Audio drop outs

from Stardock Forums

Hi, I have used Acoustic Bridge for years and only ever had to fiddle with firewall stuff just to set it up.

I have moved to windows 11 and now have randomn drop outs.

It will work for hours or sometimes only minutes and suddenly just stop.

I setup a batch file to stop and restart the Service on the receiving PC and that will get it working for a randomn period of time.

net stop "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"
net start "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"

I did notice in dbgview when audio is being sent but it has stopped receiving I see these lines being spammed.

If I stop the sending audio the spam stops.

 

Today I removed Acoustic Bridge and installed Multiplicity instead. (trial)

It worked for about an hour before stopping.

Again I see exactly the same lines in dbgview.

The only benefit of multiplicity is that I can just uncheck and recheck "Enable audio sharing" and that seems to restart the audio.

multiplicity
7,082 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forwarded your problem/question/observation to Stardock Support Team for their review and comment. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

When this happens, is there an actual audio output device plugged into the sender (headphones, speakers, etc)?  If so, is audio still coming out of it?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

No, and I don't think the problem is at the sender end.

In my original post above, you can see that I can get it working again in Acoustic Bridge by stopping and restarting the service and when I was using multiplicity (I have since removed it) all I had to do was uncheck and the immediately recheck the "Enable Audio Sharing".

Again, to be clear, these actions were done on the receiver, not the sender.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gotohell_114, reply 3

No, and I don't think the problem is at the sender end.

In my original post above, you can see that I can get it working again in Acoustic Bridge by stopping and restarting the service and when I was using multiplicity (I have since removed it) all I had to do was uncheck and the immediately recheck the "Enable Audio Sharing".

Again, to be clear, these actions were done on the receiver, not the sender.
End of gotohell_114's quote

Sure but I suspect that the same actions could be done on the sender and work as well. 

As a test, if you disable any an all firewalls on both the sender and receiver, can you still get it to reproduce?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Turned off Domain, Private and Public Firewalls on both PCs. (Feel a bit naked)

Drop out still occurred multiple times.

First one took about an hour, second only took about 5 min.

 

You were correct though, using the below commands on the sender did restart the audio each time.

  net stop "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"
  net start "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"

 

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gotohell_114, reply 5

Turned off Domain, Private and Public Firewalls on both PCs. (Feel a bit naked)

Drop out still occurred multiple times.

First one took about an hour, second only took about 5 min. 

You were correct though, using the below commands on the sender did restart the audio each time.

  net stop "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"
  net start "Stardock Acoustic Bridge"
 
End of gotohell_114's quote

Is the connection medium the same for each device; for example, are both wireless?

If at all possible, could the test be done over ethernet?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

I only use ethernet for my PCs.

Is there any way to enable additional diagnostics on either/both ends?

Do the DebugView lines that I posted give any hint?

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forwarded your problem/question again to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gotohell_114, reply 8

Any other ideas?

It is getting very annoying.

Sometimes dropping out every few minutes.
End of gotohell_114's quote

If you have not already, do a full purge and reinstall on each MP PC (its what we have to use for testing I am afraid).

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1347158073/Multiplicity+purging+and+re-installing

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Heya, do you have an equivalent for Acoustic bridge?

I originally had AB installed and was seeing this issue with it.

I uninstalled AB from both PCs and installed the trial version of multiplicity to see if that would solve the problem.

(It had exactly the same issue).

 

I am now back on AB.

Can I ask again please, is there a diagnostic mode for Acoustic Bridge or some way to enable more logging/debugging info?

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting gotohell_114, reply 11

Can I ask again please, is there a diagnostic mode for Acoustic Bridge or some way to enable more logging/debugging info?
End of gotohell_114's quote

No, there is not.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm having a similar issue with the trial version. I'm using low power atom processor on the sending computer and I think the issue may be CPU bound. I was watching a youtube stream when the audio cut out. I paused the video and then about 10 to 15 seconds later a small part of the audio came through but delayed.

 

I didn't have to restart the services(although that does help), I just waited a bit for the CPU to catch up and then was able to play again with some delay. Waited again and audio sync was back to normal.

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting TheRealHirsh, reply 13

I'm having a similar issue with the trial version. I'm using low power atom processor on the sending computer and I think the issue may be CPU bound. I was watching a youtube stream when the audio cut out. I paused the video and then about 10 to 15 seconds later a small part of the audio came through but delayed.

I didn't have to restart the services(although that does help), I just waited a bit for the CPU to catch up and then was able to play again with some delay. Waited again and audio sync was back to normal.
End of TheRealHirsh's quote

See if adjusting these options help with your issue

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager