Windows 10: Why do I need to restart every time I plug in Realtek Audio Headphones

Using a currently updated version of Windows 11 on a laptop I need to restart every time I plug in the headphones even if I unplug them and plug them back in within a couple minutes. When plugged in the troubleshooter says "The device does not appear to be plugged in". All is well the first time after I do a restart.How do I permanently resolve this issue?

:)

 

Headphones do not show up when Realtek is installed

OK, so this happened to me on my laptop. It wanted to use the realtek drivers no matter what. Let me show you what to do.
Step 1. Open the start menu and type 'Device Manager' in the search bar. Click on the result.

Step 2.

You'll see this window appear.

Step 3.

Expand the 'Sound , video and game controllers' category.

Step 4. Find 'Realtek High Definition Audio' in the list, then right click it and select Properties.

Step 5.

Click on the 'Driver' tab near the top of the window.

Step 6.

Now click on the button that says 'Roll back driver'.
If the button is dimmed, make sure your Realtek drivers are currently installed.

Step 6. If you did it correctly, the system should ask you to restart to finish. If it does then you finished the tutorial correctly!
Once restarted, Open device manager again using step 1. Expand the 'sound, video and game controllers' category again.

Step 7. If it says 'High Definition Audio Device' then you did it right. Here's a pic for example purposes:

 

Realtek HD Audio not switching to Headphone settings

I'm running Windows 10 Pro v.1607 build 14393.447 on an Asus Z170-A motherboard with Realtek HD Audio ALC892. I have speakers connected to the rear of the motherboard, and headphones via the front panel port.

A few weeks ago, the Realtek HD Audio Manager started behaving oddly. When I would plug in my Headphones, it wouldn't detect them, and would continue playing through the Speakers. Restarting seemed to fix that, but introduced a new issue.

Previously, when I would plug in my Headphones it would recognize them and switch to the Headphone settings and volume setting. It stopped doing that, and continued to display 5.1 Speakers in the Speaker Configuration and use the Speaker volume control. I keep my Speaker volume set to 50%, and my Headphone volume to 8%, but now it was always on the Speaker volume setting.

I tried updating to the latest ASUS driver, no difference. It would recognize the headphones when plugged in, but would stay on the Speaker settings and volume.

I uninstalled the driver, and Windows automatically replaced it with the default Microsoft driver, and it started working normally again. As soon as I plugged in my headphones it would switch the Playback device to Headphones and the headphone volume. Unplug, and it went back to Speakers and the speaker volume. Fine, I can live without the Realtek HD Audio Manager.

Yesterday I see that the volume icon on the Taskbar has a red X through it, and I have no sound. Clicking on it, Windows tries to correct the problem and tells me that I should restart. I restart, and sound is back, but it no longer switches to the Headphone setting when I plug in my headphones. It switches the output from the rear to the front panel, but it stays on the Speaker setting and volume.

I try uninstalling the driver and installing the Realtek driver from their website. I install the driver I had downloaded a few weeks ago (I don't know what version since it's all listed as 2.80 on the site). It installed the Realtek HD Audio Manager, but no longer switches to the Headphone setting when I plug my headphones in.

I downloaded the most recent Realtek driver, 6.0.1.8004, and installed that. That replaced the Realtek HD Audio Manager with the ASUS branded Realtek HD Audio Manager, but still doesn't switch to Headphone settings.

I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how to fix this. I want it to go back to working how it used to, where I would plug in my headphones and it would switch to Headphone settings and the corresponding volume.

 

Headphones playing from speakers, recognised as "Headphones (Realtek Audio)"...

Whenever I plug my headphones into the headphone jack, it is no longer playing from the headphones, but the speaker instead. The headphones come up as "Headphones (Realtek(R) Audio)". This didn't happen 3 days ago, and I have already restarted/updated Windows.

I've tried updating audio/realtek drivers, troubleshooting, etc, but nothing works. I can't even find the Realtek audio manager/hub that people have mentioned. To be honest, I've had sound issues with the speakers since I bought the laptop (HP Envy, Ryzen7 core), but this is the first time headphones have stopped working.