87 thoughts on “Realtek HD Audio Fix for Windows XP (SP3) – KB835221”

1. Dustin says:

   03/13/2008 at 18:09

   Dude, THANK YOU. I have a Toshiba laptop and a machine I built myself, both running Intel boards with Realtek HD and XP SP3. This was maddening until I found your post. Thanks again!
2. Tim says:

   03/13/2008 at 19:04

   You’re welcome – glad to help!

   I’ve just gone back to SP2 unfortunately, my computer wouldn’t boot and I can’t figure out why. :(
3. Chris says:

   03/18/2008 at 22:50

   Dude…after 9 hours of searching and frustration..and goin to go back to vista in a fit of rage…i found this file at the end of the tunnel
   thanks MAN!!!!!!
4. Chris says:

   03/18/2008 at 22:51

   This fixed a Hp Pavillion dv6000/Dv6315ca model

   conexent audio would not install…untill after this patch…
5. Tim says:

   03/18/2008 at 23:59

   You’re welcome, sorry it took you so long to find. :(
6. webstranger says:

   03/23/2008 at 19:22

   THANK YOU. I was about to install SP2 version insyead of SP3.
   Problem was with MSI Neo2-FR, but look like it with all Realtek HD audio
7. Veer Pratap says:

   03/24/2008 at 04:55

   Thanx man.. i was almost going to buy new sound card for my PC until i found this post… thanx alot man…..

   but still facing problem with my Pinnacle PCTV tuner card…
8. German says:

   03/24/2008 at 18:22

   thanks a lot man.. I’ve just desperated.. almost formatted my pc and install sp2 again without having it. :D :D- thanks a lot again.. it was very very useful.
9. Tim says:

   03/27/2008 at 08:40

   The latest version of SP3 from Microsoft includes support for HD Audio now. I edited the post above.
10. Waylander says:

    04/05/2008 at 22:22

    kb835221.exe (642KB)

    Thankyou so much man tried every1 of these hotfixes and th only 1 work was urs. i can finally sleep lol cheers dude
11. Ehsan says:

    04/09/2008 at 03:20

    THANKS DUDE, THANKS U SO MUCH. HUHH… NOW I CAN RELAX. I WAS SO WORRY BECAUSE AFTER INSTALLING SP3, MY SOUND DRIVERS DIDN’T MATCH WITH IT, I WAS GOING TO INSTALL THE SP2 AGAIN BUT FORTUNATELY AT THE END OF THIS DARKNESS I LUCKILY FOUND UR POST AND IT REALLY HELP ME IN GETTING OUT OF THIS HELL. SO THANKS AGAIN DUDE. KEEP IT UP!! MAY GOD BLESS U AND GIVE U EVERY RIGHT THING WHATEVER U WANT.
12. Tim says:

    04/10/2008 at 10:38

    THANKS DUDE, THANKS U SO MUCH. HUHH… NOW I CAN RELAX.

    You’re welcome. Frankly I think it’s shocking they miss something this huge in testing. :(
13. Roger says:

    04/12/2008 at 21:35

    kb835221.exe (642KB)

    You are a lifesaver.

    I love you man.
14. Bocha says:

    04/12/2008 at 23:25

    kb835221.exe (642KB)

    I will never forget yu help. thanks.
15. Srikanth n says:

    04/13/2008 at 02:59

    kb835221.exe (642KB)

    hi, thanks for the help, i was able to resolve the problems. i dont have words for thanking you.

    regards
    srikanth
16. John Thompson says:

    04/17/2008 at 20:10

    All I can say is, you are a legend! Two hours trying in vain, and your fix sorted it straight away.

    Respect
17. aNAND says:

    04/19/2008 at 07:11

    Thanks — thankyou very much
18. Thanks! says:

    04/20/2008 at 09:04

    kb835221.exe (642KB)
19. Aldousbee says:

    04/21/2008 at 13:19

    THanks man! It works
20. Tim says:

    04/29/2008 at 12:27

    The name of the kb835221.exe file has been changed to _kb835221.exe because some rude person decided to use all my bandwidth by hotlinking to the file. I have changed the link in the post above so normal visitors should not notice anything different.
21. gysh says:

    04/30/2008 at 03:03

    Tnx too much.. Helpful:)
22. Jan-Willem says:

    05/03/2008 at 04:10

    Thanks man,

    After a few frustrating hours i found your blog with
    the solution for sound on my Sony TZ31.

    Thanks again,

    JW
23. aditya says:

    05/07/2008 at 00:14

    thanks man,
    you really help
24. Ramzi says:

    05/07/2008 at 13:14

    I was having the same problem and solved with your solution and help.

    Thanks very much, my sound is working perfect now.

