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For the past few months, if my machine is on for too long it can't play any video or audio files. This happens in the browser and using native players (WMP, etc...). Restarting my machine fixes the issue, but if it stays on for more than a week or so, the issue happens again.

Audio and video play perfectly fine before the issue kicks in.

In the browser it doesn't matter if I use a flash or html5 video player. I've tried forcing software decoding in Chrome and VLC Player and that didn't helpe either.

Interestingly enough, the broadway.js samples do play, which uses software rendering, but GPU tests (such as bmark) work as well.

Here's my system information:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.14393 Build 14393
BIOS Version/Date   American Megatrends Inc. P3.20, 6/7/2016
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB
Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

Display
Name    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (driver 21.21.13.7633)

Audio
Name    Realtek High Definition Audio

What else would be necessary to help troubleshoot this?

To those downvoters: why? Please let me know in a comment so I can address your concerns.

UPDATE It looks like it is an audio issue. It started happening again, and I went to go check on the audio service, and found that it's status was "restarting" and that I couldn't take any other action on it.

If I try restarting the Windows Audio Endpoint Builder service, I get an error that says:

Error 1061: The service cannot accept control messages at this time.

which I'm assuming is because the audio service is stuck in a state where it can't receive events.

There is one entry in the event logs (posted below). I can't figure out what to do from here.

Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP
Date:          1/22/2017 3:42:58 AM
Event ID:      225
Task Category: (223)
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Eliezer
Description:
The application \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\audiodg.exe with process id 7192 stopped the removal or ejection for the device HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0900&SUBSYS_18491151&REV_1000\4&2d40c0df&0&0001.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-PnP" Guid="{9C205A39-1250-487D-ABD7-E831C6290539}" />
    <EventID>225</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>223</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-01-22T08:42:58.528951400Z" />
    <EventRecordID>12440</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="716" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="ProcessId">7192</Data>
    <Data Name="ProcessNameLength">52</Data>
    <Data Name="ProcessName">\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\audiodg.exe</Data>
    <Data Name="DeviceInstanceLength">76</Data>
    <Data Name="DeviceInstance">HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&amp;VEN_10EC&amp;DEV_0900&amp;SUBSYS_18491151&amp;REV_1000\4&amp;2d40c0df&amp;0&amp;0001</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>
Eliezer
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  • If you are using HDMI, does your monitor have built-in speakers? Are you using HDMI audio on your monitor via the GTX 950 or are you using separate speakers via the motherboard audio out? If you *do* have hdmi and monitor audio, are you *certain* your tests are emitting from the proper speakers? – Yorik Dec 29 '16 at 18:31
  • I'm using HDMI with dual monitors. I'm using the motherboard audio out, and that is set as the default. I also explicitly tested the proper playback device in Windows sounds settings, but nothing plays. – Eliezer Dec 29 '16 at 18:40
  • Try a clean install, if possible and convenient. That helped me with an old laptop (DVDs wouldn't play). – Joseph Dec 29 '16 at 20:12
  • A clean install would be a real PITA. This is a custom PC that I hand built. It's been working since 2011 (when I built it). I updated the CPU/GPU in May 2016 and everything was working fine until this issue started popping up around October 2016. – Eliezer Dec 29 '16 at 20:14
  • If you look at the event logs when the display issue occurs, are there any errors that show up? Does it happen in any other browsers? Do you quit Chrome completely or are there still processes in the background? – Sorean Dec 29 '16 at 20:55
  • I didn't see anything abnormal in the event logs. It happens anywhere I try to play media. Chrome, FF, IE, Edge, desktop apps, etc... – Eliezer Dec 29 '16 at 21:46
  • Use your system logs, of course Windows doesn't have the best Event Viewer (I am a Mac user but have experience with Windows). – Joseph Jan 03 '17 at 20:52
  • @juniorRubyist I had to restart my machine, but there were no logs indicating that anything was wrong while it was happening. – Eliezer Jan 04 '17 at 00:14
  • Are videos of all types affected this way (thinking of a bad codec) ? And what's wrong with rebooting once a week ? – harrymc Jan 04 '17 at 09:07
  • I tried every codec and container that ffmpeg is capable of creating. Nothing worked. The issue with rebooting is that I have a complex dev environment running on the machine. – Eliezer Jan 04 '17 at 15:45
  • This is too vague : More info is needed on the failure - error messages etc. – harrymc Jan 04 '17 at 16:38
  • There are no error messages. All the media players either fail with a generic error, crash, or don't respond. I'd love to give you more info but this is all I have been able to gather. – Eliezer Jan 04 '17 at 23:10
  • There was a questions asked that never got answered: Do either one of your monitors have built in speakers? Does this only happen after the computer goes to sleep? Have you tried adjusting power saving to always on? Does it only happen after monitors go to sleep? – Jeff Jan 05 '17 at 02:07
  • @Jeff the monitors do not have built in speakers, and the HDMI playback device is disabled. As I mentioned before, the default playback device is set to speakers connected to the motherboard's audio out. The computer never sleeps, the display is never turned off, and the monitors are never turned off. – Eliezer Jan 05 '17 at 02:20
  • Up to now, all the indications we could think of are negative - this is still vague. More: When this happens, check resource utilization on the computer in Task Manager / Performance for too few resources available. Check also if some process uses too much memory, and the amount of empty space on the system disk. For good measure run [sfc /scannow](https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2895-sfc-command-run-windows-10-a.html). – harrymc Jan 05 '17 at 10:24
  • All resource usage was fine, no processes using abnormal amounts of memory or disk, and there is plenty of empty space on disk. I ran a scan and it found no issues. – Eliezer Jan 05 '17 at 14:46
  • When this happens, try to reset the graphics driver with (1) Win+Ctrl+Shift+B. (2) In Device Manager right-click the GTX and Disable - it will revert to VGA - then Enable. (3) [this answer](http://superuser.com/a/668972/8672). If option 1 does not work, the others might be superfluous. – harrymc Jan 05 '17 at 15:44
  • See also [How to Reset a Nvidia Graphics Card](https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-reset-a-nvidia-graphics-card). – harrymc Jan 05 '17 at 15:52
  • If no above tips help, you can go the hard way, i.e. start swapping your hardware piece by piece and after each change re-test the behavior. This is slow way, but it will allow you to narrow down your search to specific component, presence of which could lead to problem. I am not saying there is a hardware problem (it could still be drivers) but I show another step in systematic troubleshooting. This is sometimes still cheaper than deeper analysis - like driver debugging - which could be beyond what you can afford. – miroxlav Jan 05 '17 at 16:12
  • The hardware swapping is pointless since it's only happening after a long uptime. That's why when it happens the fix needs to be applied without restart in order to verify that indeed it fixed the problem. – bug-a-lot Jan 11 '17 at 13:28
  • Is this still happening for you? – bug-a-lot Mar 08 '17 at 08:55

