FxSound breaks and loud static plays

[frolof]

OS: Windows 11 Home

So at least once per day this happens, and I have no idea why.
The program normally works fine and without issue and it improves my experience without a doubt. Especially after I bought myself a new PC where I cannot even enhance sound anymore.

But here’s the issue. I could be listening to something. Music, playing a game, watching shows. Then suddenly the only sound that comes out of my headset is a LOUD static, a proper KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

To fix I have to quit and restart FxSound. Always a real jumpscare when this happens.
Why does this happen and how do I fix this?

Thanks!

[doolhoofd]

Good evening frolof,
Honestly, I am as much at a loss as yourself as to why this is happening; but let me start by asking some questions:

• Does this also happen when the main purple Power button is set to Off?
• Does this happen with any and all of your audio devices?
• Why can’t you enhance sound on your PC?

Second thing I’m going to do, is paste a general list of settings I’d like you to check (don’t worry, it won’t take long):

• In the Help section of FxSound’s Settings menu, check to make sure you have the latest version installed (v1.1.17.0), available from fxsound.com or the Microsoft Store;
• In the General section of FxSound’s Settings menu, if you don’t need it, please try unticking the box for automatic switching and see if this improves the situation;
• Make sure your computer has received the latest updates;
• Try running FxSound as Administrator;
• In Windows Sound Settings, make sure all your devices match at the same frequency setting, with “24 bit 48000 Hz” being the maximum;
• In Windows Sound Settings, make sure the FxSound device is set as the Default Device;
• If this doesn’t work, try setting FxSound as the Default Communications Device;
• In Windows Sound Settings, disable Exclusive Mode for all devices (Playback ànd Recording);
• In Windows Sound Settings, disable all Enhancements including Loudness Equalization for all devices (except for FxSound which doesn’t have this tab);
• In Windows Sound Settings, disable Hardware Acceleration;
• In Windows Sound Settings, disable all devices you don’t use and/or need, Playback ànd Recording, including the hidden ones;
• If all else fails, try uninstalling the program, downloading it from a different source, and installing that version.

Another general piece of advice by @vincent I always include:

@vincent

I would also recommend downloading specific software for your headset if there’s any applications on the company website. For example. I just recently got a new phillips headset and downloaded the software for it and with some tweaking I haven’t had my issue come back since then. good luck

Also, below is a post from a user who had a similar problem:

@Dillon

I’ve experienced a similar issue where FX Sound builds up static and becomes unbearable to listen and just one occasion when it did lost the sound. I used to experience this issue in games such as Battlefield BFBC2/BF3 and most of the time it came down the CPU/RAM resources.

The solution to this for me was to restart the FX Sound application in Task Manager. The sound would return to normal right after. I suspect this releases whatever resources were overflowing and purges whatever buffers have exhausted itself.

For me, in Windows 7/8/9x/10x when the sound suffers from static buildup, I stop and restart the Creative Sound Service and this ends the crackling/humming/reduced volume issues. You should know that in the past Windows 10 would also override the custom drivers with it’s own Windows Update drivers.

I tend to uninstall the default Windows / Windows Update WHQL outdated sound drivers via the Device Manager and favour the one from the manufacturer.

NOTE: If the latest official sound drivers are installed, sometimes uninstalling without driver deletion then allowing Windows to redetect/reassign it after reboot also helps to correct issues. You can reference Google to find out how to stop Windows from Updating and switching drivers to it’s own outdated WHQL defaults.

NOTE: I reboot PC on a regular basis so I wouldn’t experience this sort of issue often due to force of habit and given the need to release a file handle lock for impossible to delete files. I’m aware that terminating Explorer.exe often resolved file locking and such but not all the time. A neat tool to use would be SYSINTERNALS ProcessExplorer tool to find that hidden process thread that’s causing resource spike within the sound driver service or FX Sound application.

And, to conclude, here’s a post by a former regular which could perhaps also be of use to you, especially the advice about looking through the Windows Error log - a screenshot, or even a simple verbal summary of the event, would be very helpful in the effort to troubleshoot it, for example.

@PLEASE_DELETE

01.) I would agree when you say, something that happens with an application on one system but not another is most likely related to that specific system! However, sadly in IT there are THAT MUCH variables always around an issue, that there is plenty of possible causes left. Alone that one needs to not forget obvious things like cables and what not, especially with PC audio issues, can drive you mad!

02.) FxSound is installed as a sound device like any other like a discrete sound card, your motherboards sound-chip and so forth. This is the basis. It normally then sits between your real audio device and the applications playing audio and does its magic “in the middle”. When you disable the FxSound sound device, of course everything else related to it is also gone; this can be compared to removing a sound card from the system or at least unistalling its driver so it could not be used anymore. This is the driver/device part of it. The FxSound application then simply is the so-called “frontend” or user interface where you set everything to your liking. Maybe it helps when separating things so far and explaning a bit (not knowing how technically experienced you are).

03.) Since you can fix it with simply re-enabling the audio device and restarting the app could point at a cause with FxSound itself - or not! When you have a more “exotic” cause like an imcompatibility with your soundcard or such, this already explains why it happens on system 1 but not system 2.

04.) I would suggest you to try to find a clean basis for further analysis; means, update everything around on the system, especially Windows and the sound card driver (the real one, you wrote already FxSound is updated).

05.) Another thing, when everything is updated could be, doing a BIOS update for the affected system. But BEWARE! This is NOT WITHOUT RISK when you do not know what you are doing! Laptops/notebooks are somwhat custom and all-in-one system where manufacturers often fix general issues that way. You could start by searching your laptops manufacturers knowledge base for known issues in context of sound devices or ask their support.

What we are trying to accomplish is, sorting out as much possible causes as we can with general maintenance so far before going into more specific ones.

Next step, if you want to, try to see if the system “knows” of issues but did not tell you! Therefore, you can look at the categories “system” and “application” in the Windows Event VIewer. You can open it so:

https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/6-ways-to-open-event-viewer-in-windows-10.html

Look for any errors (red-cross-symbol) which might be related to audio devices or FxSound directly. Maybe it does not start correctly at boot time which could fit your description and workaround.

I am afraid, for the time being, we are somehow digging in the dark a bit until we found a hint …

So, here are some things you can try, and I hope to hear back from you shortly with your results.
If your problem is solved, please do let me know;
If not, please also let me know, so we can explore other options.