O.T. Audio reset

I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

(1) TB HD
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-33-3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
4GB RAM, 750 GB HD
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

Seagate Backup Plus 1(TB) 2.5 USB Portable HD

WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

The issue I have is with the 8500.
Lately, I've noticed that every time
I logon I have to adjust the volume
again so I can hear it.

I don't remember it doing this before
and I haven't added or downloaded
anything and none of the scans have
picked up anything. Although recently
Avast blocked something while I was
on Fox News site. I ran a full scan
afterwards which found nothing.

I checked my devices and audio mixer
and everything looks fine. So how do
I correct this?

Thanks,
Robert

I suggest you follow this thread where I've forwarded it, in
alt.windows7.general .

In message , Mark
Twain writes:
I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

(1) TB HD
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-33-3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
4GB RAM, 750 GB HD
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

Seagate Backup Plus 1(TB) 2.5 USB Portable HD

WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

The issue I have is with the 8500.
Lately, I've noticed that every time
I logon I have to adjust the volume
again so I can hear it.

I don't remember it doing this before
and I haven't added or downloaded
anything and none of the scans have
picked up anything. Although recently
Avast blocked something while I was
on Fox News site. I ran a full scan
afterwards which found nothing.

I checked my devices and audio mixer
and everything looks fine. So how do
I correct this?

Thanks,
Robert


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

And Jonathan Harker would never have sent all those letters to his beloved
Mina from Transylvania, he'd have texted her instead. "Stuck in weird castle w
guy w big teeth. Missing u. xxxx (-:" - Alison Graham, RT 2015/11/7-13

Mark Twain wrote:
I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

(1) TB HD
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-33-3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
4GB RAM, 750 GB HD
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

Seagate Backup Plus 1(TB) 2.5 USB Portable HD

WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

The issue I have is with the 8500.
Lately, I've noticed that every time
I logon I have to adjust the volume
again so I can hear it.

I don't remember it doing this before
and I haven't added or downloaded
anything and none of the scans have
picked up anything. Although recently
Avast blocked something while I was
on Fox News site. I ran a full scan
afterwards which found nothing.

I checked my devices and audio mixer
and everything looks fine. So how do
I correct this?

Thanks,
Robert


It could be, that the RealTek sound device is being re-discovered
by Device Manager, on each boot, and the driver for it is
getting re-installed.

You can use this program as a "crutch" for the broken function.
It's written by Nir Sofer.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/sound_volume_view.html

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/soundvolumeview.zip --- 32-bit OS

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/soundvolumeview-x64.zip --- 64-bit OS

The idea would be, just before shutdown, you "save" to a known place.

SoundVolumeView.exe /SaveProfile "C:\users\User Name\Profile1.spr"

At next startup, you could do this, to put the volume settings back.

SoundVolumeView.exe /LoadProfile "C:\users\User Name\Profile1.spr"

And that would be a way of "taking the place of" the registry
settings that are being over-ridden.

You could make two Shortcut icons for your desktop, to make
it easy to click those and just do it.

In addition, that utility should tell you the extent of the damage.
For example, double-click SoundVolumeView, and notice that Firefox has a
volume level set for it. (See the example on the web page.) Then,
after a reboot, use the tool again (no arguments), and see whether
the Firefox entry got deleted by the reboot. As that would hint that
maybe a driver re-install is happening over and over again.

There is one unrelated service, which causes loss of sound on
Windows 7. But I don't think it affects the contents of the registry,
nor does it cause the driver to be reinstalled. I haven't a clue
what could be causing the actual symptoms.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I have a Dell XPS 8500, with Windows 7 Professional, SP1,
with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

(1) TB HD
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-33-3770 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Ram 12.0 GB
System type : 64-bit operating system

I also have

I have a Dell Optiplex 780 Tower, with Windows 7 Professional,
SP1, with Spywareblaster, Malwarebytes, Avast , Windows Defender
and Windows firewall.

Intel (R) Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz
4GB RAM, 750 GB HD
System type : 64-bit operating system

and (external hard drives)

Seagate Backup Plus 1(TB) 2.5 USB Portable HD

WD BLACK SERIES WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200
RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
Hard Drive

The issue I have is with the 8500.
Lately, I've noticed that every time
I logon I have to adjust the volume
again so I can hear it.

I don't remember it doing this before
and I haven't added or downloaded
anything and none of the scans have
picked up anything. Although recently
Avast blocked something while I was
on Fox News site. I ran a full scan
afterwards which found nothing.

I checked my devices and audio mixer
and everything looks fine. So how do
I correct this?

Thanks,
Robert


And this seems similar to your symptoms.

https://www.w7forums.com/threads/hd-...-itself.20599/

You don't try to delete stuff from the drivers folder.

If you were to do anything, it would be to visit
Programs and Features control panel, and remove the driver there.

Program uninstallation or reinstallation uses the
TrustedInstaller token, to write into areas that
are otherwise barred to users (for security reasons,
to make it harder for malware to do it).

Paul

I followed your instructions but had
to extract it first.Here's my Sound
Volume:

http://i68.tinypic.com/14dfqdz.jpg

Do you mean to delete the Realtek
program?

http://i67.tinypic.com/2hqs1eq.jpg

Robert

Don't I need the Ethernet driver to
communicate with the Internet?

