Solution for Realtek AC97 onBoard

Get the following most up-to-date driver R2.14 for Vista

You may download the drivers from realtek itself, but trust me you need to have time for that file transfer and webpage!

Realtek HD Audio Driver from manufacturer

Then do the following steps:

- Extract the archive

- Right-click the setup.exe file -> choose Vista in Compatibilty mode

- Start setup.exe

This worked for me. I now have 5.1 sound and the realtek control panel works.

MSI K9N Neo V2 - mainboard

Hope this helps you all.

Well, this maybe a solution for those with HD audio but not for those stuck with old AC97 sound.

Just about giving up with this subject now, nothing seems to be working 100%.

installing R2.14 make no sense as it will not work with windows7 n i've to installed R2.14 in compatibility mode but nothing happens just got message that this driver is not supported with windows 7.

Edited January 18, 200917 yr by nitinagarwal1988

Hi here are screens from R.214 drivers with functionally control panel.

- Uninstalled the audio driver from Windows

- Restart

- Choose Vista in Compatibilty mode

- Installed R214 driver via setup.exe

Edited January 24, 200917 yr by Fyre

try this page: http://neosmart.net/blog/2006/vista-sound-drivers/

i found my *working* driver for SoundMax (eventhough WindowsUpdate has the driver, but there's no sound output).

Hey cybpsych, I also have SoundMax, I've spent a couple days trying to find a driver that will actually output sound. This guy says he did it, but he has to be a liar. I tried the driver and it's bull, every version of the driver says "smwd.sys" or something like that is missing. I even found a sys file that's really similar, but it just doesn't work. Don't stress yourself out, there are actually a lot of people with sound problems in win7. I'm switching back to Vista, because Windows 7 makes me feel like I'm deaf.

i think u got me wrong ... i found my working driver from the site i posted above it works for my soundmax, maybe you can try download this driver to try too ...

I can't get it to work right either! Sound only comes out through front speakers even when I set them up in control panel to work as 5.1....

MSI KM4VMM MoBo

KM400 chipset VIA1617a Codec

Sempron 2500+ @ 2gb RAM DDR333

It works just fine in XP Home Ed. and Vista Home Premium Ed.

I've tried almost everything you guys have talked about here.... I'm guessing smart 5.1 feature is not windows 7 friendly.... at least for now....