Audio problems with Windows 7 running through Bootcamp

Question

I've been using (and enjoy using) Windows 7 through bootcamp on my mac for some time now.

The only problem I've been having is with the audio, I seem to get a low hissing noise which is more prevalent when wearing headphones. Whilst it's not stopping me from using Windows 7 it's something I'd like fixed.

I've tried downloading the latest drivers from Realteks website, but to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Solution 1

This appears to be one possible solution: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2178334

Essentially you need to install the drivers in 'Windows XP compatibility mode'. Hope it helps!

After installing Windows7 + Bootcamp drivers, you need to do a "special compatibility" installation of the sound drivers. So, after bootcamp has been installed, so the following

1. Insert your original Mac OS install CD (the one that came with your MAC)
2. Open the folder Bootcamp/Drivers
3. Find the audio driver (Realtek or other) and RIGHT click on it -do not run it yet
4. Select "Troubleshoot Compatibility"
5. Let the wizard run. Choose the option "Troubleshoot program"
6. Select "program ran well in previous version of windows"
7. Click "test program" when prompted
8. If asked to restart, do not restart yet -remember, at this point, Windows is just testing the program, so it hasn't installed yet. If you get a "restart" request at this stage it just means the program is actually ok for compatibility
9. Back in the wizard, click "next"
10. Wait for the drivers to install, and restart

Solution 2

Rather than try newer drivers from Realtek, I would try using Microsoft's HDAudio class driver. This is a totally different driver than the Realtek driver and so is unlikely to have the same issues. It's written by Microsoft so the quality is quite high.

To install this:

1. Go to Device Manager
2. Expand Sound, Video, and Game Controllers
3. Right-click on your audio device and choose Update Driver Software...
4. Choose Browse My Computer
5. Choose Let Me Pick
6. Select High Definition Audio Device

To be honest though, this sounds more like a hardware issue than a driver issue. If that doesn't fix the issue, try you Mac OS again with the same headphones. Are you sure you can't here it?

Solution 3

HDMI should not be the default. Make Speakers the ONLY default.

Right click the speaker icon on the bottom right, click playback devices and again make SPEAKERS the main playback device, Yes it works with the latest driver by cirus logic. Should already be installed or just run your driver cd not dvd you should have.

Same works with Windows 8.

Solution 4

Did you install Apple's drivers for Windows 7? They're on your Mac OS installation disk (simply insert the disk while under Windows and run setup.exe).

You probably did that already, but just making sure (since you don't mention it in your question). I used to have a few sound problems too, and they were solved by installing the Apple drivers... (I didn't remember to install them right away... completely forgot actually)

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Comments

[cust0s]

I've never had this problem listening to audio through Mac OS X.

[pmcartney]

Run the driver cd in Windows