Logitech headset not working after Audio driver update

An NDA is required if you want to work with Dell engineers to help them test pre-release software.  I've done it several times over the years to help uncover some pretty technical issues with drivers and firmware.

Dell should release a new sound driver ASAP. We tried everything and the issue persists even after installing Windows 11 on some few machines;

Zoom crashes after we plug a Logitech USB headset on 12 different Dell Latitude 5420 using both Windows 10 and Windows 11. (Maxxx audio and Optimizer both installed). It is not normal to report an issue in June and not find a solution after more than 4 months.

I can confirm I have a few more 5420's with this issue now and the driver fix mentioned previously no longer works.

Dell, we need an answer ASAP as it's not on for a business product!

I can concur that Dell and Realtek have an audio driver issue with 5420s. We have seen this in close to 90 of them. Event viewer shows Windows Audio service crash, Systemsettings.exe crash. We can duplicate this behavior at will by launching control panel->sound and then toggling between the playback and recording tabs with a headset plugged in. Doesn't matter the make, model, wireless or wired. Tried all available drivers available. Ultimately on a call with Dell support it was suggested that we do the following: uninstall the realtek audio driver from control panel. Allow Windows to reinstall the driver on it's own. This will likely be Realtek version 6.0.9075.1. Then on your default audio devices turn off audio enhancements. This seems to be the key part. We also disable exclusive mode. This must be done on both playback and recording tabs. You can monitor the install of the driver by Windows in device manager. It also seems based on unplugging/plugging in headsets this setting is not always retained. Important for end users to monitor this or the crashes will occur again. We see this only as a temp. fix until Realtek/Dell release a new stable audio driver. Hope this helps. 

I posted earlier that updating the drivers solved the problem. It did, for a short while, but the issue came back. I'm interested to try DCGeddes suggestion about turning off audio enhancements.

Hi. Thanks for your steps. I can confirm this worked for 2 of our 5420's.

I removed the Realtek driver via the Control Panel and then let Windows Update manually install the driver (version 6.0.9075.1). We have WSUS where drivers aren't normally installed so I had to go to Windows update manually.

Thank you @DCGeddes for the tipp.
Could solve it too by disabling the Exclusive Mode and the Signal-Enhancements.

It would be great if Dell/Realtek could resolve this. The driver continually crashes for a number of my users who use USB headsets. It's incredibly disruptive. 

Looks like I spoke to soon. After rebooting, driver is crashing again and Windows sometimes no longer even recognizes my plugged in headset. Looks like I also have to mess around with driver reverts. This is clearly a software issue to me.

It seems like this was also resolved for me where the Microsoft Lifechat LX-6000 headset plugged to either of the Latitude 5420 laptop USB ports didn't work. For me, the issue was Exclusive Mode as above. As soon as I disabled it, the headset started working again and I didn't even need to reboot nor uninstall/revert the audio driver as chosen by Dell.

I'd have to agree with you - I hope there is a hotfix soon.

Unfortunately Dell is being very unprofessional in treating this subject, this is a simple task that requires releasing a new driver to solve this issue instead of these workarounds that consists of messing with configurations and playing with old faulty drivers.

Come on Dell it has been almost 6 months and your 5420 is having a pending USB headset sound issue in the era of work from home and online meetings. 

I've been having this issue for weeks! I've tried everything on this thread and no luck. I agree Dell needs to figure out a fix ASAP. 

Have you tried removing the Realtek drivers completely via Control Panel (or via Device Manager)? I did this and then rebooted and let Windows Update install the default driver (version 6.0.9075.1) and it then worked fine for me (on 5 x 5420's and counting).

You're absolutely correct to issue this warning, however, I have the safety net of controlling this via WSUS. Besides, I think getting it working at least for the meantime is better for the end-user.