Sound constantly crashing on Windows 8.1

[hcs89]

There is a very annoying issue with my Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit. For some unknown reason sound stops working several times a day.
Audio usually crashes when I start, pause/unpause or stop a video (XBMC, KMPlayer, Youtube), music, game, or anything that involves sound. The only thing what can make audio work again is restarting Windows Audio Service.
This crash does not happen in every case, only several times a day.

One more interesting symptom: when I listen to music on foobar2000 and audio crashes, then the playback of music doesn't stop, sound is still working (only on foobar2000, anywhere else it stops), but I cannot change the volume inside foobar2000. Once I stop the music stream and try to start it again, then the sound does not work at all in foobar2000 either.

This problem exists on laptop's built in speaker, audio jack and HDMI output too.
Interesting though, when sound is on HDMI output and crashes, Windows system sounds (such as sound for UAC prompt) are still working, but they are outputted to the built in laptop speaker.

My laptop is ASUS K55VJ
Previously I had Windows 8 installed, it didn't have the issue. This is a clean Windows 8.1 install, not an upgrade from Windows 8.

I have been looking for the solution for months, but haven't found it yet. Reinstallation of drivers does not help.

Anybody else having similar issue?
If so, have you found a solution, or just an explanation of what is causing this?

 

[testyc]

Exactly The Same Problem

I have exactly the same issue and have seached everywhere to find more about the problem / fix. This is the only thread that explains exactly what i experience with my audio too. I need to restart AudioSrv all the time after Video/Pause/Game bla bla.

My Sys: Windows 8.1 - Realtec Audio Drivers.

The weird part is also, when i completly restart windows, it usually takes more time until audio crashes again (e.g. whole day without a crash). Running parallel sound applications crash the audio faster (e.g. Youtube Video on Pause & Running a Game ). It's just an estimate how it feels. Can't proove though...

 

[spapakons]

Not sure if I have the same problem

Hello!

I also have a strange sound problem. The audio may mute for apparent no reason while playing a video on YouTube or Media Player Classic. To fix it, I go to Computer Management, Services and I stop the Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder services. Then I restart these two services and audio resumes without any problem. Should it happen again later, I restart the services and I have sound. Does anyone has any idea what's going on? Maybe a process tries to use an audio service and screws up? Any help appreciated.

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz s1155
VGA: NVidia Geforce GT 620
Audio: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Value

I have installed latest audio drivers and DirectX 9.

Thank you in advance

 

[popeye]

Hello!

I also have a strange sound problem. The audio may mute for apparent no reason while playing a video on YouTube or Media Player Classic. To fix it, I go to Computer Management, Services and I stop the Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder services. Then I restart these two services and audio resumes without any problem. Should it happen again later, I restart the services and I have sound. Does anyone has any idea what's going on? Maybe a process tries to use an audio service and screws up? Any help appreciated.

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz s1155
VGA: NVidia Geforce GT 620
Audio: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Value

I have installed latest audio drivers and DirectX 9.

Thank you in advance

This is the driver you have installed? Creative Worldwide Support > Audigy Value

If yes, I would try uninstalling in Device Manager and select to delete the driver also if an option. Reboot and re-install.

EDIT: I would also be sure your PCI slots are not set to allow sleep or Link State Power Management is disabled.

 

[spapakons]

Thank you for the quick reply, yes, that is the latest driver. I have this installed, if I am correct. I don't think reinstalling will help, but I'll try it just in case. Also in Power Options I have set Link State Power Management to Off, so this shouldn't affect the audio...

I'll let you know if reinstalling the audio driver made any change. I suspect some Windows Update might have screwed the audio driver or some audio settings, so reinstalling might help. We'll see... To make extra sure, I will uninstall the driver, restart Windows, stop automatic driver installation and manually install the latest Creative driver again.

 

[spapakons]

Well, today I was working on my computer while listening to music. Several times the audio muted and I had to restart the audio services (see previous reply) to resume sound. This was rather annoying considering that sometimes it happened again only a few minutes later! Then I decided to save my work, uninstall the Audigy driver and deleting the relevant files, restart the computer, and make sure that I manually install the latest Creative (not Microsoft) driver. SOLVED! That was it! You were right, thank you!

 

[popeye]

Well, today I was working on my computer while listening to music. Several times the audio muted and I had to restart the audio services (see previous reply) to resume sound. This was rather annoying considering that sometimes it happened again only a few minutes later! Then I decided to save my work, uninstall the Audigy driver and deleting the relevant files, restart the computer, and make sure that I manually install the latest Creative (not Microsoft) driver. SOLVED! That was it! You were right, thank you!

Happy dance

 

[spapakons]

Problem solved! Let's party!

