Re: [FIXED] Sound gone after leaving game alone/minimizing/tab out

@LarkRanger  There's a current issue with Sims 4 losing sound and/or hanging when the audio output device is switched.  This is the bug thread:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Sound-gone-after-leaving-game-alone-minimizing/td-p/10681938

Post 3 has a useful description, if you're interested.  If you'd like, I'll merge this thread into that one, but I did want to post a suggestion about the audio driver first.

Your Realtek audio driver is 2.5 years old, so it's not surprising that it would be having issues.  You can try updating it with Windows: hit Windows key-X, select the Device Manager, open the Audio tab, click on anything with Realtek in the name, and click the black and green Update icon at the top of the window.  If you don't find anything to update in the Audio section, check the Sound section too.  If Windows installs an updated driver, restart your computer and try to play.

If Windows can't find a new driver, Realtek may have one for your device.  Your current driver version is 6.0.8703.1, from May 2019.  If you find a newer one on the Realtek site, download it, take your computer offline, uninstall the current driver through the Device Manager, and install the new one, then go back online and restart.

@puzzlezaddict Over the past week I have uninstalled and reinstalled Realtek multiple dozens of times. Both by windows picking it up automatically, and by installing manually from Realtek's website. If my driver is out of date that much then either Windows is crap at picking up the correct driver or... no, that's it.

Anyway a tech support forum advised me to nuke the driver and just let Windows' native driver take over, which I did and that fixed the issue for now. Hopefully thought the actual Sims 4 bug gets fixed soon.