Is ASIO flaky, or is it my sound card?

[rangen]

I am running an M-Audio Audiophile 192 card in a modern PC running Vista Ultimate (SP2, I think). When I run with the ASIO S/PDIF output on this card, after hours or days of the usual assortment of playing stuff on iTunes, Windows Media, and random Youtube stuff, it just goes dead, and only rebooting will make my sound come back.

If I run the USB output to my DAC, then it's utterly reliable.

So, what's going on here? I've read something to the effect that ASIO is inherently flaky like that, unable to recover from certain error conditions or something. Or is it my sound card drivers? M-Audio is respected, but I've inferred that it's not exactly the pinnacle for driver quality. Would I be better off with a different sound card?

If anyone has run into this issue, or has any insights, I'd sure be grateful for the help.

[FasterThanEver]

> after hours or days of the usual assortment of playing stuff on iTunes, Windows Media,
> and random Youtube stuff,

Those programs don't use ASIO for audio output. They use DirectSound or WaveOut interfaces.

Player programs like J. River Media Jukebox or Media Center, Foobar with a plugin or Winamp with a plugin can send audio through the ASIO interface. Are you using one of those programs?

Bill

[rangen]

Originally Posted by FasterThanEver

> after hours or days of the usual assortment of playing stuff on iTunes, Windows Media,
> and random Youtube stuff,

Those programs don't use ASIO for audio output. They use DirectSound or WaveOut interfaces.

Player programs like J. River Media Jukebox or Media Center, Foobar with a plugin or Winamp with a plugin can send audio through the ASIO interface. Are you using one of those programs?
Bill

I am not. Perhaps you are right. I know I'm using ASIO with Wavelab, for ripping DAT tapes. But when I use the S/PDIF output, I am right-clicking on the speaker icon, and selecting Playback Devices, then S/PDIF from the M-Audio card. I had remembered that it said ASIO, but that was wrong -- it doesn't.

So maybe the question is: is my M-AUDIO S/PDIF output flaky?

[olblueyez]

v

[rangen]

Okay, I'll give Foobar/ASIO4ALL a whirl. Thanks.

[FasterThanEver]

Originally Posted by rangen

I know I'm using ASIO with Wavelab, for ripping DAT tapes. But when I use the S/PDIF output, I am right-clicking on the speaker icon, and selecting Playback Devices, then S/PDIF from the M-Audio card. I had remembered that it said ASIO, but that was wrong -- it doesn't.

So maybe the question is: is my M-AUDIO S/PDIF output flaky?

What were you doing before SPDIF output stopped?

Were you using Wavelab for ripping DAT tapes and then something else for audio output? The ASIO driver for many soundcards blocks other uses of the soundcard while an application is doing ASIO I/O.

In addition, some ASIO drivers are single session (only one application can use the device at a time) and some applications don't release the ASIO device. Some people find that they have to restart Windows to use the output device from a different application.

You need to note the sequence of actions leading up to the SPDIF problem occurring.

Bill

[rangen]

Originally Posted by FasterThanEver

You need to note the sequence of actions leading up to the SPDIF problem occurring.

Good point. I'll do that. And Wavelab has been crashing on me, if I don't manually stop the recording pretty quickly once silence has come. So I'll bet it's not too good about releasing the device when that happens.