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I am trying to switch from the Realtek Audio driver to the High Definition Audio driver. The former keeps giving me problems when I plug in earphones, while the latter is always fine.

I've done this before by going to Device Manager and using 'Update Driver'. I have also gone into the System settings in the Control Panel and disabled the option to automatically update drivers. Sometimes I notice it's switched back to Realtek Audio (when things stop working properly), but I just switch back manually and it's fine again.

However, this morning it switched back to Realtek Audio. Every time I use 'Update Driver', it automatically reinstalls Realtek Audio a second later. The icon for the volume control switches to have a red cross on it, like it has previously until a restart. I get the message to restart to finish the changes, then the icon switches back, it says 'Realtek Audio' again, and I get a notification telling me to restart to finish installing the Realtek Audio driver.

I have checked, and the update driver box in system settings is still unticked, I have disabled and Realtek processes and revoked their permissions, and I have restarted multiple times and still have the same problem.

Please could someone tell me how to stop Realtek Audio from reinstalling itself within a second of disabling it?

Worthwelle
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GCooper
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  • In the vast majority of cases I see, the only reason a driver will keep reinstalling itself is that installation is failing because the driver is not Windows compliant. Contact the computer manufacturer's support site / people and see if there is a compliant driver. – John Mar 04 '20 at 16:31
  • @John But I've been using the native High Definition Audio Device driver for months and it's worked fine, it's only today when it keeps insisting on switching to Realtek(R) Audio. – GCooper Mar 04 '20 at 16:58
  • Then the driver appears to be OK. Try DISM and SFC. Open an admin command prompt and run DISM.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth Follow with SFC /SCANNOW . When done restart and test – John Mar 04 '20 at 17:25
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    Does this answer your question? [How do I stop Windows 10 from updating my graphics driver?](https://superuser.com/questions/964475/how-do-i-stop-windows-10-from-updating-my-graphics-driver) – Ramhound Mar 04 '20 at 17:34
  • Here is some additional background: [How to temporarily prevent a driver update from reinstalling in Windows 10](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-reinstalling-in-window) – Ramhound Mar 04 '20 at 17:36

1 Answers1

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Try this, let us know how it goes…

Have the HD driver ready on your machine, direct from realtek.

Disconnect from the net [physically, power off your router if you have to]
Open Device Manager
Uninstall the device
Reboot
Install the HD driver
Reboot
Reconnect the net.

Don't ask Windows to update the driver, or it will swap back again. This has been a known issue since forever. The Realtek drivers come with a nice control panel, the ones from Windows throw it away.

Tetsujin
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  • I tried this, but when rebooting the computer it reappears as a Realtek(R) Audio driver anyway, even when disconnected. Anyway, I want the native High Definition Audio Device driver, I actively want to get rid of the Realtek drivers; in the past I've tried different downloads and installations of the Realtek driver and they have all been inferior and caused problems. I don't want the Realtek control panel, I want the default Windows drivers, but while I've been able to use them for months, now Realtek keeps forcing its sorry ass back onto my computer. – GCooper Mar 04 '20 at 16:59
  • What do you consider to be the "native" driver? 'Native' ought to be the one from Realtek, not the one Windows thinks is the right one. – Tetsujin Mar 04 '20 at 17:03