Accidentally deleted Realtek driver (and something else?) for sound on laptop

[Kennedy]

I have a laptop running on Windows 10. I was going through my computer and uninstalling programs that I thought were unnecessary and slowing it down. I know I deleted at least one program related to Realtek, not knowing at the time what it was. After "cleaning house," the sound no longer functioned. Dumb mistake. Lesson learned.

I immediately realized I had made a terrible mistake and found what I believed to be the Realtek driver for Windows 10 online and re-installed it. Unfortunately, the sound still doesn't work.

It's possible that I deleted something else that controls the sound, but I don't know what else is missing. Any help?

[wander]

There is a chance is you have not deleted it yet. If you still see the speaker icon on the bottom right of the laptop screen, you can try to go in there and verify if the output is directed to the right connector (speakers, headphone ...).

[bob60014]

Check the configuration settings first. If no luck go to the support page for the actual make and model of your computer and download the correct drivers from there.

[Momus]

Look into your model number of your laptop.

Search on google for that model number, you will find the manufacturer website and you can download Realtek driver there.

[Kennedy]

Thank you for the suggestions. I believe I also deleted Adobe Flash Player. In googling that, it appears that could have affected the sound?

[whodidntante]

You could wait for a call from "Windows" and pay them in iTunes gift cards.

OR...

Go to the manufacturer's website to download the driver. Laptops have weird proprietary hardware that doesn't work with the same drivers as desktop hardware.

[Cubicle]

Serious question, you restarted after the re-install, right?

Manufacture's website. Or web search your computer's model number & "sound driver". Only download from the manufacturer though.

[OAG]

Any chance you did not EMPTY YOUR RECYCLE BIN yet? If not you can RESTORE the files.

[sycamore]

+1 on the idea to reboot. Sometimes it takes a reboot for some system changes to take effect.

If it still doesn't work after rebooting, run the "Device Manager" program (press the Windows key, type in "Device Manager"). Right-click on the "Sound, video and game controllers" entry and select the "Scan for hardware changes". Windows should detect the sound hardware and install a driver.

[wander]

Don't need to do anything else if you can restore your windows. Here is the link of how to do it if you are not familiar with this feature. A kid can do it.

[Hypersion]

If rebooting doesn't fix the issue try a driver scan and install tool like snappy driver.

https://sdi-tool.org/

[adamthesmythe]

+1 on the idea to reboot. Sometimes it takes a reboot for some system changes to take effect.

If it still doesn't work after rebooting, run the "Device Manager" program (press the Windows key, type in "Device Manager"). Right-click on the "Sound, video and game controllers" entry and select the "Scan for hardware changes". Windows should detect the sound hardware and install a driver.

Yeah, that's what I would try first.

[GeMoney]

You can try to restore your computer using Restore Point which built into Windows that takes a snapshot of your computer programs (but not your documents). You can also try using driver update software to help locate and install the driver. I use DriverMax to update my drivers which is free.

[cheese_breath]

If all else fails, isn't something like this one of the reasons we back up our systems periodically? I've done some dumb things too, but my system backup saved me.

[cjking]

Type "recover" in the search box to get the utility, then select system restore. Somewhere in there, hopefully you will be able to select the checkpoint before your uninstalls to go back to. This facility is designed to solve exactly this problem, and will be much quicker and more reliable than trying to find the correct drivers and install them. (Edit: I see a few people have mentioned this already, including a link to an article on it.)

[tooluser]

Something similar happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Here's what fixed it for me:

Type "Device Manager" in the windows search box at the bottom left of the screen.
Open Device Manager. It displays a list of "devices" on your computer.
It's likely that "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" is already expanded.
If not, expand it by clicking the arrow thing to the left.
One of the items will have a yellow exclamation mark on it, indicating something is wrong.
Right click it.
Choose Uninstall Device.
Then in the menu at the top select Action...Scan for Hardware Changes.
It will reload the problem device and you should be all set.