Unfortunately this did not work.
1) Deleted everything sound related.
2) used software RegistryDeleteEx to get rid of render and capture in regedit
3) Used DDU to get rid of realtek and soundblaster
4) Uninstalled all drivers for audio in device manager, both in audio inputs and outputs and in sound, video and game controllers.
5) Restarted
6) Went through and did all of this again
7) Installed the fixed driver by opening the exe and letting it do its work. Chose not to install sound blaster this time.
Looking at the sound options, I have Alan's controller information throughout including soundalive, sounz, and dolby tabs.
Random things I've tried for no reason:
Disconnected front ports from motherboard and tested each individually
Disabled other recording devices
Made sure mic levels are at 100 and that windows didn't block mic usage
Tried both voice recorder and Discord for voice
In realtek audio manager ive changed advanced settings back and forth between muting rear input device and disable front panel jack detection to see if that did anything.
One thing I noticed is that when I have the front panel connected to the motherboard, the realtek sound manager indicates that something is plugged into the headphone-in. Sound works fine though it, however.
As mentioned, I both did a windows reset and then followed that up with a clean install via usb made with the media creation tool (chose to not keep files). I then completely deleted the entire drive that the OS was on for the install. I would think that none of the above would be needed. However, I also don't think this is hardware as everything was working fine until the installation of the drivers.
Idk man i had exactly the same problem only this driver fixed it for me.. i think only alan can help u :/