As far as I know, only the NUC7 units are ‘certified’ to run Linux, but that doesn’t mean much.
A few things to try:
- When you lose audio, reboot the NUC & go directly into the BIOS & let us know if the ethernet MAC address is legit or if it’s blank/gibberish.
- If your NUC is equipped with a card reader, and since you’re already in the BIOS, let us know if the SD card reader is enabled or not. Make sure it’s enabled (don’t ask), then do another test to see if the problem is fixed.
- If you’re still having issues, install a different BIOS version – I’d start with the previous version of the currently installed BIOS. If problems presist, try a newer version.
- As a last resort, I would try installing Windoze on the NUC to see if you continue to have the audio dropout issue.