Windows – Acer Aspire 7535G Windows 8.1 upgrade, HDMI sound failing

acer-aspireaudiohdmiwindows 8

After upgrading wo Windows 8.1 from 8.0 I can no longer properly play sound:

I can play sounds like this:

  • Windows Control panel "Sound" without HTMI cable connected:
    Yes

  • Netflix without HTMI cable connected:
    Yes

  • Windows Control panel "Sound" with HTMI cable connected:
    Yes, but immediately followed by warning that the sound device is used by another program

  • Netflix "Sound" with HTMI cable connected:
    No (infact Netflix player stops and asks me to reboot)

These are tthe things I have tried:

  • add/remove/disable High definition audio controller (there are two)
  • making sure no other software is running (to my knowledge)
  • checked acer download site, but notthing with audio available from there (and I believe I have newest bios etc.)
  • did download another driver program which said there was a new high definition audio
    controller available, but it wat a bait program wanting money before downloaiding drivers
  • When searcing for new drivers using Windows (e.g. right clicking on the high definition audio controllers) it says all drivers are updated
  • Tried running windows update to see if anything is available

In my control panel / hardware devices I can see:

  • "ATI High Definition audio device"

  • "Realtek High Definition audio"

From experiments with disabling/removing one of them (and then checking where sound works), I think Realtek is used for sound on the laptop/speakers, and the ATI one is for outputing sound through the HDMI cable.

Best Answer

The audio adapter in that notebook is a Realtek (HD) audio. I figured this out by looking a the latest drivers for your model (driver for Windows 7) -- They are version 6.0.1.5911 from 2009/10/23.

Often Realtek updates the driver, but the notebook OEM (Acer in this case) doesn't update support pages (etc.) for what they consider an End-OF-Life product. They don't want to spend time testing new OS's and drivers on it because it's not making them money anymore. Often the (Realtek) driver package itself will work for many previous revisions of the adapter, as well as different models of Realtek audio adapters, you just need to get a newer version that's Windows 8.1 ready.

If you look up a newer notebook from Acer that officially supports 8.1 (like say the Aspire V5-572G), they have a newer Realtek driver available for them for use with Windows 8/8.1. Currently the 8.1 (64-bit) driver is as v6.0.1.7027 (from 2013/10/11).

I'd say look up that model (or another newer one), grab that driver and try it.

Related Question