Acer Aspire A515-56T Headphone Jack Not Recognised In Windows 11 Pro

My Aspire A515-56T has a problem that I think is Windows 11 Pro not recognising the speaker/headphone jack. When I plug in an external speaker/headphones/microphone the Realtek popup pops up and asks me what device I have plugged in, I select the relevant device but that device doesn't appear as a device in Windows 11 Pro output/input devices. It's as if the Realtek driver detects that something has been plugged into the jack, but Windows doesn't know anything about it.

I initially thought I might have had a bad headphone jack but if the Realtek popup works, then the jack must be OK. I have tried the headphones, speakers and microphone with other devices and they test OK.

Is there a known problem with the Realtek driver (I have the latest driver as per the Acer support site) and Windows 11 Pro?

Is anything else going on that I haven't thought about yet?

Thanks in advance.

Accepted answers

JackE

>>>If I reinstall Windows 11 will the problem go away, >>>

Not with a 100% guarantee under any circumstance. However, the best way to rule in or rule out a hardware issue is a full factory operating system reset if the laptop originally was sold with a factory installed operating system like Win10 home or Win11 home

All comments

JackE

The drivers are mainly for OEM Home version. Accordingly, try iobit's DriverBooster , DriverPack or similar freeware driver tools to see if they can pick up anything better on line. .

AnhEZ28

@Jagger_The_Cat if a notification from Realtek Audio Console driver pops up, choose the Headset output if you have a headset or earphone with a mic, and then choose OK. It still shows as the Speaker but the Audio will output to the headset/headphone and also with the external mic.

billsey

The latest Realtek drive is actually newer than the one on the Acer site, go ahead and get it directly from Intel, but you can check in Device Manager first to make sure it's not showing and error or warning there...

JackE

The drivers are mainly for OEM Home version. Accordingly, try iobit's DriverBooster , DriverPack or similar freeware driver tools to see if they can pick up anything better on line. .

Jagger_The_Cat

UPDATE: Thank you all for your suggestions and comments. I discovered an error in the Realtek event log that suggests a problem with the driver caused by an upgrade to Windows 11 Pro from Windows 10 Pro.

I have deleted and/or reinstalled both the Realtek driver from Acer and also let Windows 11 replace the driver on it's own accord.

I have also let Driver Booster 9 find the latest drivers as far as it is concerned.

If I reinstall Windows 11 will the problem go away, or are the Microsoft and Acer Windows 11 Realtek drivers (and the drivers that Driver Booster 9 found) just still not quite there yet as far as my laptop and it's 3.5mm sound jack?

I don't want to do a clean install of Windows 11 only to have the same problem because the Realtek drivers that are around are just no good with Windows 11.

I also have the option to do a "Repair Install" of Windows 11 which I think is a reinstall over the top of the last install of Windows 11, replacing any problematic system files.

Any ideas on my next steps????

Thanks in advance.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/6q/a9o720kjjxzg.png

JackE

>>>If I reinstall Windows 11 will the problem go away, >>>

Not with a 100% guarantee under any circumstance. However, the best way to rule in or rule out a hardware issue is a full factory operating system reset if the laptop originally was sold with a factory installed operating system like Win10 home or Win11 home

billsey

Realtek drivers are available from Intel as part of their GPU package, I believe. They have done a heck of a lot of tweaks in the last year or so, so check on their support site to make sure you are on the latest.

Jagger_The_Cat

UPDATE:
So I fixed the problem.

I did a factory Windows "reset" which I thought would take me back to Windows 10 Home which was installed when I purchased the laptop, from Windows 11 Pro which is currently installed. I wanted to rule out a hardware issue.

The "reset" ended up doing an install of Windows 11 Pro (again) and the 3.5mm jack did then work with headphones but only with headphones. The Realtek pop also didn't pop up when I plugged something into the 3.5mm jack.

I then installed the Realtek driver from the Acer website and the 3.5mm jack now works as expected.

Thank you all for your help.