PC Drivers & Software

[d34dl1n3r]

HD7950

Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.6.3

Windows 10 Pro x64 (Version 1903 - Build 18362.207)

Ever since Windows 10 v1903 was released I have had this issue where the audio skips briefly, just once, upon the start of any audio or video playback. It never happened with all the same hardware and settings with any previous version of Windows 10. I have tried a completely clean reinstall of Windows, trying several different versions of the AMD drivers (each with a clean uninstall/reinstall), double, triple, and quadruple checked every setting/option I can think of. I even set up a dual boot with Windows 10 v1809 and the problem does not exist.

Has to be some sort of incompatibility between Win10 1903 and the AMD drivers. Any thoughts or ideas?

[qwixt]

I assume you are talking about sound through HDMI or display port, but you should identify the exact device and connection that you are talking about.

I had an ASUS internal sound card, and tried an external ASUS DAC, and both of those had a delay when playing sound via SPDIF across different windows versions. It could never play system sounds because the sound was over before the device could play the rest of the sound. I just figured it was an issue with ASUS, as Realtek never had the issue.

1903 was released with this known bug: "Audio not working with Dolby Atmos headphones and home theater"

[d34dl1n3r]

This is via HDMI to a Yamaha RX-A820 A/V receiver. It's also not a delay (but I am familiar with what you're speaking of), it's that it starts playing immediately for a second or two with no delay, then drops out for a second, then back on. All audio and all video. I don't have an Atmos capable receiver or headphones so the 1903 bug doesn't apply to me. I've also tried changing HDMI cables & changing HDMI ports on the Yamaha as well as trying several different audio and video players.

No idea if this is something that AMD can remedy with their drivers, or if it's something only MS can fix within their OS. I tend to think AMD could solve it though, if they want to. I mean, it's been like 7 years since the 7950 was released and the HDMI audio issue with 2D clocks has STILL never been fixed. I believe it was across the entire 7900 series. Every driver update since release I've needed to either manually tinker with AMD user profiles or change the AMD 'PP_SclkDeepSleepDisable' setting in the registry from a 0 to 1 or else the lights on my receiver constantly blink. Other people have continuous random dropouts unless they do this, luckily enough it was only the lights on my receiver that would flash but it bothered me enough to do something about it. LoL. Well enough documented but AMD never did a thing about it.

Perhaps it's all still related to something in the 7900 series along with the 1903 update. Who knows exactly where the problem lies, but it never happened on any other version of Windows. Not 7, not 8/8.1, and not earlier builds of Windows 10.

[qwixt]

Have you tried uninstalling the AMD HD audio driver, and using the generic HD audio driver provided by microsoft? Then you can test if the fault lies with AMD's audio driver.

[d34dl1n3r]

I hadn't thought of that, thanks!

So I went into device manager & did a "Roll Back Driver" on the AMD High Definition Audio Device, which resulted in the following 'from > to' image. Looks like the issues are 100% on the AMD side. Issue is non-existent whatsoever with the generic MS driver. Only problem with just using the generic driver is that it has no 5.1 or 7.1 multichannel support. I can only select Stereo. Any way to fix that? And/or what is the next step to take so AMD can possibly fix this, since it is now proven to be on their end?

[qwixt]

Definitely fill out driver feedback with the information.

You probably have to use the windows settings to set 5.1 output.

How to Configure 5.1 Sound on Windows 10

1. Press Windows key + R to open a Run window and type “mmsys.cpl“. ...
2. Go to the Playback and select your hdmi playback device that is capable of outputting 5.1 sound. ...
3. In the Speaker Setup window, select 5.1 or whatever you want and hit Next.

[d34dl1n3r]

I already tried those settings and unfortunately the only option available is Stereo.

I was going to 'simply' re-enable the motherboards built in Realtek HD Audio and run a separate HDMI cable from that to my receiver, then set my receiver to use the audio from 'HDMI IN 2' with 'HDMI IN 1', but it looks like I can't select HDMI IN 2 as an audio source for HDMI IN 1.

I don't have high hopes of it being fixed by AMD even with my report.

Edit: I have worked around this by disabling 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' in the Windows advance audio settings. The downside is that disabling that option also disables bitstreaming/passthrough of audio in all media players.