After Windows reinstall, not seeing my laptop stereo speakers (Aspire R5-471T)

Beck18
Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
I did a Fresh Start reinstall of Windows 10. 
Now, when I right-click on my Sound Settings icon in taskbar and open to Sound > Choose Your Output Device, all I see is "Speakers Realtek High Definition Audio".
I'm 99% certain that on my previous settings (before the reinstall of Windows) that I had seen choices about Stereo and speaker placement.
Now I'm not seeing that anywhere.
How do I figure out what's going on?
Also, when I went to Settings > Sound > Troubleshooting, I ended up getting a screen that said, "Problems found - Generic Audio Driver".
(In case it's relevant information, I just got Dolby to install on the laptop, following these instructions: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/569082/dolby-audio-application-disappeared    )
Please advise!
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Answers

  • rich1974
    rich1974 Member Posts: 198 Mr. Fixit WiFi Icon
    have you install the audio driver from the laptop support page?  if not, install that driver. 
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    rich1974 said:
    have you install the audio driver from the laptop support page?  if not, install that driver. 

    I'm not sure the best way to install it at this point.  Should I just simply download and click on the Setup file in the folder, OR,
    should I be going to the appropriate corresponding folder in Device Manager, right-click, and then do Update Driver by browsing for the folder on my laptop?

    If the latter, please see below what I currently have showing installed in Device Manager.
    Which folder ("Audio inputs and outputs", OR " Sound, video and game controllers" ) and which device is the one for which I should be updating the driver?
    (The Properties details indicates that currently the Audio inputs and outputs drivers are all from Microsoft, rather than Realtek).




  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Beck18 said:
    I'm not sure the best way to install it at this point.
    The procedure is as follows:
    1. Download the driver from the support page, it is possible that you get an updated one afterwards if Acer has published an update through Windows Update and the support page wasn't update, but you have to start here. This would be a link to it: Audio driver for the R5-471T
    2. Decompress that archive and execute the Setup.exe file you'll see there among other things.
    I'm suggesting you go this way because I don't know the kind of driver package that was made for your particular laptop, some bring drivers for several devices (whether software or physical ones) so manually updating the driver through the Device Manager might not work.

    This way you ensure anything that needs to be installed, is.
  • rich1974
    rich1974 Member Posts: 198 Mr. Fixit WiFi Icon
    the above answer is good. 
    and i can say, as a  general rule, do not rely on windows update for all the drivers, sometimes you should do it in the old way. 
    in my case, it was the video driver and the wireless driver. 
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Aphanic and rich1974, thank you both for your responses!

    Rich1974: for your video and wireless driver, where did you go to get the updates?
    I went to Intel's page and used their updater.
    My wireless is Atheros Qualcom.  To make sure that's got the correct driver, should I go to Qualcomm Atheros, or should I use a driver from my Acer support page? ( https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6397?b=1&pn=NX.G7WAA.002)
    If the latter, would that be the Wireless LAN driver?  There are two listed there, one from Intel, and one from Atheros.
    Would I do both?
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Beck18 said:
    Would I do both?
    Nope, there are two in the support page because different submodels shipped with any of the two cards, but if yours is an Atheros card, go with the Atheros driver ;).
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    aphanic said:
    Beck18 said:
    Would I do both?
    Nope, there are two in the support page because different submodels shipped with any of the two cards, but if yours is an Atheros card, go with the Atheros driver ;).
    Thank you for explaining that!


  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    aphanic said:
    Beck18 said:
    I'm not sure the best way to install it at this point.
    The procedure is as follows:
    1. Download the driver from the support page, it is possible that you get an updated one afterwards if Acer has published an update through Windows Update and the support page wasn't update, but you have to start here. This would be a link to it: Audio driver for the R5-471T
    2. Decompress that archive and execute the Setup.exe file you'll see there among other things.
    I'm suggesting you go this way because I don't know the kind of driver package that was made for your particular laptop, some bring drivers for several devices (whether software or physical ones) so manually updating the driver through the Device Manager might not work.

    This way you ensure anything that needs to be installed, is.

