Perhaps you are having some difficulty accessing your sound drivers. Or maybe the Icon for Realtek HD Audio Manager is no longer on your taskbar or system tray.
These problems can be easily solved by resetting the HD Audio Manager.
But how do you reset the Realtek HD Audio Manager?
Firstly, you need to start by uninstalling the Audio Manager. You can do this using the device manager. Once you uninstall the audio manager you will need to restart your PC. After that download and reinstall the Realtek HD Audio Manager.
But this is just a summary of the whole process. For those of you who are not as tech-savvy, this may be a daunting task.
For this reason, I will include a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to do the entire process.
So, please read the post till the end.
Do check out our epic post if your Realtek Audio manager always popping up on the Home screen then
Resetting The Realtek HD Audio Manager
These issues are often the result of a windows update or a change in the sound card or audio driver. Realtek HD Audio manager does not have a way to directly reset the manager.
So, resetting the audio manager involves uninstalling it and then reinstalling it.
Here are the steps to reset Realtek HD Audio Manager:
1. Uninstall Realtek
You will start by uninstalling Realtek HD Audio manager. If you are unfamiliar with installing and uninstalling software this may be a little difficult.
- Open the device manager. You can find the device manager in the start menu or using the search pane. Press the Windows key and then type Device Manager in the search bar.
- Click the device manager and a new window will open on your screen. On that window look through the list till you find Sound, video, and game controllers. Once you find it, expand the tab to show Realtek(R) Audio.
- Right-click on the Realtek(R) Audio icon and hit Uninstall the device from the drop-down menu that appears. Another small pop-up window will appear.
- Make sure to checkmark the box that says to Delete the driver software for this device. After that hit the uninstall button and, in a few seconds, it should uninstall the driver.
Before uninstalling, you should quickly check what happens if you uninstall Realtek HD Audio Manager.
Note: Before moving on to downloading a fresh copy of the driver, go to the view tab at the top of the device manager.
Once there, click on Show hidden devices from the drop-down menu. This will show you any hidden duplicate drivers that you will also need to uninstall.
Right-click on them and uninstall them as you did earlier. After you finish uninstalling all these duplicates you will need to restart your PC.
Restarting your PC saves all the changes you made and will make it easier for us to install a fresh Realtek HD Audio Manager.
2. Download and Installation Realtek Audio
Once your computer turns back on you will need to download the Realtek HD Audio Manager Utility.
After you download the file, double-click it to start the installation process. In case of any compatibility-related issues, you can opt to install it in compatibility mode.
You can also choose to install all the drivers manually from Realtek’s official website. Before that, Check out which Realtek Driver should you install on your PC.
There you will need to go through the list and find your device’s software on the mentioned list. You can find out your device’s information in System Information in the start menu or using the search panel.
Once you find one that matches your system you simply download it. You must download the right drivers for your device to avoid any further issues. Once downloaded, double click the file and let it install.
How to Solve Issues After Reinstalling Realtek
Even after uninstalling and reinstalling the Audio Realtek some issues can remain. Such as icons for the speakers or display icons being absent, absence of some important components, and not opening or responding.
I have a handful of troubleshoots to solve these problems.
1. Disable Microsoft UAA
Like uninstalling the Audio Manager, go to device manager. Once there, look through the list for System Devices and expand it. From the list that appears look for Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio and right-click it. From the drop-down menu that appears click disable.
After that, you need to go to set that and go into the Apps. There you should find the Realtek HD Audio driver, and you need to click uninstall.
After that go back to the device manager and find the driver you disabled earlier, and uninstall it from the drop-down menu. Now if you reinstall the Realtek HD Audio driver you should solve your problems.
So, you inserted your headphone jack into the front panel of your PC but there were no sounds? Quickly enable front-panel in the audio manager.
2. Update The Audio Drivers
If the above method did not work, another method you can try is to update the drivers. Like earlier, you will need to go to device manager, find Realtek HD Audio Manager from the expanded Sound, video, and game controller tab.
Right-click it and click on the Update driver option. This should solve the issues as well.
3. Enable Startup
Another method is by making sure that the Audio Manager is enabled in the startup. For this, you will first need to open the task manager.
Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and from the screen that appears select the task manager. The task manager window should appear.
From there go to the startup tab. Look for the Realtek HD Audio Manager and check if the status is enabled or not. If it is disabled right click then enable it from the drop-down menu. After that restart, your PC, and everything should be working.
Also, check out how to disable Realtek HD Audio Manager from Taskbar.
Final Words
Drivers can often malfunction. And resetting them is the most basic yet effective way to solve any and all issues. Suffering from any sound-related issues you came here wondering how to reset your Realtek HD Audio Manager.
By following the steps that I laid out for you, you should be able to do that now without any difficulty. I also went over some solutions to issues that may result after resetting the driver. But you most likely won’t need to bother with them.
