New
#1
Windows Audio Service crashes constantly on any "sound" action
Greetings folks,
I'm hoping somebody here can help me. I've just completed a new gaming pc build running Win 7 Professional 64-bit. Clean install. I've downloaded all the "important updates" from Windows Update. The only programs I have installed beyond what came on the CD's with the components are Google Chrome, a trial version of WinRar, and the Steam client.
The problem I am having is that every time I attempt to do *anything* sound related, the Windows Audio Service crashes.
For example: If I go into the "Sound" menu on the control panel, and select *anything*.. all the devices disappear in front of my eyes. Windows Audio crashed.
If I go into the Realtek HD Audio Manager and attempt to do anything at all... all the devices disappear in front of my eyes. Windows Audio crashed.
If I go into the Sound Blaster Cinema program and attempt to do anything at all.. all the devices disappear in front of my eyes. Windows Audio crashed.
Ok.. so restarting the service is trivial.. I pop into services.msc, find it, and select "start". It restarts fine.
Or I can click on the speaker tray icon with the red x that pops up when the crash happens, and the troubleshooter will restart the service.
Even if I'm not tinkering with any sound settings however.. Let's say I go to youtube and pick a random video for a sound check... As soon as it starts playing, Windows Audio crashes.
The only curious thing I've noticed is that if I leave that video playing.. Windows cannot restart the Windows Audio service.
It's done this on the MSI supplied drivers for my onboard sound. It's done this on the Realtek HD Audio drivers downloaded directly from Realtek.
I've tried disabling the "Nvidia High Definition Audio" device and the "Nvidia Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)" device in the device manager, thinking perhaps they might be competing with each other. No change in behavior.
I tried disabling the digital output on the Realtek. No change in behavior.
My end goal is, hopefully, to have sound handled by the Realtek HD Audio chip built into the MSI motherboard and directing output to the Logitech Z506 5.1 speaker system, and have my Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti direct the video to my Asus VS278Q-P monitor.
The monitor is connected via HDMI cable, and has a couple crappy speakers which, at one time, were producing *some* output before I had installed the various drivers from the manufacturer CD's.
That's every bit of data I can think to give to explain my problem and what I've tried to fix it. Can anybody more knowledgeable in Audio issues perhaps help me out here?