1 Answers1

3

The fact that audio files don't play either suggests to me that the audio drivers might be the culprit.

It is possible that during a Windows update, the audio drivers got changed to Microsoft's drivers. Try to switch them over to your mainboard manufacturer's published drivers instead if that's the case.

It may also be the case that an update may cause the drivers to malfunction after a while, you could also check if there's an update for them.

If that's not the case you can check the video drivers too - make sure you're using NVidia's drivers not Microsoft's.

UPDATE:

You can also check some possible fixes here -> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/no-sound-7-tips-fix-audio-issues-windows-10/

Especially the Windows Audio service one. Although, that guy should produce a log event when stopping unexpectedly.

UPDATE 2

Try to see if you have updates for your mainboard drivers. And also if you have an update for the BIOS, because it looks like some really low level problem.

Reference: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2896941/audio-crashing-audiodg-issue.html

bug-a-lot
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  • I checked that but it was the Realtek audio driver not the Microsoft one. I tried the Microsoft one as well and that didn't work either. Updated the Nvidia drivers to the latest (Nvidia already was), but that did the help either. – Eliezer Jan 05 '17 at 14:49
  • For the audio drivers, you didn't find any updates from the mainboard manufacturer? I'm assuming they're integrated audio, don't think you specified that. Also, if possible, try to see if playback works with a USB headset after setting that as default audio device. – bug-a-lot Jan 05 '17 at 17:29
  • The audio information is specified at the bottom of my system information. I tried switching the playback device to the GPU (HDMI) but that didn't work either. – Eliezer Jan 05 '17 at 17:53
  • In that case it might just be the Windows Audio service. – bug-a-lot Jan 05 '17 at 18:04
  • I'll have to wait until it happens again to try out some of those suggestions. Thanks! – Eliezer Jan 06 '17 at 02:11
  • Try restarting the audio service next time this happens and see if that resolves the issue. If so, then at least we know what we're dealing with. If not, try restarting some other services that could be related – Blaine Jan 06 '17 at 15:26
  • See my update regarding the audio service in the question. – Eliezer Jan 22 '17 at 08:51
  • Updated my answer. – bug-a-lot Jan 24 '17 at 22:54