Help! Nvidia audio crashing my games!

[Nate_007]

Well I had this issue for a long time now, maybe since early this year. Anyway SOME of my games would crash whenever I feed audio through video card's HDMI out to my monitor speakers. I usually game through my headphones using my sound card so its not a big deal, but it got annoying that even when I try to watch Netflix through the browser with my girlfriend using HDMI audio it would not work and plugin would crash. I would tell her to use my headphones if she wants to watch Netflix.

I have been trying to troubleshoot it and here's what works and not:
OK:
- Alan Wake
- Max Payne 2
- Metro 2033
- MS Fligh
- Sleeping Dogs
- Witcher 2

NOT:
- Arkham City
- Borderlands 2
- Skyrim
- L4D2
- Netflix

Usually games would crash to desktop with different errors, all of them works fine if I use my sound card. Can you guys determine the pattern here? It maybe video card related, but I will also post this at Computer Help thread.

Im using Windows 8, motherboard audio is disabled through bios...

 

[Carfax83]

I've never used that feature before personally, but I presume you're using the latest audio drivers?

 

[Nate_007]

I've never used that feature before personally, but I presume you're using the latest audio drivers?

Yes, everything is updated. Only SOME games does not work through HDMI, so Im trying to figure out the pattern here.

 

[Carfax83]

You're the first person I've ever seen on this forum that actually uses the HDMI audio out feature..

So honestly, I don't think you'll get much help with that here man.

 

[Nate_007]

Yeah its not a big deal, just wondering if Im the only one with this problem. As I said, I usually game with my headphones through my sound card. But obviously I do not want to keep yanking off my 7.1 Headphone connections to switch between external speakers. So my solution is to feed it through HDMI. I usually do this when I listen to music and watching youtube vidoes.

Yes it would also crash when watching netflix browser, anyway I was just very very curious was it started happening because I never used to have this problem.

 

[twjr]

I use the HDMI on my GTX670 to output audio to my audio receiver. I frequently have problems with my receiver not being detected if I switch inputs on the receiver or if I sleep my computer. Different problem and different GPU's but it doesn't surprise me to hear that Nvidia is having other audio problems with HDMI.

 

[tential]

You're the first person I've ever seen on this forum that actually uses the HDMI audio out feature..

So honestly, I don't think you'll get much help with that here man.

It's mindboggling to me that more people don't use it. I mean I guess everyone games through their PC with headphones on or using small little speakers. I guess when I think about it, when I seriously PC gamed, I never would use the setup I'm using now so I'd never notice this issue. It's probably why it goes unfixed for both parties with certain devices/games. Very small amount of people using it.

For the SteamBox to go forward though, it's going to have to be resolved. Assuming Valve really still cares about that.

 

[cmdrdredd]

For me, I run my PC off a monitor and that monitor is not next to my TV and home theater setup. Thus I use s Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 setup for my PC which honestly is pretty nice sound wise.

I would guess more people are like this, or use headphones.

OP: where do these games crash at? Immediately or does it happen after a period of time? How about netflix? If it happens immediately and is not random I can test with my receiver and see how it does.

 

[SolMiester]

How does the audio work when you have 2 x GPU audio?, which once does it select to use for audio?....Have you tried without SLI and tested the HDMI audio?...just curious...

 

[cmdrdredd]

How does the audio work when you have 2 x GPU audio?, which once does it select to use for audio?....Have you tried without SLI and tested the HDMI audio?...just curious...

It detects which input is connected in the control panel and you tell it to output audio from it.

 

[tweakboy]

I wonder if audio decreases your framerate ?

 

[Obsoleet]

I use HDMI audio on my Radeon 5870 almost everyday. Never had a problem.
I've also used audio over DisplayPort to my monitor's speakers. Same thing, no issues.

If you continue having issues with this and the latest drivers don't work, try a set that's a year old. Just to see if Nvidia broke it in the drivers. It happens.

If not, and you want this feature to work I can vouch for the Radeons working if you buy AMD.

I use the HDMI on my GTX670 to output audio to my audio receiver. I frequently have problems with my receiver not being detected if I switch inputs on the receiver or if I sleep my computer. Different problem and different GPU's but it doesn't surprise me to hear that Nvidia is having other audio problems with HDMI.

Yup. I posted a question a while back if Nvidia had caught up to AMD on the HDMI audio front, since they traditionally lagged there. And everyone said 'yup yup, no problems here!'
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=34947959

Stop feeding and buying into the Nvidia superiority/driver hype folks. It's not reality.

