Anyone else using SPDIF audio and it just suddenly stops working until restart?

Posted by gotmynamefromcaptcha@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 85 comments

I've had my PC for months now with no issue, then after one of the Windows 11 updates at some point in the last month or two, all of a sudden my audio drops and requires a restart. I use a DAC/AMP stack and ruled them out by isolating the issue, using a different DAC with SPDIF as well. If I plug in another DAC with and switch to USB audio it does work, but SPDIF does not.

Specifically, what happens is that if I play a video on YouTube/Amazon/etc,, the video ends and I browse to another video...audio just suddenly stops. This is of course random, I could watch like 20 videos and on the 21st it will happen, and sometimes it will happen on the 4th. BIOS update/Driver update helped a little bit to where it happens less often, but it still happens. I'm wondering if anyone has noticed something like this recently?

I have:

Uninstalled/Reinstalled audio devices in devmgmt.

Updated Realtek Drivers from ASRock and Realtek. ASRock ones seem to be better.

Updated BIOS

Verified USB audio does work, haven't tried the 3.5mm jacks though.

Swapped DACs with a similar one to mine.

Used a different SPDIF/optic cable.

**This is on a relatively recent clean install of Win 11 (October is when I did it). Issues started late Jan/early Feb.

Specs are:

ASRock Z790 ITX/TB4 PG

13700K

32GB Ram

3080Ti

Schiit Stack (AMP+DAC)

Audioengine A2+ speakers

If anyone has had the same and got it working, please share here.

**I also never had this issue once on my old setup which was an Aorus Z390 ITX board + 9900K, all else the same except the RAM which was DDR4 and is now DDR5.

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GrumpyOldGrognard@reddit

Same issue here with an ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard with a 7800X3D CPU. I'm also using the SPDIF out from the "Realtek USB Audio" to a Schiit stack. I've tried all the Asus drivers and the Realtek drivers, but nothing fixed this particular problem - although I found the Realtek drivers were pretty bad and caused popping in the audio. Currently using the Asus drivers, they work fine other than this annoying issue.

Like others have posted, doing a quick sleep/wake fixes the issue, so that's a lot better than rebooting each time.

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modctek@reddit

Another Asrock user here. Not using SPDIF, just regular analog out and the sleep/wake trick works. This has been plaguing me for over a year.

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Danielo944@reddit

Holy shit I thought this was a Linux issue but it's my motherboard, I have a ROG motherboard but B650E, and also using SPDIF out to a JDS Labs Element 3 MK2, and the sleep/wake cycle fixed it for me - though debatably, a power cycle might actually be quicker in my case lol

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MaleficentAd8371@reddit

Wow! I would never ever thought of this way to fix it

Holy fuck x101

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Jonall@reddit

MAG B650 TOMAHAWK reporting in, thank you for the sleep/wake trick!

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guicharod@reddit

thaaaank u

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Foxxxyygrandpa@reddit

HOLY FUCK THANK YOU FOR THE SLEEP / WAKE TRICK

This has been happening so much lately I was so tired of restarting my computer

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FerrumCordis@reddit

HOLY FUCK x3, this worked for me as well.

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sephwht@reddit

THANK YOU FOR THIS REPLY for calling my attention because of the caps, this also helped me a lot just now, thank you both! Holy fuck x2

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-Samg381-@reddit

MSI Z690 Unify, 12900k, same issue here.

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Deathandblackmetal@reddit

Yep, sleep/wake works - ty. Annoying. I feel like I found a fix elsewhere before, but not sure... maybe a BIOS setting or some other setting, argg.

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Facebook_Friend1@reddit

this works lol. i also have an asus motherboard with a 7800x3d and get the same issues. this sucks.

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agile52@reddit

what a weird fix for a garbage coding issue, this helped me too, x670e rog with a 7950x

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current1990@reddit

Thanks, This really saves life!

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NotEnoughIT@reddit

Months later and you're still doing Dog's work. Sleep and wake works!

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defineReset@reddit

woof woof. thank you sensei

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anderous01@reddit

Wow, AsRock B650 Mobo here, same issue and Driver

This works!!

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DC45_82@reddit

Thanks sleep/wake fixes it, this is a lifesaver. Brand new system with fresh win11 install on an Asus b650e with realtek digital USB audio drivers output through SPDIF to a wiim pro+ and had this same issue with after a while I start getting dropouts, and sometimes it just randomly switches up the L&R channels? LOL wtf? Idk ill look for some driver fixes i guess or just keep putting it to sleep

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arrenwu2019@reddit

This is really helpful.

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UnstableAnomalies@reddit

thanks for the tip, i got annoyed having to reboot when losing sound.

