Crackely audio since Windows 11 update. HP Pavilion Gaming - 15-ec0003ca

[Tpro]

My audio sounds fine then suddenly begins to crackle badly. It stays that way untill I reboot or change my audio output settings, like turn off the speaker output and then back on again, from the Windows 11 audio settings, then it's ok for a few minutes, then goes back to crackeling static sounding over the audio output on top of any audio playing, like a youtube video/skype/music etc. untill I again change an audio output setting. i can also just change the output in the Windows 11audio software from stereo to mono and the crackeling immediately stops, but starts up again in a few minutes! Again it's also fine after a reboot, for a while, then stsrts up again.

I wonder if it's hardware related however the software changes fix it immediately even when audiois playing and I keep the audio software dialogue open, switch from stereo to mono and the crackle immediately goes away!

Windows 11 says the latest driver is the best when I try and update the audio driver from withion device manager.

Not sure what to try first? Should I delete the realtek audio driver and let windows reinstall it? Also the nvidia high definition and virtual audio device  drivers also show up in device manager as this laptop has discrete Nvidia graphics along with the AMD Vega 10 graphics and the Nvidia graphics drivers install these audio drivers automatically I think.

This laptop was originally Windows 10 and upgraded to Windows 11 and it was a while after that when the audio problem started, if my old boomer memory  serves me right!

Thanks for any suggestions.