 

[Termie]

I don't have a solution for you, but I can confirm that I had a number of problems with the Nvidia HDMI drivers even though my monitor doesn't have speakers - the HDMI drivers would cause bluescreens on waking from sleep, so I do a manual install and omit the HDMI drivers every time I update my Nvidia drivers.

If you want a cheap work-around, why not get some $20 desktop speakers? They're sure to be better than what your monitor has, and won't take up much space.

As an aside, I use HDMI audio exclusively on my Radeon-equipped HTPC, and I've never had a problem with it. I would be pretty annoyed if that didn't work, so I feel the OP's pain, but at least he has the option of adding speakers.

 

[Nate_007]

It used to work, I'm trying to think hard what changes I made few months back. I don't know whats conflicting the audio drivers. It used to work, thats what bothers me. Could be hardware related, I have the system in SLI and I will try removing one card and swapping it out.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Could you tell me if it crashes immediately, black screen, no sound, restarts your PC, etc.

What happens when you open those games you mentioned that do not work properly and try to play? Does it happen immediately?

I would test it out and see if I have the same problem(s).

 

[Nate_007]

Could you tell me if it crashes immediately, black screen, no sound, restarts your PC, etc.

What happens when you open those games you mentioned that do not work properly and try to play? Does it happen immediately?

I would test it out and see if I have the same problem(s).

It doesn't restart my PC, just the application crashes and gives me some kind of error depends on the game. I will post screen shots later on with these errors.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It doesn't restart my PC, just the application crashes and gives me some kind of error depends on the game. I will post screen shots later on with these errors.

Ok and I'll see if I can reproduce any of them.

 

[Nate_007]

Ok and I'll see if I can reproduce any of them.

Btw, sorry incoming noob alert question. how can I show my screenies? Where should I upload them?

 

[cmdrdredd]

I use imageshack myself. They'll give you the link to it after you upload and you use "

" to put it in your post.

 

[thilanliyan]

Try an older driver maybe? Since it USED to work.

 

[Obsoleet]

Yeah I don't know why that recommendation was ignored.

If you continue having issues with this and the latest drivers don't work, try a set that's a year old. Just to see if Nvidia broke it in the drivers. It happens.

Nvidia drivers are problematic, and have been killing cards on and off for the last few years. It's highly likely you updated your drivers, and broke your HDMI audio.

If a 1 year old driver set doesn't fix it, try 1 card. If that doesn't work, buy a Radeon.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Or just wait until I try it with the latest drivers. Probably even try the new win 8.1 preview drivers and see if anything changes there.

With old drivers games won't work to begin with and will be slower than anything with broken SLI to boot. The suggestion to just buy an AMD card is laughable because they have HDMI issues too as pointed out in the thread here. Plus other forums have had issues popping up here and there since last year.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2329407

Old drivers is NOT a solution when it breaks everything else you use a GPU for.

 

[Obsoleet]

We have multiple people in this very thread that use HDMI audio on a Radeon frequently.. and no one is complaining.
You link 1 post, with no responses, which could be ANYTHING including Windows audio output selection. That's what's laughable.

Who says older drivers break everything? Newer drivers break things too, dontcha know?
If you keep your Nvidia card drivers up to date, on average you might burn your card up once every few years, if you update to newer Nvidia drivers 'half-haphazardly'-
2010 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/warning-nvidia-196-75-drivers-can-kill-your-graphics-card/7551
2011 http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=341316
2013 http://modcrash.com/nvidia-display-driver-damaging-gpus/#.UbYHnpzai36

Find me that level of a problem with AMD. Or evidence that there's a systemic problem with Radeon HDMI audio (or DisplayPort audio) and you might have a point.

Until then, everyone in this thread that has a Radeon has reported no issues, and the Geforce guys are reporting problems. Sounds like making the switch to a Radeon would clear it up, but if you want to stick your head in the sand be my guest.

Warning issued for threadcrapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[cmdrdredd]

Google it yourself, I'm not here to do the work for you. There's many threads out there.

If you use old drivers then some games won't run or will crash, games will run slow and might error out and you'll still be unable to determine a fix, SLI will break for many newer titles. Running drivers from last year is not a solution as I said.

You bring nothing relevant to the conversation, & no solutions. You run hardware from 5 years ago, I would hope drivers would have no problems by now

 

[rgallant]

I see you have 580sli
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=586183
-I had a issues where win7 kicked my sound card out from being the default sound device ,and I had so many sound device [8?] thanks to the sound hardware on 580's
-my system would blue screen every 2 days only at idle for 10 minutes ,get up go to the can and come back to a blue screen , drove my nuts until I found that link above.[post 26]
maybe check [right click speaker icon -play back devices]your sound devices and disable the ones you don't use in device manager.