So I managed to fix the issue by allowing the troubleshooter to look into the audio controller for my other active device, my monitor?!?!! I have no idea what the troubleshooter did, it only indicated that the necessary driver had been installed.
Hi all, I [stupidly] updated Realtek drivers via Microsoft Update and ended up with a nasty mechanical sound. I spent about 4 hours yesterday [successfully] reinstalling the official DELL drivers and now my sound is back to normal. However, most of games are now crashing while launching. Not sure if this is related, but is the only real change made to my computer over the last day or two. Does anyone have any experience with this?
XPS 8930, updated Realtek drivers via Microsoft Update