      I did this again.  (I'm pretty sure I had done it earlier.) 
    Results:
    1) it's same as before in that there's no icons for right and left speakers.  These are some of the UIs I get now:







    2) It removed the Dolby shortcut from my Start Programs list and the icon from my task bar.
    I don't see how to open Dolby now.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Restoring Dolby after you uninstalled it may require you to re-install the drivers again I'm afraid :(... they're old-ish and I don't really know if the Dolby DSP at that time was already a Microsoft Store app or not. If it was, you could see reinstall it from the Store, like any other such app.

    We could try finding you newer drivers, for which we'd need to know the IDs of your audio card, and being Realtek it could be a pain to find the appropriate ones I'm afraid.

    However, the per-channel controls seem to still be there, only hidden away (have you updated your Windows version this time?) For example, look at where mine are (right click and open in a new tab for a better view):


  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    aphanic said:
    Restoring Dolby after you uninstalled it may require you to re-install the drivers again I'm afraid :(... they're old-ish and I don't really know if the Dolby DSP at that time was already a Microsoft Store app or not. If it was, you could see reinstall it from the Store, like any other such app.

    We could try finding you newer drivers, for which we'd need to know the IDs of your audio card, and being Realtek it could be a pain to find the appropriate ones I'm afraid.

    However, the per-channel controls seem to still be there, only hidden away (have you updated your Windows version this time?) For example, look at where mine are (right click and open in a new tab for a better view):



    I do have all these windows, so maybe I have what I'm supposed to?
    I guess I'll try using the laptop for a while with these settings, and see how it goes.
    I was, previously, able to get Dolby (Dolby Audio x2 Windows API SDK) to install fully by following this ( https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/569082/dolby-audio-application-disappeared ) so maybe I'll just try it again.  Thanks!

    BTW, do you happen to know anything about these other three drivers that had been on my Acer originally, but which I can't track down now? . . .
    1) VBCABLE-A (Virtual Audio Cable), and VBCABLE-B
    2) Acer Audio Invert Utility
    3) Dolby Audio x2 Windows APP
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    About Dolby, I'm afraid I have no experience with that, that's the DSP Acer chose for your machine and mine comes with a different one (none haha), but yes, try reinstalling the app manually and see what happens.

    And the rest don't strike me as drivers, I think they're more like applications that cambe bundled with the original installation, but I don't see them in the support site for the model; which is not uncommon, it happens to plenty of apps. They may just be non-essential (I see no clear way for you to get them either).
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Thanks for your response!  btw, what's DSP?  Digital Signal Processing?  something else?
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Exactly, it stands for Digital Signal Processing and that's the Dolby component you have there. Depending on the laptop and the agreements manufacturers do with audio companies some may be bundled with different DSPs, for example Dolby, DTS, Nahimic, MaxxAudio, etc.

    They rely on modifying the audio signal someway so we perceive it differently, for example in one preset maybe the bass sounds more grave giving it a boost. It's generally simplified when they name it for us, like "Movie Mode", "Music Mode", etc. What's behind is an equalizer (and sometimes some hardware to do the processing).

    Mine can with none of them, unless you count Acer's True Harmony as one of them that is; but I meant that it didn't come with any brand name equalizer accompanying the audio drivers.

    The audio world is crazy though, there's a whole field called psychoacoustics that deals in the way we as humans perceive sound, it used in many places, like in audio conversion from one format to another. If there is something to be lost, better be something we won't really notice right? There you go, psychoacoustics models, and they vary a lot.
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    If I may. Now I'm up to my Bluetooth drivers.
    I have an Atheros Qualcomm.  Please see my questions below . . .

    Beck18 said:
    Aphanic and rich1974, thank you both for your responses!

    Rich1974: for your video and wireless driver, where did you go to get the updates?
    I went to Intel's page and used their updater.
    My wireless is Atheros Qualcom.  To make sure that's got the correct driver, should I go to Qualcomm Atheros, or should I use a driver from my Acer support page? ( https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6397?b=1&pn=NX.G7WAA.002)
    If the latter, would that be the Wireless LAN driver?  There are two listed there, one from Intel, and one from Atheros.
    Would I do both?
    aphanic said:
    Beck18 said:
    Would I do both?
    Nope, there are two in the support page because different submodels shipped with any of the two cards, but if yours is an Atheros card, go with the Atheros driver ;).

