Sound gone... Until log off, then on...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I have a Win2000 box in our home.

My son often uses it.

Yesterday, I wanted to use it to view something on Youtube,
but was surprised to discover that I had no sound.

As I checked the sound settings (expecting to find the
output muted), my son said "Dad, after a while, the sound
always stops. It will come back if you log me off, and then
log on again."

I tried it, and, of course, he was correct...

It appears that for any user, after about fifteen minutes,
the sound will shut down.

Logging on as another user fixes the sound, as does logging
off, then logging on as the original user.

What might be causing this sort of thing, and how can I
correct this nuisance?

Many thanks,

 

[jaster]

Howdy,

I have a Win2000 box in our home.

My son often uses it.

Yesterday, I wanted to use it to view something on Youtube, but was
surprised to discover that I had no sound.

As I checked the sound settings (expecting to find the output muted), my
son said "Dad, after a while, the sound always stops. It will come back
if you log me off, and then log on again."

I tried it, and, of course, he was correct...

It appears that for any user, after about fifteen minutes, the sound
will shut down.

Logging on as another user fixes the sound, as does logging off, then
logging on as the original user.

What might be causing this sort of thing, and how can I correct this
nuisance?

Many thanks,

When was the last time you defragged the drive, deleted temporary and
internet files, ran a registry cleaner and scanned the HD?

Shutdown and restart the PC see if that fixes anything, look for sound
errors in the Events Viewer and run Task Manager to watch resource
utilizations when running YouTube, assuming YouTube video continues to
play while the sound disappears.

 

[CBFalconer]

.... snip ...

When was the last time you defragged the drive, deleted temporary
and internet files, ran a registry cleaner and scanned the HD?

If you don't have ECC memory, defragging drives is dangerous to
your whole system. The reason is that files are copied from one
location to another, via an intermediate stay in some sort of
memory buffer. Without ECC errors in that memory buffer will not
be detected or corrected, and the files will be damaged.

The obvious cure is to get ECC memory (and an ECC capable
mainboard). Another fairly reliable, but very slow, procedure is
CRC checksums on every file.

 

[jaster]

If you don't have ECC memory, defragging drives is dangerous to your
whole system. The reason is that files are copied from one location to
another, via an intermediate stay in some sort of memory buffer.
Without ECC errors in that memory buffer will not be detected or
corrected, and the files will be damaged.

The obvious cure is to get ECC memory (and an ECC capable mainboard).
Another fairly reliable, but very slow, procedure is CRC checksums on
every file.

Your reply doesn't warrant a comment.

 

[CBFalconer]

Your reply doesn't warrant a comment.

True. So I guess we can assume you have, or are getting, ECC.

 

[Paul]

Howdy,

I have a Win2000 box in our home.

My son often uses it.

Yesterday, I wanted to use it to view something on Youtube,
but was surprised to discover that I had no sound.

As I checked the sound settings (expecting to find the
output muted), my son said "Dad, after a while, the sound
always stops. It will come back if you log me off, and then
log on again."

I tried it, and, of course, he was correct...

It appears that for any user, after about fifteen minutes,
the sound will shut down.

Logging on as another user fixes the sound, as does logging
off, then logging on as the original user.

What might be causing this sort of thing, and how can I
correct this nuisance?

Many thanks,

What kind of sound is it ? Look for a branding
string (Creative Soundblaster, Analog Devices SoundMax,
Nvidia Soundstorm, Realtek AC'97, that kind of thing).

If you Google using the sound type info, are there any reports
of sound dying ?

The reason for this, could be the driver is running
out of some resource. Like a memory leak in the
driver, a corrupted data structure and so on.
You could check Event Viewer, to see if anything
is reported. The fact that changing users fixes it,
suggests it is probably something higher up than
the driver that is doing it. (I presume the driver
belongs to the kernel, and the driver doesn't
reload when you change users.)

If you go to Start:Run and type "dxdiag", you can
run the DirectX tests. My experience is, when the
tests fail, I usually don't get any extra clues
as to why. The "Sound" tab tests DirectSound,
and the "Music" tab tests the various
synthesizer/MIDI options.

If you uncover any additional symptoms, like an
8 digit hex error code, you can throw that into
a Google search as well.

Searching the C: drive for ".log" files, will give
you some idea of the many files Windows keeps to
report stuff. For example, setupapi.log has some
info from when hardware drivers are installed.

Paul

 

[Paul]

True. So I guess we can assume you have, or are getting, ECC.

Not when the majority of modern desktops don't support it.
Even in the cases where the chipset does support it, I'm
seeing reports that it doesn't work, due to poor support
elsewhere in hardware/software.

Your advice has value, as long as it includes the caveat
that the motherboard must be ECC capable. Otherwise,
the buyer gets no benefit from the purchase of ECC RAM.
The selection of ECC RAM products is also pretty crappy
(when, if the module makers wanted, they could make
attractive options available). There is just no industry
interest in the promotion of ECC. It remains mainly
a server marketing opportunity.

Paul

 

[Kenneth]

What kind of sound is it ? Look for a branding
string (Creative Soundblaster, Analog Devices SoundMax,
Nvidia Soundstorm, Realtek AC'97, that kind of thing).

If you Google using the sound type info, are there any reports
of sound dying ?

The reason for this, could be the driver is running
out of some resource. Like a memory leak in the
driver, a corrupted data structure and so on.
You could check Event Viewer, to see if anything
is reported. The fact that changing users fixes it,
suggests it is probably something higher up than
the driver that is doing it. (I presume the driver
belongs to the kernel, and the driver doesn't
reload when you change users.)

If you go to Start:Run and type "dxdiag", you can
run the DirectX tests. My experience is, when the
tests fail, I usually don't get any extra clues
as to why. The "Sound" tab tests DirectSound,
and the "Music" tab tests the various
synthesizer/MIDI options.

If you uncover any additional symptoms, like an
8 digit hex error code, you can throw that into
a Google search as well.

Searching the C: drive for ".log" files, will give
you some idea of the many files Windows keeps to
report stuff. For example, setupapi.log has some
info from when hardware drivers are installed.

Paul

Hi again,

Thanks to all (or most<g>) for the tips,

 

[RobV]

If you don't have ECC memory, defragging drives is dangerous to
your whole system. The reason is that files are copied from one
location to another, via an intermediate stay in some sort of
memory buffer. Without ECC errors in that memory buffer will not
be detected or corrected, and the files will be damaged.

The obvious cure is to get ECC memory (and an ECC capable
mainboard). Another fairly reliable, but very slow, procedure is
CRC checksums on every file.

Your answer is a complete and utter non sequitur.

 

[CBFalconer]

Not when the majority of modern desktops don't support it.
Even in the cases where the chipset does support it, I'm
seeing reports that it doesn't work, due to poor support
elsewhere in hardware/software.

Your advice has value, as long as it includes the caveat
that the motherboard must be ECC capable. Otherwise,
the buyer gets no benefit from the purchase of ECC RAM.
The selection of ECC RAM products is also pretty crappy
(when, if the module makers wanted, they could make
attractive options available). There is just no industry
interest in the promotion of ECC. It remains mainly
a server marketing opportunity.

Note the underlined portion of my original quote. I have had no
problem adding ECC to my machines, except the IBM Thinkpad, which
has no ECC capability. But at least it runs Linux, and doesn't get
defragged.