After extensive debugging, I am creating this post to help others who may have a config similar to mine in the hopes that it will save you (and Ulf) some time.
As a number of others have reported, I was seeing the “Audio Engine Died” error when trying to start Dorico Pro 5 on my Windows 11 24H2 Alienware x17 R2 laptop. The x17 R2 uses the RealTek ACP3281 chipset, and I had my Shure SRH840A headphones connected to the headphone jack.
The tl:dr solution is to reinstall the drivers for the ACP3281. If Windows Update installed them, then there may be a problem (bad/incomplete install, vestigial files – who knows?).
Here is the link to the Dell download for v6.0.9738.1_A05 for the Alienware x17 R2 (current as of today):
At dell, go to: /support/home/en-lc/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=3cccw
If you use this installer, make sure that it is appropriate for your specific Dell computer. Otherwise, find the correct one for your config/chipset.
The RealTek installer will strip out the old driver, force a restart, install the new driver, then restart again. Then, if the driver was your problem, Dorico 5 should now boot without the Audio Engine Process Died error.
I had already installed the RealTek v6.0.9738.1_A05 driver via Windows Update after MS forced me to upgrade to Win 11 24H2 (which I didn’t want to do). However, there was obviously something wrong with the audio driver installation based on the problems I was seeting.
Whenever I tried to access the VSTAudioEngine.exe with my headphones attached – including on Dorico 5 open or within the Dorico Prefs – it would fail, exit to shell, hang, etc. It was a very perplexing issue.
The key debugging points were:
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I realized that Dorico 5 could start when I disconnected my headphones and it ended up being mapped to internal speakers (also RealTek) or the speakers on the external monitor (Toshiba/HDMI). So, if you are seeing the Audio Engine Process Died error dialog when starting Dorico 5, it may be worth trying to disconnect audio peripherals (esp. headphones) and then checking to make sure there isn’t a problem with your underlying audio hardware drivers.
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I saw a number of reports of Windows 11 24H2 and post-update audio driver problems where the solution was to roll back to a previous driver version. So, I went looking for a clean installer for my RealTek ACP3281 audio driver to replace whatever version of Realtek 6.0.9738.1_A05 that Windows Update installed. In this case, it was a reinstall of the current driver. So, if you are on Windows 11 24H2 and seeing this problem, it might be a good idea to just replace your RealTek audio chipset drivers and see if that fixes the problem.
For me, the reinstall from the Dell package fixed all the issues I was seeing and Dorico 5 Pro now starts cleanly when my headphones are attached to the headphone jack on my Alienware x17 R2.
I tried many things that didn’t work, including:
Reinstalling Dorico, minimizing the installation to Dorico only, capturing/sending/reviewing debug logs, trying to run in compatibility mode, running as administrator, removing all VSTs, editing/renaming the Default prefs file, etc. Nothing really made any sense until I randomly disconnected the headphones and realized that was why Dorico suddenly booted without any errors.
Thanks to Ulf for providing great and friendly support as I worked through all the debugging on my machine! He is a valuable Steinberg asset! But, hopefully, they haven’t tattooed an asset tag on his forehead. 
ps. During debugging, I also removed ASIO4ALL v2, but in my case, that driver was not the problem and I haven’t yet gone back to try it again. After I removed it, Dorico was still failing because of the RealTek driver issue.
I hope this info helps save you some time!
