Nitro 5 AN515-55 my sound stop working when windows update installs latest realtek audio drivers

Hi all. Nitro 5 AN515-55 laptop here. My sound stops working when I let Windows update do it's thing and install drivers. I can get it working again if I manually install the Realtek drivers from Acer's website (Version: 6.0.9054.1) but as soon as I do a Windows update, it breaks again. I know it's updating the audio drivers because I see about 5 updates appear with "Realtek Semiconductor Corp." installing.

I tried using the Group Policy Editor to prevent Windows from updating just the audio drivers but that didn't work either. Another weird thing is even after installing drivers from Acer it won't work until I uncheck the "Audio Enhancement" box on sound properties and when I try to play a test tone it comes up with an error saying "Failed to play test tone". Something isn't right here. Please help.

Thread was edited to add model name to the title

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Easwar

Hi Damooch,

Did you check with different media player.

Tachi13

Hey @Damooch

Go to settings, update and security, Troubleshooter, additional troubleshooters, Playing Audio, go through the steps, it will ask you to choose an audio driver, choose realtek there, and try applying the fix. If it doesn't work, try again, and choose a different driver. if no drivers are left, go to device manager, under Sound and Game controllers, uninstall the realtek and straightaway click on uninstall, "DO NOT UNINSTALL DEVICE DRIVERS". then restart the computer, and run the TS again. Let me know if it worked.

Damooch

@Tachi13 Thanks for the response. I ran the troubleshooter for Realtek audio after installing windows update drivers and it said "Audio services not responding" and gave me no other options. So I uninstalled like you said but there was no option for "DO NOT UNINSTALL DEVICE DRIVERS". So I restarted and tried updating the driver with windows but it didn't fix it and running the troubleshooter again had the same result of Audio services not responding. 😔

Tachi13

@Damooch
No no, I didn't refer to an option that says do not uninstall device drivers. I was trying to caution you not uninstall drivers, but just the device. but disregard that and try uninstalling the device. After you uninstalled it, restarting the computer would reinstall the driver, you don't have make any effort, and then you should try the Troubleshooter. but anyways, I assume that you tried it and it says audio services not responding. But that is something that we can latch on to and follow some of these troubleshooting steps. I know this is a long shot, but a final answer could be anywhere in that. As a desperate option, consider doing a reset, backup your personal files on to a thumb drive and Reset the PC. If none of them works, it is best to send it to acer for repair if your unit is under warranty.

Damooch

@Tachi13 Thank you for trying but after following many of the troubleshooting steps I couldn't get it to work. It actually made it worse somehow because reinstalling the Acer drivers wouldn't even make the sound return like it used to. So I decided to do a system restore to a couple days ago when I had it somewhat working and by some miracle it's working again. Only, this time, Windows recognises the Acer driver as up to date and doesn't try to install any of it's own drivers. It's a great result but I have no idea how it's working again. Hopefully it stays good!

LuongQuocAn06

Damooch said:

Hi all. Nitro 5 AN515-55 laptop here. My sound stops working when I let Windows update do it's thing and install drivers. I can get it working again if I manually install the Realtek drivers from Acer's website (Version: 6.0.9054.1) but as soon as I do a Windows update, it breaks again. I know it's updating the audio drivers because I see about 5 updates appear with "Realtek Semiconductor Corp." installing.

I tried using the Group Policy Editor to prevent Windows from updating just the audio drivers but that didn't work either. Another weird thing is even after installing drivers from Acer it won't work until I uncheck the "Audio Enhancement" box on sound properties and when I try to play a test tone it comes up with an error saying "Failed to play test tone". Something isn't right here. Please help.

Thread was edited to add model name to the title

I have the same issues as you but dont know how to fix this

Damooch

@LuongQuocAn06 I wish I could tell you how I fixed mine because I honestly think I just lucked out with what I did. Before my system restore I did try updating drivers using Ccleaner which did find quite a few extra drivers relating to audio that needed updating. But I'm sure system restore would have removed those updates anyway so I'm really not sure what the proper fix is.

manig648

Did you get any fix on this issue

I just recently got this issue like two weeks back or something and im still not able to fix it... im using my bluetooth earphones for audio as even the audio jack isnt working.

And if possible... you said that it worked when you downloaded the driver from the acer site itself... can you tell how to do that atleast

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