Windows on an iMac or MacBook Pro (Intel)
EDIT June 11 2025: I’ve also used this method (and the same driver pack) to get the sound working on a 2017 iMac and hake3523 on YouTube reports that these audio drivers also worked for Windows on his Mid 2015 MacBook Pro.
iMac Windows drivers can be extremely confusing and frustrating! I recently had to install Windows on a 21.5″ 2015 iMac after replacing the hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD). After installing Windows, most of the hardware drivers got installed automatically via Windows Update. The audio drivers were listed as a High-Definition Audio device and although they didn’t show any errors in Windows’ Device Manager, the iMac had no sound.
iMac Windows Sound Drivers in Device Manager
Since the iMac belongs to a client who ONLY runs Windows, I had no option of running the BootCamp setup from within MacOS and getting sound to work that way.
Finding iMac Windows drivers
First I tried updating the sound drivers using Snappy Driver Installer Origin, (which is usually an excellent little app for finding and installing drivers) but surprisingly, those drivers didn’t work. I then tried using a script called Brigadier, which is supposed to detect the model of the Mac and download the correct Boot Camp drivers for it, but unfortunately, that also didn’t work.
So, I did a bit of research and found that these iMacs use Cirrus Logic CS4208 sound hardware. I tried quite a few Cirrus Logic drivers until I finally found some that worked. Since it took a bit of faffing about (and downloading actual drivers that work can sometimes be a malware-riddled minefield), I decided it might help others to make a video about it and provide a link to the drivers I found.
If you would like to download those drivers, I’ve included a link in the description of the video that I made here: ‘iMac 2015 & 2017 Cirrus Logic Audio Driver Install in Windows‘. (while you’re there, why not give the video a thumbs up if it helps you) 😊
Downloading and extracting the driver files
The video will give you some instructions to show you how to get yours installed but here’s the basic run through:
Click the link in the video description which will take you to my Google Drive page. The download link is the little downward facing arrow on the top right. Just click on that and wait for it to finish downloading.
Once downloaded open the downloads folder and find the downloaded iMac sound driver file. You can double-click that to extract it so we can get all the files out of the zip file.
Once you’ve extracted them, you should be able to see the contents in the extracted folder. We can now go ahead and close that folder.
Installing via Device Manager
Right Click on the Windows Start button and click ‘Device Manager‘ on the menu that pops up.
Find ‘Sound video and game controllers‘ and click the little arrow on the left to expand that section.
There are two High-Definition Audio device listings in device manager, and you’ll need to double-click the bottom one.
From there, go to the “Driver” tab then “Update Driver,” and browse your computer. Look for the path where you’ve just downloaded the files to, highlight that, click “OK.” Make sure “Subfolders” check-box is ticked and go to “Next.” Hopefully, it should find your drivers and install them for you. You should see the Device Manager listing change to ‘Cirrus Logic’.
Now, at this point, you’re probably going to have to restart the computer. Do that and hopefully the next time it boots up, you should have working sound!
If you’re looking for Mac repairs in Sittingbourne, we would be happy to help. Get in touch so we can give you a quote!
