Audio Issues: Realtek HD Audio Manager notifies me I have plugged something in, but then doesn't show up.

[GR32]

Little history: So I used to plug in my headphones with an integrated mic into the pink and green ports on the front of my computer, and it worked perfectly. I could use the mic and headphones.

Then something happened. Now when I plug them in, I get a notification from realtek HD audio manager that I have plugged an audio device in, but when I open said manager, it says, "you are seeing a blank page because there is no audio devices in the system". This is the exact same application that just told me I plugged something in! I don't know what to do. Can I reinstall the Realtek HD audio manager? I doesn't show up in control panel as an application to uninstall.

Here's another peculiar thing: Under device manager in control panel all my audio devices show up. But if I right click on the sound icon in the taskbar in the bottom right hand corner and open playback or recording devices, it says, "no audio devices are installed". It clearly shows them all in device manager! I have tried installing all different drivers - ones from the manufacturer website, and let windows install the default ones. I have a hard time believing this is a driver related issue.

I actually even bought a cheap plug in play USB mic that people say works with just the windows default driver. ( http://smile.amazon.com/Adjustable-Microphone-Compatible-Chatting-Recording/dp/B00UZY2YQE?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 ) I plug it in, the driver is installed, and it shows up under device manager. But I cannot select it as a recording device. I also HIGHLY doubt this is a driver issue.

One last thing I tried; I was having an issue in Adobe Premiere where I didn't have any sound at all. I fixed this by installing asio4all. I thought maybe this was the issue, so I uninstalled it but the issues still persist.

Either way, I would consider myself relatively tech-savvy and I am clueless. I have tried everything I can think of.

 

[Colif]

have you tried the playing audio troubleshooter? or the Hardware & Devices troubleshooter? its possible some hardware is disabled.

 

[GR32]

have you tried the playing audio troubleshooter? or the Hardware & Devices troubleshooter? its possible some hardware is disabled.

No I don't think so. Where do I find those?

 

[Colif]

search cortana for troubleshoot
select the control panel option
on next pop up, select view all from the menu on left
the two I mentioned are in the list

if it asks for a restart, do one and then re run the same test again

 

[GR32]

search cortana for troubleshoot
select the control panel option
on next pop up, select view all from the menu on left
the two I mentioned are in the list

if it asks for a restart, do one and then re run the same test again

Ah okay. I ran the recording audio troubleshooter and got some results. It told me that audio services aren't responding. It tried to restart audio services but that didn't fix the issue, and it knows that.

It also claims:
"One or more audio service isn't running - Issue not present

Both the Windows Audio and the Windows Audio End Point Builder services must be running for audio to work correctly. At least one of these services isn't running."
But it says issue not present.

 

[Colif]

did you try the other one? hardware & devices can also help. Did you try unplugging device after the tests to see if it still does it?

I don't think its a driver issue, but its software of some sort. Its settings as I have been through similar with my PC, when I first got my current 5.1 speakers it would only recognise a few of them at first. Some connections just seemed disabled. I sat here for 12 hours trying to get them to work - i knew speakers worked as if i connected them via digital cable they all gave me sound.

You might have to run both troubleshooters a few times... and play around with settings in the realtek hd Audio manager.

I know, not very scientific but I actually don't know what I did to get them to finally work, at one stage I had 5 speakers working and just the rear left one wasn't, which is odd as it shared same input as rear right one.

 

[Colif]

i wonder if that asio4all driver became the default and when you removed it, windows didn't put one in its place

right click start button
select device manager
find Sound, video & game controllers in the list
what devices are listed here?
if realtek is in the list, select it and check its status, and go to driver tab and see if its got a driver number somewhere close to 6.0.1.7746

if there are none, select view and then tick show hidden devices as they may be disabled. I think you can select these and enable them from here, but only do the realtek one.