Realtek AudioProcessingObject Driver Update (13.4329.2249.712) made my microphone stop working

Arturo Zamora 0 Reputation points
2026-06-30T01:37:02.3833333+00:00

I work for a company that uses surface pros. Every single one that received this update. Realtek AudioProcessingObject Driver Update (13.4329.2249.712), the microphone stopped working. It shows up. Its in sound settings. Though I do a microphone test, the volume shows at 0% and nothing records. All the things I have tried with no success.

  1. Rolling back the driver.
  2. Uninstalling the driver, restarting the computer and allowing it to automatically reinstall.
  3. Disabling and re-enabling.
  4. Going into Services and restarting Windows Audio
  5. Manually installing a different driver from list provided.
  6. Disabling enhancements.
  7. Ensuring permissions were granted in Privacy & security (When I tried using Sound Recorder, It gave me an error saying no device found so it took me to Privacy & security but all the options were checked to on.)
  8. I went into CMD and typed these commands one line at a time. net stop audiosrv net stop AudioEndpointBuilder net start AudioEndpointBuilder net start audiosrv
  9. Tried running the diagnose tool but it only provided articles to read which did not help me.
  10. Plugging the Surface Pro into a doc as well as testing it with a headset.

Is there something I am missing. Every tablet that has received this update so far has made the microphone no longer work. I would of assumed that rolling back would of fixed it, but it still didn't work.

Surface | Surface Pro | Sound and camera
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  1. S.Sengupta 30,991 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-06-30T01:52:29.9766667+00:00

    It’s a bad Realtek APO update being repeatedly re-applied by Windows Update — you must block the update and reinstall Surface OEM audio drivers cleanly.

    Block Windows from reinstalling the driver:

    Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.

    Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

    Double-click Do Not Include Drivers with Windows Updates.

    Turn off driver updates via Windows Update / policy


    Remove the bad Realtek audio package completely

    Not just Device Manager rollback (must remove driver package from system)


    Install the correct Surface OEM audio driver pack

    Use Microsoft Surface official driver bundle (not generic Realtek)

    Reboot and let Windows rebuild audio stack cleanly

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