Realtek integrated sound card is the most common integrated sound card in PC. As early as more than 20 years ago, the integrated sound card chips produced by Realtek began to be widely used on the motherboards of PCs, and today is no exception.
The model update of Realtek’s integrated sound card chip is not very frequent. Even the latest PC motherboard can see the sound card chip model that has been used for many years. However, since the operating system Windows has been updated and iterated many versions over the years, this has directly caused the driver of the integrated sound card to be constantly updated so that the sound card chip can run correctly on the new operating system.
Speaking of the installation method of the Realtek integrated sound card driver, there are twists and turns. The installation method on the latest operating system Windows 11 has also changed a lot from the past. However, Realtek does not have enough official channels to publicize these changes, which makes many PC users confused when installing the integrated sound card driver. Many people don’t know how to install these drivers correctly. Even if the drivers are barely installed, it often causes strange problems during actual use because the drivers do not fully match the hardware.
Today we will teach you how to correctly install the most compatible Realtek integrated sound card driver on Windows 11. Please see the detailed tutorial below:
Determine the brand of the PC motherboard
To correctly install the sound card driver, first of all we need to determine which brand of PC motherboard we hold is produced. At present, the motherboard brands that everyone can access generally include these types: Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Colorful, Maxsun, Onda, ASRock, GALAX, Biostar, Soyo, Jingyue, ASL, Mingsu, Elsa, EVGA, Sheng technology, ultramicro, dual sensitive. Here is a list of almost all the brands that can be seen on the market from first-line brands to small-scale brands. If there are any omissions, you can leave a message in the message board below.
Find the official website of the corresponding motherboard brand
Since Realtek itself no longer maintains any sound card chip drivers, when we need to install the Realtek sound card driver in a new version of the operating system, we need to download the correct driver from the official website corresponding to the motherboard brand. At present, all the drivers of Realtek integrated sound card chips, including the chip drivers of old models and new models, are maintained by major motherboard manufacturers themselves. This step is very important, and it is also the main link that many PC veterans make mistakes when installing sound card drivers. Because many PC installation veterans are used to looking for drivers on Realtek’s official website, but now Realtek’s official website only has an old driver that was many years ago, and this driver can only be adapted to the old version of Windows. There are only two results of forcefully installing it on Windows 11, either you can’t make a sound, or you will encounter various strange problems during use.
According to the specific model of the motherboard, check the exclusive integrated sound card driver on the official website of the motherboard brand
The official websites of major motherboard manufacturers support querying the corresponding drivers based on the model of the motherboard. Enter the model of the motherboard you own on the official website of the motherboard brand, and click Search to search for the driver corresponding to the motherboard. The search results will contain all the drivers corresponding to the motherboard, we need to find the driver of the integrated sound card, and then click the download button to download the driver to the computer.
Install the integrated sound card driver
The next step is to install the driver we downloaded. Generally, double-click the driver to execute the installation. Note: This step only installs the driver, and the driver installation package we downloaded does not include the management and configuration program of the integrated sound card.
Wait for Windows 11 to automatically complete the download and installation of Realtek Audio Console
If the driver installation in the previous step went well, then we need to restart the computer once. After restarting the computer, we must connect the computer to the Internet. If the computer can be properly connected to the Internet and access the Internet, Windows 11 will automatically download a sound card management configuration software called Realtek Audio Console from the Microsoft Store. Generally, if we leave the computer for a while, the installation will be completed automatically without manual intervention. Of course, you can also continue to use your computer normally, and the installation will be completed automatically after you use it for a period of time.
In this step, we need to note that before we manually install the correct driver, the software Realtek Audio Console cannot be installed manually from the Microsoft Store.
Configure Realtek Audio Console
Open the program Realtek Audio Console. We can configure accordingly according to the actual usage. For example, if the front panel of the computer case you are using is of AC97 specification, and the integrated sound card chip of the motherboard is of HD specification, then you need to check the option “Disable front panel jack detection” in the Realtek Audio Console. This will allow your case’s front audio jacks to work properly. For another example, some motherboard manufacturers have purchased DTS audio licenses for some motherboard models. At this time, users can also configure DTS audio effects in the Realtek Audio Console, and can choose multiple audio effects. The DTS option does not appear on all computers, only the aforementioned specific motherboards will appear after the Realtek Audio Console is installed.
You’re done
At this point, your Realtek integrated sound card can run correctly on Windows 11! Congratulations!