If so what an annoying thing. Also, though, speaking of Realtek, why does the HD Audio Manager only appear when, say, I plug in headphones or earbuds, or speaker cables?

I've got an older PC here, Asus A8N-E, Athlon 4200+ dual core, 4gb ram, wondering if I should install the realtek sound manager software. I've got the latest driver for the onboard sound, but ...