Odd sound problem - Windows 7

vyle

Sometimes, If I'm playing a video in chrome or firefox and I've got another browser open, one window will retain the sound, while the other will mysteriously mute.

I thought the problem was because windows had ticked the option under audio devices for "allow application to take exclusive control of this device" so I unticked it and everything seemed fine.

But it still happens.

I disabled the muting option under "communications" in case THAT was the problem, but still no joy.

The oddest thing is that if the problem does happen, I can fix it by opening "audio devices" but I don't need to change any options, it seems just opening the window helps.

It's pretty bizarre. Possibly related, if I open spotify or something else that uses sounds while another process is using my soundcard, the dominant process seems to reduce the volume of the other process.

Any thoughts?

hubert_cumberdale

i was unaware that you can ever play sound from two browser windows simultanously. i thought it would always play sound from the active window

exup

possible check to see if your sound device drivers need updating, or direct X?

vyle

LAtest drivers are installed, and my sound card can play multiple windows... with some of the adverts that plague websites now (when I'm not using firefox) it can get a bit of a din.