Windows 10: Audio driver quickly fading in whenever a new sound starts

I'm going to contact Dell to see if they can help me resolve my problem. However, if the problem I'm facing is too difficult for Dell to solve themselves, I'll at least ask them to tell me what brand of soundchip that is integrated within the motherboard, so that I'll be able to contact the maker of the soundchip. I'm sure they'll be able to resolve this problem since they live for making this stuff.

 

@dalchina: What do you mean by FCu or CU? *Confused

 

Hi, sorry, abreviations commonly used here (to save typing!) for
Build 1703 - or 15063 - the Creator's Upgrade - or update (CU)
Build 1709 - or 16299- the Fall Creator's Upgrade - or update (FCU)

1709 is the current one, recently released.

 

Hello BlindPiper and others. BlindPiper, I'll be sending you a private message shortly so we can discuss this further if you like. Hopefully you'll get it.
I recently updated to Windows 10 1709 and have the same problem as described in this thread. But I think I can clear some things up.

While I am also blind, I don't rely heavily on sounds. It's very possible that I miss the fade-ins during normal operation. I do a lot of audio editing though in a program called Gold Wave, and it is there that I notice the fade-ins every time I start playback. As Blind Piper said, it turns clicks into dull thumps, which for serious audio editing is unacceptable, as clicks commonly happen if you perform bad edits.

What I have discovered over the last couple weeks I've had this problem is that you are likely doing little good throwing away your computer or getting a USB sound card. This appears to be something with Wasapi (the main framework Windows has used since Vista IIRC to manage audio). Apparently the fade-ins happen when the device opens, and occasionally a fade-out will happen when the device is closed though I've only had that happen to me in one specific case which I can't reproduce.

The reason I am confident that this is Wasapi and not anything sound card related is that I've tried this across three computers with three different sound cards. One of those sound cards was a Realtech, the other was an IDT Audio card, and the third was a USB plug-and-play sound card. In addition the computer with the IDT Audio card is still using the generic Microsoft HD audio drivers because I never got around to installing the IDT drivers.

With virtually every configuration I was able to test or have other people test for me, the fade-ins did not happen on Win10 1607, and they only started in 1709 (we couldn't test 1703 so I can't tell you how the situation was there). In addition, they all started doing the fades when using Gold Wave set to Wasapi as the audio system, and when Gold Wave was switched to Direct Sound, the fades went away. So I conclude that unless I am totally running in the wrong direction, this is a Wasapi thing. I've seen sound cards do weird things similar to this, but if this particular case was a sound card or driver issue, I would've figured that out by now. I've posted this on the Gold Wave forums.

I have not tested other applications such as Jaws, and as I say, I don't heavily rely on sounds. The fades are not noticeable during day-to-day use for me, or if they are noticeable, they are slight. I will perhaps do some testing later with screen readers and different audio applications to see where the fades happen. I've been told that Reaper (an audio workstation) strangeley doens't have this problem on Wasapi, but I think it may also keep the device open much more often. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I'll do some more testing soon and report my findings.

Hopefully a cause and solution can be known soon!