Default audio randomly swaps during Win 11 boot (3 monitors + onboard audio)

Win 11 Pro 23H2 - 22631.4317

ASUS ROG STRIX X570-E Gaming
ASUS Motherboard Link
ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3080 Gaming OC
TechPowerUp GPU

Realtek on board audio (currently using green audio out port to headphones)
3 monitors all connected to a 3080 by Display Port to the GPU

Hi, I'm hoping someone here has an idea why my primary audio is swapping to different devices on boot when those devices were previously disabled.

My issue:
Random boots the sound changes to one of the connected monitors.
I have tried disabling the 3 monitors in the Audio inputs and outputs section of Device Manager and somehow they become enabled again on their own.

I have tried setting each of the 3 monitors to "Don't Allow" under System > Sound and Properties for the respective monitor leaving only the Headphones set as Allow.

I have tried installing newer Nvidia drivers and DDU back to older drivers with no changes to this behavior.

This is a fresh full format / install of Win11 Pro.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.
This issue is more an annoyance and inconvenience than a pressing issue.

thanks

I don't have dual monitors and mine randomly switches from Realtek speakers to Intel display audio., mostly at boot. Crazy thing is it's not every boot.

Try installing Volumey from Win Store and let it select outputs; I use it for several audio outputs switching or multiple separate outputs and it works flawlessly. It even counteracts monitor HDMI or other audio devices that used to activate default after gpu driver updates for me.

You can also try a previous realtek audio driver and make sure Windows does Not install drivers for you. Maybe newer ones conflicts with something on your Pc; also use some app like driverstoreexplorer to find and delete Old obsolete drivers & leftovers from your systems repository.

Hi weaselciuy01, thanks for the response.

I'll give those a shot one by one and see if any of them help the issue.

I am going to try the audio driver thing first. I've already opted out of Windows automatically updating my drivers.

I'll post back soon

could be one of Asus-24H2 related issues.

my Asus Zenbook has an issue of HDMI connection picture but no sound. no fix. I have to move back to 23H2 which has been working fine.

siliconbeaver said:

could be one of Asus-24H2 related issues.

my Asus Zenbook has an issue of HDMI connection picture but no sound. no fix. I have to move back to 23H2 which has been working fine.

Click to expand...

I'm still on 23H2. I'm doing anything I can to stay away from 24H2.