Video playback buffering

[TaxnBeTheft]

Hey all, I have a new PC I put together a few months ago. It's running great, but I've noticed videos in any browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) will usually take 5-10 seconds to buffer before playing. This only includes some sites like YouTube and Instagram but not Prime Video, other streaming platforms, or Discord. This past week, videos are taking much longer to load than usual and after a while they won't load at all. What's interesting is if I reboot my PC, the videos will load with an initial buffer phase, but still not instantly like they used to.

 

I also have another issue with Discord which results in my notification sounds being delayed. I've tried running in compatibility mode for Windows 7 and 8, but neither really helped much. There also hasn't been an issue connecting and talking with people until today, which is making the "RTC Connecting" step to a channel take a lot longer than usual, but I'm still able to connect. 

 

I have great internet (roughly 650 Mbps down) and my graphics drivers are up to date. I recently cleared my Chrome cache and history and have installed the latest updates for Windows and Discord. My specs are as follows:

• Windows 11

• Intel i7-14700KF

• Asus TUF GAMING Z790-PRO WIFI

• NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super

• 32 GB DDR5 7200 MTS

This is getting really frustrating. Any ideas?

[TaxnBeTheft]

Bumping for visibility. 

 

Video playback still requires buffering before eventually failing to load altogether. Rebooting temporarily resets playback to the initial buffering phase.

[TaxnBeTheft]

After a lot more searching, I finally stumbled upon the answer. 

 

For anyone else having a similar issue, uninstalling your Realtek audio driver may fix it. After uninstalling mine, I'm no longer having issues with Discord or video playback.