Mic/Headphone ports not working correctly - Acer Aspire 7745

Hi all,

I have an Acer Aspire 7745 that I have been trying to get the external audio ports to work correctly on since I upgraded it to Windows 10 - it was originally a Win7 machine from the factory. It's got three external audio ports:


Win10 runs fine on it (Core i3 @ 2.27Ghz, 4GB RAM) and sound through the speakers works fine, as does the internal mic, but PLUGGING IN a mic or headphones is the issue - external plugged in mics are not picked up at all, and plugging in headphones disables the internal speakers, but no sound comes through the headphones.

I found this thread (Determine the HDA Realtek driver needed for your Audio) and was trying to follow the instructions to find the correct driver to use by looking at the 'Driver Details' lists, but I am a bit confused. When I upgraded to Win10, Windows 10 installed generic drivers for the sound card and I had the same issue - sound through speakers and internal mic was fine, but the jacks didn't work.

So, I thought I would go download some specific drivers...the latest drivers listed for audio on Acer's site for this machine are the Win7 64-bit drivers, so I installed those and, as mentioned, sound still worked fine other than the external jacks (I know the external jacks are not broken/damaged, by the way, because they used to work fine under Windows 7). When following along the list of 'special files' the aforementioned thread asks me to look for, I find both 'FMAP064.dll' from the 'FF01' 'Special Files' list...but I also see 'MaxxAudioAPO20.dll' and 'MaxxAudioEQ.dll' from the FF06 'Special Files' list...?

....so which one of those drivers do I get (FF01 or FF06)?

Where it gets even more confusing is that when I try running the Powershell script suggested in that same thread to suggest a driver, it tells me this:

...so should I follow the Powershell script's suggestion and look for ANY new driver that has the 'hdxrt.inf' file in it? (Like the one listed here: Determine the HDA Realtek driver needed for your Audio )?

Sorry for the novel, but it's a tad bit confusing as to what driver I should be looking for...

Could anybody link me to a driver that might work?

Thanks so much in advance!

Hello Darkstrike

As a word of caution, you should not install device drivers manually, until you have tried Device Manager first. Device Manager can find the right device driver automatically.

Now, you need to check if the Realtek driver is working properly. To do that, Open Device Manager, click on Sound, video and game controllers, and see if the Realtek driver is still listed. If present, then click on Realtek Audio driver and, in the pop-up window, check the Device status.

Report back, with the device status, and we will see what we can do.

iko22 said:

Hello Darkstrike
As a word of caution, you should not install device drivers manually, until you have tried Device Manager first. Device Manager can find the right device driver automatically.
Now, you need to check if the Realtek driver is working properly. To do that, Open Device Manager, click on Sound, video and game controllers, and see if the Realtek driver is still listed. If present, then click on Realtek Audio driver and, in the pop-up window, check the Device status.
Report back, with the device status, and we will see what we can do.

Have tried using the autodetect of Device Manager several times, doesn't work as in it doesn't find a driver to fix the ports.

With the Win7 drivers installed, it lists the sound card as 'Realtek High Definition Audio' and running the updater in Device Manager to auto-check for better drivers simply tells me 'no better drivers are available'. If I remove the Realtek drivers completely and let Windows install them automatically, the drivers are listed as 'High Definition Audio Device' in Device Manager - again, running an auto-check for newer drivers says no better ones are available. In both instances, the device status is listed as 'This device is working properly'...which it is in the sense that the internal mic and speakers still work fine on both driver sets.

With both driver sets though, the external jacks still do not work correctly - headphones being plugged in still makes the speakers cut out as if it recognizes the headphones, but no sound comes out of the headphone jack.

One odd thing I neglected to mention - the computer lists TWO sound devices. Installing drivers only seems to change one of them so that is the only one I've been directly playing with (the one at 'Location 0'). If I delete both from Device Manager, Windows auto-reinstalls two again...?

That is good news that your audio device driver is working. The second audio driver is probably on the graphics card, and used to power HDMI (audio), if present.

