[SOLVED] Audio messed up after doing a clean install of Windows 10.

AidenLee

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Nov 18, 2019
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Long story short, after doing a clean install of Windows 10 I seem to have some audio issues. My in game audio is trashed, it sounds extremely shallow and "echoey." Not sure how else to explain it but it's rough. I never had this issue beforehand. I've seen a lot of threads about this particular issue but the disabling the device in device manager and then enabling it/updating drivers does not seem to be working for me.

Edit: Also some keys on my keyboard are not functioning, I did not have this issue before.
 
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Solution
I installed the on-board audio driver and I got a compressed zip file, what next?
not sure, I would think you need to un zip the file then see if there is a setup.exe program to run. if not then you might have to do a manual install/update of the driver. basically, use control panel, device manager, find the device, right click to get to the update menu item.
select the update but you would have to find the option to use the driver on the machine and to let you pick the location of the driver.
then you have to provide the path to the unzipped files.

Cj-tech

Admirable
Jan 27, 2021
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8,940
Long story short, after doing a clean install of Windows 10 I seem to have some audio issues. My in game audio is trashed, it sounds extremely shallow and "echoey." Not sure how else to explain it but it's rough. I never had this issue beforehand. I've seen a lot of threads about this particular issue but the disabling the device in device manager and then enabling it/updating drivers does not seem to be working for me.

Edit: Also some keys on my keyboard are not functioning, I did not have this issue before.
How long ago did you create the Windows 10 installation media? Sounds like something might be corrupted. Is this a custom built computer or a prebuilt? Just trying to find out how you updated the drivers.
 

AidenLee

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Nov 18, 2019
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How long ago did you create the Windows 10 installation media? Sounds like something might be corrupted. Is this a custom built computer or a prebuilt? Just trying to find out how you updated the drivers.

I did a clean install of windows yesterday night actually. This is a custom built pc, I built it several years ago, I think I installed the current hardware in it in 2018 I believe. Speaking of files being corrupted, during my reset (before the clean install) I was unable to complete it, first reset left me at the login screen and each time I would log in it would give me a User Profile Service unavailable. Next, in attempt to fix that issue I tried to log in to safe mode, couldn't do that I just got a blank white screen. Next, I attempted another reset, and I would get to about 90% and then it would undo changes and take me back to the log in screen where I would have the User Profile Service unavailable. So I did a clean install of windows deleting every partition and the whole nine yards. Now I am here...

Oh and speaking of the drivers, my knowledge of that stuff is limited. The only driver that I installed after the reset was through installing GeForce Experience and then installing the GPU driver. Every other driver like my audio drivers I mentioned before I just tried disabling and enabling. That did nothing obv...

If it matters my whole reasoning of this reset was because my games were crashing frequently as well as how games would be running at 120 - 140 fps but look like they were running at 40 fps.
 

Cj-tech

Admirable
Jan 27, 2021
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I did a clean install of windows yesterday night actually. This is a custom built pc, I built it several years ago, I think I installed the current hardware in it in 2018 I believe. Speaking of files being corrupted, during my reset (before the clean install) I was unable to complete it, first reset left me at the login screen and each time I would log in it would give me a User Profile Service unavailable. Next, in attempt to fix that issue I tried to log in to safe mode, couldn't do that I just got a blank white screen. Next, I attempted another reset, and I would get to about 90% and then it would undo changes and take me back to the log in screen where I would have the User Profile Service unavailable. So I did a clean install of windows deleting every partition and the whole nine yards. Now I am here...

Oh and speaking of the drivers, my knowledge of that stuff is limited. The only driver that I installed after the reset was through installing GeForce Experience and then installing the GPU driver. Every other driver like my audio drivers I mentioned before I just tried disabling and enabling. That did nothing obv...

If it matters my whole reasoning of this reset was because my games were crashing frequently as well as how games would be running at 120 - 140 fps but look like they were running at 40 fps.
What are your full system specs? There are likely driver updates, BIOS updates, etc that might improve your performance.
 

AidenLee

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What are your full system specs? There are likely driver updates, BIOS updates, etc that might improve your performance.

i9 9900k 3.7GHz
GeForce RTX 2070 Super
MSI Gaming Plus z390 (I believe)
16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
Segotep 850W Gold Plus power supply
1TB Samsung SSD
I also have a 2TB Hard Drive and for my operating system drive I have some 118GB Sandisk thing, sorry I know this wasn't perfect.
 

Cj-tech

Admirable
Jan 27, 2021
534
67
8,940
i9 9900k 3.7GHz
GeForce RTX 2070 Super
MSI Gaming Plus z390 (I believe)
16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
Segotep 850W Gold Plus power supply
1TB Samsung SSD
I also have a 2TB Hard Drive and for my operating system drive I have some 118GB Sandisk thing, sorry I know this wasn't perfect.
To update Intel drivers, use this tool: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

I believe MSI Center has the option to do updates for your motherboard: https://download.msi.com/uti_exe/mb/MSI_Center_2.0.6.0.zip

Intel Support Assistant might download the audio drivers but if it doesn’t, you can try Realtek Audio from the Microsoft Store here: https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9P2B8MCSVPLN
 

AidenLee

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I appreciate you! I'll give those a shot tomorrow and will let you know how things end up.

Again thanks for the responses I really do appreciate you taking time to help out. This PC stuff ain't easy.
 

