[Resolved] Audio issues since the recent W10 updates

Euphoria · May 17, 2018

[Edit] Resolved

I spent 3 flippin' days trying to fix this issue before I finally gave up and posted here hoping someone might be able to help me... then just 2 minutes after posting I found the fix, haha.

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Hey everyone.

Well, I can see a trend in the forums at the moment, it seems the recent Windows 10 updates have screwed a few people and I'm one of them.

I decided I should update Windows a few days ago and since then I've had issue after issue, most of them minor and just annoying which I managed to fix with a few hours of registry tweaks and spring cleaning, but one thing has remained and I cannot find what the hell Micro$oft has done to mess with it; (it drives me f*cking crazy that they force everything back to default, reinstalling and deleting all edits with every damn update!) Rant over.

To start I had no audio at all, no matter what I did I had zero audio, thankfully after 10+ restarts it seemingly fixed itself so I have audio working now, but the thing is now I only have one audio output even though I have two (speakers = front I/O and headphones = rear mobo I/O). All audio now outputs through both output devices at the same time, I no longer have an option to switch output devices between the two in the taskbar or sound options.
Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone have any advice on how to fix this, please?

WkdPaul · May 18, 2018

15 hours ago, Euphoria said:

Resolved now - Mods please remove this, thank you

Spent 3 days trying to fix the issue, finally gave up and posted here then found the fix just 2 minutes later, haha.

No, please instead post your solution so that the next poor soul that have the same problem can find a solution, this is why we have the forum and don't remove threads when it's resolved!

Euphoria · May 18, 2018

17 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

No, please instead post your solution so that the next poor soul that have the same problem can find a solution, this is why we have the forum and don't remove threads when it's resolved!

Good point, sorry about that, my bad. I've edited my OP and will post the answer below.

Euphoria · May 18, 2018

[Fixed]

The Window update had reset the entire RealTek driver and Sound Manager, everything was back to default. I played around with it and many other sound settings for hours with no luck. Then I realised there are actually two separate sub settings menus in the RealTek manger, one does Connector Settings and the other is for Device Settings - I was trying one and completely overlooked the other menu as they're two little icons on different sides of the GUI.

In the Device Settings the default setting is to mute the rear device when the front device is plugged in, which wasn't the case for me, sound was coming through both devices at the same time, but anyway, the other option is to make the front and rear outputs separate which is what I needed. Once I changed that setting both my devices showed up in the Sound settings in RealTek and Windows so I can select and change between the two on the fly now.

Something so simple but I guess I'd been looking at it too long I couldn't see the wood for the trees. Still, it wouldn't have been an issue in the first place if Micro$oft in their *cough infinite wisdom would just stop resetting the entire OS back to default every frickin' time they release an update - I mean I don't remember XP or W7 resetting everything even when a service pack was installed, so why do they force it in W10, it's like a freshly installed OS every time I install an update and it takes half a day to get everything configured again.

This is why I've forced disabled updates with registry edits, Windows doesn't even check or prompt for major security updates, that's how annoying it is that I would rather live with security vulnerabilities than install a damn update. OK, I'm ranting again... *sigh my bad.