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Proxynp88@reddit

I have similar problems...my JBL 500 instant stop and continue to play by it self. Interesting is that show up on screen that channel is TV . It is little bit annoying. Any solution???

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navossoc@reddit

Dude, "I" wrote a little program to disable and enable the audio device.
Since I can't reproduce this shit, it's hard to test, but yeah, annoying as hell...

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soldo0o0o@reddit

For me non of the comments bellow worked , i had mine set to 192khz , going down to 48khz fixed it .

Control Panel - Sound - Manage Audio Devices - Right Click on "SPDIF Interface" - Properties - Advanced - Set to 48khz or what ever works for you .

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mason2techie@reddit

Same issue recently. Its not fixed yet and it spazzes out inside the playback devices list when I click test.

Anyone actually report this to Microsoft?

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CarnivorousSociety@reddit

same issue here, this is ridiculous clearly there's a major bug somewhere

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GGuts@reddit

So here is a step-by-step workaround.

Assuming you are on Windows 11, this is the fix to stop Realtek Digital Output from crashing when skipping through videos on Youtube and such:

Press the Windows button
Type "Sound settings" and press enter
Scroll all the way down to "More sound settings" and click it
Go to the "Recording" tab and look for "Stereo Mix" and double click it
Go to the levels tab and tun it down to 0 and then press the 🔉button to mute it completely
Go to the "Listen" tab and check the box next to "Listen to this device"
Click the dropdown menu and select your device (I assume "Realtek Digital Output (Realtek USB Audio")
Press "Ok"

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azdarkwater@reddit

Trying this myself, TBD. I'd love to understand why this had any impact at all. I had originally disabled this device.

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GGuts@reddit

Honestly, I don't know who's fault it is but I think it is Realtek's overly aggressive power-saving features on the digital output and/or a lack of QA with modern motherboards on Windows. I think this is a bug that never got fixed because not that many people use the SPDIF interface.

I don't know for sure but I think Youtube videos are played as buffered segments and when you skip between them it's like a quick sequence of no audio playback/silence (the driver detects this and might be trying go into a low power mode because it detects that no audio is playing) and the start of a new segment. And then sometimes the driver just crashes for some reason.

The solution tricks the driver into thinking that there is always something playing and prevents power-saving mode from kicking in.

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Retro_B00min@reddit

I did this a few hours ago and no issues since!!

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Significant_Owl2807@reddit

im trying to do this but when i get to the "recording" tab in "more sound settings", there is no option for "stereo mix" to double click like u/GGuts says to. What do i do?

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AgentCatBot@reddit

I also do not have a Stereo Mix option, but I also do not have a microphone installed.
I only have Mic in at front panel, and Mic in at rear panel. Both are not plugged in.

For troubleshooting this, I did disable my monitor as ever being an audio device, and I hope that works.

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Zardler@reddit

The goal of this trick is to always have sound go out the soundcard. I used to run a app that made a sound that couldn't be heard to do this, but cant find it any longer.

If you have a display on your spdif reciever and it says something like no digital sound there's a chance Realtek will hang and need a restart\sleep.

I put a dummy plug into the rear microphone hole and that brings it up, you can now set the same setting as described as GGuts. But if I mute it it my spdif reciever will say "no digital sound" and bug out so I leave it at 1% unmuted

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Retro_B00min@reddit

are yoou able to see the realtek audio at all in your device manager? maybe its a driver issue?

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GGuts@reddit

Go to the “Recording” tab and right click in the list and then select the option “Show Disabled Devices“. See if you can find it there. Sometimes the device is also cold "what you hear".

If not you can still achieve the same thing by using virtual audio cable.

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RunningonGin0323@reddit

HOLY SHIT THIS WORKED. THANK YOU

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GGuts@reddit

Glad it did. It took me a long time to discover this trick. 😄

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Thedirtyhood@reddit

Do i mark it as default device by chance? thanks in advance!

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loki_79@reddit

Still working for me after a month. This solution needs more upvotes!!

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loki_79@reddit

I just did this. If it works then I love you!!

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Academic_Army_6425@reddit

same on MSI Z690 / Arch

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-Samg381-@reddit

MSI Z690 here too.

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Academic_Army_6425@reddit

I actually found a way how to fix it.

On Arch linux - disable wireplumber suspend hook: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1ifc4wf/how_to_properly_disable_wireplumber_suspend_hook/

On Windows 11:

Press the Windows button
Type "Sound settings" and press enter
Scroll all the way down to "More sound settings" and click it
Go to the "Recording" tab and look for "Stereo Mix" and double click it. Device usage: use this device; OK
Go to the levels tab and turn it down to 0 and then press the 🔉button to mute it completely
Go to the "Listen" tab and check the box next to "Listen to this device"
Click the dropdown menu and select your device (I assume "Realtek Digital Output (Realtek USB Audio)")
Press "Ok"

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-Samg381-@reddit

Didn't work unfortunately. Not sure how it would. This problem seems to be chipset / motherboard related. I am also using optical audio.

