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InvisiBill
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2003
- Messages
- 2,608
I have the Logitech Z-5500 fed by the optical output on my X58 board. I didn't notice this issue with XP, but on Windows 7 (x64 Pro), it suspends when there is no sound playing. The optical output seems to shut down, causing the Z-5500 to display "No Digital Data" on the screen. When a sound does play, it takes about a second (I think someone mentioned 900ms on another forum) before the Z-5500 resumes and actually plays the sound. This means I'll miss the beginning audio of a video clip, or possibly an entire Windows sound if it's short enough.
The default Win7 drivers seemed to work well enough, so I never bothered looking for updates. I read that some people fixed this issue with newer drivers, so I tried that too, with no change. I eventually found Continuous Silence. It's a simple .NET app that just loops a silent WAV. This keeps the PC sending a signal to the Z-5500, so it doesn't go into its suspend mode, which means there's no delay for it to resume when a sound is played. I now hear every Windows sound and the beginning of any clip I listen to.
I only have experience with my onboard sound and Z-5500, but it should work with any hardware exhibiting the same issues, since it's just a generic silent sound player. Others have mentioned using other apps to do something similar on Macs and such.
The default Win7 drivers seemed to work well enough, so I never bothered looking for updates. I read that some people fixed this issue with newer drivers, so I tried that too, with no change. I eventually found Continuous Silence. It's a simple .NET app that just loops a silent WAV. This keeps the PC sending a signal to the Z-5500, so it doesn't go into its suspend mode, which means there's no delay for it to resume when a sound is played. I now hear every Windows sound and the beginning of any clip I listen to.
I only have experience with my onboard sound and Z-5500, but it should work with any hardware exhibiting the same issues, since it's just a generic silent sound player. Others have mentioned using other apps to do something similar on Macs and such.