Can't install sound driver

[Darthenn]

Hello!
Yesterday I got a new setup. I installed windows, drivers and programs right away. I've got MSI B150 PC Mate (atx) motherboard. I realized that after I installed drivers from disc there is a system information on the cd launcher - it shows installed drivers and what I'm missing. So on drivers list it showed that realtek driver is installed but on the system information on disc it shows a red - sign next to realtek audio driver. After that I tried installing drivers from realtek (latest), from msi website (latest for b150) and still can't get it to work. Both of them show either failing the installation of driver or 0x000000FF error. Nvidia installed own sound drivers for the sound card in my monitor, I wouldn't mind it but I can't get mic to work then because I connect it to motherboard. I've also tried manually unpacking the setup to folder and choosing driver location in device manager. After trying it shows extended attributes are inconsistent. I don't know what is the problem.
Thank you for any help from you, best regards

Edit: It also shows "generic usb sound device", not realtek sound device.

 

[techgeek]

I'd advise against using the Realtek drivers directly from Realtek. These are basic drivers and lack any of the customization that the manufacturer has implemented. This can be particularly important if the manufacturer has a non-standard audio design.

You said you've downloaded the latest from MSI? When you try to install them, do you get an error message?

Is there an option to Enable / Disable the onboard sound in the BIOS? You might want to make sure its enabled if that option exists.

 

[Darthenn]

I installed MSI ones this morning. The setup completes and device manager still shows generic usb sound device. No sound from my motherboard, sound from my monitor soundcard. Yes, I checked bios if the onboard sound is enabled - it is enabled.

 

[techgeek]

You say you are getting sound from your monitor soundcard, do you mean speakers in your monitor? Is the monitor connected via HDMI?

 

[Darthenn]

No, sound from headphones. I plug them to the back of my monitor. The monitor is connected via hdmi. In sound devices it shows 4 hdmi sound devices - only one is sound card that gives sound. (I don't remember if it's hdmi 4 or hdmi 1)

 

[techgeek]

This is stretching it, but it's worth a shot. Try going into the BIOS and disabling the onboard sound. Boot into Windows and try to install the drivers. I would think that it would give and error message. Assuming it fails, then go back into the BIOS and enable it. Then boot back into Windows try to install them.

 

[Darthenn]

Alright, I'll try that when I get home. I have no idea what would be the problem, I've tried everything I thought of. Is there a chance that the integrated sound device is faulty on the motherboard or it's more of the software issue?

 

[techgeek]

It's possible the fault is a hardware fault. It could be for some reason that BIOS hasn't enabled it even though its set to enabled and the act of toggling that setting will get it working.

It seems unlikely that it's a driver or OS issue as you just started setting it up. If you are worried about the OS install being corrupted, you could always run a System File Check from an elevated Command Prompt type sfc /scannow.

You might also want to see if there is a BIOS update for your motherboard. If there is, you could try flashing the updated BIOS.

 

[Darthenn]

There are BIOS updates, I don't know what my BIOS is currently at but I noticed in one update changelog/fix "- When USB and Audio controller are disabled and then system would not able to work properly .". Could it be something like that? I'll flash the latest update anyway.

 

[techgeek]

It's worth a try. Of course if you motherboard is running the latest BIOS then you don't have to do this.

 

[Darthenn]

Thank you!
Fixed it by:
-Uninstalling driver (restart afterwards)
-Disabling onboard sound in BIOS
-Installing latest MSI driver (restart also)
-Enabling onboard sound in BIOS
Now it works like a charm!

 

[techgeek]

Glad you got it sorted. I've run into a few situations in the past where a setting in the BIOS showed as enabled, but actually it wasn't and toggling seemed to unstick it so to speak.