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jbak31@reddit

Same for me on ASRock X870E NOVA WIFI motherboard + 9800X3D. Terribly annoying. Glad I'm not alone but shame there's still no permanent solution for this mess.

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x7007@reddit

Which sound card do you use?

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x7007@reddit

I have issues with SPDIF with eCLARO HT OMEGA every time there is something with gpu, even opening EDGE and scrolling would stop the sound??! I can't understand what is going on. with XFI Titanium the sound would totally freeze and freeze the computer would drop the sound card totally from device manager

it works PERFECTLY with ANALOG directly to the soundcard

Never had this thing

Is it windows 11? I don't know what to do I tried

SPDIF cable

Other drivers

Other PCIE slots

Another eCLARO sound card

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bhamjman@reddit

This is a problem in Linux (Ubuntu) as well. I thought it was a Windows issue but the problem persists in Linux. I have an ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E. Like others have mentioned, reboots fix it every time, and thanks to those who posted here regarding sleep, that has worked for me as well.

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Alternative_Big5193@reddit

Sleep/Wake trick works for me too! Beats rebooting!

Honestly I've had nothing but issues with this AM5 build. And I've swapped out every single part, one at a time, until I had a brand new PC, and now I have enough parts for 2 AM5 PC's. I have the same issue with both, with it going Black while idling randomly. Never under load, never while gaming etc, always when I'm in bed or away from the PC, and it will just go black, lights still on on the motherboard, but nothing else. Only a clean power cycle allows me to turn it back on, and by that I mean, turn the power button off at the Power Supply, wait 10 seconds, and turn back on. Crazy. Not looking for help here for that issue, just venting lol.

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oltungi@reddit

Same here mate, has been happening since I built this new PC half a year ago. I checked the event log whenever it happened but couldn't really find anything interesting. It just seems like Windows decides to stop passing on a signal to the SPDIF out - all other outs still work fine.

At least thanks to this thread I now know that I can just do a sleep/wake up instead of a restart.

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ElPietroKING@reddit

Juts wanted to share my experience, I have the same exact issue I'm also a victim, thats really weird that the sound just randomly stops...

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Original_Squirrel_82@reddit

I have had this same issue for years now with 2 different machines, new and old.

the SPDIF optical connection just randomly stops whenever it wants. Reboot fixes it everytime...although now I'll just do the sleep trick because my window 11 machine takes forever to boot (OS IS EVEN ON A 990 PRO)

My old machine...8700k with a budgetish gigabyte mobo.

New machine...13900k with fancy MSI carbon mobo

however, on my old 8700k setup...It stopped working one day and never started working again.

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Rndtm@reddit

I still have the same issue and I can trigger it with 100% accuracy, it happens every time I open a game (COD, Marvel Rivals, etc.) quickly unplug the USB, and replug and it's back to normal until the next time I boot my PC. If anyone finds out how to fix this, let me know.

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No_Summer_2917@reddit

i7 14700k z790-i strix board with rog hive thing with smsl a50pro amp... If I paly game or watch video on youtube on next video I sometimes get no sound. The solution is to go to sound settings in control panel and click check sound on an spdif device. No driver update for my 500$ board since 2023 asus just sucks!!!

If the amp is connected by usb or line in there is no sound issue only spdif turns off.

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kraltegius@reddit

Happens on my ASUS Z790-F with SPDIF too on Windows 10. Can replicate the problem by fast forwarding or rewinding constantly on YouTube. It's like the audio driver is trying to catch up and if you do it too much, it just "dies" for that port. The 3.5mm jack on the same rear panel still works when SPDIF stops working, and it doesn't seem like a driver crash.

What i also noticed is that when I do a sound test on the SPDIF after it no longer produces sound, Windows sound control panel still shows that there is sound being played through the SPDIF output via the volume bar animation.

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gotmynamefromcaptcha@reddit (OP)

Yeah same thing here, still happening with me as well. Same thing it shows the little sound animation even when it’s full mute. I’m just careful now to not skip too much in one video on YouTube and can pretty consistently keep it on.

Anyone check their event viewer on this? Mine doesn’t show much…

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HaloLASO@reddit

Realtek drivers are trash. Try these modded drivers as I got optical audio working for me with these. Just make a system restore point before installing just in case https://github.com/AlanFinotty/AAFOptimusDCHAudio-Realtek

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squish8294@reddit

Do you still have this file? URL is dead.

