Question Realtek Family Controller Question

Wolkie 72

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Aug 7, 2022
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First , the whole name sounds like it wants to control what one sees on one's computer.

Secondly, where does it come from and what does it do? I see it lists Realtek for ethernet (which I have). AVG says I need to update it, but device manager says I already have the latest version.

Also would this have anything to do with why I can't get WMP to play my music? One of the sites I visited to learn more about it mentions CODECs and this is the problem I am presented with when I try to play my playlists from WMP.

I know this reads a little convoluted, but my question is: Is this necessary? My specs are listed below.


Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD FX-8300 23 °C
Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 805MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 (Socket M2) 42 °C
Graphics
E321VL (1600x900@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (MSI) 48 °C
Storage
111GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDEC120GB ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 41 °C
1863GB MB2000EBUCF ATA Device (SATA ) 43 °C
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 2621 USB Device (USB (SATA) (SSD)) 35 °C
Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS324 F ATA Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device
 

Eximo

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You can safely ignore what device manager says, it is only checking on your computer for a newer driver. It has no knowledge of newer ones out there unless Windows has downloaded a new WDDM certified driver sometime recently.

AVG, been a while since I heard that one, you can get a lot of performance back by not using that any longer. These days Windows Defender is adequate for general web safety.

Yes, Realtek makes sound chipsets as well, and it is also common for them to sell disk controllers. These are the two I see listed for your

Realtek ALC892 (Audio)
Realtek GbE LAN chip

You can pick up the latest drivers for all your motherboard hardware here:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-78LMT-USB3-R2-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver
 
Realtek mostly makes network stuff like ethernet and wifi chips. They also make audio chipset.
Not sure why they call it realtek family but it is very common to see this on devices that have realtek chips on the motherboard.

You should never use AVG to update drivers. If you really have to microsoft update can check the driver levels but I don't trust microsoft either. Microsoft has a bad habit of installing older generic drivers for devices.

I would always get drivers directly from the vendor. This link should work your board has alc892 I think. I suspect though as long as you ran a similar file from the motherboard maker you likely have the latest drivers, they latest files on this link are almost 5yrs old.


https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/advanced-search/74?Itemid=276
 

Eximo

Titan
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Usually stick with the motherboard OEM drivers unless something is buggy. They will have tested the BIOS + all the realtek and other drivers the motherboard requires at once.

I have on occasion needed to grab drivers direct from Intel or Realtek to correct problems after a Windows update.