Alternative driver to Realtek and Rosetta stone?

[DeskTopBro]

When I use Realtek driver, downloaded fresh from the website, the audio will intermittently skip for half a second. I have uninstalled and reinstalled with no change. The only driver that doesn't skip is the generic one that comes with W10.

The problem is that Rosetta Stone uses the Realtek driver for the mic and Tech Support at Rosetta is garbage. I used Driver Booster 5 to update the drivers other than Realtek which I got from the website.

I half wonder if the skipping is due to the program fighting or being interrupted by another program, I just don't know what. Can anyone help me solve this issue?

 

[doolittle]

It is possible you did the 1709 update which seems to cause many a driver headache to the point you have to repair install or reinstall to fix.

If you like, do a sanity check by booting up a linux distro, like Ubuntu 17.10.1, put it on a usb stick then boot it in "live" mode and you will have a working desktop OS running. Then install some AudioCapture software and do some recording tests.

If all is well on linux it's possible you are suffering from a driver issue on windows and either a repair install or fresh install may be the only resolve (sadly very common with the 1709 update).

 

[DeskTopBro]

It is possible you did the 1709 update which seems to cause many a driver headache to the point you have to repair install or reinstall to fix.

I don't see those numbers anywhere. The driver version reads 6.0.1.8264

I'm not giving up yet. Is there any other reason why the audio would skip in semi-random time intervals? Thinking outside the box, I just excluded the ReslTek folder from Bit Defender. We'll see if that works...