Windows 10: High Definition Audio Device driver problems | Sound dies randomly

I bought new pc parts this week and also bought Windows 10 Home while I was at it, due to W7 not accepting USB 3.0. But shortly after, I started having bad audio problems when using my headset, which is connected to my motherboard's rear 3.5mm output.

The symptoms consist of:
- The audio cutting out suddenly after just a few minutes of usage, e.g. 30 seconds of youtube, combined with the microphone not picking up any audio.

- Sound panel not responding occassionally or becoming sluggish. Can pop up later when clicking on things like browser tabs.

- High Definition Audio Device disappearing from choosable outputs in the notification area.

- Realtek High Definition Device disappearing from the Device Manager.

- Random pop-ups saying that I've either unplugged an audio device or I've plugged in an audio device multiple times in a row.

- Sound panel showing activity from both random thing I'm playing, and the Test Sound button, but no sound actually playing in the headset.

- Usually the sound cuts out with a small crackle, but other times it's completely silent when it happens. When loading the desktop I can hear some crackling too.

- ARK: Survival Evolved crashing, giving me a memory write error, followed by a notification of a decive being plugged in instantly after.

I've tried:
- Installing the latest drivers through windows update, realtek's latest drivers, motherboard's latest drivers and various .cab updates being rejected because the drivers "are up to date", along with some older drivers in hope of it not having the bug. That just left me with dead audio instead.

- Disabling the device, restarting my computer, enabling the device again, to have it cut out shortly after again.

- Resetting windows, getting the same result.

- Uninstalling the High Definition Controller in the System Devices tab in the Device Manager and restarting my pc.

- Various audio settings in multiple places, along with changing power settings.

I can get sound through my HDMI monitor fortunately, but with no headset I can't use Discord or get a decent volume.
When I've googled around I've seen some similar problems that has popped up the last month, likely pointing towards Realtek messing up their latest release. But so far all my efforts have been without result and no fix found.

I dearly hope that someone here has an answer for me. This nut is difficult to crack...

:)

 

How do I keep windows from installing Conexant SmartAudio HD drivers?

The sound on my laptop works fine, the only problem is that I think Conexant SmartAudio HD audio driver is garbage and I can't get rid of it. I'd rather have windows high definition audio device, but no matter how many times I uninstall Conexant SmartAudio
HD and have it replaced with windows high definition audio device, Conexant drivers will either randomly install or they will be installed again after I turn on my computer next time. How do I get rid of Conexant SmartAudio HD for good?

 

multiple audio drivers causing sound problem

I have recently clean installed windows 10 64 bit. In the device manager there's two audio drivers. High definition audio device that was installed automatically and IDT high definition audio CODEC that I installed manually. those two are enabled. now
it's causing sound problem like broken sound (low quality) on speakers and headphones. can I uninstall that High definition audio device? and use IDT only. will there be any problem?

 

I have an ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero Z170 motherboard and an i7 6700K. I am not having any audio or system problems.
Your problems may be something other than the audio. System faults can cause the audio to stop/cut out, etc.

Suggest you download and run the free Resplendence Latency Mon. It may help to pinpoint what the problem(s) is. Latency Mon is an excellent tool for this.

Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

 

After a week of trying to fix the problem I've had no luck. LatencyMon shows that everything is good too.

I tried uninstalling the Realtek device in the Device Manager, leading to losing the device completely. After some more trying during the week I somhow managed to get my drivers to at least install again, which it refused to before. Might have been that I opened every application in the realtek folder. A restart seemed to have kicked life into it afterwards.

I still have audio issues though, with the audio cutting out suddenly. Most of the times it is when I pause something, e.g. a video in a media player. The sporadic notifications of me unplugging/plugging in a device is back too. Most of the time the device is "unplugged".

I've seen several posts on the internet hinting at the recent drivers being faulty, but using legacy drivers and different versions hasn't helped so far.

Also, while my realtek drivers were gone, I saw no trace of the audio device in any place, including Services, Device Manager, notification tray and so on. The HDMI audio was still working though, and I saw two separate audio controllers in the device manager.