# Oppinions on realtek soundcards

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Wednesday, 20-Feb-2008 19:20:01

Hi.
I got a new laptop and i like it a lot. But one thing i don't like is the sound card on it. It has got a realtek hd audio sound card and i don't think it is very good.
It doesn't seam to give me many options in my volume control as i used to have. For example with my new laptop i used to be able to have microphone in my playback settings so i could hear myself in the speakers and also with this method i could record myself and something on the computer playing at the same time but now i can't. Sorry if you didn't play with the volume control probably you will think that i am speaking a foreign language but the people who know i think they understand what i mean.
Also in the control pannel i have got an option which says realtek hd sound effect manager and in there somebody can make different changes to the performance of the sound card. This dialogue box is the most inaccessible i seen especially with hal and supernova. I don't know if it is any better with jaws.
Anyway i wrote all that to tell you that if you buy a new laptop avoid buying one with a realtek sound card.
Also i have got some problems with my screen reader being quieter than anything else and i don't know why. Just for the record my laptop came with windows vista but we put windows xp on it because i don't like vista. I don't know if the person who installed windows for me put wrong drivers for the sound card. It just seams a bit strange. And if you want to know my laptop is a toshiba but i don't remember which model exactly. If there is a way to find this out it would be good lol.
Anyway i look forward to hear oppinions about realtek soundcards and if somebody can improove how they behave.

## Post 2 by chikorita (move over school!) on Wednesday, 20-Feb-2008 20:58:40

hi, I love them! I use jaws, so it may be different though. the option to record the computer as well is called "stereo mics." If you want to hear yourself, go to the sound manager and select the microphone tab, then make sure the playback volume is set at maxumum and not muted. you may also want to mess with the mic boost options. all this could be different though, I use vista.
hope this answers some of your questions, and if you have any problems, feel free to contact me!

## Post 3 by 404 to the 508 (Generic Zoner) on Thursday, 21-Feb-2008 1:06:44

XP is much different than Vista when it comes to sound.
I am not sure how familiar you are with sound management so I'm going to be basic.
InVista, you can go under control panel, sounds and audio devices and recording control. There you can set all the options and levels for recording.
In the volume control, you can control each application's individual volume like JAWS and Skype. I'm not sure how to do the play back mic thing though.
Under XP:
In volume control, go to the options menu (alt+P) and select advanced Options. It should be checked after you press enter on it. Make sure you do this under play back.
If the microphone doesn't show up, go to the options menu again, go to propperties, slect the realtek sound card, press tab, select play back, select tab and check microphone or front mic. Thenk go to OK and press it.
Your microphone should show up and you can then turn it up and down, mute/unmute it, and select advanced where you can check boost or no boost.
If you want to set stereo mix and stuff, go to options>Propperties>realtek>recording contro, make sure stereo mix is enabled in he list and press ok.
Then, you can mute/unmute the stereo mix so you can have stereo mix as well as the mic. This is the nice thing about realtek, it isn't an either or like most sound cards, you can mute and unmute the input sources individually.
Hope this helps.

## Post 4 by Ukulele<3 (Try me... You know you want to.) on Thursday, 21-Feb-2008 1:12:32

Yes. I too have a real tech sound card and just follow post 3's instructions. It's a decent sound card but then I don't know much about audio stuff but it suits my purpose. Good luck.
Michelle

## Post 5 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Thursday, 21-Feb-2008 3:37:34

Thanks all for the posts. I am wondering are you using realtek on a laptop or a desctop computer? I think on laptops some of the features in volume control are disabled for a strange reason so that's why you had better luck with it. At work they also have realtek on the desctop computer i am using and i could do much more with it.
But i will try having cellected my microphone and stereo mix both at the same time and see if it is going to work.