Alienware Sound Engine acting out

[Fleischhaus]

Dear swarm intelligence,

 

A few days ago, I noticed the sound on my Alienware 13R3 becoming really thin. Occasionally, after a restart, it'll be fine again but then thin out again. To verify it's a software problem, I did the following things: Tinker with the AW EQ (didn't do anything), switch between profiles (didn't do anything), uninstall and reinstall both the Realtek drivers (using DDU in safe mode), AW Sound Center and AW Command Center. The issue persists. I'd be most grateful for any advice.

All my drivers and OS are up to date, I maintain this machine very thoroughly.

 

Different programs are affected in different ways: In Chrome, the sound will thin out during or after watching a video or streaming music. In games, a few seconds into the startup screen, the sound will become barely even audible. Music playback via Windows Media Player doesn't seem to be affected at all.

 

EDIT: I have discovered that disabling and re-enabling the internal speakers via sounds tab brings back the AW sound effects for a bit. Skip to next youtube video, poof - gone again...

 

Cheers and thanks for any and all advice

Tim

 

Alienware 13R3, BIOS 1.5, Win10 1809

i7 7700HQ

GTX1060

Samsung 900EVO 500GB & 860EVO 1TB drives

16GB Micron RAM

Realtek Sound