Please take a pause from searching for audio drivers, and check one thing for me: check that you have Set your audio device as the default device.
Do this:

Plug in your Headset mic and speakers, via the jack plug connector.
In the Start Menu search box, type control panel, and click on it.
Click on Sound.
Under the Playback tab, do you see the Headset speakers mentioned? If so, click on that device, and then click on Set Default.
Click on the Recording tab, and repeat the last step for the Mic device.
Click OK when done.

iko22 said:

That is good news that your audio device driver is working. The second audio driver is probably on the graphics card, and used to power HDMI (audio), if present.
Please take a pause from searching for audio drivers, and check one thing for me: check that you have Set your audio device as the default device.
Do this:

Plug in your Headset mic and speakers, via the jack plug connector.
In the Start Menu search box, type control panel, and click on it.
Click on Sound.
Under the Playback tab, do you see the Headset speakers mentioned? If so, click on that device, and then click on Set Default.
Click on the Recording tab, and repeat the last step for the Mic device.
Click OK when done.

The speakers are 'plugged in' already as it is a laptop. With no external mic, headphones or external speakers plugged in, the Sound Control Panel lists three things under 'Playback' - HDMI, 'Speakers' and 'Realtek Digital Output' - the Speakers under 'Playback' is set as the default.

Under 'Recording' with no external mic plugged in these are listed - 'Microphone', 'Line In' and 'Stereo Mix' (Disabled) - the microphone (in this case, the internal one) is set to 'Default' under 'Recording' as well.

I don't have my headset here to test an external mic right now, but with normal external headphones plugged in, there is no change to the Sound Control Panel under 'Playback' - the same three listings (HDMI, 'Speakers' and 'Realtek Digital Output') with 'Speakers' set as the Default. If I make a noise, say, play a video, I can see the sound meters move to the sound, but no sound comes out of the headphones.

Darkstrike said:

...I don't have my headset here to test an external mic right now, but with normal external headphones plugged in, there is no change to the Sound Control Panel under 'Playback' - the same three listings (HDMI, 'Speakers' and 'Realtek Digital Output') with 'Speakers' set as the Default. If I make a noise, say, play a video, I can see the sound meters move to the sound, but no sound comes out of the headphones.

Launch and Run the Windows 10 audio troubleshooter, from the Start Menu. Preferably with Headset plugged in, otherwise use ordinary Headphones.

OK, again, sound through the internal speakers and the internal mic was working fine before I ran the troubleshooter. When I ran the Audio Troubleshooter, I get:

The sound now no longer works unless I restart and there is not a small red circle with an 'X' next to the volume option by the clock at the lower right corner of the Taskbar.

EDIT: A couple seconds later, the volume icon returned to the normal 'speaker symbol' with 'sound waves' to indicate sound working again.

Here is the detailed report from the Troublehshooter:
troubleshooter log.pdf

Darkstrike said:

EDIT: A couple seconds later, the volume icon returned to the normal 'speaker symbol' with 'sound waves' to indicate sound working again.

Here is the detailed report from the Troublehshooter:
troubleshooter log.pdf

Sorry, for some reason this site, Ten Forums, wont let me see the pdf.

Thanks very much dalchina, zipping the file appears to be a suitable work around.

- - - Updated - - -

Hello Darkstrike,

Darkstrike said:

OK, again, ...
EDIT: A couple seconds later, the volume icon returned to the normal 'speaker symbol' with 'sound waves' to indicate sound working again.

Here is the detailed report from the Troublehshooter:
troubleshooter log.pdf

Okay, you need to check the Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Services in Services.msc.
Try this:

In Start Menu search box, type services.msc, and select from list.
Scroll down to Windows Audio and the Windows Audio End Point Builder
Both should be started and set to automatic
If either or both are stopped, i) Click on the name to highlight it, ii) Right-mouse click item, and select restart the service.

The Report also suggests that the selected audio device driver is disabled. Then, use Device Manager to re-enable device.