Question Why is Windows constantly Suspending things?

[Dylan Beckett]

Hello

Why is Windows constantly Suspending Dolby Access (Dolby Atmos for PC)?

See Screenshot of Task Manager


I can't imagine it uses much by way of Power/Resources etc?

I have a new, powerful PC with all laptop related power saving stuff switched off (I think I got it all) ?
So I can't see any real reason for it ?


Does this mean Dolby Access (Dolby ATMOS for PC) isn't actually working while I'm trying to use it and it really is Suspended (eg when gaming or just using audio in a Browser etc)?
Or does it sometimes just say it's suspended - but actually still working?

How do I prevent it from ever going into the Suspended mode... and should I?


As far as I can see - the only way to 'un-pause' it; is to kill it, then re-open it?

Any other advice specifically re Dolby Access and other things in general - for when this happens ?



Thank you for your help

 

[scout_03]

see this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/coreaudio/spatial-sound

 

[hotaru.hino]

"Dolby Access" is likely the UWP configuration app, not the actual driver or service. It'll unpause itself when you launch it again.

Microsoft started requiring (if not strongly suggesting) driver developers to modularize their driver packages so that the core components can be updated separate from the configuration app and vice versa. This is why you see configuration apps in the Windows Store now.

Also unless there's an actual problem related to the service or feature and the thing you're worried about, leave it alone.

 

[johnbl]

Hello

Why is Windows constantly Suspending Dolby Access (Dolby Atmos for PC)?

See Screenshot of Task Manager


I can't imagine it uses much by way of Power/Resources etc?

I have a new, powerful PC with all laptop related power saving stuff switched off (I think I got it all) ?
So I can't see any real reason for it ?


Does this mean Dolby Access (Dolby ATMOS for PC) isn't actually working while I'm trying to use it and it really is Suspended (eg when gaming or just using audio in a Browser etc)?
Or does it sometimes just say it's suspended - but actually still working?

How do I prevent it from ever going into the Suspended mode... and should I?


As far as I can see - the only way to 'un-pause' it; is to kill it, then re-open it?

Any other advice specifically re Dolby Access and other things in general - for when this happens ?



Thank you for your help

suspend is for the modern UWP
the app gets 5 seconds to save its data then is paged to the swapfile
(not the pagefile.sys)

when I boot my system i see all of the various entries in task manager fully running then shortly later I can see a bunch of the being suspended. I rarely use these apps and have considered turning off just the swapfile so they can not run. problem is i can not find any reason to complain about them. Other than I don't like having the extra processes running on my machine.
you can google "windows swapfilecontrol registry key"
to see how to disable the swapfile if you want.
this explains how to disable the swapfile:
What is Swapfile.sys and do I need it on my Windows 10 PC? | Windows Central

I would just leave it alone, maybe set your system to high performance mode so windows does not go into any low power states and suspend apps.

 

[ubuysa]

A quick explanation...

[TLDR]
It's a performance feature designed to make UWP apps more responsive when you go back to one you've not used in a while.
[/TLDR]

The main memory management system used by Windows is demand paging. RAM pages (4k pages) that are detected as not having been referenced for some time are paged out to the pagefile. Later, if one of these pages is referenced again it must be paged in. This requires an I/O to the storage system and that takes a relatively long time.

Because of the way UWP apps work, if you stopped using one for a while, its pages would eventually be paged out one at a time. When you wanted to use it again each page would have to be paged back in one at a time, this would make the app very slow to respond when you went back to it.

To avoid this problem, when you stop using a UWP app Windows writes all its pages out in one go to the swapfile. This is a process called 'swapping'. When you want to use the app again, Windows swaps all the pages back in - in one I/O - making the resumption much faster.

When a UWP app is swapped out in this way it's marked as 'suspended' in the Task Manager.

 

[Colif]

windows suspends the process until you need to use it. It does this for things you commonly use. It is there ready for you to use it.

Speed of pc has nothing to do with it really.

suspended apps use less system resources meaning more can be assigned to other processes you might be using right now.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/debug-test-perf/optimize-suspend-resume

I don't use many of them