Sound card question

lffoar · 18 Jan 2023

Hi all,
For interest I downloaded the "systeminfo" program and noticed I have three sound card options.
NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio
AMM Virtual Audio Device
Whenever I update my Nvidia graphics I also do the sound card too. Is there any need to have realtek and amm as well
or can they be done away with? No biggy, system is OK............(at the minute that is

)
TIA
and a belated HNY to all

Paul Black · 18 Jan 2023

Hello @lffoar,

If you wanted a bit of information on your sound devices, Copy & Paste the following [ ALL at once ] into a CMD Prompt and press Enter.

Code:


@echo off & echo. & PowerShell ^
     $Tot=((Get-CimInstance Win32_SoundDevice) ^| Measure-Object).Count; ^
     $List=(Get-CimInstance Win32_SoundDevice  ^| Sort-Object -Property Name, DeviceID ^| Select ^
     @{L=' Name'                         ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Name))                        {'-'} else {$_.Name}}}, ^
     @{L=' Description'                  ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Description))                 {'-'} else {$_.Description}}}, ^
     @{L=' Product Name'                 ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.ProductName))                 {'-'} else {$_.ProductName}}}, ^
     @{L=' PnP Device ID'                ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.PNPDeviceID))                 {'-'} else {$_.PNPDeviceID}}}, ^
     @{L=' Device ID'                    ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.DeviceID))                    {'-'} else {$_.DeviceID}}}, ^
     @{L=' Manufacturer'                 ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Manufacturer))                {'-'} else {$_.Manufacturer}}}, ^
     @{L=' Install Date'                 ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.InstallDate))                 {'-'} else {$_.InstallDate}}}, ^
     @{L=' Creation Class Name'          ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CreationClassName))           {'-'} else {$_.CreationClassName}}}, ^
     @{L=' System Creation Class Name'   ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.SystemCreationClassName))     {'-'} else {$_.SystemCreationClassName}}}, ^
     @{L=' Config Manager User Config'   ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.ConfigManagerUserConfig))     {'-'} else {$_.ConfigManagerUserConfig}}}, ^
     @{L=' Config Manager Error Code'    ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.ConfigManagerErrorCode))      {'-'} else {$_.ConfigManagerErrorCode}}}, ^
     @{L=' Power Management Supported'   ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.PowerManagementSupported))    {'-'} else {$_.PowerManagementSupported}}}, ^
     @{L=' Power Management Capabilities';E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.PowerManagementCapabilities)) {'-'} else {$_.PowerManagementCapabilities}}}, ^
     @{L=' Last Error Code'              ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.LastErrorCode))               {'-'} else {$_.LastErrorCode}}}, ^
     @{L=' Error Cleared'                ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.ErrorCleared))                {'-'} else {$_.ErrorCleared}}}, ^
     @{L=' Error Description'            ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.ErrorDescription))            {'-'} else {$_.ErrorDescription}}}, ^
     @{L=' Availability'                 ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Availability))                {'-'} else {$_.Availability}}}, ^
     @{L=' DMA Buffer Size'              ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.DMABufferSize))               {'-'} else {$_.DMABufferSize}}}, ^
     @{L=' MPU401 Address'               ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.MPU401Address))               {'-'} else {$_.MPU401Address}}}, ^
     @{L=' CIM Class'                    ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CimClass))                    {'-'} else {$_.CimClass}}}, ^
     @{L=' CIM Instance Properties'      ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CimInstanceProperties))       {'-'} else {$_.CimInstanceProperties}}}, ^
     @{L=' CIM System Properties'        ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.CimSystemProperties))         {'-'} else {$_.CimSystemProperties}}}, ^
     @{L=' Status'                       ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.Status))                      {'-'} else {$_.Status}}}, ^
     @{L=' Status Info'                  ;E={;if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.StatusInfo))                  {'-'} else {$_.StatusInfo.ToString() + ' [1=Other, 2=Unknown, 3=Enabled, 4=Disabled, 5=Not Applicable]'}}} ^| ^
Format-List ^| Out-String -Width 1000).Trim("""`r`n"""); ^
     if ($List.Length) {Write-Host """`n --- Sound - Device(s) [$Tot] - Sorted by [Name, DeviceID] ---`n`n$List"""} else {exit 1} & echo. & echo ^>Press ANY key to EXIT . . . & pause >nul & Exit

The above is an extract from my PROJECT: Computer Report - Comprehensive in my signature.

I hope this helps.

Fox Computers · 18 Jan 2023

The Realtek sound option is likely the sound chip on your motherboard, so if you had your speakers headphones microphone etc. connected to these style connections on your PC,

Nvidia option will be for if you connected a TV to your graphics card via HDMI (Which can carry both video and audio) and wanted to use the speakers built into the TV for sound.

Assuming you update to the latest graphics driver using GeForce Experience, which is were you have noticed it is updating your nvidia sound driver? If so can't say I have heard of problems with sound after updating Nvidia drivers, but if you are worried about there being a problem with your sound after updating you could create a system restore point before updating, that way if the update causes a problem you can restore to beforehand.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...4-ef5658ea3be9

Afraid I could not tell you for the AMM Virtual Device.

As the saying goes, if it is not broken, don't fix it. I would not go about removing any of these options if you are not having any audio problems.

lffoar · 20 Jan 2023

Thanks fellers, a bit clearer now.