Windows 10: Latest Win10 update ruined my system >: and installing Realtek audio driver crashes my PC

I had an update since the end of May that I postponed.


I decided to finally install it yesterday right as I was leaving work, but the update ended up frozen on my screen for 20min, with the animated circle the one with the moving dots and the percentage not moving during that time. I couldn't do anything so was forced to turn off my PC directly by holding down the off button.


This morning when I turned on my PC, I was greeted with a blue screen that said "Choose an option". There were a few options available, and after trying to just continue booting using the first option it kept taking me back to this screen. Nothing I did allowed me back into my desktop.


I tried ALL the other options to help troubleshoot or fix my PC to make it start up again, but NOTHING worked. Even re-installing Win10 "while keeping my files" failed. So I came to the conclusion that I was FORCED to format my drive and re-install Win10, loosing important work related files in the process >:


Now I have a clean version of Win10 on my PC. After spending a few hours re-installing everything, I realized that there was no audio coming out of my headset. Apparently this version of Win doesn't make it possible to install audio drivers...


I tried installing Realtek audio drivers without success, and they don't show in Device Manager.

Looking online I can see that apparently others are having the same issue as me after trying to install the latest update...


I found a solution that said to go to Device Manager, and then go to Action->Add legacy hardware->And then install my Realtek driver this way.


And wouldn't you know it... I get a blue screen of death.

After trying a second time my computer crashes again, but this time it repeatedly restarts about 4-5 times, followed by.... a clean installation on Win10???????


Yes so apparently ALL the work I spend setting up Win10 again AND installing all my needed applications was a waste of time. My applications are still installed, but ALL executable for ALL my applications are deleted...???!


I then contact Microsoft customer support and get a friendly Tech person helping me, but he doesn't know why Win10 is acting the way it is.


And now I'm sitting here. 7 hours later with a freshly installed Win10 and no audio besides what my monitors build-in speakers can provide...

I DID manage to find a temporary solution by connecting my Yeti mic to my PC and plugging my headset into the mic to get audio, but this is not a proper solution.


I have never had any Win10 issues before, but now that I have lost a few weeks worth of work and can't get the audio drivers working without getting BSoD, I am PRETTY frustrated.


What should I do?


Reverting back to a previous version of Win isn't a possibility here after the reboot from what I know.




:)

 

The Ultimate Realtek HD Audio Driver Mod for Windows 10

I had the realtek error when using the installer, so I did these step and It Worked

1.Go Open up device manager
2. Go under sound,video, and game controllers
3. Find Realtek High Definition Audio
4. Right click and hit update driver
5. Browse my computer for driver software
6. Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer
7. Click Have Disk and hit browse
8. Click on the Realtek HD Audio mod folder and look for win64
9. Click on the HDXRT4 and click ok,
10. Click Next and Yes
After it is done, restart the PC

You should be good then and also make sure before doing these steps that you have driver enforcement disabled.

 

Realtek audio drivers causing crashes on some systems

TL;DR - Tracked a crashing issue down to realtek audio driver. Generic windows 10 HD audio driver works fine. I'm wondering if anyone has encountered a similar issue. (Or maybe this info can be helpful to others doing troubleshooting)

This seems to be linked to a strange file included in the realtek audio driver package - mbfilt64.sys

It's signed by Creative Technologies (Not Realtek!) and is very old - Dated 2009 according to it's signature! This file is distributed even in the very latest Realtek driver packages.

I've got an MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard which includes the Realtek ALC1150 chip

For a while I'd been having very infrequent crashes. Maybe once every few weeks- A freeze, followed by a bluescreen and a reboot. Never during games. Always during streaming video. Running windows 8.1

About two weeks ago I installed a new NVME M.2 SSD and did a clean install windows 10.. And the crashing increased to once every few days.

Ok, So I'm thinking I've got a hardware or RAM issue.. OCCT runs for 8 hours, no problem. Prime95 - No problem. Ran Memtest for 24 hours. Again, no problem. Crashes only occur while streaming video.

Next, I ran Driver verifier using the following instructions

Driver Verifier-- tracking down a mis-behaving driver.

Immediately crashed on boot (Had to boot in to safe mode to disable verifier) - Crash dumps immediately pointed mbfilt64.sys, which I verified belonged to the realtek HD audio driver using the device manager (Listed under driver details)

I uninstalled the Realtek package and let windows revert to the generic HD audio driver - Less optimal solution as you don't have the ability to configure audio jack options without the control panel. I have, though, been crash free
ever since.

Googling for "mbfilt64.sys" I found lots of people reporting random crashes similar to mine, with mbfilt64.sys being listed in system info dumps. Also lots of advice to update audio drivers because of mbfilt64.sys's old 2009 timestamp

Problem is, there is only one version of this file and it's distributed with even the lastest Realtek driver packages available.

I've got a hunch this driver is causing problems on some people's systems. I don't know what triggers the bug. Maybe it's specific to the ALC1150. Maybe it's something else.

It's odd that there is a creative signed driver being distributed with Realtek audio software, but I vaguely recall some creative branded something or other being sold with motherboards that had realtek chips (Some sort of software
enhancement) I also know that Realtek packages branded features for some motherboard manufacturers. - If you install the driver package, downloaded from Realtek's web page, on a system with an MSI motherboard (like the one I list above) then the control panel
will have MSI branding.

It's possible that this creative signed driver
mbfilt64.sys only gets installed under specific circumstances. Looking at the laptop I'm posting now I see that it has a realtek audio chip.. But the offending creative driver is not present under the device manager.

 

The Ultimate Realtek HD Audio Driver Mod for Windows 10

i didn't understand this step- 4. Install Realtek APO Driver through device manager, then using device manager update from Realtek APO Driver to the lastest offical realtek HD Audio
which inf file i should choose when installing Realtel APO driver folder and there are many inf files in the Realtek official HD Audio. which file to choose?