Windows 7 sound and realtek hd audio problems. Whats my next step?

Ill try to keep this as short as possible. I've tried everything I can to solve this on my own but its just becoming too difficult and frustrating.

The root of my problem and ultimate goal is fixing my computers sound. Yeah simple right? I just got a nice new computer with good specs (Ill post them)and windows 7 but the sound sucks. Its muffled and low. Im not picky about quality but my old computer ran windows xp and it sounded much better and never gave me problems.

So naturally I tried every link on google about this problem and read a whole bunch of forum postings but have come to no solution.

Someone mentioned on one of them that altering some of the sound options in the realtek HD audio device manager could possibly solve this problem. So I tried to follow the steps but realized that most of the options or tabs in my manager are missing. Most importantly the sound effects tab.

So again I did a fair amount of reading on how to fix this but have gotten stuck again.

I tried reinstalling realtek and I tried updating the drivers automatically through windows but it said they were up to date.

I am wondering if I should try installing specific drivers from my computers manufacturer but I went to the driver page and could not identify which download I should get for audio drivers.

I have an hp Compaq dc7700 Convertible Mini tower with windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.

3.4ghz processor
2.5 ram
160g hard drive

I did a scan on hp's website to make sure I get the right drivers page but Im not sure which ones to download now or if it will even make a difference.

Here is a link to the page that Im looking at:

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/si...x.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

Can anyone shed some light on where I should go from here? I just want my sound working.

 

Thanks for these. Ill give them a try and let you know if they work. Im not very optimistic though. Do you think its ok to download an older driver while using a newer os like windows 7?

I opened up my computer last night to see if there was a sound card in it but there wasn't so I guess the speakers/hookups are built into the motherboard.

I'm guessing the endgame is going to be that my motherboard is simply not compatible with windows 7 and the manufacturer no longer supports it.

Does anyone think buying and installing a sound card will resolve this? Or am I just royally screwed?