All Musescore3 Audio Files corrupted

as far as I can tell having tried random files from my music folders, everything is busted. all I get is garble, accompanied by sluggish start and continued sound from my earbuds (tested on other platforms with no problem) garble continuing after playback is stopped and fading away within 5 or so seconds. if I click on the first note the garble commences as though I had hit 'play'.
V4 playback is fine, however if I open MuseScore3 and open a file from the program, the problems re-emerge.
I can send a file, but not sure what use it would be.
UPDATE: Musescore3 is officially auditorially unusable on my end. cannot create, save as or in any way manipulate v3.
So, should I or can I uninstall and reinstall it?