Realtek Audio = BSOD/Driver Problems (Vista Ultimate 64)

N

NickViper1024

Member
Hey Guys,

I have a brand new motherboard with all the wonderful trimmings of a high-end gaming platform. I recently bought a full install of Vista Ultimate 64 and noticed some "issues" after the install.

On a random basis, I will get BSOD's (and on other occasions, my PC will just reboot itself out of nowhere.) I noticed that this USUALLY (not always) happens when audio is playing (usually (again, not always) through Winamp/Windows Media Player). The only time my PC ran for 24 hours straight with no issues was when I disabled the audio device completely.

I have tried multiple versions of the Realtek drivers starting with the latest (that was posted on this forum) going back to 1.74 (I think that's the ver. number anyway, I'm not at my PC at the moment.) The most stable driver I've had yet was the oldest I could find - 1.74 - but does not include the Realtek Audio Manager (the newer ones did) and I still have a BSOD every couple hours.

The latest driver allows me to run for almost BSOD-free BUT the audio driver will "die" every half hour or so while in use and so far the only solution I have for when that happens is to reboot. I can tell the driver dies when I hear the last second of audio repeatedly while the PC continues to respond perfectly fine. Winamp/Ventrilo/Media Center will throw device-driver errors until I reboot.

Under Windows XP Pro, the latest Realtek audio drivers worked perfectly on this motherboard and never had BSODs. This leads me to believe it's a driver/Vista issue. I have looked at many many Realtek issues on this forum and could not find anyone who had a problem similar to mine.

Also - Does anyone know how to disable DEP (Data Execution Prevention) completely in Vista 64? This MAY be what's causing the issue but I can't find an Off button anywhere - I can change DEP to work on basic Windows components or on all components except what's listed. (And yes, I tried using wildcards in the exception box.)

When I get home tonight I'm going to try the "Repair" install that Brink mentions frequently. It seems to work for several people and if it doesn't ruin my personal settings then I guess it won't hurt to try. It's very odd because I bought the exact same hardware setup for my father as I have (the only difference beeing he purchases Vista Home Premium 32 bit) and his audio works just fine (after a lot of clean installs.) He does not remember specifically but he's pretty sure he didn't install any audio drivers on top of what Vista already provided - whereas I had issues right out of the gate with my default driver.
 

My Computer

System One

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Hey Brink,

Thanks for the quick reply. At this point I'm desperate and trying to throw the book at the problem. When the BSOD hits, it mentions IRQL_IS_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL. I have a strong suspicion that this entire issue is related to my audio and that if I fix my audio, I fixed the issue at hand.

Thanks a million for the DEP disable tutorial. With all the thoughtfulness put into Vista over XP, I'm surprised that I need to run good 'ol cmd to get what I need - I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I'm going to try repairing my install, disabling the DEP, and slapping on the latest driver (again). Hopefully this shotgun method will do the trick. Audio is a must-have!
 

My Computer

System One

Well I ended up re-installing Vista (no big deal). Now my system is more unstable than ever! BSODs every few minutes and all I'm doing is web surfing. After a very painful experience with BSODs, I finally finished downloading the Realtek 1.85 driver you posted recently and so far so good (on the sound front.)

Because of this new rash of BSODs that seemingly happen out of nowhere, I am beginning to suspect the real culprit is Windows Update. Every chance I got I told Windows to update everything, and now that I think about it, every crash happens during an update. The Memory Diagnostic Tool (provided in Vista) says my memory is fine. Right now I'm holding off on installing any more updates and I actually have the time to login and make this post! I hope this is the issue because I'm sure once the big updates are done this will be a minor annoyance at most. I hope this is the root of my problems and that I can get back to enjoying my sound again.

I will give any update where necessary.
 

My Computer

System One

Nick,

Make sure that you use drivers from the device's website and not from a Windows Update. Have you updated the BIOS?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
brink said:
Nick,

Make sure that you use drivers from the device's website and not from a Windows Update. Have you updated the BIOS?
Click to expand...

