I am having this exact same problem. I never had an issue, and I suspect this has to do with fairly recent iCUE updates, ranging over several months.
Over the past two weeks I have used the headphones directly plugged into the audio port and have not had a single issue with audio drivers or crashing browsers, games, and video players. My motherboard does not have a port that allows audio plugs with a fourth band, and I am unable to utilize the microphone in this capacity.
Windows 7 64 bit, as well. The only way to fix the issue when it occurs is to restart the system and not use the USB dongle.