    Best regards

    Ramzi Hassan
25. Tim says:

    05/07/2008 at 13:26

    Ramzi as-in, Ramzi from Illinois? :)
26. Rothguard says:

    05/12/2008 at 04:57

    fix works
    AWSOME

    why is this not on windows update? sp3 is a joke no wmp 11 no ie7 and no .net2 shame shame shame

    thanks again for the fix
27. tharindwije says:

    05/22/2008 at 12:01

    wow ur the man boss! thanx a million!
28. SkullKrusha says:

    05/26/2008 at 22:06

    I LOVE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU .. i have been searching for hours THANK U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
29. dutchturk says:

    06/03/2008 at 11:02

    TY soo much after 2 days searching ehats the problem with the sound
    now it works on my lapter acer aspire 5315, ty ty ty t y
30. salah says:

    06/04/2008 at 13:03

    guys i am sorry but i installed and got nothing
    why
    i have msi p6n platinuem and the sound still i there a strategy to download this file or what since i am still on the problem with sound realtek you know and thanks in advance
31. Marco says:

    06/16/2009 at 20:33

    THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!
32. Sulistio says:

    06/27/2009 at 10:51

    Tank You for this valuable info., it just works like a charm
    Really save my time
33. heinz says:

    07/04/2009 at 13:50

    3 words for you :

    I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!!

    (–.–)
34. Testerbtw says:

    07/25/2009 at 09:10

    I formatted my pc and installed new fresh copy of XP SP3…I have no sound and i installed WDM_A406 and WDM_R229 Realtek drivers ,still nothing.
    Hopefully, this will fix the problem :D:D:D:D:D…going to test it and bring the news…
35. Naga says:

    08/25/2009 at 16:31

    I really cant leave without telling you Thanks…OMG! Hours of search came to an end after seeing your post…awesome man..gr8..3 words for you I love youuuuuuuu!
36. Mannu says:

    08/30/2009 at 13:22

    Will anybody kindly tell me the whole process to fix this sound problem in xp sp3 and how to use this kb835221.exe .i will be very much thankful.
37. help says:

    09/04/2009 at 08:14

    thanksss dudeeee!!!
38. Athrun says:

    09/27/2009 at 08:53

    Thanks you sooooooooooooo much for this . I have been trying to find a solution , but nothing is better than your 600KB file :)
39. Zafar Karimov says:

    10/11/2009 at 12:28

    Thank you so much. I am appreciate it.
40. Sahithi says:

    11/02/2009 at 05:48

    still my problem is not solved, please suggest me wat else i can do to install my Audio drivers successfully with Windows XP SP3
41. PRiTAM says:

    01/08/2010 at 18:13

    this is universal audio driver hotfix. it auto detects the realtek hi-definatin audio.
42. AllyRae says:

    03/19/2010 at 10:10

    So it didnt work for me. :( bummer
43. KY says:

    04/14/2010 at 02:14

    God bless you..
44. Amit says:

    06/13/2010 at 08:04

    Tim.. Thanks a lot for your post !! I was facing the same problem after installing sp3 i.e. audio device was not being detected.. but after installing the patch you mentioned and then installing the realtek drivers again, the issue got resolved.. Thanks a lot again !!
45. Tim Wheatley says:

    06/13/2010 at 21:33

    I can’t believe this post is still helping people! You’re welcome!
46. Esther says:

    06/30/2010 at 14:36

    Thank you ! you save the day XD!!!
47. Saket says:

    08/26/2010 at 14:00

    Thanks Bro !!!!!!!!!!
48. Sunil says:

    09/11/2010 at 10:55

    thanks dude u r just absolutely fantastic , keep posting such stuffs , bec it took ahell out of me to find the PCI driver
49. HIDAM says:

    09/18/2010 at 06:29

    I am trying to see if it can solve my sound problem
50. Leo says:

    11/20/2010 at 08:35

    I Love You!!!!
51. Kiki says:

    12/10/2010 at 10:47

    Thanks!!! it worked
52. Elmer Leavins says:

    12/19/2010 at 22:00

    Exactly what I was searching for, thankyou for putting up.
53. Ranjith says:

    12/31/2010 at 07:50

    Hi tim. Thank u for ur timely help.
54. EJ says:

    02/10/2011 at 18:12

    Im so happy, Thank UUUUUUUUUUUUU
55. musaddiq says:

    02/11/2011 at 09:38

    thanks thanks thanks
56. deep says:

    02/12/2011 at 14:31

    thanks buddy
57. Andries says:

    03/22/2011 at 14:46

    Haha, and still the thank you’s are coming in. Thanks Tim :)!
58. upamanyoo says:

    04/01/2011 at 08:31

    thanks dude. u are really a life saver. god bless u.wish to see more solutions from u……cheers
59. Martin says:

    04/03/2011 at 17:12

    Thanks a lot!!!!
60. Dutt says:

