Computer

Sound problems in Windows? Reinstall the drivers

Audio driver version

In the new window, click on the “Driver” tab and here we can write down both the provider and the version of the driver that we have installed. Once noted, we can continue with the process of uninstalling and reinstalling these.

Uninstall and reinstall from Windows

Windows 10 and Windows 11 have their own tools with which to uninstall and reinstall the audio drivers. For this we can make use of the Device Manager, the Control Panel or through system updates.

Device administrator

The easiest way to uninstall and reinstall the audio drivers is to use Device Manager. To do this, right-click on the Start menu and select it from the list of items that appears. In the new window we will see a list with all the installed devices, so we will have to expand the section “Sound and video controllers and game devices”. Here we find all the devices related to sound, click with the right button of the mouse on the one that is causing problems (possibly the Realtek) and choose the option of “Uninstall the device”.

Device Manager uninstall Realtek audio

In the new window, it will show us a warning and we make sure to check the “Remove the driver software” box. In this way it will be erased from the system and if it is corrupt it will not cause any more problems. After clicking on uninstall, it will be completely deleted from the system, so we will restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

Device Manager uninstall Realtek audio

Once we return to the desktop, our computer will lack sound, but we should not worry since it is normal after the process carried out. Now we go back to Device Manager and click on the button “Check for hardware changes” that we find the first one in the upper right. This will cause Windows to search for new devices that are not installed to re-enable them.

Check for hardware changes

Use Windows Update

Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 have an extensive library of drivers. Along with this, it allows you to use Windows Update to download those that are not present. Although this is configured to download and install all the important applications, it is possible that not all have the updated drivers. This can happen because there are Optional updates for the audio device we will have to install manually.

Optional updates Windows

To do this, we will have to access the “Settings” section, by pressing the keyboard shortcut “Windows + I”. Here we click on the “Update and security” section and then on “Windows Update” in the left column. In the event that we have pending option updates, click on “Download and install.”

Download them from the Windows web

Microsoft has a page where we can download the most current drivers for our sound card ourselves. To access it, just click on this link to the Microsoft website. Here we will have at our disposal all the sound drivers available, so that we only have to select the most recent version and download it. This is something that we will do simply by clicking on its Download button located on the right side. The file that we download has a .cab extension so we must decompress it with our usual compressor (WinZIP, WinRAR, etc).

Realtek Browse my PC for drivers

Subsequently, we access the File Manager again and display the “Sound, video and game controllers” section. Right click on the audio and select “Update driver”. Next, we select “Browse my PC for drivers”. This will open a new window for us to choose the driver that we have downloaded. We select it and the installation process will begin. Once finished we restart the PC to have it reinstalled and running if our audio problem.

Update drivers with third-party applications

Likewise, we also have at our disposal a wide variety of third-party applications that will allow us to download and update the sound drivers to solve any problem we may have.

IObit Driver Booster

We are talking about a simple and very useful application with which we can always keep our computer’s drivers updated. To do this, it analyzes the entire PC, checks the connected components and will show us those that have more recent versions to download. These downloads are always made from the manufacturers’ official website, so they only provide us with those who have passed Microsoft’s WHQL tests.

IObit Driver Booster interface

When you start the program and in a matter of a few seconds a list will appear with everything you have found. We just have to check if there is a version for our audio driver and click on the Update now button. And we will not have to do anything else because it will be the software itself that takes care of everything. Once finished, we restart the computer and we will have the most recent driver installed. IObit Driver Booster has a free version that we can download from this link to the developer’s website.

Driver Genius Professional

This useful software is capable of recognizing more than 80 thousand devices so that we can download all kinds of drivers that our computer needs, so that we can always have the latest version available. Among the hardware devices that are capable of finding drivers are, the motherboard, the sound card, the video card, the keyboard, the mouse, the printer, the modem, among others. In addition, it allows us to make a backup of all our controllers.

Driver Genius Professional list of drivers to update

Its use is very simple, because once started we will only have to click on Start analysis to search for all the drivers that have a more recent version available for download. Once it shows us, we click on the one corresponding to our sound card and click on the Update button. The program will take care of your download and update. For this, it will be essential to buy the license of the program that has a price of about 35 euros. We can also download its trial version, check for updates to our sound, and decide if it’s worth paying for it.

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