Weird, maddening computer audio problem.
 

I have a Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 Mobo with onboard Realtek audio.

I'm in Win10 64bit.

A few days ago, my sound cut completely couldn't get it to return in anything. Also, Itunes would not play tracks. It would show up and you could click on a track, but it just sat at 0:00.

I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled the newest I could find.

Now, it works but cuts out PARTIALLY and INTERMITTENTLY. Every few minutes, sometimes within seconds, it will drop to a whisper/rumble.
If I unplug and replug it will return, sometimes right away, sometimes after I click on the dialog popup selecting the jack as front audio. But I have to do it every time.

It's like it can sense my presence/position, as it will go fine, until the very moment I sit [I wouldn't mention it, except it's dropped out at that precise moment a good 30-40% of the time.

Also, on a few occasions, it will return if I pound the desk, which is unconnected to the PC or speakers [guess how I figured that out].

Sometimes it will go hours, sometimes it'll go seconds multiple times.

Sometimes it will lose sound from the application after replugging and I have to exit and re-enter, but that's rare. I usually go over, unplug/replug and resume.

sounds like a loose connection somewhere if it's tenuous enough that you sitting down or punding the desk affects it.

I don't know enough about itunes, does it sense enough to not play if it doesn't detect a soundcard/audio?

If it is, it's internal to the chip, but I've seen that other people have the same problems, just no solutions outside reinstalling drivers or waiting until it stops.

The speakers and jack are solid, tried them out on my ipod.

Also, except for the first time, it doesn't cut OUT. It drops several dbs.

You want weirder still. Since I posted this, I had an instance where it would cut out if I crouched to sit, then came back spontaneously as I stood back up, back and forth 3 more times until it stayed muted.

It's almost like a BT/WiFi/RF interference, like you would get driving your car under a bridge while listening to AM radio. I do have DLink wireless dongle for my Internet and MS wireless KB 3000 v-2.0 fir RF.

Are you using wifi? Try changing the channel on your router maybe?

I've had headphones that would cut out, lose channels when twisted. Is it losing a channel (L/R) ?

No.

Have you updated your BIOS? The driver?

Have you tried uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it?

This is where I build a new rig.

BIOS was up to date, as was audio driver, as of the time of WIn10, updated from Win8.1. Let Win10 handle updates since then, particularly since there's nothing newer on the provider websites.

Uninstalled and reinstalled the newest Realtek Driver I could find, from Realtek not Gigabyte, when the audio first cut out completely. Since then found some INF and Intel Driver files from Gigabyte dated 11/15 that 'updated' as in I don't know if Win10 had already done that automatically, but I reinstalled them anyway.

This seems to be a pretty widespread Realtek problem, just haven't found a surefire solution online, so I thought I'd pick you guys' brains.

I'm assuming you're plugged in at the audio out jack on the i/o on the back of the motherboard. Do you have access to headphones that plug in via a USB port? Might be worth seeing if that works better. Someones the built in soundcards can go out, especially on motherboards with some mileage on them. Using a USB headphone will bypass that.

As for the itunes thing, I have no idea.

Humor me, and next time you have the issue, try restarting the Windows Audio service.

Not sure if this is it or not

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge...or-windows-10/

Update: appears to have stopped [knock wood] as of late.

Nothing changed. Just stopped cutting out at some point, as randomly as it started.

But if anyone comes across a surefire fix, fell free to share here.

Aren't you the same person that had all of the programs starting on their own?