 

[testyc]

Well. Still doesn't solve it for me. Reinstalled (remove old ones) Realtec Driver. And tadaaaaa... still happens.
New weirdness: Playing a Youtube-Video which has sound and starting a game (second monitor) the game sometimes doesnt have sound while the youtube video does. How can you explain that? :O

 

[spapakons]

Well, problematic sound or no sound usually indicates that the audio driver doesn't match the audio card. Are you sure it is a Realtek? Maybe it's VIA HD audio or anything else and the Realtek driver is similar, but not the correct. So it installs but doesn't work properly. It happened to me with a Realtek LAN driver. I hadn't installed the correct model and the state was alternating between "cable disconnected" and "getting network address". As soon as I installed the correct Realtek driver, I could connect to the internet, no problem. One way to make sure which model you have is using a utility such as Aida 64 www.aida64.com Another way is to visit the motherboard's (for desktop) or notebook's manufacturer site and see which audio driver is available for download. After you make sure you have found which model it is you can either download the latest version, or install that driver to play safe.



I hope that will help.

 

[Brooklyn567]

Have you tried external speakers?
I remember a similar thread where the issue was a defective speaker in a laptop.

Try slimdrivers, a free program the searches for the most recent drivers for your hardware, and downloads them and installs them as you choose. It also backs up your current drivers in case theyre not any better.

 

[spapakons]

Problem not quite solved

Hello!

Unfortunately, I was quick to celebrate... Occasionally the sound stutters or is not perfect. All I have to do is click on stop to stop the video I'm watching and then resume playing the video from where I was to have normal sound. The problem mostly appears when using Nero Video or TMPG Enc 5 while watching the video in an always-on-top window in Media Player Classic. I don't know if these affect the audio driver (probably by using DirectX audio routines) in any way, I just tell you to let you know. Any ideas? At least, I don't need to stop and restart the services anymore. Yes, a new driver would probably help, but my card is old and I'm using the latest one

 

[popeye]

Some may jump on me for this but have you tried a codec pack? I still use one and never (knock on wood) have audio issues.

 

[testyc]

As by your instruction aida64 told me i have a Realtek A Something Something. So i wrote that down, search for the driver and luckily i found the most recent version of it. So i thought to myself... let's try it out; maybe Realtek fixed this issue in the newest version. Removed old drivers completely and installed newest one. Rebooted and everything went great. Until i started the game ( few hours later, league of legends) and then again... sound gone. Same phenomenon... same weird misscommunication in the drivers ( youtube video still has sound, while i loose it running the game. Also youtube video looses sound when pausing it afterwards. Stuff like this ).

I mean.. seriously wtf?! Should i better install it back to Vista where none such problem existed?
Thanks for the help anyhow. But it doesn't work (yet).

Edit:
- Same problem with slimdrivers (i used before)
- I'm using speakers yes
- Problem didn't happen on Vista (including the game)
- Reinstalling Game didn't solve it either.
- Klite codec pack broke sound. Ac3 codec pack didn't do much except now i can hear audio on certain divx online-videos. (i had this 1 month ago, so i don't think its codec pack issue since the problem persisted for many month already )

 

[spapakons]

The audio problems in the game might be due to audio settings. See the game audio settings, try simple stereo to see if you get sound.

In my case, I have installed K-Lite codec pack, among others (Divx, FFDShow, FFVFW etc), but I don't think that matters.

To make sure Windows 7 don't have a problem, I would temporarily use a spare disk, make a fresh Windows 7 installation and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, I'm afraid you have to backup and reinstall Windows :huh:

 

[testyc]

Well... the game has no audio problems. I can play for hours multiple times and restart the game. Just 'randomly' the audio is gone. I need to restart AudioSrv and thats it, it works again. I actually don't want to reinstall windows 8.1. from scratch... because it's pain in the butt just because of audio.
I hate Realtek because of it. It seems they simply don't fix this issue. I'll contact them. Maybe they have another solution.

 

[CountMike]

Games, more often than not, take over settings for audio and other stuff, nothing unusual there.

 

[testyc]

So why exactly is it, that when i close the game (and the bug happened once) after that my audio keeps crashing with flash/html5 videos or music/movies players regardless of the game? There is no real consistancy where i can pinpoint the problem. I pause flash/html5 video -> sound gone. I play new video -> randomly sound gone (not while playing it though). I play game -> randomly sound gone. I start music -> randomly sound gone. Sometimes it works consecutively. 2-3 flash/html5/music -> sound not gone. Stuff like this...
To be more precise: audio crashes when starting/resuming audio-jobs not while playing audio.

Btw. realtek not answering :/

 

[Sunpower]

I am using a Windows 8.1 TOSHIBA and when the computer goes to sleep mode my bluetooth speakers turn off. Is there a setting I can choose so that the speakers do not turn off when the computer goes to sleep mode?