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Question

Windows 10 sound driver problems

Sep 23, 2017 1:40PM PDT

So,
Ever since I built my desktop pc (a year ago), I have been getting recurring Audio problems. After leaving the computer for some time, I would return to it asleep and once I power it on again the sound would be completely broken, out of phase and distorted.
After playing around with sound drivers and uninstalling and reinstalling I would usually get it to work for about a month until it broke again. This time however, no such luck. After spending a good two hours uninstalling the sound drivers, reinstalling the sound drivers, plugging and unplugging my headphones, updating the sound drivers and even downgrading the sound drivers the sound is still broken. Throughout this tedious process there were times where there was no sound, where there was distorted sound and times where my microphone did and didn't work.
Now I am at a stage where my sound isn't distorted but only plays stereo with the sound louder in the right ear and my microphone only picks up the sound of me sliding its power switch on and off.

I am at a loss of things to do, please help.

Thank you in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Never happened to me but
Sep 23, 2017 8:55PM PDT

You mention drivers. Where did you get these drivers? From the maker?

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I tried many
Sep 24, 2017 3:20AM PDT

Including asus realtek sound driver which came with my motherboard (asus z170). I also tried default HD audio driver to no effect.

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That's pretty slim detail.
Sep 24, 2017 10:30AM PDT

So when I have a desktop audio issue I work it like this.

1. Be sure the BIOS is current and all defaults with the onboard audio enabled.
2. Always install the OS clean then install the motherboard driver first so when we install the audio driver (from the maker) we don't run into "not found" issues. Very common problem today as few read how to install the Windows OS or the maker's supplied documents.

If I have a failed audio at that point I RMA the board if new, but if old and we are just trying to eek out more years we'll install a sound card.