@thechamp
I understand. The thing is, the possible settings changes and driver updates and reinstallations have already been tried as mentioned throughout the thread. That's the only reason I suggested reinstalling Windows because you guys have all tried the typical driver updating and reinstallations and settings changes in Playback Devices, and those don't seem to be affecting the problem at all.
Reinstalling Windows (aka a recovery) would prove the issue to be hardware if it was still happening after the reinstallation. If you can't right now, I understand. However, other than trying the registry cleaner like I mentioned in my previous post, a recovery is my suggestion.