Audio and Flash Issues

legionofphoenix

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Mar 7, 2010
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UPDATE:


This comes up when I try to play a song in windows media player after the sound has died.

http://content.screencast.com/users/Gryffin/folders/Jing/media/a783feb0-01c5-4f5c-a6cc-b4d30591ee6f/soundproblem.png

Stats:

Windows 7 64-bit
Ram: 6GB


My computer has a really strange issue related to sound and video.

For the record, I have no dedicated sound card, I use my motherboard.

At random times, my sound will die and my computer says that it cannot detect a sound device. At the same time, online videos and online flash will not play properly, but will move at about 1 frame per second.

Videos saved onto my hard drive run just fine, though of course there is no audio.

Things to know: my sound NEVER dies when it is already playing. If I am listening to music or any sound, like playing a game, the sound works perfectly.

My sound dies either before I use the sound, as in minutes after I've turned on the computer but was away, or after I have been listening to sound but my computer is not currently playing sound. I'll try listening to music or playing a game and the sound will not work. the only way to get it to work is to restart my computer.

Second, the sound dies at random times. Sometimes, it will be moments after starting my computer. I'll get the boot-up sound, but if I leave before I've used my computer or whatever, and come back, then the sound will not be working.

Sometimes the sound will work perfectly for hours, even when I don't use it for intervals. However, most frequently, the sound will die after I've been in Firefox and/or playing a game, stop using my computer or don't use the sound, and ten minutes later it is suddenly dead. It is very random and unpredictable.

Note that every time I say "my sound dies," this also means that my capability to play videos, specifically online, also dies.

My computer is custom built and worked perfectly for the first 5 months. However, I was in Peru for 7 weeks, during which my computer was not in use, and I came back to this issue. Other than this, my computer seems to run fine, though it might run a little slower. I run AVG Free, keep it updated, and have scanned my computer multiple times with no problems shown since I've had this issue.

Obviously , I'm not aware of any process-hogging programs running the background. My theory: somehow my ram is filling up and causing my sound and video to die. But I really have no clue. Any help concerning this would be extremely appreciated. Thanks a ton in advance.
 

donpacific2k

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Dec 23, 2008
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Interesting theory about a memory leak but IMO doubtful unless you've actually seen high memory usage.

If you wanted to rule out a software problem you could test it for a day or two with a different OS; download a linux live cd and see if the sound does the same thing.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

Next guess it is a hardware issue on the board. I've seen random crap like that happen quite a bit with motherboards I've owned (maybe I've got a bad PS or something...). Since that seems to be the only problem if you have a free slot, might as well get a cheap PCI sound card to salvage the board and be done with it.
 

number13

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May 20, 2008
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when the sound does not work, open the Task Manager and see if you have something that eating your mem,if there is nothing, then goto Start, Control Panel, Device Manager in catagory view, click on Sound, Video, and Game Controllers, right click on the Sound Card(Realtek HD Audio), and uninstall it, close all windows, reboot the computer, tell us what happens after it reloads the sound card
 

legionofphoenix

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Mar 7, 2010
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So far, so good. We'll see if it happens again. But it should have happened by now. It's possible it actually solved the issue. Thanks a great deal though, if it doesn't happen again. Seriously.
 

legionofphoenix

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Lol. Thanks. Just to set the record straight. I do use VLC, but it just outputs no audio. While WMP, on the other hand, displays an error message as not recognizing a sound card. It was really just a picture of proof explaining a symptom.

Thanks though. I just didn't want to leave this post with people thinking I endorse Windows Media Player.
 

legionofphoenix

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Mar 7, 2010
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Interestingly enough, the problem still persist. It was good for a day or two, but the issue has unfortunately returned. It's possible, after it was temporarily seemingly fixed, I restarted it and caused the problem to return. I don't know why reinstalling the sound driver would fix it, only to return soon after.