Recommended Posts

This happens to me sometimes, especially when I have Skype running; I think it has to do something with the default sound device and their respective drivers.

Ok, that might be the case. I have Skype running as well. But I have disabled reducing the volume when communication is active. The default there is 80%.

Tfivs.png

^^ How do you get that dialog to appear... and where does it appear?!

It's supposed to display if you press the volume keys on your keyboard (or tablet). I've got a logitech keyboard with SetPoint installed, and it won't display with the volume keys, just with pressing the play/pause button on the keyboard (which doesn't actually pause). It will display in the top left corner of the window when you get it.

Not sure if this should go in a separate thread or not, but has anyone else had issues with playing Zune Pass downloaded music in the Xbox Music App (or vice versa)? It seems it actually sets them with a different drm provider, so even though the account and subscription work in both apps, they can't license the music. It's a bit annoying since I have a bunch of stuff downloaded through Zune that I would have to re-download through Xbox Music to be able to play...

It's supposed to display if you press the volume keys on your keyboard (or tablet). I've got a logitech keyboard with SetPoint installed, and it won't display with the volume keys, just with pressing the play/pause button on the keyboard (which doesn't actually pause). It will display in the top left corner of the window when you get it.

Not sure if this should go in a separate thread or not, but has anyone else had issues with playing Zune Pass downloaded music in the Xbox Music App (or vice versa)? It seems it actually sets them with a different drm provider, so even though the account and subscription work in both apps, they can't license the music. It's a bit annoying since I have a bunch of stuff downloaded through Zune that I would have to re-download through Xbox Music to be able to play...

Yes the Zune/Xbox music problem ****es me off to no end. I just use the music app for streaming.

Ok, that might be the case. I have Skype running as well. But I have disabled reducing the volume when communication is active. The default there is 80%.

As far as I have noticed, whenever I enter a Skype call (desktop app), the Music app immediately gets quieter to a point in which I can barely hear it. The Music app then proceeds to work normally when I close Skype.

EDIT: The volume of the Music app gets extremely quiet when I switch from the app to my desktop (with Skype), then volumates (yeah, vol-ume-mates) back to normal when I switch back to the app.

I had what I believe to be the same issue also with the sound. I would be streaming music from the metro Xbox music app and go to the desktop, that?s when the audio from that app would get quieter like background music and no volume setting was changed.

My mainboard is an Asus P6X58-E WS which has a Realtek ALC889. I noticed this issue sometime after I installed the drivers for them. Windows 8 doesn?t seem to power down the computer anymore and puts it into what I believe is an S5 sleep state. I think this was a sound driver save state issue of some kind with the fast startup feature in Windows 8. Anyways I believe I remedied the issue by actually shutting down the computer.

Pick your solution:

  1. Hold shift when clicking reset to get the recovery option and choose ?Turn off my computer?.
  2. Hold shift when clicking shutdown to skip fast startup.
  3. Disable ?Turn on fast startup? under power options and ?Define power buttons?? (This might be good if the issue keeps reoccurring)
  4. Use the regular shutdown and unplug or hit the power switch on your power supply.

Options 1, 2 confirms an actual shutdown on my computer. I have a sidewinder x6 keyboard and when I do the regular shutdown and press a key the red LED lights blink, which is kind of cool.

After my computer did a cold boot I didn?t have any more sound issues, at least not yet. If this doesn?t work, oh well it?s new and hopefully something gets fixed. I also claim to not know much, if anything about computers. I don?t believe all mainboards support S5 so that could explain why other people aren?t getting the same issue.

I got that problem too but it's not regular - after boot the app works fine, I can send it to the background and it will play music fine. But after some time it becomes so quiet that I can barely hear it and it won't fix until I reboot the computer. Problem is, I didn't start Skype or any other voice communicator a single time while running Music app.

I got that problem too but it's not regular - after boot the app works fine, I can send it to the background and it will play music fine. But after some time it becomes so quiet that I can barely hear it and it won't fix until I reboot the computer. Problem is, I didn't start Skype or any other voice communicator a single time while running Music app.

Did you plug in any other devices? The Music app exhibits the same problem whenever I plugin my Zune device.

Check the Sound > Communications settings. If you have an another application that uses your microphone or some other voice/sound/communication-related device, Windows will automatically reduce sounds from other applications in order to give the communication app (like Skype, for instance) priority. This is on be default and needs to be disabled. I've found that it usually works fine, but every so often it'll reduce my volume when it shouldn't, because another app is being defined as 'communicating'.

Check the Sound > Communications settings. If you have an another application that uses your microphone or some other voice/sound/communication-related device, Windows will automatically reduce sounds from other applications in order to give the communication app (like Skype, for instance) priority. This is on be default and needs to be disabled. I've found that it usually works fine, but every so often it'll reduce my volume when it shouldn't, because another app is being defined as 'communicating'.

