Certain Devices/Voices Get Stuck (No Audio)

Dennis Nerdlington

Sometimes after the computer has been on for a while, the audio stops working in certain programs. For example, videos at the website Youtube have no sound (and the video stops playing after a few seconds). My audio player, foobar2k, also will not play any sound (when I click play, the display stays at 0:00). The foobar console, however, gives a message like this:

INFO (CORE) : opening file for playback :
INFO (CORE) : location: "file://e:\MP3s\song.mp3" (0)
INFO (foo_out_dsound_ex) : Created stream: 44100Hz 24bps 2ch

This is the same message as when everything is normal. On the other hand, some programs such as the kx speaker test, itunes, and my video player do work. I notice that when the problem occurs, in the Analyzer tab of the kX mixer there are two red bars side by side near the middle of the chart, all the way up to the top (even though there is no sound playing). If I play a sound file with a working program such as itunes, two additional red bars pop up in a different location. It seems that something is "stuck" in one particular channel/voice, so no program is able to access it.

The only way I have found to clear the problem is rebooting. However, with foobar2k I found a workaround: If I change the directsound "output device" setting from "kX Wave kX Generic [9c00] 0/1" to "kX Wave kX Generic [9c00] 4/5" and restart the program, the audio plays (and a new set of red bars shows up in the Analyzer).

I am using the regular old 3537 drivers. It would be great if someone could suggest a way to clear the problem without rebooting, such as somehow resetting the hardware or software (or better yet, a way to prevent the problem from happening at all). And if you've read through this entire post, I appreciate it whether you can help me or not!

P.S. integral of e^(jkX) equals jke^(jkX) + C

Russ

I'm not sure if this will help or not, nor do I know the reason for your problem (maybe a corrupt .wav file?), but you can try opening up kX Console and using the 'rv' command to reset hardware voices.

Dennis Nerdlington

Thanks I'll give it a try next time and let you know if it clears the problem.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that it usually happens immediately or shortly after the computer wakes up from standby.

Russ

I see, that is probably a bug. Is there some reason why you are still using kX version 3537 instead of a newer version (3538L is currently the latest version)? Newer versions *might* handle resuming from standby better than 3537 (I am not sure about this, as I do not use the sleep/standby power options).

Dennis Nerdlington

I was/am under the impression that 3537 is the latest official version (because it's on the homepage), and everything since has been experimental. I find that other than this one bug, 3537 does everything I want, and I'm not interested in messing with new versions all the time.

Russ

That is basically true, there has not been a final/release version since 3537, but I have not encountered any 'stability' issues with any of the subsequent releases. It is fine if you want to wait until the next release version, but realize that there have been quite a few changes and bug fixes since then.

Dennis Nerdlington

Well, it happened again and the rv command didn't get rid of it. I'll install the latest version and see if that helps.

Russ

Ok, let us know how you make out.

bemymonkey

I had exactly the same problem - very annoying. There's posts all over the internet complaining about this problem - I wonder if those people are all using KX drivers?

Any ideas for a solution? I've got my original Creative drivers installed again right now, and they sound downright shite, especially the LFE...

Russ

Most of the no sound issues that you find on the internet are related to FLASH, and is a completely different issue (has nothing to do with kX). The problem there is with something (Spyware cleaner or maybe a 3rd party codec, etc) modifying one or more entries in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32

i.e.
Often it is the "wavemapper" entry (missing or changed to different value), but other entries may have been changed as well (can cause issues such as there being no midi device, voice playback device, etc available for selection in Windows Control Panel (i.e. selection boxes are blank), etc, and of course no sound in certain applications (like FLASH movies).

bemymonkey

I'm pretty sure it's a KX issue, since all the problems go away as soon as I uninstall the KX package ...

Flash video and audio work perfectly fine with official Creative drivers...

Russ

No offense, but that does not tell us anything. Reinstalling the Creative driver may have also reset those registry keys. Without having the kX driver installed, there is not much use discussing it, as we cannot test anything.

In any case, I was responding to your reference of the "posts all over the internet complaining about this problem", and not necessarily your specific issue (nor the original poster's issue).

geogob

I got a similar problem. Some software take direct control of the hardware. Quicktime/Itunes, Teamspeak, Traktor Dj Studio and numerous games are example of program that can either use the wave device or take direct control of the hardware (or so I understand).

These programs can sometimes leave the hardware in a state where it doesn't respond to the wave device anymore and to them alone (or not at all in some cases). This happen randomly or systematically if you go in S1 or S3 sleep mode while one of these programs are running (at lease with the SB Audigy 2).

The solution is to quit the program that blocks the soundcard. It should release the hardware (and the two red bars in the channel view get reseted).

There are also some other hidden process that can do this. With the sound max drivers (many onboard sound card use these), there's a process called SMax4PNP.exe which blocks the audio hardware after coming out of suspend mode. Killing the process solve the issue.

I tried to find a solution tor reset hardware audio connexions with process, but found none other than exiting the process involved.

I have no experience in scripting for kx, but maybe some know if its possible/easy to reset the hardware that way (if it doesn't already exist in the kx package somewhere).