Drivers are special software that allow the operating system to communicate with the internal hardware or devices connected to the computer. Usually, with Windows 10, drivers are installed automatically during system installation and are then updated by the Windows Update service. Usually, the only drivers you need to worry about are video card drivers that are frequently updated by their manufacturers AMD, Intel or NVidia and may require manual installation.
Depending on the type of hardware used, however, other drivers may also require a manual update or installation and, among these, the one that manages the computer sound, the one that allows Windows to use the speakers and make sounds and music heard .
To optimize listening to high quality audio, if you use level speakers or maybe a dolby surround system, then it is important to check if there is a better sound card driver than the one automatically provided by the Windows installation and update it.
READ ALSO: configure 5.1 or 7.1 computer speakers for surround sound .
Usually, for almost every computer, the audio drivers to download and install on Windows are those of Realtek . Unfortunately not all types of audio drivers are managed by Microsoft in the Windows Update so you need to look elsewhere and investigate your sound card. Depending on how you purchased your computer, there may be a nice CD or DVD disc with the manufacturer's audio drivers . In many PCs the sound card is integrated into the motherboard so the disk to use is the one supplied by the manufacturer of the PC or motherboard. If you no longer have that disk or if the driver version is from a few years ago, you should instead go to download the Realtek driver from the internet, from the manufacturer's website. The work to be done is quite simple, just go to the manufacturer's website, enter the model name or the number of the sound card and download the indicated driver.
To know what type of sound card is mounted in the computer you can check with tools to check the PC hardware such as Speccy or go to Device and Printer Management from the Control Panel and check the speaker name by clicking on it with the right button of the mouse, going on the properties.
If the sound card is Realtek's, you can download the Realtek High Definition Audio sound card drivers from the download page .
In case of difficulty, you can install the latest Realtek High Definition Audio drivers for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, from the FileHippo.com website.
The driver installation should bring up, after restart, the icon in the application bar that opens the Realtek Audio Manager program that allows you to configure the speaker system, both with two speakers and with 5 or 7 speakers, manage the computer sound equalizer, support for Dolby audio, Surround Sound, six-channel digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and other tools to improve PC audio and sound and music quality.
the folder where the file that starts Realtek Audio Manager is located is C: \ Program Files \ Realtek \ Audio \ HDA and the file name is RAVCpl64 .
On PC Windows 10 it is however possible to download an updated version of the computer's Audio management program by installing the Realtek Audio Control application, modern and certainly working with Realtek drivers, which makes the old Realtek Audio Manager program superfluous.
If Realtek Audio Manager (or REaltek Audio Control) does not open, try to download, instead of the latest version (2.82 could have problems with Windows 10), the previous version, 2.81 which instead works well on Windows 10.
To uninstall the audio driver, in Windows 10, press the Windows and X keys together to open the quick access menu in the lower left corner of the desktop. Then click on Device Manager and expand the Sound, video and game controllers section.
Right click on Realtek High Definition Audio (Realtek Audio) and select Uninstall. In the window that appears, do not forget to select the " Delete the driver for this software " option. Pressing will remove the current driver.
The next step is to install the error-free version (v2.81) of the Realtek HD audio driver supplied with the Audio Manager program also running on Windows 10. The version is no longer available on the official Realtek website, but can be downloaded from FileHippo, going to click, on the right side of the download page, one of the Older versions, in our case the 2.81.
If by installing these drivers the Realtek Audio Manager program is not found and nothing changes, if the computer is a bit old for a few years, it may be that the Sound card is VIA, linked to Realtek, but with different drivers.
If you cannot find the VIA HD Audio Codec Driver driver, search for the name of the motherboard with Speccy and then search for the motherboard drivers by downloading the audio driver.
On older computers, the old driver called AC97 Audio Codecs may be installed, available on the Realtek website.
If, despite the installation / update of the sound card driver, you still do not hear anything or the volume icon does not appear or you feel bad, I refer you to the guide to solve audio and video problems on the Windows PC .
Finally, remember that having all the drivers updated on your PC is one of the best ways to keep it fast and functional.
