Sound, the speakers are still the default playback device and the headphones aren't listed. The Realtek HD Audio Manager keeps dropping the headphone and microphone as before, but now it is in the list of hidden icons.