Realtek audio randomly crashing during Zoom calls

[JG2910]

Laptop: HP ENVY x360 15z-ee000

AMD Radeon Software Version: 23.11.1

Windows 10 Pro

BIOS Version: 13.48

Realtek audio driver version: 6.0.8963.1

Zoom version: 5.16.2

I'm recently experiencing a total audio crash during Zoom calls. The sound suddenly goes to a constant loud buzz, video and everything else continues to work fine. I have to restart my computer fully to fix it.

One of the times I restarted I was shown that an item preventing shutdown was "Realtek Audio Background Process Class"

I should add here that I recently updated my system bios a few weeks ago to the latest release, but I don't think this actually updated the Realtek driver. I have only observed the audio issue in the last 5 days or so. I have only seen this occur with Zoom so far. No other meeting platforms have shown the issue (yet).

I've searched around for others experiencing this problem and haven't found an exact match. I did found other Realtek driver issues suggest stopping Realtek Audio Universal Service at startup, which I did, but the issue has still occurred.

AMD radeon software does update every other month or so, maybe there is something happening with the latest release.

Anyone else experiencing this? Any other troubleshooting ideas?

EDIT: It looks like there are a few threads from 2020 about this, no real resolutions as far as I can see:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Audio-driver-issues-envy-15m-ee0013dx/td-p/7757580

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/HP-Envy-x360-Ryzen-5-15-Microphone-and-speakers-crash-d...

and this youtube video claiming it's an AMD driver issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu5DHL7lalE

[JG2910]

Anyone?

[JG2910]

Still happening, also happening with google hangouts now.

Anyone?

[JG2910]

AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnyoneeeeeeeeeee?

[JG2910]

Okay so I found the very long existing thread from 2020 about how this is an AMD <-> Microsoft <-> Realtek driver issue.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Audio-driver-issues-envy-15m-ee0013dx/td-p/7757580/page...

How is this still a problem in 2023?!???!?

I'm going to try the recommended solution of reinstalling all AMD drivers, and then I guess fighting against windows update forever? What a crummy user experience.

[MAMMHOTH]

Thanks a lot for your description of the problem and trying to find a solution as well as linking to the 2020 thread!

It sounds exactly like what I am experiencing. My laptop is an HP ENVY x360 15-eeOOOO bought in December 2019. Currently running on Win 11. Last year in June I experienced a complete crash of my hard drive, probably due to some update that failed while the computer was in energy save mode. After failing to save the old SSD I decided to take it out and install a new one in October 2023. Then, when I started joining Zoom calls (not using other meeting apps), I encountered the exact same problems as described and shown by you. This continues until today (Jan 2024) and I couldn't figure out a solution.

Sometimes it is the loud buzzing noise which forces me to press the kill switch or it is just Zoom telling me that my microphone stopped working which results in the laptop sound not working. Video keeps playing but I don't get any audio, not even if I try to open a video on YouTube or anything like that. When I try to shut the computer normally it won't shut down completely (the lights inside the top buttons don't switch off) so I need to press the power button for a few seconds to shut it down!

The first time this happened I was using Bluetooth headphones and thought it's got to do with those but later it also happened while using the inbuilt laptop speakers. I honestly don't know at which point any update was done but since my new SSD and the entire system has only been installed in October 2023 nothing should not be older than that. Now, I thought it might have to do with the change of SSD but luckily that doesn't seem to be the case. Will try the whole AMD driver update thingy and hopefully post a positive update at some point.

Just wanted to let you know that you're not alone with this problem even after all this time this seems to have existed already. 😉

[JG2910]

Glad it was helpful! I've had updates paused for weeks now and the issue appears completely resolved.

My pauses on updates reset today, so we'll see if Windows Update / HP / AMD / Realtek break the system again.

Absolutely crazy that this has been an unresolved known issue for years.