on an old gigabyte motherboard with Skylale chipset, version 2026.08.0017 totally disables internal audio (realtek), I had to use Windows 11 restore point
Thanks for reporting this. The timing is interesting, especially since restoring Windows 11 to the previous restore point brought the Realtek audio back.
Just to clarify: `
2026.08.0017` is the version of the Universal Intel Chipset Updater, not the Intel chipset INF version itself. On Skylake, the updater installs the applicable Intel chipset INF files such as `
SkylakeSystem.inf`, `
SkylakeSystemGMM.inf` and `
SkylakeSystemThermal.inf`. These are chipset/system INFs; they do not contain Realtek audio or Intel SST audio drivers.
So the updater does not directly install or replace the Realtek audio driver. However, the fact that the audio stopped working immediately after the INF installation is worth investigating. Installing chipset INFs can trigger Windows Plug and Play re-enumeration and driver re-evaluation, so it is technically possible that something changed in the device state or driver binding.
If you can reproduce the issue, could you please collect the following?
1. Before running version `
2026.08.0017`, when audio is working:
- `C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log`
2. Immediately after installing the updater, when the Realtek audio is no longer working:
- `C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log`
- Check Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers and also System devices.
- Please note whether the Realtek/High Definition Audio device:
- disappears completely,
- appears with a yellow warning icon,
- or remains present but reports an error (e.g. Code 10, 28 or 31).
3. If possible, after restoring the Windows restore point and getting the audio back:
- another copy of `C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log`
The before/after `setupapi.dev.log` files are particularly useful because they are Windows SetupAPI/PnP logs, not just Intel installer logs. They may show which devices were re-enumerated and which INF/driver packages Windows selected during the update.
If you can also provide the motherboard's exact Gigabyte model, that would be very helpful, because "Skylake" covers several different desktop platforms.
With those details we should be able to determine whether the chipset INF installation actually changed the audio device/driver state, or whether the timing was coincidental.