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HaloLASO@reddit

Go to the Techpowerup audio forms and his drivers are right on the front page. If you can't get them to work I have some of the drivers previously downloaded on my PC but people post links everywhere

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squish8294@reddit

cheers i'll have a look

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squish8294@reddit

same here with two systems, asus z590 extreme and asus z790 extreme, 11900k and 14900k. spdif port only.

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laxounet@reddit

I'm having a similar issue, but I can trigger it pretty reliably by skipping around in a youtube video using the arrow keys. It does a loud pop and then audio stops working until I reboot the PC. It's very annoying

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gotmynamefromcaptcha@reddit (OP)

Put it to sleep instead of a full on reboot, much quicker and it solves the issue until next time. The crazy thing is I haven’t got it to replicate the issue on anything else other than YouTube and/or YouTube reels if I scroll too much on those.

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laxounet@reddit

Yes I tried with a sleep and it worked, at least there is that...

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Erosis@reddit

I am in the same exact scenario as you. An update earlier this year for Win 11 is when it started being an issue. I have a 7950x3d in my Asrock X670E Taichi. My Schiit Stack is connected over SPDIF. I've tried a bunch of different drivers with no success. Audio still works over every other output when the optical randomly stops working. Sleeping/Wake corrects the issue temporarily.

One pattern that I have noticed is that the audio only stops working when nothing is playing and I then attempt to play new sounds. If I continually have audio playing from any source on my PC, it will never stop functioning. There needs to be a lapse in audio playing before it gets the opportunity to stop working. In any case, there's nothing in the system logs (at my expertise level) that indicates any sort of issue with audio drivers.

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jahkure@reddit

Same for me. No permanent fix yet.

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Luminair@reddit

Same issue here, sleep/wake does fix it though (as does reboot). Optical only.

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Disastrous-Ad1047@reddit

Going into sleep mode and back also worked for me

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Disastrous-Ad1047@reddit

This is ridiculous. Pay for high quality audio and windows goes nah . I also have this issue on 11th gen z590

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Lowlife555@reddit

I have the same issue. Not a solution in sight.

I'm using a Samsung S66T soundbar. When SPDIF stops working, I can swap to bluetooth to same speaker, and that works.

Restart PC always fixes it.

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gotmynamefromcaptcha@reddit (OP)

Yup I got nothing on it so far. I’ve found that if I skip on a video a lot it happens but if I leave it alone it generally doesn’t. I can go maybe two-three weeks before it happens and I have to reboot. It’s always on Amazon video or YouTube too.

What a bizarre issue. I’ve played with drivers and everything.

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Lowlife555@reddit

Yeah - thats when it happens to me too.

There is a guy with similar issue, on Linux non the less here and this guy with no replies

btw using Sleep/Wake on Windows 11 fixes issue for me.

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GrumpyOldGrognard@reddit

I'm having the same problem and ran across this post in a search. Thanks for posting about sleep/wake, it works for me as well and is a lot more convenient than rebooting every time this happens.

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Different-Grocery-84@reddit

Upvote! Sleep wake works for me too.... quicker than a reboot. Thanks

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jhalfmoon@reddit

Thank you so much for this tip. It's been driving me nuts. Started using SPDIF a month ago and soon after this nonsense started.

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Rahkan1@reddit

Sorry for the slight necro, wanted to add my two cents in and say that the Sleep/Wake worked for me. Faster than a reboot AND if you're quick enough you can keep yourself connected to online-only games. Provided they have a generous timeout when connection is lost.

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eldredpe@reddit

Thanks for the Sleep/Wake tip. Hadn't tried that before and it also seems to work for me. A bit more convenient than a reboot.

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AussieTemplar@reddit

Bump - same issue. Only restart fixes this issue.

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gotmynamefromcaptcha@reddit (OP)

Crazy it hasn't been fixed yet. I still get it occasionally but much less so than when I originally posted.

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AussieTemplar@reddit

Same, it is less. But sometimes I'll walk away and have a YouTube video paused for a few hours and come back and let out a massive sigh.
The sleep/wake up fix is much better than a full blown restart although!
Fingers crossed for a fix soon.

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task4299@reddit

Exactly the same for me. Started 2 weeks ago. Probably the same windows update that killed my taskbar. Windows 11 is a mess. I'm also on a quite fresh Windows install (December) on a pretty decent system. Worked fine from day 1 until this fkn update came along. If you find a solution, please post it!

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Different-Grocery-84@reddit

And I thought it was just me. I have exactly the same with SPDIF, it just stops working randomly and nothing will get it going again except a reboot which fixes it every time. If I switch to my headset, no problems, works great. It's just the optical that stops randomly. I also have the same random crap with my taskbar. I have 3 monitors and I'll randomly get an error message saying there's already an active taskbar. I'll also get random problems with the taskbars just not showing or you click and nothing happens like it's not there. Same thing, a reboot fixes it every time.

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