FIXED Out of the blue my Win11 system now prevents me using anything but 44.1K and stereo

[sandandpaint]

Thanks. One example is rebooting with 48k going fine then going into the bios, not changing anything, exiting. PC boots up and is now back to locked on 44.1. nothing else, nothing installed etc etc. What would that be?

[nix808]

you've tried everything in
settings->system->sound
?
-and you do have the latest interface drivers?

-also have a look in Task Manager ==> Startup apps
To see if an audio app is booting there

Maybe knowing which DAW/Host you have could help too,
it's not a host bug is it?

[sandandpaint]

you've tried everything in
settings->system->sound
?
-and you do have the latest interface drivers?

thanks yeah have the latest drivers - at the moment the only thing that gets the system back to 48kHz is to do a full uninstall of the drivers, reinstall. Done that a few times. At the moment Sound > more sound settings > playback>properties, advanced > uncheck the two boxes about control. That has got it working. I do note however that they are now back to being checked so will see if that has stuffed things up again

EDIT - rebooted and it is back to 44.1 But at least I have a clue to what is going on - for some reason unknown to me, the system resets the unchecked exclusive control sound properties to on and that stuffs things up if I reboot. Problem possibly identified if not actually fixed

[nix808]

maybe Pete can explain that,
or perhaps you've found a bug for MS

You should be able to select the samplerate though
-without a fresh driver install
What is happening here I wonder

[sandandpaint]

maybe Pete can explain that,
or perhaps you've found a bug for MS

hope it can be fixed that is for sure - the workaround at the moment is I wont turn off my computer. See if things are stable with that

and if a bug, a fair compensation for identifying a bug would be about $2k AUS, including compensation for pain and suffering

[nix808]

hehe
we should be paid for working in Windows!

[BertKoor]

I let windows do whatever it wants with the built-in Realtek AC'97.
It won't touch my proper audio interface (via ASIO)

[Pictus]

thanks but sadly none of that is causing the problem. If only it were.

I am glad to help.
Try disabling the built-in audio or doing the opposite, just to test and see if the problem persists.
with https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysin ... s/autoruns
You can check if any program is being loaded at Windows startup, something that might be affecting the audio.

[MMS]

I had the same issue recently. Another problem was that my USB audio interface (Windows default playback device) sometimes didn't pass audio. After some digging, I realized that earlier, I let Windows 11 erroneously install >50 audio drivers and extensions for the built-in Realtek, Intel SST, Nahimic, and A-Volute hardware & software audio devices.

First, I disabled the unneeded built-in audio devices in Device Manager, which fixed it. But sometimes I use the Realtek speakers when streaming TV shows, so I needed to reenable it. So I went into Device Manager, uninstalled all the audio devices, then 'View Drivers by type' and uninstalled all 50+ drivers and extensions manually. Rebooted and let Windows 11 reinstall only what's required. So now Device Manager only shows <20 drivers and extensions installed, instead of 50+. It's been working perfectly for about a month now. And now I don't let Windows Updates install optional updates for audio.

[sandandpaint]

thanks but sadly none of that is causing the problem. If only it were.

I am glad to help.
Try disabling the built-in audio or doing the opposite, just to test and see if the problem persists.
with https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysin ... s/autoruns
You can check if any program is being loaded at Windows startup, something that might be affecting the audio.

thanks for the autoruns link - it may have helped. I had already disabled the Realtek audio but found some Realtek and other processes that were running at startup and deleted them and have now rebooted a couple of times without the return to 44.1kHz. Hopefully that continues. Could have been a recent poorly designed Win update that caused this.
EDIT - I have narrowed the problem down to REWIND from Monkey Audio. It seems to take over and set audio to 44.1 kHz Will not definitely say this is the offending software, and I think this might be only since the latest Win update. Anyway I have uninstalled it which is a drag because it is a handy utility. And I will keep it uninstalled for as long as my system remains stable at 48kHz

[Psychlist1972]

you've tried everything in
settings->system->sound
?
-and you do have the latest interface drivers?

thanks yeah have the latest drivers - at the moment the only thing that gets the system back to 48kHz is to do a full uninstall of the drivers, reinstall. Done that a few times. At the moment Sound > more sound settings > playback>properties, advanced > uncheck the two boxes about control. That has got it working. I do note however that they are now back to being checked so will see if that has stuffed things up again

EDIT - rebooted and it is back to 44.1 But at least I have a clue to what is going on - for some reason unknown to me, the system resets the unchecked exclusive control sound properties to on and that stuffs things up if I reboot. Problem possibly identified if not actually fixed

Something like that is generally only going to happen from Windows if Windows sees it as a new device (a USB device without a unique serial number being plugged into a different USB port or hub, for example).

Outside of that, please open Task Manager, click on "Startup Apps" and then post a screenshot of which apps are listed in there. We can start with that.

Pete
Microsoft

[sandandpaint]

you've tried everything in
settings->system->sound
?
-and you do have the latest interface drivers?

thanks yeah have the latest drivers - at the moment the only thing that gets the system back to 48kHz is to do a full uninstall of the drivers, reinstall. Done that a few times. At the moment Sound > more sound settings > playback>properties, advanced > uncheck the two boxes about control. That has got it working. I do note however that they are now back to being checked so will see if that has stuffed things up again

EDIT - rebooted and it is back to 44.1 But at least I have a clue to what is going on - for some reason unknown to me, the system resets the unchecked exclusive control sound properties to on and that stuffs things up if I reboot. Problem possibly identified if not actually fixed

Something like that is generally only going to happen from Windows if Windows sees it as a new device (a USB device without a unique serial number being plugged into a different USB port or hub, for example).

Outside of that, please open Task Manager, click on "Startup Apps" and then post a screenshot of which apps are listed in there. We can start with that.

Pete
Microsoft

Pictus, above, sent me the link to autoruns to check startup apps. That showed a few things but REWIND from monkeyc audio turned out to be the culprit. I have been running that for a while without noticing any problems before but uninstalling that fixed the issue. I am testing fixes with them at the moment and hopefully they can come up with something. If they do I will post back

[Zeisner]

Sysinternal's Autoruns is great. You can find stuff with it Windows always hides from you. I can recommend downloading the whole Sysinternals Suite.

[Psychlist1972]

Great. Lots of problems like this end up being caused by other software. I'm relieved that was the case here as well, as I couldn't think of anything in Windows which would cause this.

Pete
Microsoft

[sandandpaint]

Great. Lots of problems like this end up being caused by other software. I'm relieved that was the case here as well, as I couldn't think of anything in Windows which would cause this.

Pete
Microsoft

still don't know if that is the case - it could be because an MS update broke something the app relied on or could be the app itself. The devs are still trying to pin it down. I assume it is the app itself at this stage. There is definitely something going on with exclusive mode causing the audio sample rate to get stuck when REWIND is used.