Losing sound, restart only thing that fixes it

[xj0hnx]

Thought at first it was a sound card problem, but I think it is Windows ...

Set up:

Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1, currently up to date.
Creative X-Fi sound card optical to AV receiver

Problem:

Sound will randomly disappear, and only come back upon restart. Also it has to be a hard restart because when it tries to shut down it hangs, tells me that it's waiting for log off sound, but never is able to do it, then when I force shut down it hangs, and I have to hit the reset button on the machine. The sound disappears when I am watching movies with any player, while watching videos on the internet, or playing games. It just goes away. One hint I got was in Media Player Classic it tells me that it's lost focus, but searches have revealed nothing that has helped. I thought it was my old install just getting aged, but it resumed the problem when I did a complete new install.

Any ideas? Is this a known issue with something that I just haven't found? Any help would be appreciated, it's making me crazy.

 

[Briansol]

I've had similar issues... it's usually when i have more than 1 thing trying to use audio.

ie, winamp is open and playing, and i load up a youtube video. they both fight for the IRQ to use the sound card and then they both end up crashing.

i use an external sound box (maduio fast track pro usb) to power my studio monitors, so it's an easy power-cycle for me of the unit- not windows to bring it back up.

 

[xj0hnx]

Hmmm, thing is I usually don't have more than two things going at once, at least not two things that would conflict like that. I'll try closing everything and playing the game and see if it does it.

Is there some kind of monitoring software that can track shit like that?

 

[endlesszeal]

disable onboard sound and try a different driver.

 

[xj0hnx]

disable onboard sound and try a different driver.

I'll try disabling the onboard sound, actually, I disabled everything except the sound device I am using. There are no other drivers for this card, that I have found. Right now I am uninstalling all the Windows updates, if that doesn't work, then I am moving on to the security updates too.

 

[endlesszeal]

maybe try reassigning the sound card to another IRQ either by adjusting via BIOS or move it to another slot?

amd catalyst did that to my onboard hdmi output (sudden lost of sound and crashing), but a new driver fixed it.

is your machine overclocked? if it is, make sure you didnt accidently overclock the pci-e or pci lanes. they are very sensitive to changes, even 1 mhz can cause crashes.

i ask because the new Core i-series have everything connected to the ringbus so you may have inadvertently changed it.

 

[TurboMirage]

really? sound cards are still configurable like that?

 

[K2e2vin]

I had this problem in an old computer and it turned out to be an IRQ problem(initially I had to disable on-board via BIOS...I also had two sound cards though)

 

[TurboMirage]

 

[xj0hnx]

maybe try reassigning the sound card to another IRQ either by adjusting via BIOS or move it to another slot?

amd catalyst did that to my onboard hdmi output (sudden lost of sound and crashing), but a new driver fixed it.

is your machine overclocked? if it is, make sure you didnt accidently overclock the pci-e or pci lanes. they are very sensitive to changes, even 1 mhz can cause crashes.

i ask because the new Core i-series have everything connected to the ringbus so you may have inadvertently changed it.

I'm using a Gateway motherboard, no OC options ...at all . I'll look in BIOS and see if I can see anything, uninstalling SP1, and a bunch of updates didn't change anything.

 

[endlesszeal]

I'm using a Gateway motherboard, no OC options ...at all . I'll look in BIOS and see if I can see anything, uninstalling SP1, and a bunch of updates didn't change anything.

thats too bad, core i7s overclock like a crack addict on a benign. did you try uninstalling everything related to creative including their audio suite and using onboard to see if it causes the problem?

make sure under the sound settings you have the correct output/input.

 

[xj0hnx]

thats too bad, core i7s overclock like a crack addict on a benign. did you try uninstalling everything related to creative including their audio suite and using onboard to see if it causes the problem?

make sure under the sound settings you have the correct output/input.

Yea, I hear they are absolutely beast, and OC very well, my next computer purchases are going to be a SSD, and a new mobo

I did one better, I reinstalled Windows again, and am going to get everything perfect and then make a restore image.

 

[endlesszeal]

Yea, I hear they are absolutely beast, and OC very well, my next computer purchases are going to be a SSD, and a new mobo

I did one better, I reinstalled Windows again, and am going to get everything perfect and then make a restore image.[/QUOT

Hopefully that works out for you. Its always the way to go when I can't figure shit out.

Yeah those thing are crazy easy to clock, just make sure u have adequate cooling. I recommend the asus sabertooth or gigabyte udp. X58 boards should drop in price because the new sandy bridge e's are coming out very soon.

 

[xj0hnx]

Hopefully that works out for you. Its always the way to go when I can't figure shit out.

Yeah those thing are crazy easy to clock, just make sure u have adequate cooling. I recommend the asus sabertooth or gigabyte udp. X58 boards should drop in price because the new sandy bridge e's are coming out very soon.

I picked up a ThermalRight Ultra Extreme for $25, just waiting for the price to drop around $75-100 for a halfway decent board.

 

[xj0hnx]

So when I woke up this morning I saw that my new install, just like my last, had gone to sleep, I clicked the mouse and it sprang back to life. This got me thinking, a couple installs ago I decided to try out sleep because my keyboard had a sleep key, when over time (couple of weeks) things started to go south in much the same way they have been recently. I think it is a problem with files becoming corrupted by being shut down, and restarted when they aren't ready. So I've got my install to pretty much where I want it, did another back up, and installed all the Windows updates, and turned off sleep, so let's see what happens.