One of my audio drivers (Realtek HD Audio) keeps re-enabling itself as an application which is enabled at startup despite my attempts to disable it.

Question

One of my audio drivers (Realtek HD Audio) keeps re-enabling itself as an application enabled at startup. Although I manually disable it in Task Manager, it promptly crashes my Task Manager before re-enabling the setting. I also tried to disable it via settings and the same thing occurred. My file is located in program data which is hidden by default. After un-hiding the folder, any attempt to open it also leads to my file explorer crashing. Is there any way to remove this driver/ stop it from re-enabling itself? (The driver does not show up in Task Manager).

Answer 1

Hello Mahdi,

Thank you for using Microsoft products and posting to the community.

We fully understand the inconvenience the issue has caused and that the current situation can be frustrating. Below are the steps you can try to troubleshoot this issue:

1. Disable/Uninstall the Realtek HD Audio driver in Device Manager:

• Right-click on the Windows Start button and select "Device Manager."
• Expand the "Sound, video and game controllers" section.
• Right-click on "Realtek HD Audio" and select "Disable Device."
• Restart your computer and check if the issue persists.

2. Group Policy (Advanced):

• Press , type "gpedit.msc," and press Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.Win + R
• Navigate to "Computer Configuration" > "Administrative Templates" > "System" > "Device Installation" > "Device Installation Restrictions."
• Double-click on "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs."
• Select "Enabled," then click on the "Show" button.
• Add the Hardware IDs of your Realtek HD Audio device. You can find these IDs in the Properties of the device in Device Manager. Like: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0867&SUBSYS_103C82FF&REV_1000
• Restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.

3. Disable Realtek HD Audio Service.

Hold down the Windows + R keys on your keyboard to enable the Run box, then type msconfig. Click on the Services tab, find Realtek Audio Service, uncheck Enable this service, and then restart your computer to see if the problem still exists.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks. We need to go through certain troubleshooting steps to narrow down the problem and provide further support.

Sincerely

Mavis - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist