There are a lot of similar questions to mine, but I haven't found any describing mine exactly:
The most popular question I found is Windows 10 volume randomly jumps to 100% but that answer (a RealTek driver issue) certainly doesn't apply: I'm experiencing this with a USB headset, which, to my understanding, means it comes with its own audio drivers and is unrelated to the sound card? I haven't found RealTek listed anywhere in my Device Manager. Plus, none of those other answers fixed my issue.
Other questions like Windows 10 volume keeps resetting to 100% and nothing seems to fix it report the OS volume jumping to 100, but this doesn't happen for me: the OS always reports the volume as to what I set it to last. That's usually between 2-10 even though the sound coming out of the physical speakers is ear-splittingly loud.
Headphone volume randomly jumps is the most similar to mine, but there are some key differences. I'll edit an excerpt from it so it describes my symptoms:
I've had the following issue that has happened for the last year or so off and on, but has gotten much worse recently. I'm running Windows 1.
I have a set of headphones that has [a] volume control. These headphones are USB headphones, plugged in to my computer via a USB [port]. [Using the headset dongle or the sound settings, I usually set my master volume level to 2]
Randomly the volume level goes way up, although the [sound settings] remain at whatever I set it to previously. If I change the volume [on the headset or in the settings, the volume coming out of the speakers returns to what the OS displays], until something triggers the issue to happen again. Sometimes it works well for [days], but most often it happens [2-3 times a day.]
Nothing mentioned beyond that point applies to me.
It's worth noting that this problem has followed me from my last Windows 10 install to my current one (a clean install on a different hard drive). A week or two passed before it reappeared. This timing is probably coincidental, but one of the last things I remember installing before it reappeared was the Windows 64x version of Node (v18.17.1).
When I checked for Windows updates, it says I'm up-to-date. I've installed every optional update available.
When the issue occurs, only these temporary fixes return the volume to normal:
- Changing the volume with the headset dongle
- Changing the volume with the OS settings
- Reinstalling/updating sound drivers for the headset
- Restarting the computer
- Unplugging the headset and plugging it back into the same USB (same or different port, it doesn't matter)
Although I can't predict what will trigger this issue, once triggered, the issue remains until I apply one of these temporary fixes.
While the issue occurs, I've tried uninstalling and force quitting certain applications the see if they fix the problem, but so far none have (I haven't thoroughly tested every app/process yet, I'm waiting for the issue to pop up again).
I haven't seen anyone else report these two symptoms:
- The longer I go without applying a temporary fix, the louder the headset speakers get. This is very gradual; it increases over a period of minutes or 10s of minutes. Eventually, it gets so loud it hurts my ears even when the speaker pad is completely off my ear, pushed forward and resting on my cheek.
- In addition to the speaker volume increasing over time, the headset mic registers less sound over time. Eventually, it doesn't pick up anything unless I physically scratch the mic head. And that'll only register two bars, max.
My headset is a addasound crystal sr 2831 (HD). I haven't been able to find 3rd party drivers or any kind of software for this product. I'm using the default Microsoft ones. Here are some screenshots of my settings:
I've tried unchecking those Advanced -> Exclusive Mode, but it had no effect.
I've upgraded my NVIDIA drivers to no effect.
I'm out of ideas. Even though I think this is a software issue, I've ordered a new headset in the hopes that it'll resolve this issue, but I'm expecting it to occur on the new headset too.
sfc /scannow reports no integrity problems.
Has anyone experienced these same symptoms? How do I fix this problem once and for all?
Misc Information
Here are some things I've done to improve my quality of life re: this issue; I'm not necessarily expecting these to be fixes, but maybe documenting this information will provide a clue to someone as to what is going on.
I turned off terminal beeps a day or two ago ~~and the issue hasn't returned (yet).~~ (See @harrymc and my comments below. I was able to reproduce this issue after this change.)
It just happened again to me after typing a string into the Firefox search and it didn't find what I was looking for. It may use the Windows 10 default beep, but I'm not sure:
I'm going to turn it off per these instructions.
9/19/2023
I'm using a ASRock X470 Taichi and noticed it says it has 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Sound™ 4 & DTS Connect. It turns out my generically named "High Definition Audio" should have been a Realtek driver, and for some reason, Windows wasn't able to recognize it without some manual effort on my part.
Only yesterday did I realize that Realtek is an Audio Codec. I thought it was a soundcard--a soundcard I didn't have and a soundcard that was irrelevant, since I'm using a USB headset. That may be wrong. I think it could mean these Realtek codec drivers take some role in USB headsets' sound? I made this assumption and installed the latest Realtek drivers I could find on Microsoft's site* (mega.nz backup) (the official realtek.com audio driver webpage is currently broken so I can't download drivers there).
To install these by hand, I extracted the file (I guess a .cab file is like a zip?) to a folder. Then (I think?) I updated the generic driver and chose this extracted directory as where to search for the latest drivers.
It's too soon to say if this has fixed my issue; so far so good.
Strangely, the device manager never had any Realtek entries, only something generically named "High Definition Audio". I googled that and some results suggested it means windows couldn't detect the appropriate drivers or there is driver corruption.
* I found the version number to search for by installing DriverEasy, but I decided to download it elsewhere.
9/20/2023 (ie., one day later), the issue occurred again.
9/20/2023 The issue is currently happening. I've decided to reinstall my NVIDIA drivers. A clean, custom install, and I'm unchecking the option to install NVIDIA audio drivers.
After these steps, it told me to restart my computer. After restarting, my resolution was very low. My device manager still lists these two NVIDIA devices:
This is the first time any of them ever had an alert though. It says:
A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)
And now the NVIDIA GEFORCE Experience says:
For all I know, this is expected behavior? It's never happened before, but I've never reinstalled these drivers before and I've never installed without that audio checkbox selected.
I clicked that Continue button and it finished, saying:
But my device manager hasn't changed. It still lists those two NVIDIA drivers. Anyway, due to the restart, the issue has temporarily gone away.
I've decided to manually uninstall the NVIDIA and the realtek drivers.
I restarted again by choice. Now my device manager shows the UPnP device, the realtek devices, and the high definition audio device (the non-NVIDIA one). I uninstalled the non-UPnP devices and restarted, but they came back. I decided to disable them instead of uninstalling.
Just in case it left something bad behind, did a clean reinstall of my NVIDIA drivers again. Strange, the NVIDIA installer it didn't require me to restart this time. Seems like it didn't work quite right the first reinstall?
Ran sfc /scannow again. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth: No component store corruption detected.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth: No component store corruption detected.\nThe operation completed successfully.
9/26/2023 Got a brand-new headset, an ADDASOUND CRYSTAL SR2832RG Dual Ear Stereo Adv Noise Cancel USB. It worked as expected for a few days, but just now the issue came back.
Out of curiosity, I downloaded a decibel meter on my phone. I played the "loud" sound repeatedly by placing my headset speakers next to the phone mic. The peak dB was usually 52.
Then, without touching my phone or headset, I applied a temporary fix and ran the same experiment. The typical peak was 45-48. I don't know if this is useful information, but it confirms to me that I'm not imagining this problem.
