Audio mutes itself after 20 seconds of no sound activity

[Mellotron42]

I have a Victus 15L Gaming Desktop running an i5-12400 Intel processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super GPU.  I use it with an HP monitor which does not have speakers, so I use external speakers connected to the rear.  I have found an annoying problem which escapes me, and I have not seen in any computer I have ever had going back to Windows 98 (which was also an HP BTW).

The audio on this computer, from day one, mutes itself after 20 seconds of no sound activity on the computer.  "Sound activity" is defined as any program or action by the system to cause a sound to be generated (YouTube video, clicking the volume bar, the graphics card "boost" being activated, system notification, etc).  The audio will only come back if another sound activity starts, and it sounds like if you had a record player going but the speakers were turned off, and you turn them on, and there is this second or two with distorted sound then it is normal.  Sound activity from an external source (like a microphone) will not prevent the audio from muting, nor will it cause the audio to unmute.

I have tried the following:

HP Support Assistant troubleshooting

Windows Troubleshooter

Disconnecting microphone and having only headphones connected to speaker port

Removing & reinstalling sound drivers (Realtek)

Rolling back the drivers (suggested by a Microsoft support "guru"), to even before the first drivers listed under my system on the HP website (drivers installed are from June 2022, earliest drivers on website are from August 2022, and yes I tried those too)

There are two workarounds found either by myself or support, but one of these is not desired for my needs.  The one found by Microsoft was to check the box "Listen to this device" for the microphone properties on the Recording tab.  Unfortunately, this creates a slight delay between when I speak and when I hear myself in the speaker/headphones (I do online karaoke and music production), so this can be very distracting.  I usually have this off and the microphone unmuted in the speaker properties.  The other workaround may offer a clue as to what is causing the issue.  I found that having the sound control panel open, with the recording tab chosen, provides a constant "tickler" to a Windows Host process (Rundll32), according to a notification at the right side of the taskbar (shown as a blue microphone); that keeps the audio from muting.

I believe it is either a Windows issue or a Realtek driver issue, but whatever it is, I'd like to get it fixed.