Realtek Audio Device/Windows 7

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madcoil

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Hello,
I was having a hard time getting my microphone to work. I work from home occasionally and noticed I would have to unplug the jacks and replug them in when I connected to a remote desktop in order for sound to work correctly. Unfortunately, that did not work today. I decided to try updating the Realtek driver. I uninstalled the current driver and installed a more recent one. The driver install asked for a reboot of my system so that it could complete, but once I logged back in, it said the update failed. Now if I look at device manager, it sees an audio device, but lists it as High Definition Audio Device and has the yellow triangle with the exclamation point. I have tried to search for better drivers on my system, but windows says it has the best drivers. Currently I have no sound. Any help would be most helpful.
 
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madcoil

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So I just tried another driver directly from Realtek and windows says it can not verify and do I want to continue. I say yes. The items in the device manager disappear for a moment as if it is trying to do something and then I get the same "windows can't verify the publisher" do you want to continue anyway. So it becomes a loop over and over again.
 
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Ironsounds

Ironsounds

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Yes... all the Realtek drivers suggested for Lan and Audio will give you trouble from Windows 7 update... dont't use them, from my experience... I have a Gigabyte board with the ALC889A chipset using their download for my motherboard... ver 6.0.1.6235 DirectX 11.0... I must say this Control Panel is a thing of beauty with my Windows 7 64 bit system... but it has the Gigabyte logo with it.
Do you know what RealteK chipset you have? There are quite a few... Also do you know your motherboard MFG'r?

I have in the past gone to www.realtek.com for great working drivers/Control Panel for this motherboard too... and I have had great results too... by the way when you find the one that works for you... save a copy of it for future use...
 
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madcoil

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Change security settings didn't help. I'm not using the onboard sound card, but wonder if activating it might be the best way to go. Realtek drivers won't reinstall no matter what I try. I had a friend build my pc a couple years ago. I'm assuming the onboard sound card is disabled or I could just go get a new sound card. My concern is it the sound card that is acting up or is it my computer. I have seen posts with issues when it comes to Realtek and windows 7, but it worked before with a few glitches.
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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As far as I know, RealTek doesn't make discrete sound cards, so you are using the onboard sound. If this is the case, you should get the realtek drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's web site, not directly from the realtek web site.

If you are using a discrete sound card, go to the sound card manufacturer's web site and download the drivers.
 
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Ironsounds

Ironsounds

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Hawkeye is right!!!... your motherboard might use a realtek chip on it!!! ( please give your motherboard info to us to help you!!!!! )... and it needs to be enabled in the mother board BIOS!!! ... But if your using a exterior/plug in AUDIO card, then you need to disable it in the motherboard BIOS!!!

Having two sound cards in the computer enabled at the same time will confuse software installation... same with the newer video/audio cards/HDMI cards... enable and disable/remove similar audio devices when installing software/drivers so as to not confuse the software installation... and re-install/enable them after a successful software installation...

Best advice is for you to decide which sound device you want to use first... then enable it and disable/remove the other one... find the MFG'r of the one you want to use and install that software only... or give us the tech info on parts... so we can best guide/help you...

Realtek makes great 24 bit audio chips for motherboards and now I dont ever need external audio cards any more... 888/889 chips are fantastic...

AS I SAID BEFORE... Alway un-install any AUDIO software drivers first and reboot... BEFORE installing new... Control Panel/Programs and Features/UNINSTALL

I've had fustration with audio drivers before too... and sometimes an older version worked best... keep track of versions when downloading and installing them... also goes with sites that you downloaded from... Try a different site for the same software... www.CNET.com is a great site for Drivers...
 
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madcoil

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yeah it is onboard. The reason I thought it wasn't is it shows to sound devices in my device manager. I'm not sure the mb that was used. The second one says AMD High Definition device. You'll have to forgive me because I don't go into the BIOS a lot, but it lists the mb there doesn't it or would I have to look in my computer to find it on the mb itself
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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The side where everything plugs into. here is a pic of my board. Notice the make & model is just above the memory slots, but it could be written anywhere.

1101.jpg
 
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Hawkeye22

Hawkeye22

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That's the wrong chip. The realtek chip should say realtek on it along with something like ALC889A. It should be esier to find the make and model of the board and not the chips themselves.

Are you sure one of the PCIe cards, memory, or CPU/fan isn't blocking it?
 
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madcoil

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My video card is pretty large so I suppose it could be blocking it. I thought we were looking for mb type and chipset. Based on your pic that is the info I gave. You are saying the realtek sound card has a chipset as well?
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Go to the driver site for your exact motherboard, then:

1) Download and install the MAIN CHIPSET driver (may say "INF" or something similar)
2) Uninstall anything that looks like audio driver or software
3) Install the driver from the motherboard driver site for AUDIO

If it installed correctly, you may have to change the audio device (graphics cards often have limited audio but we don't want that as the main audio device):

1) right-click the audio icon in the lower-right (System Tray)
2) select "playback devices"
3) "Speakers"

Also, the Realtek software should install with an icon in the System Tray to manage the audio. It's a strange blue icon.

*If you're really stumped, create an Ubuntu CD or DVD then boot to it (no need to install). Once you're on the desktop go to a website and try to play audio. If it works in Linux then it's a software issue with Windows. If it still doesn't work maybe your onboard sound chip is dead?

(I assume it's enabled in the BIOS because you'd said it worked already).
 
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madcoil

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First off, I wanted to thank everyone for their help up to this point. My main concern is I'm a mb noob. How do I determine main chipset and motherboard type. It clearly says Infinity on the mb, but I'm not sure how to determine what is the main chipset. I may have it blocked by my video card, but unfortunately I can't take my card out at this exact moment. Your explanation above seems simple once I figure out the mb and main chip set.
 
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madcoil

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System restore for the win. Sound is working again. Luckily I happened to do a system restore yesterday. Thanks for everyone's help. If anything reoccurs I will jump back on here and continue my annoying questions.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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You should make an IMAGE of your Windows partition. If you have a Western Digital hard drive (even if its USB and plugged in) you can use their free Acronis True Image software.

You should have a second hard drive, then create an IMAGE (usually about 60% of the size your your Windows drive).

The IMAGE will restore everything, including files, whereas the System Restore doesn't affect files.

I make an IMAGE once per week.
 
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