I checked that in the options, you can actually turn that off which I'd done. I closed Skype and opened the Music app again, began playing music and left the app. The music now plays at full volume out the app. I opened Skype after music began playing and it seems to be sorted. Whether it was a bug or because I opened Skype AFTER Music I'm not sure. But it's fixed now.

I checked that in the options, you can actually turn that off which I'd done. I closed Skype and opened the Music app again, began playing music and left the app. The music now plays at full volume out the app. I opened Skype after music began playing and it seems to be sorted. Whether it was a bug or because I opened Skype AFTER Music I'm not sure. But it's fixed now.

On my system, music volume is reduced only when I get a call on Skype.

I checked that in the options, you can actually turn that off which I'd done. I closed Skype and opened the Music app again, began playing music and left the app. The music now plays at full volume out the app. I opened Skype after music began playing and it seems to be sorted. Whether it was a bug or because I opened Skype AFTER Music I'm not sure. But it's fixed now.

I hate to say this again, but maybe it's a driver and or app issue? It sounds like it's by design, i.e. you go into another communications app like skype or something so the music volume goes lower, sounds good. But maybe there's a mixup and apps or the audio driver don't handle it right all the time? It seems this does in fact work fine for some people, it only lowers when skype kicks in with a call etc.

  • 4 weeks later...

McKay,

I noticed you have steam running. If you initiate voice chat in it it will lower your volume and seems like it will glitch out and leave it that way. If you close out steam your volume should return to normal. At least this worked for me.

Windows 8 RTM

Asus P8z68-V PRO/GEN3

Core i5 2500k OCed to 4.5Ghz

Corsair Hydro 80 watercooling

8GB DDR3 2133 (Oced to 2200)

ATI Radeon HD 7850

x2 250GB HDDs Raided, 1TB, and 750GB HDDs

Raidmax 850W Modular PSU

Hooked to an LG55LW6500 HDTV

McKay,

I noticed you have steam running. If you initiate voice chat in it it will lower your volume and seems like it will glitch out and leave it that way. If you close out steam your volume should return to normal. At least this worked for me.

Windows 8 RTM

Asus P8z68-V PRO/GEN3

Core i5 2500k OCed to 4.5Ghz

Corsair Hydro 80 watercooling

8GB DDR3 2133 (Oced to 2200)

ATI Radeon HD 7850

x2 250GB HDDs Raided, 1TB, and 750GB HDDs

Raidmax 850W Modular PSU

Hooked to an LG55LW6500 HDTV

did you try turning off this?

post-62693-0-05056200-1347430948.png

I had this problem in the VM and the standard HDD install :-( The music app is so buggy I can't belive MS let this out.... I can understand a 1 person indie app but for the major corp. MS is it's in-excusable. I wish they would overhaul it and make it less laggy, buggy and think of us all that have more then 200 songs in our entire collection.... hell a 100 song PL is too hard for the music app to deal with. let alone ONE of my 2000+ song playlists like my ENTIRE Future Trance or Dream Dance or my custom "In Love With The Club Mix" series that has 12 vols with 35 tracks per vol. FT has like 40+ tracks per vol and there are now 61 vols and 5 in the mix and a limited edition and 2 best of compilations.... Dream Dance is up to 64 vols!!!!!!! I dare anyone to load a large playlist and let me know how it handles and how painful it is to have a large playlist loaded.

Yes the Zune/Xbox music problem ****es me off to no end. I just use the music app for streaming.

How do you play a stream in music app? I tried to open a web stream playlist file, but it can't play it.

I had this problem in the VM and the standard HDD install :-( The music app is so buggy I can't belive MS let this out.... I can understand a 1 person indie app but for the major corp. MS is it's in-excusable. I wish they would overhaul it and make it less laggy, buggy and think of us all that have more then 200 songs in our entire collection.... hell a 100 song PL is too hard for the music app to deal with. let alone ONE of my 2000+ song playlists like my ENTIRE Future Trance or Dream Dance or my custom "In Love With The Club Mix" series that has 12 vols with 35 tracks per vol. FT has like 40+ tracks per vol and there are now 61 vols and 5 in the mix and a limited edition and 2 best of compilations.... Dream Dance is up to 64 vols!!!!!!! I dare anyone to load a large playlist and let me know how it handles and how painful it is to have a large playlist loaded.

uh...Windows 8 is not released yet. It is perfectly ok for these apps to be buggy (until 10/26/2012).

uh...Windows 8 is not released yet. It is perfectly ok for these apps to be buggy (until 10/26/2012).

not as buggy as they are they act like alpha version apps and windows 8 is far along.... too far along for that....

