Realtek HD Drivers (Yes, again)

I've searched around this forum, found some really good posts, but nothing that has helped me, quite unfortunately.

I recently upgraded a friends computer, and am dealing with drivers and such because the friend didn't want to wipe the harddrive and start fresh. Anyway, the sound drivers are one of the things that I've had to deal with.

It's an onboard HD Realtek output, there are no front jacks (At least not any connected), and the speakers do work on other devices.

Speakers in correct port: Check.
Speakers turned on: Check.
Sound not muted: Check.
Audio device set to Realtek HD Audio: Check.
Uninstall drivers/UAA: Check.
Rebooted, reinstalled: Check.

This time the Realtek audio manager thing didn't even come up, but, the computer thinks that the audio device is installed properly. I've also tried deleting the registry key for UAA, but that didn't help.

So, I finally have to swallow my pride and admit that I am completely and utterly lost.

System Specs:
OS: XP Pro SP2 running DirectX 9.0c
MB: NVIDIA nForce 570LT SLI Chipset Based K9N SLI V2 Socket AM2
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ (2.21Ghz)
BIOS: AMI (02/18/08) <- Just realized this is out of date by a month and a half. I'll try updating that, too.
Display: NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT (512MB)
Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio Output

Sorry to bother all of you with another Realtek Driver problem...

Thanks,
-GSZB

 

When you say Windows thinks the driver is installed, does that mean there are no problems in Device Manager?
Does the volume icon show in the taskbar?
You can (or should be able to) right click it to get to the Realtek Manager) or it should show in the Control Panel. If the version of the driver you used contained the Realtek Manager.

 

The device manager states no problems.

Both the volume icon and the Realtek HD icon show in the taskbar.

And the driver version is 5.10.0.5628.

Can't believe I forgot to give that ><

 

Check in both Control Panel>Sounds/Audio and in the Realtek Manager that Realtek is set as Default audio device and that sound is not set to digital. Also, make sure the speaker setting is corresponding to the type you are using.

 

It is the default device, in both, and the speaker setting is what I'm using.

As for the digital versus analog, there are the "plugs" in the HD Audio manager that correspond to the back ports on the computer, but there's nothing plugged into the digital out and as far as I can tell, it doesn't think that it's trying to output digital. It does recognize when I connect/disconnect the line from any of the plugs, strangely enough.

 

What I meant about "Digital" is there should be Speakers and Digital Output. You should have it set to Speakers.
Also, check the properties and make sure "This device is enabled".
And configure speakers by clicking on the Speaker icon and choosing "Configure".
All this should be in the Manager.

 

Hmmm, well, checked through all the properties and still couldn't find anything about it being digital output versus speakers.

Device manager says everything's fine/working and everything is enabled with the "Realtek HD Audio output" as the default device out of a list of only "Realtek HD Audio output."

The attatched picture shows my only options, and under the wrench for the Analog I have only the choices:

-Disable front panel jack detection
-Mute rear panel output when front headphone plugged in
-Enable auto popup dialog, when device has been plugged in

I have tried enabling/disabling the first two and it made no difference.

Under the config wrench for the Digital output it has:
Output sampling Rate
-44.1KHz
-48KHz (Which was selected by default)
-96KHz
-192KHz
Output Source:
-No S/PDIF output (Which I have selected)
-Output digital audio source

 

Recently, I was working on a PC and everything said the sound was working, but there was no actual sound. After a bit of poking around, I discovered that 'Wave' in the advanced volume settings had been turned all the way down. So, check your PC and see if maybe it's turned down, or maybe something in the advanced volume settings has been muted.
1. Go to the Control Panel and click on Sound and Audio Devices.
2. Click the 'Advanced' button in the 'Device Volume' section (it may not hurt to check both buttons in the 'Speaker Settings' section too).
3. Make sure the 'Wave' slider is all the way up and no 'Mute' boxes have been checked.
I attached a screen shot to help clarify things.

Hopefully this well help!

