Sound keeps cutting out

N

nj473

Member
Hi,

As you can tell this is a sound issue, but I am not sure what the specific cause is, and I do not have a sound card (I use on board sound - Mobo is Asus M5A99X Evo) so posted in this general forum.

Anyway...
My 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 HDD has recently failed (posted about this in my last thread if you recognize my name at all) so I have temporarily installed Windows 7 on an old laptop HDD I have lying around to use my PC for basic things in the mean time.

I have noticed now that I have a problem with the sound... Everything was working fine until I noticed during playing a ACII (I installed Assassins creed II & III just for fun) that at random times, the sound just cut out completely.

I thought it was something to do with the game at first, but I noticed when I alt+tabbed out the game, everything in Windows sound-wise is still working, and I would have to restart the game for it to work in game again.

So this had baffled me but I was sure it was something wrong with the game specifically (As I was not having any issues in ACIII)

BUT now I have just tried to play an mp3 file in VLC media player, and found that it is doing the same thing again. The sound from VLC just cuts out altogether, but Windows sounds are still fine... indicating that theres a bigger problem than just a dodgy game.

The only change I have made, is that I moved my PC from downstairs to upstairs in my house; when it was downstairs and plugged into the TV via HDMI (for both sound and video) it was working fine. Its ever since I moved it back upstairs to my room in my usual setup of HDMI to my TV for video, and a 3.5mm sound jack in the back of my mobo feeding into my stereo for audio.

Any ideas what the problem is? Is it anything to do with this old HDD you think? It's really frustrating as I just have no idea what it is or where to begin...

Please help...
Thanks

Couple of side notes:
- I tried reinstalling the game (ACII) to see if it would help, but it didnt,
- I have no sound program installed (Realtek or anything like that) I have never needed one as the sound has always been fine until now.
 
nj473 said:
I have no sound program installed (Realtek or anything like that) I have never needed one as the sound has always been fine until now.
Click to expand...

I would uninstall your sound drivers and re-install it again (either through your windows 7 or download the proper drivers for it) and try the sound again. Could be your the files are corrupt when it is accessed to be used.
 
OK I'll try reinstalling the drivers.

It works for a random amount of time before it cuts out... like it could be 30 seconds or 1 hour but it will eventually do it (if that's worth mentioning)
 
nj473 said:
OK I'll try reinstalling the drivers.

It works for a random amount of time before it cuts out... like it could be 30 seconds or 1 hour but it will eventually do it (if that's worth mentioning)
Click to expand...


My mums laptop had something similar, I uninstalled the drivers and put it back on and it now works ok. Luck of the draw sometimes. Make sure after you uninstall, restart the comp, install the driver and hopefully it should be OK. :-) Let me know how you get along. :-)
 
Ok I have reinstalled the drivers and I am now just testing it out playing on games etc to see if it goes off. Like I said it could be any amount of time so it's kinda hard to tell!

Thanks for the advice guys :) I will keep you updated, I just really hope that it's not another component that's faulty...
 
I have been using my PC for a while now and the issue has not come back so far, so I'm just going to try and stay positive and assume that the issue has gone. So once again thanks for the help.

Just another (non-urgent) question; when I installed the drivers, Realtek software came with it, which starts every time Windows starts. I'd rather just use the basic sound controls and not have anything necessarily running in the background. Can I safely stop this program from starting up without any negative effects?
 
nj473 said:
I have been using my PC for a while now and the issue has not come back so far, so I'm just going to try and stay positive and assume that the issue has gone. So once again thanks for the help.

Just another (non-urgent) question; when I installed the drivers, Realtek software came with it, which starts every time Windows starts. I'd rather just use the basic sound controls and not have anything necessarily running in the background. Can I safely stop this program from starting up without any negative effects?
Click to expand...

Yeah. You should be able to control all your sound without an outside software. I really hate how hardware always wants you to install their programs when Windows handles it well on it's own. Mainly thinking of Wireless Adapters but the same holds true for sound.

As long as you have the drivers (not the program) it should work just fine. Drivers tell the hardware how to operate while programs manipulate their operation in some way via the user. Programs aren't needed for them to function but drivers are.
 
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