How To Reinstall Audio Drivers in Windows 10/11

Reinstalling audio drivers mostly fixes all your audio related problems in windows. There are 2 main ways through which you can reinstall the audio drivers in your machine.

Before going ahead, please note down your audio driver provider and version so that you can easily download them from the manufacturer’s website when you have to install them again after uninstallation.

How to Find Out Audio Driver Provider and Version

1. In the start menu search bar, type in device manager and hit Enter key.

 

1 Start Menu Search Device Manager



 

2. As next, expand the section that says Sound, video and game controllers. Then, right click on your audio driver and then click on Properties option.

 

2 Audio Driver Properties

 

3. Now click on the Driver tab. From here, note down the Driver Provider and Driver Version as shown in the screenshot below.

 

3 Audio Driver Version Provider

 

Once you have noted down the audio driver provider and version, you can proceed with the uninstallation process as detailed in either of the 2 methods below:

Method 1: Reinstall Audio Driver From Device Manager

1. From start menu search bar results for device manager, click on the option Device Manager to launch it.

 

1 Start Menu Search Device Manager

 

2. Locate and expand the section Sound, video and game controllers. And then right click on your audio driver and click on the option Uninstall device.

 

4 Audio Driver Uninstall

 

3. When the Uninstall Device UAC window opens up, click on the Uninstall button.

 

5 Uninstall Uac

 

4. Restart you machine once the process completes.

5. When the system boots up, it is supposed to automatically download all the missing drivers, including the driver you just uninstalled.

However, it is always better to run a scan for the hardware changes from Device Manager window itself. For that, from the Device Manager window, right click on your machine name and then click on Scan for hardware changes option. This should definitely get all the missing drivers back in your system.

 

6 Scan Hardware Changes

 

6. If restarting windows and scanning for hardware changes do not install the audio driver, then you can download the audio driver from the manufacturer’s website using the driver version provider name and the version that you noted down in the beginning using the section How to Find Out Audio Driver Provider and Version.

If you are confused about how to download the correct driver from manufacturer’s website, please refer to our article on the topic Find the right driver compatible to windows 10 laptop model?

Method 2: Reinstall Audio Driver From Control Panel

1. Type in appwiz.cpl in windows start menu search bar and press the Enter key. This will open up Programs and Features window of control panel.

 



1 Run Appwiz

 

2. Now you have to locate your audio driver entry from the list of software. Once located, right click on it and click on the Uninstall option or you can click on the Uninstall button at the top after selecting the audio driver entry.

 

2 Uninstall Program

 

3. Once the uninstallation is complete, restart your machine for the missing drivers to get installed automatically. Or as explained in the previous method, you can download the audio driver from the manufacturer website and double click on the executable file to install it manually.

Please leave in comments whether you were able to successfully reinstall the audio driver in your Windows 10.