I am using Vista Ultimate on a new Dell Studio Slim. I am losing all sound after it sits idle for a bit of time and actually seems random. A reboot always solves the problem. I know this is vague but if anyone has suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

A reboot is the only thing that works to get sound working. Disabling and enabling device does not work. I am using an HDMI cable for audio and video. I have an 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 supporting HDMI video card.

I am having the same issue. I have a HP z565 with Vista Ultimate, Nvidia 7600 HDMI card and Realtek HD Audio.

Occasionally when I switch over to my VMC the sound won't be working, or sometimes it will quit on me between movies.

A reboot takes care of it, but its a bit of a hassle to do that all the time.

It seems to coincide with the little yellow warning triangle showing up in te System Notification Area, but it doesn't give me any info if i click, double click or right click on it. There was a few warnings in the System Log, but I don't have it in front of me ATM, so I can't tell you exactly what the errors were.

aboondocksaint:

I am using Vista Ultimate on a new Dell Studio Slim. I am losing all sound after it sits idle for a bit of time and actually seems random. A reboot always solves the problem. I know this is vague but if anyone has suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. A reboot is the only thing that works to get sound working. Disabling and enabling device does not work. I am using an HDMI cable for audio and video. I have an 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 supporting HDMI video card.

I have had problems similar to yours with my Asus HD 3450 card. My solution was to use the original Asus CD for video and the new Realtek ATI HDMI driver, HDMI_R225A, (which, by the way, adds 5.1 audio out). I disabled the MS audio driver (in device manager). Now, my sound works when resuming from S3 sleep! No more restarts needed.

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded the driver and so far so good!

I spoke too soon. Same problem. It seems like the sound is going to sleep and a reboot is needed. Grrrr I am almost there.

Okay a little closer in troubleshooting. I have narrowed the problem down to when I switch from the media center to another input and then switch back is when i lose sound. I receive a error message from ATI that it thinks I am running an HDMI to DVI cable and I am not. I am running straight HDMI. I am using a monoprice 4 port HDMI switch.

Anybody else have this issue?

You could try disabling the "amd external events utility" service - it's a long shot but the service gets mentioned now and again when ati and hdmi are involved.

Type  services.msc  into the run box on the start menu, right click on the service and select properties. Click on stop and then change the startup type to disabled and apply/ok out of the dialog box.

Probably won't help you, but you never know.

I'm guessing this is similar to the blank screen problem that people have where the video gets lost after changing inputs on the tv.

You could try hdmion - it basically refreshes the hdmi connection.  http://thydzik.com/tag/hdmion/

Two other hdmi threads:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/372152.aspx

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/306351.aspx

 

It's the ATI drivers. I had to roll back to an older version. It seems that when the system goes idle the HDMI loses the audio. Just go back to your previous drivers (if you have them), or download the previous ones.

Thanks for all your help! Holidayboy stopping the service is what I tried and all is well so far! My fingers are crossed and I am very optimistic. I think you singlehandedly saved my marriage.

If the problem is sorted, then at least we know what the service was (or wasn't) doing !

 

I can confirm that disabling the ATI service appears to be working for me.  I have an GigaByte MB (MA78GPM-DS2H) with onboard sound/video with RealTek/ATI respectively.  Until today I would put MC into sleep mode (not sure if it is hybrid sleep or not) and when I would wake the system the volume would no longer be going to my TV (LG 52" LCD, connected via HDMI). 

 

Glad I found this site.  Now I don't have to listen to the wife b*tch everytime she turns on the TV only to find no sound!

 

Brian Enderle

Turning off the AMD External Events Utility service made the problem go away. Thank you very much, holidayboy! I'm running Windows 7 x64, by the way.