 

Checked all the volume controls, even the ones in the Realtek manager, and I put all of them to max, even the ones that shouldn't have anything to do with output volume. Still nothing, and nothing was muted.

Seems so odd... :confused

 

Are you saying the front panel header is not connected or that nothing is plugged into it?
The reason I ask is that the headphone jack is on the front panel.
If the computer thinks you have headphones plugged in, most systems will automatically mute the speakers.

Do you mean you plugged the speakers into another device (computer) and they work?

 

Well, the front headphone jack (the one on the CD rom drive, is not hooked in to the motherboard. Otherwise there are no front speaker ports, and I have tried disabling them through the Realtek control panel more than once, to no avail.

As for the speakers working, I plugged the input for the speakers into an iPod and they worked, so I'm ruling out the speakers as being a hardware problem for them. I haven't tried hooking them into another computer because I figured there wasn't a point. Also, I've noticed that a lot of other people seem to have trouble with Realtek drivers, so, that's why I'm thinking it's that. I find it interesting how much trouble people have had.

 

Actually I was referring to the headphone jack that is shown in the attachment you added to an earlier post, not the one on you CD rom.

I am well aware of the problems others are having with their Realtek drivers, I've been helping some of them.
Your case is quite different, though. Most of the others are not showing their audio device in the Sound and Audio section of their control panel. Yours however is.

 

Well, it's "shown" in the RTAudio panel, but I don't think there is one, and it doesn't seem to think anything is connected to it, so....


I appreciate the help from all of you, even if it's - currently - not getting me anywhere. :banghead

My current theory, based off musksnipe's post is that for some reason it keeps trying to output "digital only," which I know is an option on my computer's Creative Sound System. However, I can't seem to find anything that would indicate that that's what it's trying to do nor an option where you could disable/enable such a thing....

 

I've been hampered lately, because I no longer have any XP machines to dig through and compare notes.
(Looks like I am going to spend a lot of time going through old threads and saving notes)
Some Audio Managers have a check box that is for Digital only. My HD Realtek has a setting for for both Normal Speaker output and Digital. But that is Vista.
Try going to Start>Run, type DXDIAG and press Enter. Any problems showing under the Sound?

 

"To test DirectSound functionality, click the "Test DirectSound" button above.
No problems found."

It thinks the driver is there, and has all the nice little info that dxdiag gives.

Need any of it?

And in the Realtek manager, I looked again, but still couldn't find any box to check on Digital versus Analog sound.

 

No, just trying to figure out where the problem is.
Your Digital would be if you had s/pdif checked.
I have a couple threads going right now with similar problems, so I am going to have to dig back through a bunch of my old threads and see what I can come up with.
Give me a day or so.

 

Thanks, I checked a few of them earlier, but you mgiht end up finding something I missed, seeing as your the one that helped out most of them.

 

Haven't had time to get through them yet.
(Dealing with some kind of bug in my system, but will be back at it soon.)

This is a link to a post that may or may not help.
I have usually suggested running the System File Checker, when nothing seems to be going right. The SFC will compare your Windows files to the ones on your OS/Recovery disc or partition, but this guy went a step further.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showpost.php?p=1164149&postcount=7

 

Well, I tried the sfc, and it copied some files over to the DLL cache, but it didn't fix my problem, unfortunately.

That was something I hadn't tried before, however.

 

Something I missed early on:
Check that Windows Audio Service is started.
Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services
Scroll down the list of services until you find the Windows Audio service.
Right click on it and choose Properties.
Make sure it is set to Automatic and Start is checked.

 

Yup. It's started and raring to go.

And, before it gets brought up, no, I have not seen the Unknown PCI device error thing.

 

I don't really know what to suggest to you. This is something that may or may not help, as your problem is slightly different that where it has worked before, but I imagine you're willing to give it a shot.

Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator
Scenario One
You DO have "Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator" listed under System Devices

Carry out the following steps;
* Copy C:\WINDOWS\inf\machine.inf to a temporary location
* Edit your copy of machine.inf in Notepad
* Remove line 20 (ExcludeFromSelect=*)
* Right-click “Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator” and click “Update Driver”
* Choose “Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)” and click Next
* Choose “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install” and click Next
* Click “Have Disk”
* Browse to the location of your copy of machine.inf and click OK
* Select “Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator” and click Next
* Wait for the software to install then click Finish

Scenario Two
You DON’T have "Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator" listed under System Devices

Carry out the following steps;
* Copy C:\WINDOWS\inf\machine.inf to a temporary location
* Edit your copy of machine.inf in Notepad
* Remove line 20 (ExcludeFromSelect=*)
* Go to the Control Panel and run “Add Hardware”
* When the Add Hardware Wizard appears, click Next
* Wait for it to search for new hardware
* Choose Yes, I have already connected the hardware and click Next
* Scroll all the way down and select “Add a new hardware device”, click Next
* Choose “Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)”, click Next
* Select “Show All Devices” and click Next
* Click “Have Disk”
* Browse to the location of your copy of machine.inf and click OK
* Under Model, select “Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator”, click Next
* To start installing the drivers, click Next
* Wait for the software to install then click Finish

 

Well, I tried that, and it didn't do anything. >.>

The case also has a small speaker for "beeping" noises, and I was hoping that instead of using the onboard audio it was trying to use that, and failing. Unfortunately, I unplugged it, and it didn't bring back the sound.

At this point, I'm considering seeing if I can find a cheap soundcard (NOT realtek) and just using it in a PCI slot or something...

 

That's the route many folks have taken when their Realtek would not co-operate.
I don't know if the Realtek HD chips are more fragile, then the older ones, but it seems like about 25% of the folks with Realtek install problems, never get it going.
Some are full chip failures, I'm sure, but chip failures are supposed to be a very low percentage of audio problems.
It is normally the driver at fault.

 

Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's hardware because of the fact that it actually recognizes when something is plugged in, and if it were a HW problem, seems to me that it wouldn't recognize anything.

I'm just amazed at how many people have problems identical or very, very similar to this.

I might try the whole uninstall/reinstall track a few more times, but...

 

Yes, That's a good idea. I would suggest starting back at post one here and making for sure, you do every step suggested exactly, if possible. Some folks have gone back through and found it worked the second time through, especially this fix:

1) In Device Manager, remove the High Definition audio device (or the unknown device, if there is one) under Sound, Video & Game controllers.
2) Go into Device Manager>System, right click the UAA Hi-Def Bus driver.
Disable the device and then uninstall it. (Do not re-boot yet)
3) Uninstall Realtek High Definition Audio Driver (you may just have a folder that says Realtek) through Add/Remove Programs (if it's installed but not working)
KB888111
In Add/Remove Programs, look for the KB888111 update and uninstall it. (It may have uninstalled in last step)
If you install, remove, and then re-install this update, the update is no longer listed in Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Therefore, you cannot remove this update from your computer.
To work around this problem, follow these steps.
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following subkey in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Windows XP\SP2\KB888111 (may be in SP3)
3. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
4. Click Yes, and then exit Registry Editor.
Run CCleaner, both the Cleaner and Registry.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_S...ish_d4191.html
Reboot, but don't let Windows install the driver.
Install your driver, then reboot, again.

Do full shut downs in any steps that you find a re-boot suggested. Sometimes that is all it takes.

 

Well, that's the end of that problem.

I went out and bought a cheap Creative sound card and stuck that in the computer. Installed the drivers, rebooted, and it works. No problems whatsoever.

However, I would like to thank everyone who helped me with the Realtek problem, especially musksnipe, who practically seems to solve Realtek's problems for them. So, thanks to all of you.



A side note: I would make a sticky on the driver forum about Realtek drivers and the usual steps to take to make sure they work. There seem to be so many people who have this problem, and quite a few of them who don't use the search function (Although many do), so it seems like it'd be easy to put a sticky that hopefully will get read.

-GSZB