How to Check My Sound Card Driver

With every working piece of hardware installed on your computer, you will find a piece of software, known as drivers. Drivers are installed for every computer device in Windows, and the sound card is no exception. Determining the sound card driver version can help you troubleshoot any problems you might be having with your audio, as well as alert you to the possibility of an update. You can check the sound card drivers in the Device Manager.  

Instructions

1 Right-click on the volume mixer icon on the bottom right corner of your Windows screen and select "Properties" or "Options." This will tell you the sound devices installed on your computer.  

2 Click "Start," then "Settings," then "Control Panel" and select "Device Manager." XP users will need to select "Performance and Maintenance" under the Control Panel screen, then select "System." Click on "Device Manager."  

3 Double-click on the "Sound, video and game controllers" section to show all the audio device installed on Windows.  

4 Right-click on the audio device and select "Properties." The device you select should read the same as the device you looked up in Step 1. For instance, Intel based computers use one of three audio solutions: Realtek, Soundmax and IDT.

 5 Look under the "Driver" tab to see the driver version listed.