Help! My audio software vanished on Win 10 & sound is terrible! Looking for name of it - orange speaker.

[mumoffour]

As you can tell I am indeed a total novice when it comes to software so apologies for what must seem like a truly stupid question!

I always have my headphones on when working & use my youtube playlists for music.
There was preinstalled program on this laptop when we bought it & I played with a bit to set up the exact sound I wanted, it was perfect.

My 10 yr old used the laptop the other night & in the morning the sound was odd so I went to open the program and it vanished. Totally.

It's not on here anywhere, I've been through everything. It's shortcut was a dark orange/brown speaker on the taskbar next to my usual volume control.

Realtek came to mind and the normal speakers also show as Realtek but I only have the usual properties/enhancements and done even manually the sound is awful to me.

I downloaded the Realtek HD audio which sounded to be it but on installation it fails due to a missing driver.
Said driver seemed obvious on their site & was downloaded and is zip file, which normally would unzip (lol, is that even the word?) automatically.

It won't and I will admit I've never done them manually and nope, have NO idea how to run the damn thing.

I can't even say for sure that it WAS the Realtek HD audio program, TBH once it was set at how I wanted it I've only used the normal volume control to control volume & that's it - nothing has needed changing.

In a nutshell I'm hoping someone recognises it (as a search showed that symbol described so hoping someone knows it) and if it IS the Realtek HD Audio program can talk a total novice through reinstalling it and what driver is needed and how to unzip it manually.

Apologies for length and totally stupid question, I'm not normally totally inept lol but this one is driving me mad!
I do definitely want that same one, I'm 60% deaf and certains sounds can hurt while others vanish, that one worked perfectly with that.

TIA and feel free to smack yourself in the head as I'm actually the person behind digging up info online needed for a group (for good) yet am indeed THAT terrible with basics!

 

[mumoffour]

Ok, this is weird. I searched for it EVERYWHERE (and yes, it's Realtek HD Audio) using every method I came across. I just searched via This PC and all of it has popped up!

I've opened it and also pinned it to the taskbar but it's not showing up and is the same set up as my speakers, no matter what I try it's staying at that awful sound that has to be changed for each song as one may sound ok (not great) then the next is just awful.

There's nothing under audio wizard, I've tried every setting under default format, sound effects are no use as they are of course the same ones and I didn't use them and under speaker configuration it shows as stereo but I am positive it was THERE I had changed it.

I can't, both the options for speakers as stereo is shaded out as is the "Set default device option", I can't change them. I have NO idea what has happened there.
There's a long list for Realtek showing under My PC and it seems it's the Vista version? I bought this laptop maybe a year or so ago new, ASUS Sonicmaster, and it came with Windows 8 that I upgraded to 8.1 then 10. It was installed originally before I bought it and is showing as 2014.

I'm lost....anyone know how I can change it back to what it was a few days ago?

Just adding in, found simple tutorial on youtube to do what I've done before - open playback devices, click on speakers and then configure.
I think I can see the issue. The tutorial shows 3 options including surround sound, mine ONLY shows stereo, same as when opening Realtek Audio. I am positive there were other options there and that it was definitely not on stereo, but can't find a way of changing it?

 

[americanaudiophile]

Did you try to use "system restore" to bring your system back to what it was?