    04/09/2011 at 13:41

    This is answer for HP dv6314tx – Conexant High Definition audio driver for XP3

    PROCESS
    install HP UAA
    Install KB835221 patch for XP3

    Thank you….Love you man… :-)
61. John says:

    04/26/2011 at 10:32

    Thanks mate :)
62. Majid says:

    05/06/2011 at 19:07

    Tim and Dutt
    Thanks a lot,
    I didn’t work on my HP Pavilion dv2700 Notebook.
    I installed both HP UAA and KB835221, but still no result.
    please any help
63. Majid says:

    05/06/2011 at 19:12

    I didn’t –> It didn’t
64. Arky says:

    05/10/2011 at 08:30

    Thnx a millllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiioooooonnnn
65. abhijeet says:

    05/12/2011 at 12:00

    THANKS MAN I was searching the audio driver for my laptop last 3 days thanks for POST
66. 5 says:

    05/25/2011 at 21:27

    thx
67. wguru says:

    06/18/2011 at 08:41

    Now if only Realtek HD Audio only allowed users to work around the issue of not being able to hear the in-process captured video (by allowing users to select the audio output for the input), ref. capture devices like KWorld’s PVR Plus which either it’s software and/or Realtek’s never got it right. When I try to change RHDA’s playback to the input, the tab changes to output (so no reversal is enabled and still I cannot hear the in-process capturing video’s audio, until after the capturing is stopped and I play the vid back). Surely somebody must also have seen this annoyance and discovered how to fix it, as KWorld has absolutely no interest in fixing the issue (even when they still supported their dongle’s 2005 product).
68. Kulvinder Singh says:

    06/24/2011 at 10:54

    thanks dude this porb fucked my mind for 9 dayzzzz finaly its working great thanks again….
69. Kim says:

    06/28/2011 at 06:03

    OMG!!!!!!!!!! You are my hero.
70. thejusr says:

    07/14/2011 at 08:18

    thanksalot dude…
71. Lee says:

    08/12/2011 at 20:47

    Thanks. After setting up two previous Intel Atom based MB’s I knew there was an HD sound issue using Win XP but could not remember how to fix it on the latest MB. Did all of the service pack updates to no avail. Intel was no help either.
72. Mehdi says:

    08/23/2011 at 02:46

    thats good Man . thank you (mehdi from iran).
73. paul kenneth says:

    09/08/2011 at 08:11

    my only problem when i install realtek HD audio driver is that it is always failed to install.
74. asok says:

    09/15/2011 at 04:38

    its not working for me help me i dont want to reinstall OS
75. Jaynoose says:

    10/10/2011 at 10:20

    All i can say is thanks you, thank you,thank you. with just couple of click, bamm. Thanks a bunch
76. bikram says:

    10/24/2011 at 20:56

    thank u man….it really helped me…i spend my whole night just to solve it….
77. giancarlo says:

    11/01/2011 at 06:37

    My friend , you are a genius.
    I have spent weeks f…ing around to have the cursed thing working.
    Thanks a lot
78. No s0und says:

    12/02/2011 at 05:41

    not working for me…
    download and install the software but still not working for me.
    pls help me
    Thanks
79. Bob says:

    12/15/2011 at 03:09

    Genius!! Thank you so much. This totally worked. I’ve been struggling with this for days.
80. Sony VAIO VGN-CR25G says:

    12/15/2011 at 06:34

    Ah, mine has the realtek HD audio codec. would work for a while then I would have to re-install the driver. Recently wasn’t working at all.. THANKS A MILLION it’s working again now with patch KB835221, will just see for how long… :-)
81. Murali says:

    12/15/2011 at 13:48

    hi. i reboot my system last week. the audio is not woking.. now i want audio driver for my lap. the model is Realtek RTL8139 Family.. thank u.
82. Murali says:

    12/15/2011 at 13:51

    i want sound driver for my lap. the model s Realtek RTL8139 Family.
83. Tim Wheatley says:

    12/17/2011 at 00:06

    You’ll need to search for that driver. This is a fix to make drivers work properly.

    And anything not fixed by this, I cannot help with.
84. Samarth says:

    12/22/2011 at 01:39

    Thanks man.I would love to give a thumbsup.
85. sam says:

    12/25/2011 at 03:45

    thanxxxxxxxxxxxxx a lot dude.. you helped me out from frustration of many hours..thanx a lot
86. Natman says:

    01/09/2012 at 14:11

    You sir are a fucking god. I wish I could shake the shit out of your hand right now. Im saving this patch on 45 cds I swear. Thanks again man. Hella good kudos
87. Maveric says:

    01/29/2012 at 07:14

    This is a whiz-bang fix man. And it’s almost four years you rolled this fix out. Not getting a sound from your Laptop could send one into a depression as you frustratingly stare at the thing like a stone. You saved another soul.

    Another thanks from Singapore.