Realtek Audio Drivers Are Junk

[Joshgt2]

Am I the only person who is experiencing the worst Realtek Drivers right now? I just got done building this new rig and having the most up the date Realtek Drivers are killing me. I used to have great sounds and now they are a pile of garbage. I use a very simply, yet effective, set of Razer Orca's and my 3.5mm microphone doesn't even have the best sound anymore. Is there a stable set of drivers out there that I can get still? I want something that works, and it doesn't have to be brand new.

~Joshgt2

 

[Fumz]

Are we supposed to guess what your system specs might be?

 

[Joshgt2]

CASE-IN WIN Dragon Rider ATX Full Tower Case
MOTHERBOARD-EVGA P67 SLI 130-SB-E675-KR LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU-Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost)
HEATSINK-Corsair Hydro H60 Liquid Cooling
OPERATING SYSTEM-Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
MEMORY-G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB (2x4GB) 1600
VIDEO CARD-Nvidia EVGA GTX 460 SE 1GB Overclocked
POWER SUPPLY-Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W
HARD DRIVE #1-Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200RPM 32MB Cache
HARD DRIVE #2-Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200RPM 32MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE-CD/DVD Combo Reader & Writer
MOUSE-Logitec G500 5700DPI Laser Gaming Mouse
MOUSE PAD-Razer Kabuto
KEYBOARD-Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
MONITOR#1-ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD
MONITOR#2-Acer 22" Widescreeen LCD
HEADSET-Razer Orca

I just got off of the phone with EVGA and they stated that if this is happening on their board and the previous MSI board I had, it must be something with Realteks drivers. Can't imagine how this is happening on 2 different boards.

 

[Fumz]

Did you install the drivers off the motherboard's CD or did you go to Realtek?

 

[Britton30]

A couple things to check because I've made these mistakes, especially on my new builds.
Are the cables connected to the proper ports?
Do you have any sound effects enabled in the Realtek sounds control.
Are you connected with the right cable to the mobo, HD audio, Analog audio.

 

[Joshgt2]

Did you install the drivers off the motherboard's CD or did you go to Realtek?

I installed the ones on the Motherboard, and they worked, but not 100%. And then updated via clean install from the Drivers from Realtek. Both drivers are resulting in the same results.

A couple things to check because I've made these mistakes, especially on my new builds.
Are the cables connected to the proper ports?
Do you have any sound effects enabled in the Realtek sounds control.
Are you connected with the right cable to the mobo, HD audio, Analog audio.

I've got Green for my Razer Orcas and Pink for my Microphone here on my desk. Should they be going into a different port or something because THEN this would be new news to me.

 

[Sardonicus]

As mentioned before, get the latest drivers from the Realtek site.

There a lot of adjustments that can be made under the hood.
The Realtek HD Audio Manager has MIC settings for recording and Playback volume.


You can also make adjustments through the Windows Volume mixer.


You should probably make adjustments in both places to see if it improves the sound.

 

[MrNeeds]

If they are that bad then why don't you revert back to the windows default audio drivers? I've got the same realtek hardware that you have and they work perfectly fine with windows default drivers, mind you, i don't use them as I decided that surround sound is far superior to stereo and forked out for a set of G35's

 

[Joshgt2]

As mentioned before, get the latest drivers from the Realtek site.

There a lot of adjustments that can be made under the hood.
The Realtek HD Audio Manager has MIC settings for recording and Playback volume.
View attachment 158801

You can also make adjustments through the Windows Volume mixer.
View attachment 158802

You should probably make adjustments in both places to see if it improves the sound.

Yeah, I know that I can go through all of that, but it doesn't make any bit of difference to the volume of the units that are connected to the port. I have tried multiple 3.5mm devices and they are all extremely low. However; USB devices are fine.

If they are that bad then why don't you revert back to the windows default audio drivers? I've got the same realtek hardware that you have and they work perfectly fine with windows default drivers, mind you, i don't use them as I decided that surround sound is far superior to stereo and forked out for a set of G35's

I wear glasses and I really like these Razer Orcas. I would prefer not to use something else. However; when you mention "windows default audio drivers" are we talking simply uninstalling Realtek's crap and running with...... Yeah, can't complete really.