Static pop/clicks in headphones when no audio is playing.

I just got a brand new laptop with Windows 11 installed. It has RealTek audio, updated to the latest drivers (got the latest ones from my manufacturer's website). Whenever I have my headphones plugged into the audio jack, I get random static pops/clicks. This is not a constant sound, it's just once in a while (but often enough to be annoying). And this only happens when there's no audio playing.

At times, I can make it manually happen when I go to my sound settings in Windows and navigate in the panels. It also happens when I restart my computer and Windows logs in/out. I have all system sounds disabled, so it seems like it's caused by something in the background getting turned on/off. It also happens if I play/pause audio/videos. The pop will come shortly after the audio is paused.

After days of searching on Google, I am almost 100% sure this is caused by (I'm quoting): "audio chipset powers down after a specified time of inactivity to save power." That makes perfect sense to me. There's a great thread about it on the Windows 10 forum, but none of those solutions work on Windows 11. Most of the RegEdit folders don't even exist on my computer.

I have already set my Minimum processor state to 100%, but it doesn't help. This happens both on battery and when plugged in.

I'm going crazy over this! Can someone help please?

I seem to have honed in on the issue. My sound card process appears to get shut down after 25 seconds. I timed it with a stopwatch. If I pause and then resume a song/video in less than 25 seconds, there is no pop. If it's paused (or if there is no audio activity) for more than 25 seconds, there will always be a pop before the start of the next sound. Maybe this will help someone pinpoint how to fix this issue?