Lost Audio output after Windows update

I am facing the exact same problem since this afternoon. This morning my audio was working fine, I inserted headphones and the Realtek audio stopped working. Removed and reinstalled all drivers to no avail. I restored my ThinkPad from an image taken this morning and the internal audio worked again but the headphone output didn't. Now neither work again. Troubleshooter says "Apparently, your device audio services are not responding." and the test sound fails to play through either Realtek outputs.

Edit: I restored an image of my laptop from end of November (before the Windows 24H2 update), installed all latest updates and drivers (including 24H2) from Windows Update, installed latest Graphics and Realtek audio drivers from Lenovo and everything is working fine. Sound plays either from the internal speakers or headphones if I plug those in. Before, I had to manually choose the second audio device to get the sound to play from headphones. I cannot figure out what the issue was, since to me it looks like I am back at the same state I was in when the problem happened!