Solved Realtek AC97 audio driver (not HD driver)

hgfire

New Member
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After installing W8 on a Toshiba satellite laptop, all went well except Realtek AC97 won't install. Re-installing the driver didn't work. Windows reveals a code 10 and mentions the driver did not install correctly. Naturally there are no sound devices present with this occurrence. Plugging in an external USB sound device (creative sound blaster) works perfectly, just not as convenient as having the internal Realtek AC97 sound device working. BTW, this is not an HD sound driver, it's the regular Realtek driver. Tried a driver download from three additional sources w/o success.
sad.gif
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba A70S-259
    CPU
    Pentium 4 3.20gb
    Memory
    1gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel
Compatibility mode did the trick.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba A70S-259
    CPU
    Pentium 4 3.20gb
    Memory
    1gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel
Interesting...
It's good to know compatibility mode works for drivers. When I faced this issue I simply copied the driver from an virtualized windows xp that used the same driver and I applied it to windows 8. It was reported as unsigned but lucky for me that it's on 32bit and it was allowed to install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
Glad it worked for you as well

Glad it worked for you. Yes, I also have W8 installed on a 32 bit machine. I had this laptop lying around and thought it might be good to test the beta on.

I must admit, so far I see no compelling reason to jump to W8. W7 works fine and even if W8 is released next year; from a consumer point of view, I can't see moving to another OS version so soon. Heck, I still have XP as a virtual machine running on a desktop.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba A70S-259
    CPU
    Pentium 4 3.20gb
    Memory
    1gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel
How did you do_ I-ve done like you said, in compatibility mode for realtek AC'97, and it doesn-t work! How did you ...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32bit
Install using the device manager. It went on well like that for me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
    CPU
    P4 3.4 GHz HT
    Motherboard
    MSI-7211
    Memory
    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS AGP HD 3850 Turbo Ice-Q
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer x223w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 1 TB Sata II, WD 400 GB Sata I, WD 120 GB Sata I
    PSU
    300W generic
    Case
    Cybertron
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keyboard 200, Dell RT7D20
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up
I'll throw a monkey wrench into this mix now 04/02/2012. Each time MS would provide updates, it would negate my efforts of having a working driver and I'd have to re-install. Now since the last update (guessing this was a week or so ago) it either left my driver alone or updated it because there were no ill effects to the working audio driver what-so-ever. I have no idea what MS included in the last update and to be honest, I didn't even bother to investigate.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba A70S-259
    CPU
    Pentium 4 3.20gb
    Memory
    1gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel
MS has issues with Realtek AC '97 and Realtek 100 mbps lan drivers. After you install the latest ever made for these from 2009, Windows Update has "updates" that install early 2008 versions.

So, install the latest from Realtek's site, then do a manual Windows Update. When it shows the updates to Realtek, right click on them and hide them. You'll never see or deal with them again and all will be well from there on.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
    CPU
    P4 3.4 GHz HT
    Motherboard
    MSI-7211
    Memory
    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS AGP HD 3850 Turbo Ice-Q
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer x223w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 1 TB Sata II, WD 400 GB Sata I, WD 120 GB Sata I
    PSU
    300W generic
    Case
    Cybertron
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keyboard 200, Dell RT7D20
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up
Thanks Gman

MS has issues with Realtek AC '97 and Realtek 100 mbps lan drivers. After you install the latest ever made for these from 2009, Windows Update has "updates" that install early 2008 versions.

So, install the latest from Realtek's site, then do a manual Windows Update. When it shows the updates to Realtek, right click on them and hide them. You'll never see or deal with them again and all will be well from there on.

Sounds good to me Gman. Thanks for your timely input and expertise.:D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba A70S-259
    CPU
    Pentium 4 3.20gb
    Memory
    1gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel
Having similar problems, windows 8 installed a ton of updates and suddenly i had no sound anymore. It tell me there are no speakers attached while they are still there and no i did not reconnect them.
Stept taken so far:
reinstalled drivers with compatibility for windows 7 - no result
set the main .exe file to compatibility windows 7 - no result
uninstalled all audio drtivers and rebooted hoping windows would reinstall proper drivers - no result
checked in the BIOS and changed the HD output to AC97 - no result
now downloading Realtek AC97 drivers hoping this would fix - result to be updated EDIT No result either
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8 pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    home built
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II 955 BE
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO
    Memory
    4GB geil
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI HD5770
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG flattron L225WS
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 1TB
    Samsung 1 TB
    Case
    Collermaster HAF
    Cooling
    XTREME Frezer II
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15
    Mouse
    Microtools WMX810
    Internet Speed
    cable
Having similar problems, windows 8 installed a ton of updates and suddenly i had no sound anymore. It tell me there are no speakers attached while they are still there and no i did not reconnect them.
Stept taken so far:
reinstalled drivers with compatibility for windows 7 - no result
set the main .exe file to compatibility windows 7 - no result
uninstalled all audio drtivers and rebooted hoping windows would reinstall proper drivers - no result
checked in the BIOS and changed the HD output to AC97 - no result
now downloading Realtek AC97 drivers hoping this would fix - result to be updated EDIT No result either

sorry to revive this old thread BUT your ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard does NOT use Realtek HD Audio, easyq. According to the specs on the ASUS web site, it uses VT1708S 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC (as in VIA VT708S from VIA Technologies Inc). In other words, you installed the wrong driver. You should install the VIA audio driver, not the Realtek audio driver for your board.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite C55Dt-A5306
    CPU
    AMD Quad-Core A6-5200M Accelerated Processor
    Memory
    4 GB
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