FxSound keeps changing output device when laptop goes into standby/sleep mode

[hockeybrez]

What the title says.
This means i get spammed constantly with notifications

I like the app, but I had to uninstall for this reason (and the fact when my laptop goes to sleep, output device changes from headphones to my laptop’s speakers - the sudden loud noise everywhere is not something i, or others around me have enjoyed)

[doolhoofd]

Good afternoon,
This is the main thread on the known issue with sleep mode:

Speaker Output Changes to FX on wakeup with no sound

When my computer wakes up from sleep, my audio device’s speakers is set for the FX program, but I have no sound. I need to choose my speakers over the “FXSOUND” setting every time I wake back up to hear my sound again. Is this a bug that can be addressed or fixed?

So far, no permanent fix has been found, but four actions can be proposed:

• Disable all unneeded devices (including hidden ones) in Windows Sound Settings;
• Disable automatic switching;
• Change the Power settings to make the computer stay awake longer;
• This workaround suggested by user @metanoiance.

Lastly, it would be helpful for troubleshooting purposes if you could run the command @bvijay shared, which I copy-pasted at the bottom of this post.

@bvijay

From FxSound Settings → General, uncheck the option

This will make output switch based on user preference and across sleep/wakeup cycles the user selected output will remain unchanged.

@metanoiance

I wanted to share a simple workaround. Keep in mind that I am not a programmer and this is just a simple batch code I came up with.

Using Notepad I made a text file with the following lines and saved it as .bat.

taskkill /f /im FxSound.exe
cd C:\Program Files\FxSound LLC\FxSound
start /min FxSound.exe

Then I used the default Windows Task Scheduler to run the file on wake-up. Meaning everytime the PC wakes up from sleep or hibernation the FxSound.exe will be restarted. Note that the 2nd line in the .bat file can differ for you depending on where you installed FxSound.

Not the most elegant or ideal solution, but I hope this helps!

@bvijay

I would like to confirm if your PC supports modern standby (S0 low-power idle), and if we have to handle the sleep states differently.
Can you please run this command and share us the output?

powercfg /a

[hockeybrez]

Thank you your fast response. I have reinstalled the program to give these ideas a shot.

@doolhoofd

So far, no permanent fix has been found, but four actions can be proposed:

• Disable all unneeded devices (including hidden ones) in Windows Sound Settings;
• Disable automatic switching;
• Change the Power settings to make the computer stay awake longer;
• This workaround suggested by user @metanoiance.

1. Disabling my laptop’s internal speaker would make sense only if I was 24/7 on the headphones. But re-disabling and re-enabling of those internal speakers each time I plug or unplug headphones isn’t an option
2. This is a shoddy workaround, disables a useful feature, but ok
3. I do not want to ruin my battery life and force a wakeful state forever
4. Also a shoddy workaround, tedious, but ok

All in all, I implemented your suggestions 2 and 4. Seems alright for now, but will need to see after a few days of use.

Are there any methods to prevent users from fiddling with .bat scripts and other hacky solutions? Like save the latest chosen output device to an external file you load from on startup, or handle sleeping without restarting the process, or make a logic similar to the bat internally, idk.

@doolhoofd

Lastly, it would be helpful for troubleshooting purposes if you could run the command @bvijay shared, which I copy-pasted at the bottom of this post.

Sure:

The following sleep states are available on this system:
    Standby (S3)
    Hibernate
    Fast Startup

The following sleep states are not available on this system:
    Standby (S1)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Standby (S2)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Standby (S0 Low Power Idle)
        The system firmware does not support this standby state.

    Hybrid Sleep
        The hypervisor does not support this standby state.

[doolhoofd]

Apologies; if I knew any other solutions, I would have added them in my previous post.
I’ve asked @bvijay to provide further assistance.
He should be getting back to you shortly.

[hockeybrez]

I understand, these solutions seem to work and thank you for taking the time, you provided an exhaustive response.

I’m just confused why some of them aren’t implemented within the program itself.

[doolhoofd]

To understand that, you need to know some of the backstory behind the software.
FxSound, or, as it was previously known, DFX, was originally developed by a team led by James’ father.
James inherited the company after his father’s passing, and the current team behind the software is completely different, as well as much smaller.
So the updates made today are much harder to accomplish, less frequent, focused on the most urgent matters first, and done in tiny, gradual steps.

[bvijay]

Hi @hockeybrez
Your PC is not supporting modern standby (S0 idle) power states. It supports the S3 sleep state in which connected hardware devices like bluetooth and USB audio devices can be turned off. When resuming back to S0 state, the same audio device may not be available and FxSound can selected an available audio device.
If you deselect the option “Automatically switch to newly connected output device”, then FxSound will wait for for the previously selected audio output device to get connected when you resume from standby. Please let us know if this option works for you.

[hockeybrez]

That makes sense, wasn’t aware of the differences between these power states. For now, your suggestion seems to work pretty well.

I don’t know which tools you guys are developing in, but it would be great if you could keep that automatic switching in all cases except “right after waking from sleep” (maybe some delay/sleep upon waking, or pulling device list from a file for the first few seconds idk)