For more details, refer to the article on how to update the drivers of a Windows PC automatically .
READ ALSO: Improve the PC volume control with more comfortable programs
Depending on the type of hardware used, however, other drivers may also require a manual update or installation and, among these, the one that manages the computer sound, the one that allows Windows to use the speakers and make sounds and music heard .
To optimize listening to high quality audio, if you use level speakers or maybe a dolby surround system, then it is important to check if there is a better sound card driver than the one automatically provided by the Windows installation and update it.
READ ALSO: configure 5.1 or 7.1 computer speakers for surround sound .
Usually, for almost every computer, the audio drivers to download and install on Windows are those of Realtek . Unfortunately not all types of audio drivers are managed by Microsoft in the Windows Update so you need to look elsewhere and investigate your sound card. Depending on how you purchased your computer, there may be a nice CD or DVD disc with the manufacturer's audio drivers . In many PCs the sound card is integrated into the motherboard so the disk to use is the one supplied by the manufacturer of the PC or motherboard. If you no longer have that disk or if the driver version is from a few years ago, you should instead go to download the Realtek driver from the internet, from the manufacturer's website. The work to be done is quite simple, just go to the manufacturer's website, enter the model name or the number of the sound card and download the indicated driver.
To know what type of sound card is mounted in the computer you can check with tools to check the PC hardware such as Speccy or go to Device and Printer Management from the Control Panel and check the speaker name by clicking on it with the right button of the mouse, going on the properties.
If the sound card is Realtek's, you can download the Realtek High Definition Audio sound card drivers from the download page .
In case of difficulty, you can install the latest Realtek High Definition Audio drivers for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, from the FileHippo.com website.
The driver installation should bring up, after restart, the icon in the application bar that opens the Realtek Audio Manager program that allows you to configure the speaker system, both with two speakers and with 5 or 7 speakers, manage the computer sound equalizer, support for Dolby audio, Surround Sound, six-channel digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and other tools to improve PC audio and sound and music quality.
the folder where the file that starts Realtek Audio Manager is located is C: \ Program Files \ Realtek \ Audio \ HDA and the file name is RAVCpl64 .
On PC Windows 10 it is however possible to download an updated version of the computer's Audio management program by installing the Realtek Audio Control application, modern and certainly working with Realtek drivers, which makes the old Realtek Audio Manager program superfluous.
If Realtek Audio Manager (or REaltek Audio Control) does not open, try to download, instead of the latest version (2.82 could have problems with Windows 10), the previous version, 2.81 which instead works well on Windows 10.
To uninstall the audio driver, in Windows 10, press the Windows and X keys together to open the quick access menu in the lower left corner of the desktop. Then click on Device Manager and expand the Sound, video and game controllers section.
Right click on Realtek High Definition Audio (Realtek Audio) and select Uninstall. In the window that appears, do not forget to select the " Delete the driver for this software " option. Pressing will remove the current driver.
The next step is to install the error-free version (v2.81) of the Realtek HD audio driver supplied with the Audio Manager program also running on Windows 10. The version is no longer available on the official Realtek website, but can be downloaded from FileHippo, going to click, on the right side of the download page, one of the Older versions, in our case the 2.81.
If by installing these drivers the Realtek Audio Manager program is not found and nothing changes, if the computer is a bit old for a few years, it may be that the Sound card is VIA, linked to Realtek, but with different drivers.
If you cannot find the VIA HD Audio Codec Driver driver, search for the name of the motherboard with Speccy and then search for the motherboard drivers by downloading the audio driver.
On older computers, the old driver called AC97 Audio Codecs may be installed, available on the Realtek website.
If, despite the installation / update of the sound card driver, you still do not hear anything or the volume icon does not appear or you feel bad, I refer you to the guide to solve audio and video problems on the Windows PC .
Finally, remember that having all the drivers updated on your PC is one of the best ways to keep it fast and functional.
For more details, refer to the article on how to update the drivers of a Windows PC automatically .
READ ALSO: Improve the PC volume control with more comfortable programs
