Realtek sound drivers

Has anyone tried updating their Realtek sound driver? The one on the Averatec site seems outdated, so I went to the realtek site and after a bit of hunting around found this one:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97-2.aspx?lineid=5&famid=12&series=8&Software=True

I downloaded the 4th one down in the first table. Uninstalled the old one first. And it does seem better - the reason I was looking was because I was having some problems playng Call Of Duty where the graphics would stutter or freeze for a second when a loud explosion happened - this seems to have been improved a lot with the new drivers.

But I still have no idea if I really did the right thing or not for the long term......I guess Averatec would tell me to always stick with the drivers they provide....

 

i think i am using some updated version of the audio drivers, i know that they came off the realtek site, but the link was provided for me.

Been using them for a while, and no trouble.

The only thing might be is since i reformatted, the mic hasn't seemed to work as well as before.

 

I don't think using updated drivers from the manufacturer would hurt, averatec didn't add or change anything to the sound board if you compare to the original one. It's not like a graphic card, like third party vendors make their own board with they own extension, based on a reference. The board is a simple chip that is implemented in the motherboard layout.

Averatec just never bothered to certify new drivers, since the older ones are not posing problems. They are applying the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" proverb

 

There are no issues lurking on the horizon for using OEM drivers over the Averatec ones. If the drivers you have work fine, then use them. That goes for them, no matter where you procured them. Ultimately, the levelling factor is that they all have to work with your OS, plain and simple, and Averatec is not the author of that. Eventually, a windows update may write over them anyhow. I have seen one case on an older PC where using the windows update drivers temporarily broke the system. THe funny thing was that the wupdatedriver had an older timestamp than the one I had before...odd. I just told winXP (pro) to roll it back and it worked fine thereafter. But that was the exception. I've let wupdate renew hundreds of drivers without any dignificant detrimental effects otherwise.

if you hadan issue and it's now improved or resolved completely, good job on your part.

 

Well so far it seems fine, although for the stuff I plan to be getting along with eventually, the Realtek sound card probably doesn't cut it - I want to get Finale reinstalled and my MIDI stuff set up. I thought about getting an external soundcard for superior sound, and saw this PCMCIA one:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769

Convenient good quality sound for us notebook users!