Furthermore, legacy operating systems like Windows XP often had generic “High Definition Audio” drivers baked in. If sound worked immediately after installing Windows, many users assumed the CPU “provided” it. In reality, the OS simply recognized a standard-compliant audio controller on the motherboard and loaded a generic Microsoft driver.
For Realtek chips, you need the "HDA" (High Definition Audio) driver. Download version R2.82 from a trusted archive. Important: You may need to disable "Driver Signature Enforcement" on Windows 10/11: intel core 2 duo e8400 sound driver download