Here's the latest update:

Windows Update is definitely causing most (if not all) the BSODs. I *THINK* I've identified one specific update that it crashes on - a security fix for IE7. (I don't use IE7 anyway, but I know I'll have to do something about this later...)

Anyway.. I reinstalled Vista a couple more times hoping Windows Update would stop freaking out and no luck, but now that I excluded that one update out of the list things are running sort of smooth. I will make sure no device drivers make it into my update as well.

Do you think I should run Windows Update before or after my device driver updates?

I also can't rule out that the latest sound driver solves my sound issues. My PC crashed while listening to music and I don't think it was related to Windows Update. I will have to do more research on the issue.

It looks like I'm back at square one on this saga - I can't figure out what is causing my system to be so unstable until I get a solid foundation to test/research with. I'm not sure how I was able to get a stable system on my first Vista instill (I've only had Vista since last Thursday) but it's annoying me to no end that I can't even get Windows back to where it was at before I noticed issues. It seems like reinstalling Vista only gave me more problems. :(

Thanks for the tip on excluding device drivers in Windows Update.
 

My Computer

System One

Nick,

I would install all of your device drivers first, then do Windows Updates. If you think it is a particular Windows Update causing the problem, then this will show you how to hide it so it will not show up in the availability list and get installed by accident.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/72491-windows-update.html

Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Clevo said:
are you by any chance overclocking something?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure. I have CAS 4 4 4 memory but I had to tweak my BIOS to obtain those settings on my memory - that's about it. Remember that everything works fine in XP and I was able to play games (World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Source) without any maor issue or complaints in Vista and XP.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

NickViper1024 said:
Clevo said:
are you by any chance overclocking something?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure. I have CAS 4 4 4 memory but I had to tweak my BIOS to obtain those settings on my memory - that's about it. Remember that everything works fine in XP and I was able to play games (World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Source) without any maor issue or complaints in Vista and XP.
Click to expand...


Tweak them back and you will not have so many problems...

If you insist on tweking and overclocking do them in very small incrments and make sure you have enough spare volatge from your power supply.

Sure it might of worked fine with XP but that's a different OS and Vista 64 handles memory in different ways.
 

My Computer

System One

Clevo said:
NickViper1024 said:
I'm not really sure. I have CAS 4 4 4 memory but I had to tweak my BIOS to obtain those settings on my memory - that's about it. Remember that everything works fine in XP and I was able to play games (World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Source) without any maor issue or complaints in Vista and XP.
Click to expand...


Tweak them back and you will not have so many problems...

If you insist on tweking and overclocking do them in very small incrments and make sure you have enough spare volatge from your power supply.

Sure it might of worked fine with XP but that's a different OS and Vista 64 handles memory in different ways.
Click to expand...

I suppose that makes sense. I will try that tonight. Thanks for the help.

Here is an update:

I think I narrowed down the issue down to any Realtek sound driver and an Nvidia SATA controller update. With those two hidden, I was able to update Windows to current and install a few programs/games. I am able to play sound and surf the web with no BSOD or stability issue, dare I say it even runs faster than my original Vista install. I still get a BSOD while upgrading World of Wacraft but I suspect this is a game-related issue because it BSOD's at around the same point each time. I will have to do more research on Blizzard's site (game maker).
 

My Computer

System One

Here is an update:

It looks like I'm almost out of the woods on this one. While using the default Sound and SATA drivers, Vista stayed up for almost two hours before a IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL BSOD occured. Ironically, just before the BSOD I declared my system finally stable and decided to install the new 1.85 (newest) Realtek audio driver. Before I could open find the driver my system crashed.

I was able to confirm (and will post on the other thread) that the latest 1.85 driver does NOT require two runs of the install. It either removes the old driver and installs the new in one session, or just installs the new driver over the old. I'm more inclined to believe the latter because I saw no mention of uninstalling/removing anything during the install.
 

My Computer

System One

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