AidenLee

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Nov 18, 2019
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I installed the on-board audio driver and I got a compressed zip file, what next?
not sure, I would think you need to un zip the file then see if there is a setup.exe program to run. if not then you might have to do a manual install/update of the driver. basically, use control panel, device manager, find the device, right click to get to the update menu item.
select the update but you would have to find the option to use the driver on the machine and to let you pick the location of the driver.
then you have to provide the path to the unzipped files.
 
Solution

AidenLee

Reputable
Nov 18, 2019
54
0
4,530
not sure, I would think you need to un zip the file then see if there is a setup.exe program to run. if not then you might have to do a manual install/update of the driver. basically, use control panel, device manager, find the device, right click to get to the update menu item.
select the update but you would have to find the option to use the driver on the machine and to let you pick the location of the driver.
then you have to provide the path to the unzipped files.

So what has happened is that I installed that program, ran the set up and it uninstalled the Realtek Driver, then I restarted my PC but then it just comes back up with wanting to uninstall again. It said it would automatically install the driver upon startup then I would have to reboot the system but that doesn't seem to be working. With Device Manager I found Realtek Audio, I updated the driver by selecting that file, it said it was updated successfully but my audio still seems messed up.

To check I launched a game, Hunt Showdown, at the start of the game it says "Hunt Showdown is best experienced with binaural audio" and it gives this sound that previously I would hear first in my right headphone and then my left and it sounded very clear very sharp. Now it just sounds real shallow and awkward, no real distinction between each headphone, and this is not an audio balance issue everything overall sounds like I've got pringles cans for headphones. Really hard to explain...

IMPORTANT EDIT - THINGS ARE FIXED:

I am not lying when I say this but both issues are fixed... but I am not sure why exactly.
I plugged my keyboard into another system and it worked fine, I brought it back to my computer, plugged it back in and just like that everything is fixed.
Audio was still messed up, I decided to plug in my speakers, played a game with them on for about 5 minutes, switched back to my headphones and just like that the audio is back to normal. I don't know what the heck is going on, or even if installing all these programs and doing this updating drivers stuff even worked but for some odd reason everything is fixed.
 
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So what has happened is that I installed that program, ran the set up and it uninstalled the Realtek Driver, then I restarted my PC but then it just comes back up with wanting to uninstall again. It said it would automatically install the driver upon startup then I would have to reboot the system but that doesn't seem to be working. With Device Manager I found Realtek Audio, I updated the driver by selecting that file, it said it was updated successfully but my audio still seems messed up.

To check I launched a game, Hunt Showdown, at the start of the game it says "Hunt Showdown is best experienced with binaural audio" and it gives this sound that previously I would hear first in my right headphone and then my left and it sounded very clear very sharp. Now it just sounds real shallow and awkward, no real distinction between each headphone, and this is not an audio balance issue everything overall sounds like I've got pringles cans for headphones. Really hard to explain...

IMPORTANT EDIT - THINGS ARE FIXED:

I am not lying when I say this but both issues are fixed... but I am not sure why exactly.
I plugged my keyboard into another system and it worked fine, I brought it back to my computer, plugged it back in and just like that everything is fixed.
Audio was still messed up, I decided to plug in my speakers, played a game with them on for about 5 minutes, switched back to my headphones and just like that the audio is back to normal. I don't know what the heck is going on, or even if installing all these programs and doing this updating drivers stuff even worked but for some odd reason everything is fixed.
were these USB devices? windows made some sleep changes for usb. also, drivers for usb are installed on a per port basis. when the device is removed the driver stays associated with the port but is hidden. if you plug into a different port a different driver might get installed even for the same device. fix is to go into windows control panel, device manager and find the menu item to show hidden devices. then find all of the greyed out device entries and delete them.

if the system has problems after it sleeps/wakes then go to device manager and find device and right click to bring up properties. then find the power management tab and tell window not to turn it off to save power. if it is a usb device find the usb hub and do not let it sleep.
fix depends on bios, and usb chipset drivers from motherboard vendor. sometimes firmware updated for the audio device. new audio devices can have firmware that sleeps and new functions that will tell the hub to wake up. sometimes the hub does not understand the signal.
 
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AidenLee

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Nov 18, 2019
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were these USB devices? windows made some sleep changes for usb. also, drivers for usb are installed on a per port basis. when the device is removed the driver stays associated with the port but is hidden. if you plug into a different port a different driver might get installed even for the same device. fix is to go into windows control panel, device manager and find the menu item to show hidden devices. then find all of the greyed out device entries and delete them.

if the system has problems after it sleeps/wakes then go to device manager and find device and right click to bring up properties. then find the power management tab and tell window not to turn it off to save power. if it is a usb device find the usb hub and do not let it sleep.
fix depends on bios, and usb chipset drivers from motherboard vendor. sometimes firmware updated for the audio device. new audio devices can have firmware that sleeps and new functions that will tell the hub to wake up. sometimes the hub does not understand the signal.

Yes these devices are USB. Also quick update, in my device manager, under "Other Devices" I have "Base System Device" with a warning sign on it. I dig some digging and ran the codes through the PCI Lookup and it seems I have an issue with my chipset. Not sure how to go about fixing that...

Edit: Nevermind got it fixed! Looks like I had some optional windows updates that needed to be installed. I also deleted all of the greyed out devices. Thanks for all your help man, I am crossing my fingers that these fixes stick.
 
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