There are few things that annoy as much as wanting to listen to music or watch a movie and that the computer is not able to reproduce sound. This problem may be due to the HD Realtek Audio drivers, so to solve it we must download and install them again. Not without first uninstalling the old ones to avoid duplicate driver problems.
What are HD Realtek Audio Drivers
The Realtek Audio HD sound driver is responsible for making it easier for us to play the sound control in Windows. It is known for being able to deliver high-quality sound both for our system and for headphones connected through the audio card. And it is that thanks to these drivers they will allow us to improve the sound experience in a remarkable way.
The Realtek HD Audio drivers have become an essential component to achieve optimal performance of our sound card. It has incredible features as it provides high quality sound DTS, Dolby and Surround Soud. Additionally, it supports a six-channel modulation digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which is compatible with 16/20/24 bit pulse modulation formats for 5.1-channel audio.
However, it may happen that we have problems accessing this sound driver, that we have lost the Realtek HD Audio Manager icon or that it has been moved from the task bar. These problems may have appeared after a Windows update or after a change in the native audio driver or sound card.
Uninstall current drivers
Before proceeding to download and install the Realtek HD Audio drivers, it is necessary that we proceed to uninstall the drivers we have installed at the moment. This is necessary to avoid conflicts regarding drivers that may be duplicated, so check the driver version and uninstall duplicate audio drivers.
For this we must access the “Device Manager”. The easiest way is to type device manager in the Start menu search box and select it. Next we must locate the section of “Sound, video and game controllers” and display it. We look for the “Realtek Audio” section and click on it with the right button to bring up a small contextual menu. Here we will click on «Uninstall the device».
Next, a new window will appear where we must check the box of «Delete the driver software of this device and, finally», click on «Uninstall».
Once finished uninstalling the current drivers, we go to the “View” tab at the top. Here we select the option “Show hidden devices” from the drop-down menu. Next, we look for possible duplicate audio drivers. In the event that you find one, we will click on it with the right button and select “Uninstall”. Once finished we restart the system.
Download, Install and Update Realtek HD Audio
Once the drivers are uninstalled, we proceed to download the Realtek HD Audio drivers. For this we will have three options available, either by performing the update automatically, or by downloading the drivers manually by ourselves. Finally, we can use the Realtek HD Audio Manager application.
Automatically
To do this, from the “Windows Device Manager” we must go back to the “Sound, video and game controllers” section and display it. Here we right-click on Realtek Audio and select “Update driver”. This is something that can be used both to install the drivers again and to update the drivers if necessary.
A new screen will appear where it will tell us how we want to update the drivers. We select «Search for drivers automatically». Using this option, the PC will connect to the Microsoft driver server to search for the most up-to-date version of this driver. Once found, it will be downloaded and installed on our computer, without us having to do anything else.
Manually
The second option we have available is to download by ourselves the latest Realtek HD Audio drivers. To do this we must download them from the Microsoft website by clicking here. On its page are all the sound drivers that we have available, so we must select the most modern drivers and download them.
To download them, just press the “Download” button that we find on the right side. This will make a new window appear where we must click on the link to start downloading the file. This file has a .cab extension so once downloaded we must extract it with a file decompressor such as WinRAR, WinZIP or similar.
Once extracted, we return to the «Device Manager», we place ourselves in the section «Sound, video and game controllers» and we display it. Right click on Realtek Audio and click on «Update driver». This time we select the option “Browse my PC for drivers.” As with the automatic installation mode, we can use this option to update the drivers directly, if they work well, but we want to keep them updated to the latest version, without having to delete them previously.
This will open a new window where we must choose the folder where the new Realtek driver that we have downloaded and unzipped and that we want to install is located. To do this, click on “Browse” and look for the corresponding folder. Once selected, click on «Next». Once this is done, he will begin the installation process of the new sound driver. When finished, we must restart the computer so that the whole process is completed satisfactorily.
Use the Realtek Audio Manager application
Along with the ability to download Realtek HD Audio drivers, we also have the option to download the application called Realtek HD Audio Manager. From it we can manage all the sound functions, as well as correct errors and compatibility problems. It is another different way that we have to be able to download, install and update its drivers. We can download it directly from your Web page.
It will only be necessary to choose the Windows option for 32-bit or 64-bit systems and click on Download on the left side. This will take us to another page where we must write our email, check the box “I accept to the above” and click on “Download this file”. Finally, a page appears where we must write the Captcha so that the download process begins.
We must bear in mind that they are quite large files and that the page’s servers are not exactly the fastest, so it may take a long time to download. Once it has been downloaded, we proceed to its installation through its wizard until the process is complete.
