Realtek Audio Manager

[Navihawk]

I certainly hope someone here can help me; but from what I have been able to find out from searching online, I may be out of luck.

Anyway, here’s the situation: When my 11-year-old Sony Vaio finally died for good, after 2 new hard drives (including an upgrade from Windows Vista to Win7), 3 new keyboards, and a replaced screen along the way, I finally decided to get a new laptop. I found the HP Pavilion 17-ar050wm for a good price; it certainly is an upgrade from the smaller Vaio, and I like it a lot already…! And I’ve been trying to set everything to what I was used to on the old laptop (programs, settings, etc.). The HP Pavilion came with Windows 10, so I’ve been getting used to that and sometimes using the Win10 equivalent of what I had before. For the most part, I’ve been pretty successful so far…but then I hit a snag.

Using different settings and applications, either built-in or installed, I had set the volume on the Vaio to my liking. Music and movies sounded pretty good, both through the speakers and headphones; and the system sounds, such as the “Empty Recycle Bin” sound, as well as the “clicks” when navigating through File Explorer, were loud enough to hear. When I tried to change those settings on the new HP Pavilion, however, I wasn’t able to get those sounds as loud (and I prefer them louder, so I know by sound as well as looking that I actually did things like emptying the bin or clicking on a folder). A brief search or two reminded me what I needed to do: access the Enhancements tab in the Speakers properties, because enabling a couple of those (Bass Booster, Loudness Normalization) noticeably increased the volume of the system sounds on the Vaio. But come to find out, the Realtek HD Audio, which seems to be the standard these days for most laptops and PCs, does not include that tab!

I was disappointed, but not undaunted. I continued to search online for a solution, and after reading several helpful forums, as well as uninstalling and re-installing the audio drivers a few times (at one point even uninstalling the Realtek drivers and installing the “generic” HD Audio drivers, which did include the tab in the Properties, and then finally re-installing what I thought were the latest Realtek drivers), I started to realize that there didn’t seem to be a way to have the Realtek HD Audio service running AND have the Enhancements tab in the Properties. After reading some more forum posts, I was thinking that I needed the Realtek HD Audio Manager in order to make things louder the way I was trying to. The program files (“.exe”) are in the Realtek folder on the laptop, but when I click on them NOTHING happens. The program doesn’t open, or load, or anything. I think the files ended up in the folder after I reinstalled one of the drivers, but I didn’t look for them before I started all this, so I don’t know for sure. I found out that there’s supposed to be a shortcut to the Realtek Audio Manager in the Control Panel, but it’s not there. This HP Pavilion comes with Bang & Olufsen audio, and there is a B&O Audio Manager, but there isn’t much to it, and didn’t help me at all.

So, it all comes down to this question: Does this HP Pavilion 17-ar050wm laptop come with Realtek HD Audio Manager? (I’m inclined to think not.) Is there a way to download and install it on the computer? (Again, I don’t think so; one forum said it was included in one of the drivers, but if I did download it with that, it doesn’t work.) Or is there any way to have the Realtek Audio and the Enhancements? (Once more, and as I mentioned before, it doesn’t look like it.)

I appreciate in advance any information and assistance with this…!

[CF4]

Hi

Realtek High-Definition (HD) Audio Driver

6.0.1.8117 Rev.C

274.1 MB

Jan 5, 2018

Download

https://support.hp.com/gb-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-17-ar000-laptop-pc/15551398/model/16902...

[Navihawk]

Thanks for the reply, although that didn't really answer my question. I had already downloaded and installed the latest drivers. I was hoping someone from HP would read my question and provide a more detailed answer, such as whether the Enhancements tab is possible with the Realtek HD Audio Manager.

[noelpg21]

no Navihawk.

when it comes to Realtek audio driver software, the drivers are hardcoded to whatever audio enhancements being provided, based on the audio chipset (my cousin's old HP pavilion dv6648se entertainment laptop uses Realtek ALC268 audio chipset with Altec Lansing speaker sound strip) and the hardware device ID assigned to it, no matter whether using an old or new version of the Realtek HD audio drivers.

To find out what hardware ID the Realtek audio device uses on your HP laptop, see this Google search.

so there's really nothing you can do about it, except maybe install the Realtek audio drivers through a different INF file but even doing that may sometimes produce unpredictable results (as in no Realtek audio manager control panel available).