Windows

Realtek HD Audio Manager in Windows 10- All about Downloading and Re-installation

Realtek HD Audio Driver is one of the largely used sound drivers that lets you manage the sound settings for Windows. Realtek HD Audio Manager comes with in-built Realtek audio driver. This sound driver has so many valuable features and also supports a six-channel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) with 16.20.24-bit Pulse Code Modulation in channel audio of 5.1.

Along with offering a high-quality sound to your system with the help of the audio card, the sound driver also handles the sound control play on the Windows. To improve the sound, you need to connect it with your audio device.

There can be a scenario when you face issues in accessing the sound driver or when the Realtek audio manager icon has gone missing from the taskbar, system tray or notifications section.

The problem may start arising when you have performed the Windows update or if there is a change in the audio card driver.

To troubleshoot the problem, first, you must know where to find the Realtek HD Audio Manager

Where to Look for Realtek HD Audio Manager?

Realtek HD Audio Manager is normally installed together with Realtek HD Audio Driver. If you have already installed the Audio driver, you can possibly find the Realtek HD Audio Manager from the Control Panel.

In case, you are not able to find Realtek HD Audio Manager in Control Panel, follow the directions given below:

Go to the C drive of your device, open Program Files, click on Realtek, and then open Audio folder
In the HDA folder, double-click on RtkNGUI64.exe and doing this will open Realktek HD audio manager.

If you still failed at finding Realtek HD audio manager, you may need to reinstall it after updating Realtek HD Audio driver.

Reinstalling Realtek HD Audio Manager

To reinstall Realtek HD Audio Manager, you will be required to update the audio drivers first but before that uninstall the outdated ones.

Uninstalling the Drivers

Begin with uninstalling all the existing drivers as to avoid getting duplicate drivers downloaded and to do this follow the instructions given below-

Click on Start menu button and go to the Device Manager.
You will see a list there and you have to expand Sound, video and game controllers.
Look for the audio driver Realtek High Definition Audio.
Right-click on it and from the drop-down menu, select ‘Uninstall’ option.

Tick mark the option ‘Delete the driver software for this device’ and click on ‘Uninstall’.

Open Views tab and click on ‘Show hidden devices’ from the drop-down menu.

Now check if there are any duplicate drivers. If yes, right-click on it and press the Uninstall button. After that, restart the system.

Download and Re-install the Realtek HD Audio Manager

After uninstalling, now you can update the audio drivers, follow these instructions:

Go to the Realtek website in a browser.

Find the right drivers for your device and download them manually. Once you have downloaded the file, you can run the file and follow the instructions to install the update.

Troubleshooting Realtek HD Audio Manager

Even after updating the Realtek HD Audio driver, if the problem is still there, you can follow the given troubleshooting tips:

Disable Microsoft UAA Bus Driver

Go to the Device Manager and expand the System Devices.
Look for Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio.
Right-click on it and from the drop-down, click on ‘Disable’.
Go to ‘Windows Settings’ and then click on ‘Apps and Features’.
Click on ‘Realtek High Definition Audio Driver’ and then click on ‘Uninstall the driver’.

Then go to Device Manager and right-click on the disabled driver.
From the drop-down menu, click on ‘Uninstall’.
Now, you can reinstall the Realtek HD Audio Driver.

Enable the Startup

Using the ‘Start’ menu, open the Task Manager.
Then go to the Startup tab and look for Realtek HD Audio Manager.
If the status is showing as ‘Disabled’, right-click on it and click Enable from the drop-down menu and then restart the system.

Update the Sound driver software

Go to Device Manager and click on (+) to expand Sound, video and game controllers.
Right-click on Realtek High Definition Audio and from the menu, click on Update driver option.

If you have the latest driver setup file on your system, choose ‘Browse my computer’ under driver software.

Click on the option ‘Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer’.
Look for the latest driver by date and then click on ‘Next’ to update.

Add Legacy hardware

Go to Device Manager and click on (+) to expand Sound, video and game controllers.
Click on the ‘Action’ tab, search and click on ‘Add legacy hardware’ from the menu.