How to fix “Not plugged in” with Realtek HD Audio on Windows 10
I recently ran into an issue where Windows would not let me use my Realtek audio device because it was “not plugged in”.
This is due to front panel jack detection not working properly, and the fix is to simply disable this feature in the Realtek HD Audio Manager. The problem is that as of driver version 2.82, Realtek has removed the HD Audio Manager, leaving many users stuck without a fix for this situation.
Thankfully, there is a workaround! You don’t even need to downgrade or uninstall your current drivers.
Instructions:
- Download version 2.81 of the drivers from this site. Don’t run the setup file!
- Change the file extension from .exe to .zip and extract it. (You may see some error messages; this is fine)
3. Open the resulting folder, then open the WIN32 (or WIN64) subdirectory.
4. Find the file RtkNGUI.exe (or RtkNGUI64.exe) and run it. This will launch the Realtek HD Audio Manager.
5. Click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner, then select “Options”.
6. Click “AC97 Front Panel”. This will disable front panel jack detection, and the audio device should no longer show “Not plugged in”.
This should persist across reboots. If you need to re-enable this feature, repeat the process and select “HD Audio Front Panel”.
Cheers! 🍻
