Highly annoyed with Realtek!

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Soldato
Joined
10 May 2004
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12,980
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Sunny Stafford
I have checked other recent threads in Sound City to make sure that I haven't repeated a query from anyone else. I am -very- surprised that I haven't read a similar problem on OcUK yet.

It's to do with motherboards that have the on-board Realtek sound card. There are two flavours of the device - Realtek AC'97 and Realtek High Definition Audio. The problem applies to both. All of a sudden, the driver will drop out. The system tray Windows mixer no longer appears. Any playback attempts in Windows Media Player will generate an error message - "no are no active mixer devices available". Etc etc. All sound-related apps are now soundless.

I work on a helpdesk supporting disabled students who were supplied with computers from many brands. The call volume has greatly increased because of Realtek drivers that keep dropping out. If you attempt a System Restore, you get a 50/50 chance of having the problem resolved or having the problem persisting. The more definite solution involves running Microsoft Update to the fullest extent and then reinstalling the sound driver. The fad started to happen last September i.e. half a year now.

For OcUK'ers who had the same problem, what was your solution in the end? Any idea what are Realtek doing about it?
 
no such problem with the realtek HD chipset on my motherboard. actually im really impressed with it. Its the first time i've heard of the problems tbh.
 
Never been aware of problems with Realtek either. Working behind a technical support line for a company that builds and ships computer's that utilize AC97 and haven't encountered a problem with Realtek as of yet.
 
Ive had a few issues with quiet rear speakers since i installed vista, but then it turned out one click in a menu fixed the problem :) apart from that ive never had any problems
 
Thanks for the answers.

It's interesting that none of you people have seen this problem. We supply machines for disabled students. I'd say that 95% are Realtek-based and the lucky 5% will get M-Audio cards. The problem has hit about half of the machines that are working with on-board Realtek. The problem is no ealier than late August 2006. From September onwards, the problem kicked in and it has stayed consistent.

The OS is XP: Some Pro, some Home and some MCE. None on Vista yet. Many installations are customised for special needs but we find that even bog standard machines with just Win and Office get affected too.
 
What motherboards are supplied in the mobos you get in your machines? Is it possible they're nasty cheap things with very poor implementation of the AC'97 codec, as this perhaps sounds more like a hardware issue than a software one; it sounds like the sound hardware is disabling/dissapearing, especially if a software restore doesnt correct this. Also have you checked you're using known stable drivers, rather than the latest ones?

Might be something to look at the mobos in these machines, cheap OEM machines often have very poor quality components, if they're the parts no one asks about! Perhaps see if theres a brand or two of mobo thats regularly showing up on the affected machines.
 
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