Latest Realtek HD Audio Driver Version

fantunes said:

...except when I manually install the Realtek 2.46 over it (which results in no sound at all after rebooting).

After manually installing the Realtek driver, if you right-click on the speaker icon in the System Tray, and select the "playback devices" item, is the "speakers" item checked with a green arrow (showing it as the default output device)?

If not, select it, and push the "set default" button.

Still no sound?

No problems or indications of error from the Realtek installation? Uninstall/reinstall is a 2-step process to run their installer file. First time, it uninstalls whatever is installed and asks you to re-boot... resulting in the Microsoft generic audio driver returning after re-boot. Then you run the installer a second time, and after a second re-boot the Realtek audio driver should be installed, and the orange HD Audio control panel icon should be auto-started. Again, you many need to go into "playback devices" and once again select "speakers" and "set default".

Or... you may have already tried all this unsuccessfully.

Hi dsperber,
Thank for your reply
When I install it over the Microsoft one, after re-booting the only device I see available for playback is the HDMI output. Under Device Manager I can see the Realtek HD Audio device, but with that yellow exclamation point on it, and under properties a message saying that the driver could not be started (Code 10).
Realtek HD Audio Manager is not shown either (the orange speaker icon).
It's also important to mention that the HDMI driver installed is an nVidia driver, which was downloaded via Windows Update.
Every single time I've installed the driver I've done it twice, re-booting when being prompted to, but with no success.

fantunes said:

When I install it over the Microsoft one, after re-booting the only device I see available for playback is the HDMI output. Under Device Manager I can see the Realtek HD Audio device, but with that yellow exclamation point on it, and under properties a message saying that the driver could not be started (Code 10).

Hmmm.. bad sign.

Realtek HD Audio Manager is not shown either (the orange speaker icon).

Not surprising, since the associated Realtek device is not "installed" and working successfully.

It's also important to mention that the HDMI driver installed is an nVidia driver, which was downloaded via Windows Update.

Well you might try going directly to the nVidia site for their latest version, just on the off-chance that might help.

However my SuperMicro C2SBX has an ALC883 Realtek chip in it (which is what I use for sound, with my external speakers connected to it's output jacks on the motherboard) and my ATI HD4850 card also has "HDMI audio" associated with it (but I do NOT use it for sound!).

Also, I originally had trouble when I first put Win7 in caused by the ATI HDMI drivers. Although I wasn't using it for sound, it seemed to cause problems with the Realtek driver and HD Audio Manager, preventing the HD Audio Manager (orange speaker icon) from starting and/or even running! It may have just been my confusion about all of these drivers (and the need to set "speakers" to "default" in "playback devices"), or maybe it was actually a problem with the ATI-provided HDMI Audio driver at that time (which I didn't intend to use anyway!).

Whatever the cause (or my ignorance and confusion), I (a) ultimately reverted to the Realtek-provided version of the HDMI audio driver for ATI video cards, and (b) learned that I had to set "speakers" to "default" in "playback devices"), and then finally all of my problems and confusion and difficulties went away. Actually I haven't even bothered to update my version of that driver installed back in December. I don't use that device for sound anyway, and as long as I'm problem-free I don't care to even waste time applying the very latest 2.42 version from Realtek.

Of course I notice that Realtek does not provide a similar nVidia-version of an HDMI audio device driver, only one for ATI... so you're SOL on that side.

Anyway, though it's not really any specific help to you, here are some screenshots of things on my system... at least for your reference. Again, I'm NOT using "HDMI audio" for sound... I'm using "speakers" as "default", as set by "playback devices" from RMB on white Win7 speaker icon in System tray.

Also, I am problem-free with excellent quality and volume sound running with Realtek 2.45 (again, ALC883 Realtek chip on the SuperMicro C2SBX board). I was thrilled to get the EQ back a few releases ago, and I am not running DD5.1 sound. I am running "quadrophonic" sound, into the front/rear Altec-Lansing 641 speaker system that I have (four satellites plus sub-woofer, crossover in the amp box) which simply uses the 4-channel front/rear outputs from the 2 appropriate 2-channel stereo jacks out of my motherboard into the Altec's amp box.

(1) Device manager, audio devices



(2) Properties for Realtek HD audio device (which I DO use for sound, selecting "speakers" as "default" in "Playback devices"). I have recently upgraded to 2.45 (of course, 2.46 came out the next day but I haven't bothered to install it yet):





(3) Properties for ATI HDMI audio device (which I DO NOT USE):





(4) Playback devices:

RELEASE DATE: April 09th 2010
DRIVER VERSION: R 2.47
Driver Version In Device Manager: 6.0.1.6083

Driver Updates:
1. Customizations

The combination of a Microsoft (optional) update and these latest drivers fixed the slightly garbled audio I was getting when coming out of sleep mode.

Sorry I don't have the number on the MS update, it was listed as correcting the "no sound" problem after sleep or hibernate.

thanks for post

I'm getting lots of BSOD with Realtek's official up to date driver from their site, so I just uninstalled them and when my computer restarted it found generic driver for Realtek, I get decent sound but no 3d sound effects "ROOM" which I can live with.

Hello, just wanted to say that dsperber's screenshots are confirmation that i did everything right, but still no sound.....then i thought, lets unplug the speakers from the jack at the back of the pc, and reboot. OK so i did that, while pc was on i plugged in the jacks and low and behold, HAVE SOUND!!!!! yippee
I hope this is helpful to anyone, it turned out to be a simple solution after all :)
thanks dsperber and your helpful screenshots
by the way i downloaded the latest Reatek drivers v6.0.1.6083 dated 06/april/2010