weird sound issue

[truegrace]

Had my PC for a few months now, and since new the sound has cut out briefly every now and again, it all seems random, can happen every few mins, or not at all for an hour. I am running the latest drivers for realtek high definition audio, and have been since day 1.

Today as I had a bit of spare time on my hands i thought i would try and investigate the problem and get it fixed. After a bit of searching about on line I read a few posts about the CPU or ram spiking and causing the cut out but during these times i had very low usage on both.

I tried rolling back the drivers to a previous version, which for music did seem to work. I was happy, problem solved or so I thought.

Did a bit of gaming tonight on GTA 4 and found after a random amount of time I lost audio in game completely yet music from WMP was still playing fine, so it seems the older drivers havent sorted my issue completely.

Any ideas?

 

[Corfate]

When it cuts out, does it come back on light straight after? Or do you have to do something? I sometimes get sound stuttering/cutting out, but it's very rare.

 

[truegrace]

It comes straight back on. Noticed it first when streaming music so originally put it down to my nab broadband connection, then noticed it doesn't actually stop the track.
Its only out for a few secs Max, annoying more than anything.
Just listened 2 the same track twice, first play had no audio cut outs, second time I had 3.

Happens on headphones and speakers so unless they are both dodgy I'm guessing its a conflict /driver issue/hardware

 

[Corfate]

Are you connecting headphones to the front Panel headers, then the speakers to the rear?

One thing may be unlikely, but the cable could be loose, though i doubt it

 

[truegrace]

I tried with both of them connected to the rear, I hadnt actually thought of trying the front jacks to see if it makes a difference (slaps head)

Havent got time to try it now as gotta be up for work in 5 hours, but will give it ago when I get home and let ya know.

If it is fine on the front jacks (so loose cable possibly on the rear) is it something I could fix meself? dont really want to have to RMA me pride and joy

 

[Corfate]

I don't think it's something you could fix as I'm guessing you're connecting to the mobo?

If you find the FP is fine, and the back panel is the problem, give them a ring and im sure they will diagnose it Does sound like some driver issue though

 

[truegrace]

Just been trying the front speaker ports, had 20 odd minutes without any sound loss, then lost everything completely. Unplugged the speakers, plugged them back in and they worked again. Starting to think that it could be speaker related, although would mean my headphones have exactly the same error, possible I guess?

 

[Buzz]

Did you try updating your Motherboard drivers? Chipset etc. If you are running Intel they have an auto update feature. Its worth a shot.

Detect

 

[truegrace]

Did you try updating your Motherboard drivers? Chipset etc. If you are running Intel they have an auto update feature. Its worth a shot.

Detect

The only driver outdated according to this is my wired networking which I dont use anyway. There is a new version of Bios available which I am dling now, not sure if this is likely to do anything, but might as well update it anyway in case it does fix it.

Apart from the first loss of sound from the front ports I am on about an hour in now with no cutouts, but Im guessing these front ports are just wired from the rear ports anyway, so if the rear have the issues surely the front will to?

 

[truegrace]

forget that last bit, sound just cut out.

What I did just notice as had the volume mixer open is the device jumped from 'speakers (realtek high definition audio)' to 'realtek digital output (realtek high definition audio)' as the sound cut out.

Another thing I just remembered is in the first few weeks of having the PC i was getting a pop up from realtek HD audio manager saying something about device disconnected, which I disabled as it was annoying, just re inabled it hoping it might happen at the same time as the cut outs

 

[Buzz]

When you open control panel - Sound

and select your Speakers - Properties - Custom. Is the box ticked or not? for Digital Output only.
Leave it un-ticked

and the Advanced tab, Exclusive mode.
Try leaving them un-ticked.

 

[truegrace]

So, i turned the pop ups back on and they still happen, and the (possible) good news is they happen at the same time as the sound cuts out. I actually get 2 pop ups, the first telling me I have plugged in a device into the audio jack, and another split seconds later telling me I have unplugged a device. The sound then continues without a further pop up telling me I have plugged it back in, which is weird as it should think there is nothing disconnected.

Just tried the same test in the front speakers, 20 mins of jungle boogie and not a single pop up, or cut out. 2 mins in the rear ports again and 3 pop ups/cutouts

 

[truegrace]

When you open control panel - Sound

and select your Speakers - Properties - Custom. Is the box ticked or not? for Digital Output only.
Leave it un-ticked

and the Advanced tab, Exclusive mode.
Try leaving them un-ticked.

I dont have the custom option, but in exclusive mode i have unticked the boxes, will see how these go

 

[truegrace]

Half hour in and no cut outs so far so looking promising, I am still getting pop ups though, which is annoying as I can't game with these on.

I can turn them off which solves the issue but worries me a tad as I shouldn't have to disable something for me PC to work properly. Will see how it goes over the weekend, if I'm still having either issue will get in touch with tech support and see what they suggest.

 

[Buzz]

Any further update on this? Hope ya have it sorted anyway.

 

[truegrace]

The sound cutting out, touch wood, is fixed, thanks very much for the help. Been on the PC for about 3 hours tonight and no audio loss at all.

The pop up messages however continue, far more frequent off the rear ports, the front ports seem to do it a few times an hour, the rear a few times every 10 mins.

I found a few solutions other than disabling them but haven't worked, so dropped a message to tech support, I'm hoping they have had other people with similar issues as there must be a boat load of people who don't have a dedicated sound card.

 

[truegrace]

Bah, sound not fixed was listening to music while cleaning earlier, and had 1 cutout after about 2 hours, then about 5 in the next 10 mins