Windows 10: Realtek HD Audio not switching to Headphone settings

Saltgrass, if you look back at the screenshots I posted, that is how mine works.

Timobkg, I'll check that in the morning.

 

With headset plugged in (and properly detected) when I click on the speaker icon, it still shows "Speakers" and not "Headset".
The Volume Mixer shows Speaker and System Sounds, nothing else.

 

I do get the popup window, and it identifies my headphones as such.

It used to be that plugging in my headphones would put the Realtek HD Audio Manager into Headphone mode, switching to the Headphone speaker setup and associated volume setting.

Since a driver update a few weeks ago, it no longer does that. It now stays on 5.1 Speakers and the speaker volume setting. This is problematic for me because my headphones are very sensitive, and I need to set volume at 8% so that my headphones aren't too loud.

Based on Firebird's system, it seems that's now "working as intended", but I don't know why they would take away the separate headphone volume capability. And I wonder if I could get it back by reverting to an older driver version.

 

An older version (depending on the version) may not be fully compatible with a newer Realtek hardware chip.

Some of how it works depends on how the motherboard vendor implements the Realtek. I used to have an ASRock Z77 motherboard and the Realtek on it worked sort of like how you want it to work (may have been on Win 7 or 8.1 don't remember). I've only used a headset on my PC once or twice, basically testing to make sure it works.

 

Well, the chip itself isn't exactly new, it's been around for at least 4 years. And my chip worked this way last month, so I think using an older Asus driver for my motherboard might work since Asus lists a few on their site. Though I'd need to also set Windows to never update or download any drivers to keep it from updating the audio driver... Ugh, I don't know why they took that feature out.