Upgraded to monetery, and everything related to sound just doesn't work
After i upgraded to macOS monetery, nothing that has anything to do with sound is working. I can't play Youtube videos, or videos on any other sites: they just infinitely load. I can't listen to music on Spotify, but i can sometimes play the song. And I cant even change my volume. It doesn't even let me go into "sound" in settings: it just loads for a good 20 seconds, then goes "Preferences Error
Could not load sound preference pane"
When I try to change the volume using the keys, it lags, then after a few seconds it either shows the volume changing, or gives the circle with a cross symbol. Sometimes nothing happens.
I've already tried restarting my device, resetting PRAM and SMC, and waiting a day to see if it was an issue with the new update optimising everything. Nothing worked.
I tried installing CleanMyMac X, but it would just freeze up and i'd have to force quit it whenever i tried to do anything.
I'm not connected to any bluetooth device, and nothing is in the earphone jack.
I might have to wait even longer for the monetery optimisation to finish, but since I've waited a day i'm starting to doubt that. Any Ideas on what else I could try/what the problem is?
Thank you