Question Cannot find Realtek Audio anywhere- Possible Sound card failure?

Jan 29, 2025
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Hello! I recently broke the audio port on my monitor. No biggie, I thought, and I plugged my headphones into my motherboard. However, sound was not working from either my front panel or motherboard IO. My device manager shows no trace of Realtek audio, and I just spent 12 hours downloading it because realtek's website is abysmally slow, just for it not to show up when I check device manager again. realtek audio console just gives me the error "Cannot connect to RPC". I have already tried going to my motherboard's manufacturer's website ( Asus ) and downloaded the realtek driver file and ran it. First 3 times it ran and closed on me, 4th time I got a BSOD. HD audio is on in my BIOS settings and I have tried to reinstall windows to no avail. Since I have no way of knowing how long my audio has been dead I don't have a recovery point to return to. I have come to the conclusion that my motherboard's in built sound card is dead. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas as to the issue, because I'm lost here.

My system
Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Asus Prime B650- Plus
32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 @ 5600 MT/S
Powercolor Red Devil RX5700-XT
Thermalright Frozen Magic Scenic V2 360mm AIO
Corsair CV650 PSU
 
The really cheap ones are sub $10, basically just give you a 3.5mm jack. Also seem to be a whole bunch of the same no-name branded 5.1 PCIe 1x cards for about $13, not sure I would trust anything that comes with a driver disc from overseas these days.

I would probably still trust Creative Labs at $20:

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-External-VoiceDetect-Cancellation/dp/B08T9LM3LM

You could look at entry level premium audio USB DACs as well and actually get the preferred sound setup of audiophiles and professionals.
 
The really cheap ones are sub $10, basically just give you a 3.5mm jack. Also seem to be a whole bunch of the same no-name branded 5.1 PCIe 1x cards for about $13, not sure I would trust anything that comes with a driver disc from overseas these days.

I would probably still trust Creative Labs at $20:

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-External-VoiceDetect-Cancellation/dp/B08T9LM3LM

You could look at entry level premium audio USB DACs as well and actually get the preferred sound setup of audiophiles and professionals.
Yea nor do I trust anything with a driver disc from overseas. Bought a wifi card a while back, and they had a driver disk or a website link. I was thinking about how I was going to get to a website without wifi, and I chose just to throw it out as its return address was a place that didn't exist. I'm going to wait for a few more possible solutions on the forum then bite the bullet and buy a pcie card probably in a week or so
 
My last sound card was an ASUS Xonar. Had to resort to third party drivers, and haven't tried the official ASUS ones in ages. So if you run into issues with a C-Media based card, give these a try:


Hmm, $40 for a Creative or $43 for an ASUS card. Really just isn't much demand for these things. The good ones start around $80 and then you are into USB DAC territory.

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Audigy-Performance-Headphone/dp/B00EO6X4XG


https://www.amazon.com/Fosi-Audio-Headphone-Digital-Analog/dp/B07VDQQY95

https://www.amazon.com/Schiit-Modi-3E-Converter-Delta-Sigma/dp/B09RDPHJY9
 
you should download your audio drivers from your motherboards site.. not realtek. as you might download wrong /incompatible drivers.

also right click on the volume icon (bottom right of screen) and go into settings. and change it from "hdmi audio" which is what the monitor would use. and change it to "headphones or speaker" . and see if you get sound out