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I followed your instructions but had
to extract it first.Here's my Sound
Volume:

http://i68.tinypic.com/14dfqdz.jpg

Do you mean to delete the Realtek
program?

http://i67.tinypic.com/2hqs1eq.jpg

Robert

So for once, it isn't the RealTek Audio driver.

You're using the default HDAudio driver of the OS,
as near as I can tell from the Nirsoft software.

No, you *don't* want to remove the RealTek Ethernet driver.

You can't really re-install the system driver, and I
doubt it can be completely removed. Any attempt to
remove it, would only result in the same driver
coming back instantly.

You could override the driver, with an actual RealTek driver.
That's about the only option I have for you right now, short
of using the Nirsoft program to save your audio adjustments,
between one shutdown, and the next startup.

I think on my Win7, I did install the Realtek driver, so I
could have a control panel to play with. It allows listening
to the software "special effects", like concert hall echo
and reverb. I think what I was looking for, is whether the
special effects could be entirely disabled. At least
one driver in the past, you'd set the Special Effects to none
and the concert hall reverb effect was still present.

You could look for a driver on the Dell site for your
model of computer. That's one way to get the driver.
the advantage of that, is you get an opportunity to
confirm the audio chip really is RealTek. So you want
the Dell Support page for that PC, then look in the Audio
section.

Make a Restore Point (which verifies Restore Points are working),
before you install the driver. In Step 7 here, you would
enter a comment such as "Just before addition of RealTek Audio driver"
or words to that effect. The idea is, you need a text comment
which will tweak your memory, if and when you need to roll back
something you've done.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...nt-create.html

The driver install would (normally) make a Restore Point too.
While you're in the Control Panel, in Step 6, you can verify
that the C: drive is turned on. And the storage on C: is set
to at least 3GB. That should be enough for at least three
(bloated) restore points. On older systems, you could store
a couple months worth in that space.

Paul

Could it be that my RealTec driver's
need updating? I found this but didn't
proceed because I wasn't sure if it was
OK or not:

http://i64.tinypic.com/25tyhza.jpg


Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
Could it be that my RealTec driver's
need updating? I found this but didn't
proceed because I wasn't sure if it was
OK or not:

http://i64.tinypic.com/25tyhza.jpg


Robert

One of my suspicions, is you're running the Dell Updater,
and perhaps it had something to do with messing up the
audio.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/...ivers/advanced

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe Audio Card Driver

Realtek High-Definition ALC887 Audio Driver ---

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Audio Application
Creative Labs PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Utility

If you're using RealTek audio, the audio plugs would be
in the motherboard I/O plate area.

If you're using a Creative plugin card, it would be
located in the card slot area of the back of the machine.

Verify the physical location of the audio connection,
before loading the driver. I suspect it's the RealTek
ALC887, especially as the NifSoft software referred to
"HDAudio", and that's likely to be a motherboard one.
The RealTek is the only one that meets the description.

Audio_Driver_RM3TP_WN_6.0.1.6537_A00.EXE (130.61 MB)

The reason the file is so big, is it has drivers
for probably every RealTek HDaudio ever made.

So if you can navigate the Dell page, just get the
driver there.

Paul

I saw the Dell Updater before when I
was searching but didn't activate it
and don't believe I'm using it. I
could be wrong of course. Should I ?
or should I try to update to update
my Realtek driver?

The physical location of the audio
plug-ins is on the back of the 8500.

I'm not understanding where you got the
130.61MB file from ?

Robert

I went to Program and Features and
found this under RealTek support:

http://i63.tinypic.com/15cevdh.jpg

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I went to Program and Features and
found this under RealTek support:

http://i63.tinypic.com/15cevdh.jpg

Robert

Yes, the HDAudio drivers would be under the middle link.

And yes, the download will be large there too.

The first two are probably EXE installer files. For a 64-bit
OS, you'd want the second one down (217,554K). It's bigger than
the Dell download, because the Dell file would be an older version.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

Picture he

https://s3.postimg.org/tpv1bdftv/hdaudio.gif

Paul

I downloaded the second one which
required a restart of the system.

I checked the sound quality before
doing so and afterwards I didn't have
to adjust the sound.

I also had made a system restore point
just to make sure, knowing my history *L*

Thanks,
Robert

The problem still seems to persist. I downloaded
the Realtek update once again just to make sure
and checked the sound levels before and after and
it seemed the same and thought I had fixed it.

However, I find that whenever I log back on I have to
adjust the sound levels again. Maybe it's me but
it seems it still has the problem.

I run all the scans on a regular basis and nothing
has turned up.

Is there some sort of diagnostic I can run?

Thanks,
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
The problem still seems to persist. I downloaded
the Realtek update once again just to make sure
and checked the sound levels before and after and
it seemed the same and thought I had fixed it.

However, I find that whenever I log back on I have to
adjust the sound levels again. Maybe it's me but
it seems it still has the problem.

I run all the scans on a regular basis and nothing
has turned up.

Is there some sort of diagnostic I can run?

Thanks,
Robert

Microsoft has the concept of "troubleshooters", which
you may find in the Control Panel on Windows 7. On an
OS like WinXP, the troubleshooting code was stored on
web pages, making it easy for Microsoft to remove them.

I would not expect a Troubleshooter to care about the
volume level, or care about the inconsistency in the
storage of the level selected.

A Troubleshooter, if one existed, is more likely to be
checking for "Muting" and simply untick the Mute for you.
That's about as close as they're likely to get, to fixing
something.

Paul