SPDIF out changing from digital to analog all by itself

[Chumplybum]

hi, after quiet some time of my MCE running smoothly in the past day or so something strange has been happening with the sound.

i run the sound out of the onboard spdif out into a pioneer reciever. The problem with the sound is that it drops out randomly quiet a few times every minute. I've norrowed the problem down to something todo with the signal being outputted by the onboard sound. When the sound drops out, the reciever switches from a digital signal to analog for a split second then back to digital (the reciever is set to automatically pick which signal to use)

so i guess the question is, is my onboard sound about to give up or is the something else going on???

ps. i'm using RealTek AC'97 drivers with digital out

any help would be great

cheers

Mark

[MagpieMDP]

I have almost exectly the same issue. I don't think the SPDIF signal is switching from digital to analogue; I think it is just dropping out very momentarily. When the receiver (mine's also a Pioneer) is receiving the digital signal, all the correct digital lights show up, but twhen the signal is cut, it thinks no signal=analogue signal. You can test this by unplugging the SPDIF cable while it is pumping out a digital signal. The receiver will show Pro Logic instead of DD.

Now, if anyone can explain how to stop the Realtek SPDIF connection from dropping out every minute or so, I would be a happy man.

Mike

[Gavebo]

Does the sound drop out without you pressing anything?

I have a Pioneer VSX D712 receiver hooked up to my realtek onboard audio via SPDIF.
I can get these drop outs when the signal changes, but this only happens when i'm flicking between applications and thus is not noticeable.
I think it may have to do with the receiver pausing when it has to start processing a different sample rate.
If i go into my Windows audio settings and choose a default output of 2 channel, 16-bit, 48000Hz and then 'test' it will play a chime on the left speaker and then the right. If then i change it to , say, 2 channel, 16-bit, 44100Hz and hit 'test', the inital chime on the left speaker will be chopped in half whilst the later chime on the right speaker will be fine. If i hit 'test' again on this sample rate the chimes will then play perfectly on both speakers. i figure it is because the receiver takes a split second to adjust to these changes but once it does it's fine.
Having said all that though i lost all sound completely the other day when i was trying to figure out how to hear the signal from the 'line in' on the computer through the SPDIF out. it only came back after i unistalled the sound device from the windows device manager and rebooted -- this could be the answer.