Audio:Realtek ALC655 AC'97 AUDIO for Windows

User Reviews

• Keep your eyes open, full of spyware.

  mountainjpoMay 30, 2013

  Pros

  None, even the driver failed.

  Cons

  Read my summary. Ended up with SweetPacks spyware.

  Summary

  Keep your eyes open on this install. I ended up with both my Firefox and Google Chrome browsers hijacked and both ended up with the extra Sweetpack Toolbar. Both homepages were changed to Sweetpacks.com. It also changed my default search engine to Bing on both browsers. Sweetpacks also grants itself permission to access all data on your computer, and monitor all sites you visit. That's very dangerous. Google Chrome will catch this move, but Firefox missed it. It's not really a virus, but more a spyware intrusion. There are plenty of sites addressing the Sweetpacks problem. Addons/Extensions were installed on both browsers to add the ugly toolbar. It also changes the IE browser as well. I only wanted the Realtek AC'97 driver, and CNET shows it as being 30.61MB. If you click on the 'Info' link, it gives a 404-File not Found. I guess that should have been a flag. But I've always trusted CNET (in the past). Anyway, I clicked to download and got CNET's usual 571KB Setup file that they give on all downloads. Doesn't do any good to run this file past VirusTotal, Jotti, etc. since it's a clean file that brings in something unchecked. So now I'm running CNET's Setup file to bring in the file I wanted. I was surprised that it showed the download size 42MB versus the 30.61MB they said it would be. Another flag, but again, I trusted CNET. Luckily I have my firewall configured to notify me of any 'breakout' attempts. About 7MB into the download, I was notified that SweetIM was requiring access to the Internet. The 42MB download paused until SweetIM was granted permission. As soon as I did, the download continued. This explained the 42MB in size, extra stuff. When done, I installed Realtek AC'97, and it failed. That's when I noticed all the spyware. Took me an hour to get rid of it all. I then went directly to the Asus site and downloaded the driver directly, installed, worked fine. I see the dates on the only 2 reviews of it are 3 and 4 years old. I'm wondering if CNET is adding (changing) the package download when paid to do so by some sponsor. When they say you are getting a file of 30.61MB in size, it should be that size. Keep your eyes open.

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• It's an audio driver, that's all it does

  trollslayer3October 12, 2010

  Pros

  Does what it says on the tin, made my PC audio work

  Cons

  Nothing at all

  Summary

  Needed a driver for my Realtek ALC655 audio so I got this Realtek ALC655 audio driver. No big surprise that it worked. Installed easily, my audio now works, what more can I say

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• it's fine only for the alc655 realtek

  master_paceFebruary 15, 2009

  Pros

  it's fine only for the alc655 realtek

  Cons

  it's fine only for the alc655 realtek

  Summary

  it's fine only for the alc655 realtek

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