error 9997 even though the sample rate is right and this never happened before

for some strange reason, my headphones (hyperx cloud alpha s) wont work with audacity, saying the sample rate was incorrect. it said in control panel that my headphones are at the sample rate 48000. when i set the project rate in audacity to 48000 or 44100 like i did before and had no issues with, it spits out a 9997 error. how do i fix this? im using 3.0.2 but this happened even after a full reinstall from a pretty old version that still had this issue, i dont remember exactly which one.

So I think you are on the right track. Be aware that there will be at least two locations in control panel to check: one for recording and one for playback.

It doesn’t usually make much difference which sample rate you use - just so they are all the same. Having said that, when I look this headset up in google, it appears this is a hardwired set - not USB, so I would go with the system default which is usually 44100Hz.

Do you have the issue when you generate audio internally within Audacity (e.g. Generate > DTMF) and then play? Or is it only when you are recording?

Sometimes switching between MME and WASAPI can help.

Have you tried rebooting ?

any time i try and record or playback anything i get this error. i cant switch to mme instead of wasapi because, though i shouldve mentioned this before, ive been using loopback to record what audio is going on my headphones, so theres nothing to see in recording. i have a studio mic that works like a charm at any rate i put it at. hell, itll record at OVER its rated bitrate somehow. and ive rebooted pretty much everything and updated drivers multiple times and this issue comes up. hope this helps