Strange SB bug

[opaqueice]

I've had my SB3 for several months, and it has worked beautifully. However this morning I was listening to music through the SB and working at my computer, and suddenly my computer monitor reset itself (turned off and then on again immediately). All the applications I had running kept working fine. At the same time the sound from the SB changed completely - it was still playing, but with very heavy distortion. It sounded a bit like a faint radio station with lots of static. This was through the analogue outs - I checked both digital outs, and there was no sound at all.

Restarting the computer had no effect, but unplugging/plugging the SB fixed the problem (thankfully!).

Has anyone else experienced this? Because of the computer monitor resetting, I'm inclined to think it could have been a minor power surge that caused this, but I didn't notice the lights flicker or dim (but there was a lot of sunlight in the room and I might not have noticed that).

[Skunk]

Like a self fullfilling prophecy- I read your post earlier while the stereo was warming up, only to have the same happen to me.

I had the volume pretty high, and was fairly entranced by the music, then suddenly all music stopped and faint static from the speakers. The PC in the other room shut down, and I thought the lights may have flickered, but my roommate sitting near me but facing away said they didn't. I believe the washer may have switched to spin cycle at the same moment, the dryer continued to run.

Having read your post I jumped up and unplugged re-plugged SB and was greeted by the display and no static 'at all' (amen to the thankfully).

The PC reset makes me suspect a surge, but I heard the same static you described sans music- which seems strange for a surge. I was using the coax out to a DAC, which along w/ SB is plugged into a surge protector that didn't trip.

It did have to be a surge though, didn't it?

[opaqueice]

Like a self fullfilling prophecy- I read your post earlier while the stereo was warming up, only to have the same happen to me.

I had the volume pretty high, and was fairly entranced by the music, then suddenly all music stopped and faint static from the speakers. The PC in the other room shut down, and I thought the lights may have flickered, but my roommate sitting near me but facing away said they didn't. I believe the washer may have switched to spin cycle at the same moment, the dryer continued to run.

Having read your post I jumped up and unplugged re-plugged SB and was greeted by the display and no static 'at all' (amen to the thankfully).

The PC reset makes me suspect a surge, but I heard the same static you described sans music- which seems strange for a surge. I was using the coax out to a DAC, which along w/ SB is plugged into a surge protector that didn't trip.

It did have to be a surge though, didn't it?

That sounds the same - on my coax out there _was_ a little bit of static, but much fainter than the analogue out (and with no music audible).

I guess the primary suspect is a surge or temporary outage (would your PC have restarted if it was an outage?), but you have to wonder if this isn't some rather serious bug...

[Skunk]

I guess the primary suspect is a surge or temporary outage (would your PC have restarted if it was an outage?)

Not sure really. Just now I jostled the cord on the PC until it shut down, and it didn't restart automatically. Same behavior as yesterday actually- (had to flip the rocker switch in back, then use the power button in front).

I should have tried with Slimserver running, to try getting static again...

[opaqueice]

Not sure really. Just now I jostled the cord on the PC until it shut down, and it didn't restart automatically. Same behavior as yesterday actually- (had to flip the rocker switch in back, then use the power button in front).

I should have tried with Slimserver running, to try getting static again...

Yeah, I think that's the usual behavior. As for static, a few times my computer has crashed, or been shutdown, and the SB keeps playing for a few seconds until it uses up its buffer, and then simply stops - no static.

But I suppose a surge could have less predictable effects.

[Mark Lanctot]

It did have to be a surge though, didn't it?

Could be a power dip of a few milliseconds.

A lot of power supplies, including PC power supplies, have enough capacitance to be able to cruise through such a dip. I believe the capacitor in the SB power supply section (on the board, there isn't room for anything substantial in the wall wart) is for filtering.

[Skunk]

Could be a power dip of a few milliseconds.

I think you're right, surge was the wrong word.

As noted, the washing machine went into spin cycle when it happened- along with the dryer, AC, stereo, and every light in the house running near peak hours on the grid- which must have caused the PC to lose juice momentarily. Quite the opposite of a surge I suppose.

It does seem odd that the buffer didn't play out though.

[jonheal]

Often, when the monitor "resets" itself, the GPU on the video card has crashed (for whatever reason ...). If you have an ATI video card and you have installed the Catalyst drivers, by default, the GPU will restart itself when it crashes. I think it keeps a log somewhere, too, of the event. Or it might appear in the Windows Event Log (if you're on Windows).

I don't know about other graphic cards.

[opaqueice]

Often, when the monitor "resets" itself, the GPU on the video card has crashed (for whatever reason ...). If you have an ATI video card and you have installed the Catalyst drivers, by default, the GPU will restart itself when it crashes. I think it keeps a log somewhere, too, of the event. Or it might appear in the Windows Event Log (if you're on Windows).

I do have an ATI card, and I think that GPU recover function is enabled, so that sounds reasonable. I'll look for a log when I get a chance later this week - if that's what it was I suppose it can't have had anything to do with the SB, and was probably a power problem.

[Mark Lanctot]

It does seem odd that the buffer didn't play out though.

Well if there was a brief (millisecond) power interruption the buffer may have been cleared.