Sorry for the late response.
Creative SoundBlaster X AE series? Ah sh*t here we go again.
I’m fighting with my X AE-7 for months. The problem with “random no sound after starting my PC until I reboot” is pretty consistent with my X AE-7 and SoundBlaster Recon. Haven’t found any fix for that.
Anyway: I think my “workaround” for your front audio will work without disabling fastboot in Windows (just in case you want to keep fastboot).
Sadly I have my X AE-7 in a different system right now but you can try the following command (or something along the lines):
amixer -c 2 set 'Front' 1
If this helps: just put the command as a startup script. It’s a “workaround” solution but it will work. Creative Soundcards are notorious for just not working correctly.
it’s literally the only difference between the working and not working state (and makes sense):
diff notworking.txt working.txt ✔
28,29c28,29
< Front Left: Playback 90 [91%] [0.00dB] [off]
< Front Right: Playback 90 [91%] [0.00dB] [off]
---
> Front Left: Playback 90 [91%] [0.00dB] [on]
> Front Right: Playback 90 [91%] [0.00dB] [on]
If you can’t figure out any solution I’ll report back as soon as I finish testing my Creative card in my second setup (I’m still thinking my problem has something to do with the AMD Ryzen plattform combined with creative).
Btw: if you want to know what I’m struggling with regarding Creative. https://forum.manjaro.org/t/sound-stops-working-randomly-until-application-restart/66931