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • The machines are starting to fight back any way they can.
    • No news articles about the Arch Linux repo being majorly infected with malware?!?
    • Waymo recalls self-driving software after cars enter closed freeway work zones by Paul Hill Waymo, the self-driving car maker owned by Alphabet – the parent company of Google –, has recalled some of its fifth-generation Automated Driving Systems (ADS). It did so after some of its cars drove through closed construction zones. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the affected vehicles were capable of driving through a closed freeway construction zone and continuing to drive at speed. The listing on the NHTSA website says that Waymo is currently developing a solution to fix this issue, but in the meantime, freeway driving is being restricted. Waymo will update its ADS software so that vehicles can detect when they can avoid entering construction zones. According to the Safety Recall Report, on April 20, 2026, Waymo’s Field Safety Committee began meetings reviewing an event from April 11, 2026, and five events from April 19, 2026, where Waymo’s autonomous vehicles didn’t recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into the pre-planned freeway construction zones. This took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Separately, on May 18, 2026, seven Waymo vehicles entered freeway lanes with active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area by driving between cones that were placed to show the lane was closed. On the back of both of these events, Waymo restricted freeway driving until it could address the issue. In June, Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed the issue and additional information related to ADS performances around construction zones; then, as a result, it decided to conduct a recall. This development is not good for Waymo as it adds to a growing list of technical hiccups its cars have experienced. Ultimately, it will lead to more scrutiny from lawmakers around the world who will be more cautious about letting autonomous vehicles on their roads without tighter regulation. For readers in areas where Waymo operates, does this news make you more wary about stepping into one of these vehicles?
    • I'm still on Windows 10 22H2 because I didn't want to deal with all the issues in Windows 11, so I waited almost a week before installing the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5094127), I went ahead and did it, and it was a huge mistake—ever since then, my File Explorer has seen a performance drop of about 30% when transferring large files... Once again, Microsoft has outdone itself! This update cannot be uninstalled, either through the Control Panel (via Settings) or by accessing Advanced Startup Options. The only possible alternative would be to use system restore points, but I’d have to reinstall all app and driver updates (and there’s no guarantee it would work). Or there’s the “nuclear option” of a in-place repair without losing files or apps, but even then, all my customizations would be lost! Microsoft just can’t help but mess everything up! Way to go, Microsoft! But I still don’t want your c****y Windows 11!
    • Microsoft: Windows 11 could finally solve a major issue across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs by Sayan Sen While Microsoft has been trying to improve it, Windows 11 is definitely not flawless, as even today some issues are taking a year to publicly acknowledge. However, one area of trouble that may finally see much better results soon is graphics driver crashes. Work on graphics driver timeouts, also called Timeout and Detection Recovery (TDR), is not new as the latest WDDM 3.2 also has specific improvements regarding it. Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 is supported on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. However, with the upcoming version 26H2, TDR crash diagnosis could go to the next level as Microsoft is introducing a new DirectX 12 API feature called "DirectX Dump Files". Similar to how system memory dump files work when a system crashes or freezes or encounters any such major issue, DirectX Dump Files (DDF) will essentially record a snapshot of the GPU execution right at the moment a graphics-related crash or hang or freeze occurs, so that developers can better understand and diagnoze these TDR and timeout detection errors. The dump will be available as a .dxdmp file for analysis and it will be a comprehensive dump file generated with detailed insights about the hardware, drivers, Windows, as well as the affected application. This should be another welcome change in this department. Earlier at GDC 2026, when the technology was first debuted, Microsoft had shared more details regarding it. The company had explained how DDF is designed to gather data from every layer of the graphics stack into a single file, eliminating the need for developers to manually correlate logs from multiple tools. As mentioned above, the dump can contain a lot of useful details like GPU hardware state information such as register values, shader program counters, page fault virtual addresses, shader memory data, and command buffers. Alongside that, it also captures DirectX runtime and kernel information, including D3D objects, pipeline state objects, device error data, adapter details, and CPU call stacks. Microsoft says the feature has been built around two primary use cases: retail device removals and local device removals. The former allows developers to collect crash information from end users' systems in the field, while the latter helps QA teams and developers investigate issues on test machines. Developers will also be able to include up to 2 MB of custom application data through new D3D12 APIs, providing additional context for troubleshooting. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three dump collection modes ranging from zero-overhead capture, which has no runtime performance impact on supported hardware, to higher-detail modes that collect more vendor-specific debugging data. On compatible Tier 2 hardware, zero-overhead dumps will be enabled by default, meaning developers may begin receiving useful crash diagnostics without making any code changes. The table below explains the three tiers: Tier Description NO_OVERHEAD Enables crash capture with no runtime cost and is suitable for broad deployment MEDIUM_OVERHEAD Provides a balance, capturing additional diagnostic data with moderate impact HIGH_OVERHEAD Collects the most detailed GPU and driver state available, enabling deeper investigation at the cost of higher runtime overhead In terms of availability, the company expects broader release to be around the fall of 2026, which should be right around the time when Windows 11 version 26H2 lands. Right now, DirectX Dump Files are available as a preview and currently, only AMD has the compatible AgilitySDK Developer Preview driver version 26.10.07.02. You can find the official announcement post here on Microsoft's website.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      Skeet Campbell earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Sharbel earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      BizSAR earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      599
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      190
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      79
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      77
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!