Audio driver quickly fading in whenever a new sound starts

Hi there,I have Windows 10 on a Dell laptop (now if only I could remember the exact model, I guess that's a disadvantage to being blind...).Well, anyway, I've spent quite considerable time trying to correct all my auditory whoa's. Sort of a longish story but here goes anyway.(Southern accent) awwl rot! (alright). So, first thing's first, in order for me to use a computer I must use a Screen reader. I use Jaws 17, the most popular screen reader for Windows. Unfortunately 17 isn't the most compatible for Windows 10 as opposed to version 18, but 17 was just what I have at the moment - another $1250 down the drain!Well, the audio on here was driving me absolutely crazy. Whereas on many of my older laptops Jaws sounds fine (i.e. with no audio enhancements), this one was super weird in that it sounded real muffled. No option to disable enhancements when I looked at Sound settings, so after doing some research, I isolated the problem and have decided to use the High Definition Audio Device (not Realtek's driver, but the native Microsoft driver) as suggested by many people to eliminate that crappy audio effect. It helped, but every three seconds after Jaws would stop, the driver would shut down, and whenever Jaws starts speaking again, a loud and deafening POP would take over and I'd mis-hear half of what Jaws would say.Ok, more research then... (suspense emoji if there were such a thing)The research led me to have to go into the Registry and set the Idlepowertime... ConcervationTime... (I believe, been so long it's hard to remember the name) to 00000000000 instead of 30000000000000000. 3 seconds that is.That has helped, except now there's another problem - which has happened before on this Laptop, I just was too focused on getting rid of that pop I hadn't noticed.One of the sounds Jaws comes with is a sharp click sound that I customized to play whenever Jaws comes upon a link. On all my other laptops this click could be heard. On this one, however, it can't. The file lasts only about 1/64 of a second, and I've figured out that anytime a new sound is introduced - i.e. every time that link click sound plays - it fades the sound up, which causes the click to be a dead thump rather than a sharp click it was meant to be.I've explored almost every single setting on the audio driver in the registry but to no avail. I used Studio Recorder, a blind-accessible audio editor, to see which levewl the fade stops. After amplifying the sharp click so it's at 0 DB, I decreased the volume in 0.1 DB increments. Once it reached -28.66 DB, the fading stopped and it was a sharp click, only this time a very low volume.So, from all this - how in the absolute haggis can you counteract this fading-in so I hear that sharp click at every volume level? Note that all my audio enhancements are disabled, so it must be something along the lines of a bug in the driver perhaps. Right now, I can't tell if it's just text or if it's an actual link because of the quick fading up to the right level. The click is too short for the fade.I'm desperate to fix this before I do anything else - audio is 100% of my world, and if there is even a slight imperfection, I'm not happy with it.Sure, I understand that this type of quick fade is useful when counteracting clicks at the beginning of bass-heavy audio, but this sharp click is different from that of a typical click. It's more like the sound of tapping a flashdrive on the table, not that dull electronic click comparable to plugging headphones in or something to that effect.Thanks for the advice in advance!!MichaelPS. For anyone that is also having problems with their audio popping, here is where you need to go. I'm not an expert, but I simply followed the guy's instructions from online.First of all we have to change the driver from the default Realtek (the muffly crappy one0 to Microsoft's native driver. It's not too complicated.First go to Device Manager, and expand "Sound, Video and Game controllers". It does not appear in the Sound settings.Expand on your ddevice you're curretnly using, be it Headphones, Speakers etc.As a blind person who can't use a mouse, I press sSShift + F10. There's an option called "Update Driver". Press Enter on that. There's an option to either Search automatically or browse my computer. You want Browse.There will be an option at this point to Help me pick. Choose that one. Also make sure that Show compatible hardware is checked.If possible, select the option called High Definition Audio device. Once you do, the driver will update, or it will warn you about the update. Pass that warning by either clicking OK or Yes, I can't remember exactly. Now it will either start up or you'll have to manually restart it. Now the audio shouldn't be muffled anymore, but the Pops are still there. This gets even more fun.From anywhere, press Windows key + R, type Regedit. (if you're blind, it's R, E, G, followed by the word Edit, no spaces). This puts you in the Registry editor.Here is the list of trees to expand. Or so Jaws calls them, they may not be trees visually...HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINERight arrow to expand.SYSTEMExpand that.CurrentControlSetExpand that one.ControlClass{4d36e96c-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}(this code may be different depending on your systemm, so try looking in every single spot to find it).0006(there are numbers like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc If you're new to this, it's best to tab over once when you're on one of those numbers, and look for the DriverDesk parameter in the list, it should read something like "High Definition Audio Device".Once you've found the right driverdesk, tab back to where you found the number and down-arrow until you hit "PowerSettings". This tells the system to turn off the audio after a specific silence time has elapsed - NOT GOOD FOR BLIND PEOPLE!Tab over to the parameters such as ConcervationTime, IdleTime, whatever it may be. Again I can't remember exact wording so forgive me...Replace any non-0 numbers with 0 in all of these fields.After that, go to File, Export. Call it something you'll remember, like "Audio.reg". Once saved, close the Registry editor, go over to where you saved it, and in the blind world's case, press Enter on it. Windows will tell you it's successfully been added to the registry. Press OK.At this point it's best to restart and you'll find that there are no loud and deafening Pops.However, what still concerns me to the nines is that this quick fading-up whenever any new audio turns on is still a real bother for me... again I can't tell if Jaws comes across a link, or plain text.Hope that has helped get your audio up and running at least somewhat. Now to counteract that stupid fade-up!

Yeah, for some reason whenever I type anything in, somehow those new-line characters are ditched. Sorry about that!I still haven't figured out this fading thing. It also happened when the RealTek driver was being used, so I'm sure it's probably something to do with the sound card itself. I do understand, however, why other people would like the fade effect, because it eliminates clicks, but the fade is too long - enough that I can't hear that click sound whenever Jaws comes across a link. I tried attaching it but to no avail...If I can't figure this out I think I'll contact Microsoft about it.

with realtek, ive always found it best to install the drivers direct from realtek. manufactures supplied drivers tend to be quite old

Well, I've successfully figured out removing the pops. The fading in is totally different, and it happens with all my audio drivers I have - not just the Realtek driver, but also Microsoft's native audio driver. It must be something with the sound card. By the way, my laptop I learned is a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 series, if that helps.

For those of you in need of the sharp click sound file, I've uploaded it to a server: filehosting.org | Download | link1.wav Try playing it over and over, it should be a sharp click sound. If it's a dull thump or thud, this is an indication that your sound card fades in. I'm trying to aleviate that fade. I suggest you don't loop it, but play it over and over manually. If it's a sharp click like it's meant to be, you're good.

Is anybody having any luck with the Link sound? Did you play it over and over? (not looping it, but manually playing it over and over)? How does it sound? Especially with the Microsoft driver? It's meant to be a sharp click, but if it's a dull thud, then this is probably the fault of either the sound card or the HD Audio driver from Microsoft. However, on my laptop it also happens with the Realtek driver as well.

Anyone?????

Post a video of the issue

Then again, if you really care about sound quality, I suggest to use a virtual sound card to redirect all of the sound to it and straight to an external soundcard. You get a more consistent sound to it than using something like Realtek.