I have an ageing Creative X-Fi with Daniel K’s drivers for Windows 10. It has worked flawlessly for many years but recently Windows 10 keeps changing my default output from Creative SB X-Fi to 27GL850 3-NVIDIA High Definition Audio. Consequently I have no audio when I boot up so I have to disable the 27GL850 again but then I have to disable SPDIF out in the encoder settings for the X-Fi and back again, otherwise I get broken and glitchy sound.
The 27GL850 device is my LG monitor.
I can’t tell if the sound card is failing and so Windows 10 picks the next device in the list instead or if the monitor is forcing the change when it likes. It happens about twice a month, randomly.
I use an Earforce DSS for pseudo 5.1 on headphones using the X-Fi’s optical out. But the problem also affects 2 channel on jack connected USB speakers.
To complicate things further, I also have Index HMD and Oculus Virtual Audio Device enabled with Asus onboard Realtek disabled.
I should probably take the X-Fi out and use on-board, as I do have optical out for the DSS but I like the Daniel K audio package and tools.