White noise upon opening program

Hi all,
Every time I open Musescore, all the sound from my laptop turns to white noise (including sound from other programs). The noise persists even after closing Musescore, and doesn't stop until I restart the laptop. This started happening about when Musescore updated to 3.6.2, I believe--I have been using it for years prior with no problems. I have tried reverting the sound to factory settings, updating it, and uninstalling/reinstalling it, none of which have helped.
Thanks for your help,
Sylvia