Realtek High Definition Audio Speakers sounds scratchy when Windows has been running for a few days

Question

If Windows has been running for a while, then my Realtek High Definition Audio output sounds scratchy and annoying. Rebooting helps, but I don't want to reboot every few days. I've tried disabling the device in Device Manager then re-enabling it, but that doesn't help. I've tried to search for an updated driver, but it says it has the latest driver. The current drivers are:

I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with the drivers but I can't find an update.

I have the following choices:

I'm not using HDMI on my graphics card. I have regular speakers with a 3.5mm cable. I don't know if there is a HDMI to 3.5mm female jack converter, or a digital audio output to 3.5mm female.

Answer 1

You might see better performance using the drivers obtainable direct from Realtek - they also contain a better 5.1 interface than the drivers Windows keeps insisting on replacing them with.

You need to click through the 'accept' box to get there - Realtek High Definition Audio Drivers

Alternatively, see if switching output to another device then back again would wake it up. I used Audio Switcher (freeware) for many years, though I don't have a Windows machine any more to test whether it's still good.