husker
Just disable the Audio device in Device Manager.

This does NOT work on my system. I've tried both disabling and uninstalling it in the Device Manager. It returns with every power off/on. I used to be able to kill it off but in checking the system configuration with a recent change of audio interface have seen it persist despite any reasonable action to remove it. Perhaps a red herring, but this happened right around the same time as the infamous Win10 update in Nov. Continuing to research the issue but no resolution yet. The driver in my case is with an AMD Radeon graphics card.

I'm a bit confused - there is an NVidia audio driver on your AMD Radeon card?

husker
I'm a bit confused - there is an NVidia audio driver on your AMD Radeon card?

My bad.
- I'm using an AMD Radeon card.
- There's an NVidia driver listed in Device Manager. (I expect I can kill that.) 
- The drivers that reference the HD Audio Bus appear to be AMD.
- The listing in System Devices is not labelled AMD, but when disabled, the AMD High Definition Audio Device listed under Sound, video and game controllers goes away.
- Both the AMD High Definition Audio Device and High Definition Audio Controller reappear with every power on. 
-  Have tried both disable and uninstall from Device Manager.
 
@husker. fwiw, I'm trying out the Tascam US-20x20. Not out of the woods yet, still seeing Audio Dropout toasts in SONAR, but seems to run/edit OK. Still playing with buffer settings, but would like to nail down this HD Audio Bus issue. It made a big difference on the last configuration. 
 
cheers,

Odd.  I'm an NVidia guy, so I don't have much experience with the Radeons.   A bit of searching shows you are not the only one with this problem.  Check out this link, maybe something may help.
 
http://www.techsupportfor...tion-audio-645344.html

@husker.
 
Had indeed run through that thread, no progress. Hacking the registry a bit but the weeds keep growing back.
 
I'm able to get through sessions, but not confident in this configuration yet.
 
Thx.

I work in IT - I think I've got some computers at work with Radeon cards in them.  I'll try to take a look on Monday to see if I can figure something out.

@husker.
 
Thx, any effort/insight much appreciated.
 
Better info:
- AMD Radeon HD 5450 2MB (basic card, no need for more with a dedicated DAW)
- Asus X99A mb
- Win10 Pro, Version 1607 Build 14393.693 
 
And just to confirm. I've tried to both disable and uninstall the AMD driver. 
Returns with every power off/on cycle.
 
Not finding any way to disable it in the BIOS.
 
Haven't had time for definitive troubleshooting but not recalling issues when remembering to disable the HD Audio Controller before starting a session. Have run some low risk sessions without disabling it, but not sure it's as rock solid as it used to be.
 
Of course, could be an issue with the Tascam drivers/firmware (I have the latest). Still checking out buffer settings and USB 3.0 vs. 3.1 ports, etc. 
 
fwiw, the NVidia bits must have been left over from a previous install... I doubt they have any bearing on the problem, trying to kill any remnants scattered throughout the registry as a best practice. (Uninstall from Programs & Features does nothing.)
 
 

I don't think it will cause any problems. I use nVidia's HD audio as my normal system audio and then have a pro card for Sonar. Both coexist fine and don't seem to butt heads.

Sycraft
I don't think it will cause any problems. I use nVidia's HD audio as my normal system audio and then have a pro card for Sonar. Both coexist fine and don't seem to butt heads.

It depends. Some people seem to have a problem with the HD driver and some don't.
It makes no difference on my system whether it is enabled or disabled.
 
I suspect that it was a buggy driver update from a year or two ago that started all this.
I suspect that the HD driver has long been fixed and is no longer a problem.
 
 

Jackson - I took a look at a couple PCs at work this AM with Radeon cards.  We have R7 350s running the 16.6 driver version.  I disabled a the AMD audio on a few of them, reboot, and they stayed disabled after the reboot.  
 
Sorry I couldn't have been more help.