Realtek HD Audio Driver is the most commonly used sound driver for managing the sound settings for the Windows system. Realtek High Definition Audio Manager comes packed along with the Realtek Audio driver. This basically is the most commonly used sound driver that is loaded with incredible features and supports a six-channel Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) with 16.20.24-bit Pulse Code Modulation in channel audio of 5.1.

Read more: Realtek Audio Console Download

Fundamentally, the sound driver eases the sound control play on the Windows desktop and is known to offer a high-quality sound to your system through the audio card. It is tagged with your audio device to enhance the sound experience. Recently, Windows users have reported difficulty in accessing the sound driver. The users have also had the Realtek HD Audio Manager icon being lost or gone astray from the taskbar, system tray, and notification section. The issue might have probably triggered either after the Windows update or due to a change in audio card driver.

In this article, we show you how & where to download and reinstall Realtek HD Audio Manager on Windows 10/8/7. This post also includes suggestions for the following issues:

• Realtek HD Audio Manager icon missing
• Realtek HD Audio Manager missing
• Realtek HD Audio Manager not opening.

You may want to create a system restore point before you begin.

1. Download & Reinstall  Realtek HD Audio Manager

Before downloading the new drivers, uninstall all the current drivers. In order to avoid duplicate conflicts among several drivers, one must uninstall the duplicate audio drivers as well. To do this follow these steps:

• Click on the Start button and navigate to Device Manager.
• Expand Sound, video and game controllers from the list in Device Manager.
• Under this, locate the audio driver Realtek High Definition Audio.
• Right-click on it and select Uninstall device from the drop-down menu.

• Check the option with Delete the driver software for this device and hit the uninstall button.

• Now go to the Views tab and click on Show hidden devices from the drop-down menu.

• Restart the system.

You can download the Realtek HD Audio Manager from here.

To manually download the Realtek HD Audio drivers, you need to visit the official website of Realtek. You will have to check in the following two places for its availability:

Visit realtek.com here and see if your software is available.

If it is, then download it. If not then search for High Definition Audio Codecs here on realtek.com/en/downloads.

The download page will list the available audio drivers for download.

Once the downloading process is complete, double-click on the setup files and follow the instructions to complete the installation.

If in spite of reinstalling the Realtek HD Audio, if you still find the component missing or if you find difficulty opening it, follow these suggestions.

2. Resolve Realtek HD Audio Manager issues

2.1. Disable Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio & fix driver conflicts

• In the Device Manager, expand the System Devices
• Search and locate Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio.
• Right-click on it and click Disable from the drop-down.
• Open Windows Settings and go to Apps & Features
• Click on Realtek High Definition Audio Driver and hit the option with Uninstall the driver.

 

• Now navigate to Device Manager and right-click on the disabled Microsoft driver.
• Click on Uninstall from the drop-down menu.
• Having done this, now reinstall the Realtek HD Audio Driver

2.2. Enable the startup in Task Manager

• Go to Start and open the Task Manager.
• Navigate to the Startup tab.
• Search and locate the Realtek HD Audio Manager.
• If the status is Disabled, right-click on it and click on Enable option from the drop-down menu.

• Restart the system.

Fix: Install Realtek HD Audio Driver Failure, Error OxC0000374.

2.3. Update the Sound driver software

• If the Realtek HD Audio is still missing, then do the following.
• Open Device Manager.
• Expand Sound, video, and game controllers.
• Right-click on Realtek High Definition Audio and click on Update driver from the drop-down menu.

• Assuming that you have the latest driver setup file on your computer, choose Browse my computer for driver software.

• Choose and select Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
• Search and pick the latest driver by date and then click Next to update.

Read: How to use Realtek HD Audio Manager to boost up your PC Sound.

2.4. Add Legacy hardware

• Go to Device Manager.
• Search and click on the Sound, video and game controllers.
• Click on the Action tab.
• Search and click on Add legacy hardware from the drop-down menu.
• 
• Click on the Next button and select the radio button for Search for and install the hardware automatically (Recommended).

• Click on Next and manually install the driver again.