A couple days ago, I was replacing the motherboard for a customer’s computer because the one he had was dead. The system couldn’t even POST with the original motherboard. Because my customer didn’t want to reinstall Windows (this often happens when replacing the motherboard), so I found him a new board that is using a similar chipset as the original motherboard. The one he had was Intel’s 945GZ. However, I could only find him a 945GC motherboard. The two chipsets are very similar so I expected the Windows to be working after the replacement.

Unknown Audio Device

The system was able to boot into Windows after the change of motherboard. I was able to install the Intel chipset drivers, including the driver for Intel GMA 950. Everything seems to be functioning well except for the audio. When I tried to install the Realtek HD audio drivers, it gave me a “driver installation failed” message. When looking into Device Manager, there was an unknown device under “sound, video and game controllers”. I could neither remove it nor update its driver. The only thing I could do is disabling it. I was thinking whether there are conflicts between the old motherboard and the new one.

Solution

After Googling about the problem and testing different suggested solutions, it came to be an easy fix. In order to install the Realtek HD audio drivers, I had to first uninstall the “Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio” device under System Devices in Device Manager. After this, I was able to install the Realtek driver without problem. Reboot the computer and everything was detected and installed properly.