    So you advised me to use my support page's Wireless LAN driver from vendor Atheros (rather than from Intel), since my laptop has a Qualcomm Atheros Wireless Network Adapter.

    Now would it be the same case for the Bluetooth driver?

    My support page lists two bluetooth drivers:
    - Bluetooth driver  Intel,   version 17.1.1525.1443
    - Bluetooth driver (NFA344A HAI)  Atheros,     version 12.0.0.137   (I don't know what the code in parentheses signifies.)

    Also, in case it's relevant, this is what currently shows in my Device manager:
    The first BT device listed (see below), (RFCOMM Protocol TDI), has a Microsoft driver.
    For the second item, "Bluetooth USB Module", Properties shows that the installed driver is  Qualcomm v10.0.0.256, dated 6/8/16.

    So my questions:  Should I install one of the Bluetooth drivers from my support page?  Which one?
    And do I first need to uninstall anything, or will it replace corresponding drivers on its own when I click on setup.exe?


  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    That's easy to answer too @Beck18, Qualcomm bought Atheros back in the day so the right one for you is the one labeled as Atheros. I mean, you could install both, but because you don't have an Intel one it would be pointless.

    In fact, they both come in the same card :), the wireless card you have is a hybrid that provides WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, they're wired differently internally (PCIe for the WiFi part and USB for the Bluetooth one) but that's all automatic, if you were to change it for example you'd just take out the old card and put in a new one (and install the drivers for the new one too haha).

    Anyway, in this case and from now on, if you see Atheros, think it is also known as Qualcomm, since the latter bought the former about 10 years ago more or less.
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Ok, so I'll install the Atheros BT driver from Acer support pag.

    And do I first need to uninstall anything, or will it replace corresponding drivers on its own when I click on setup.exe?
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    And same question in general, with regard to downloading other drivers from the support page (like the Atheros Wireless LAN driver):
     do I have to first uninstall the driver from Device Manager, OR can I just install from the support page's downloaded driver and that will replace the older driver on its own?
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    That's a more complicated question, in general, no, you download the driver and install it. Windows is somewhat smart in that regard and it won't overwrite a newer driver with an older one.

    Say you have installed version v2.0 from yesterday and today you install version 1.3, it will install probably, installers sometimes are not that smart; but all it'll do is add version 1.3 to the Windows DriverStore. The device will still be using version 2.0 because it is newer, so no harm done.

    There are special cases that may require an uninstall of the previous driver for the new one to be installed correctly, but those are the minority. That come to mind... graphics and audio drivers are the most picky, if it is a fresh start I wouldn't mind installing them directly, otherwise I may as well go for the uninstall first.

    Realtek audio drivers for example do that on their own! The first uninstall those installed, make you reboot and the installation program pops up again after the reboot to install the new ones. Others warn you that a newer version is already installed and they're not needed (Intel tends to do that).

    And then there's Windows Update, many times you'll find it updates the drivers you have installed from the support page with newer versions, that's because the manufacturer (Acer in this case) decided to push the update through Windows Update, but didn't update the support page.

    My rule of thumb when reinstalling machines is to first get connected to the Internet, then get Windows Update to do the rest, it'll pull drivers from its catalog on their own, and then, check if the drivers on the support page are newer than those Windows installed or not. If they are, download and install, if they aren't I most likely will just leave them alone.
  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    wow, thank you so much for this helpful information!

  • Beck18
    Beck18 Member Posts: 63 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    aphanic said:
    There are special cases that may require an uninstall of the previous driver for the new one to be installed correctly, but those are the minority. That come to mind... graphics and audio drivers are the most picky, if it is a fresh start I wouldn't mind installing them directly, otherwise I may as well go for the uninstall first.

    Realtek audio drivers for example do that on their own! The first uninstall those installed, make you reboot and the installation program pops up again after the reboot to install the new ones. Others warn you that a newer version is already installed and they're not needed (Intel tends to do that).

    So in regard to your comment about graphics and audio drivers, for those two is it best that I do uninstall the current drivers first, and then download them again from the Acer support page?

    And pardon my ignorance, but if I uninstall the graphics driver, will my laptop monitor not work properly?
    (Meaning will I be unable to reinstall from Acer page because I can't see anything??)

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