realtek hd low volume problem

[Houston Heath]

recently i was gaming and suddenly my audio volume dropped drastically and i cant get it to return to normal. im using a pair of second gen astro a50's and they are at full volume. the low battery alert plays at full volume but nothing else on my computer does. I've been looking online for an answer to this problem and have found nothing. the headset uses an optical cable and a usb cable. if i switch the default device to the usb cable it plays at normal volume but at low quality stereo audio. switching it back to optical causes it to decrease to a quiet volume but at dolby surround quality. this all happened in the middle of me gaming. in fact while gaming after it all got quiet, there was a certain action in game that would play at full volume but everything else was quiet.

I have tried:
updating all drivers related to realtek, any audio, and my headset.
putting any volume control option i can find on my computer to max, including those in the realtek hd manager.
placing realtek hd on loudness equalization (for a short time this actually caused my audio to become loud for 3 seconds and then quiet for 3 seconds repeatedly)
unplugging and replugging all cables.

can anyone help? i'd really like to not have to go out and buy a soundcard just to fix this. my motherboard is an Asus z87-plus.