Audio is one of the essential things on your computer. Without audio, you cannot watch your favorite movie, join video calls or listen to Windows notification tones, click sound, and more. Hence, it can be pretty frustrating when your audio device doesn’t work properly. And the best way to fix any audio problem is to reinstall audio drivers. So the question is, how to reinstall audio device Windows 11/10?
How To Reinstall Audio Device in Windows 11/10?
Reinstalling the audio driver is extremely easy, and there are a couple of ways to do so. These methods are:
- Manually Reinstall Audio Device
- Re-enable the Audio Device
- Add Legacy Hardware
- Automatically Update Your Audio Device Drivers
Now let’s talk about these methods in brief below:
1] Manually Reinstall Audio Device
The first thing you can do is manually uninstall the audio device and install it back. For this, we will be using Device Manager, and here are the steps that you have to follow:
- Press Windows Key + X and go to Device Manager.
- Expand Sound, video, and game controllers.
- Next, right-click on the Audio device and select Uninstall device > Uninstall. (Follow the same steps for all of the audio drivers.)
That’s it. Your audio device is now uninstalled from your computer. Now go ahead and restart your computer, and Windows will automatically reinstall the audio driver.
In case even after restarting Windows, the audio device doesn’t get installed, you better download the audio driver from OEM’s website or use a third-party driver updating tool.
2] Re-enable the Audio Device
In some cases, audio devices can get disabled automatically when you install a new driver. Hence, if your audio device is not working properly, you can check if it’s disabled. To do so, follow the below steps:
- First, press Windows Key + X and select Device Manager.
- Expand the Sound, video, and game controllers.
- Right-click on Audio Device and select Enable from the menu.
3] Add Legacy Hardware
If you are using old sound hardware that used to come with CDs, then here is what you can do:
- From the Device Manager menu, go to Action > Add legacy hardware.
- Click on Next to start the Add hardware wizard.
- Select Search for and install hardware automatically (Recommended) option and click on Next.
- If this fails to find any new hardware, then click on Next.
- Now from the available list of Hardware, select sound, video, and game controller and click on Next.
- Next, you will get promoted to select the model and manufacturer for your sound device. So select it from the menu and click on Next.
- Once the installation gets completed, you should see the Sound, video, and game controller option in the device manager window.
Then follow the above steps to enable the audio device and see if it worked for you.
4] Automatically Update Your Audio Device Drivers
Even after reinstalling the Audio device, your audio may not work. One of the main reasons behind this is that Windows cannot find or install any suitable driver on its own.
In this case, we have to manually download the latest version of the audio driver and install it on our Windows system.
You can download the audio driver from your Laptop’s OEM website. In case if you are using an assembled PC, you have to download your motherboard’s audio driver. If you don’t want to find a driver manually, use third-party software to update drivers.
Another thing that you can try out is to let your Windows look for a driver and install it for you. The best way to do so is through the Windows update, and here are the steps that you have to follow:
- Click on the Windows Start menu and select Settings.
- Select Windows Update from the sidebar in Windows 11. For Windows 10 go to Update & Security > Windows Update.
- Go to Advanced Options > Optional updates > Driver updates.
- Over here, check if you have any driver update related to audio. If there is, then select it and click on Download & Install.
How do I reinstall Realtek HD Audio Manager Windows?
To reinstall Realtek HD, go to the Device Manager, and expand the Sound, video, and game controllers. Next, look for any audio driver named Realtek and then right-click on it and select Uninstall. After that, download a suitable driver from your OEM’s website.
So that was all for how to reinstall the audio device Windows 11/10. Now go ahead and try the above methods out and see if they are working for you. Also, if you get stuck at anything, do let us know through the comments below.
