Windows lowers volume because of "communication"

Randomly, or at system sound (usb connect for example) Windows 8 lowers the volume of all other sources. (Same problem can exist on windows 7, just look online).

This is happening because of the "communication detection" made to detect phone calls and then lower volume. But in my case it happens all the time without reason as if windows always considers myself in a call.

Sound settings

Do any of you have the same problem? is this a driver issue or a windows issue? I know this has been posted many times but they usually just tell you to turn off the setting above. I'm looking for an explanation or a solution :).

Thanks for your feedback and ideas.

cmplieger

Posted 2012-10-20T13:46:57.463

Reputation: 698

1If you're suggesting it might be a driver issue, which it looks like it is, you might wanna denote your soundcard manufacturer, make, and model. – Sawtaytoes – 2012-10-20T21:52:09.290

Realtek High definition (in Dell xps 15). Driver version: 6.0.1.6312 – cmplieger – 2012-10-21T00:11:23.253

Hmm, I saw a question exactly like this a week or two ago (about Windows 7), but I cannot seem to find it (searching SE is not very efficient). If I recall correctly, it was not solved, but I’ll keep looking in case it eventually found a solution… – Synetech – 2012-10-21T01:07:58.160

It might be this question, though I swear the question had the word suddenly and/or low in it. (There’s also this question.)

– Synetech – 2012-10-21T01:23:49.560

You said that it’s due to the Communications setting, but in the screenshot, it’s disabled. Are you saying it is happening regardless of the setting? If so, then it’s not that since it is disabled; it is something else. – Synetech – 2012-10-21T01:31:31.780

@Synetech no it only happens when it is NOT disabled. Disabling it is the common solution found online. It just lowers the sound even when no voice communication is going on. that is the bug. – cmplieger – 2012-10-22T00:33:53.150

Ah okay, that clears things up. So the question is why Windows thinks communications are occurring when they are not. I note that you said it happens when you plug in USB devices as well. Someone else had the same issue (probably related to the random communication detected issue), but could not find a solution because it stopped happening before they could test. See if changing the sound scheme in the Control Panel to No Sounds has an effect or if it happens with a specific USB device or port.

– Synetech – 2012-10-22T02:51:35.767

The last few entries in this thread might be useful

– harrymc – 2012-10-25T11:55:11.260

nope that did not solve it :( – cmplieger – 2012-10-25T12:18:30.513

This might sound dumb, but have you tried restarting? edit: and disabling startup programs? – Caleb Jares – 2012-10-29T17:26:38.877

of course :) No result – cmplieger – 2012-10-30T00:51:09.097

Possibly the same bug that is detailed in this question, and also mentioned on the MS Community Forum.

– Karan – 2012-11-02T21:11:08.340

Answers

An updated driver was released after a while and now it seems to be working well. Sorry for those without new drivers but there might not be a solution.

cmplieger

Posted 2012-10-20T13:46:57.463

Reputation: 698

If you are playing a multiplayer game (or anything else that sends/receives audio between two computers), it is possible that sometimes windows will detect this as communication. The game is communicating between two PC's sending/receiving audio (and a bunch of other data, but that's irrelevant here), so it makes sense that this can potentially be incorrectly interpreted.

also, I've had this problem before, and I was only able to narrow the potential causes down to a random unexplainable fit that windows (well, all technology eventually experiences this) will go through once in a while since nothing fixed it (except eventual reboot)

So two possible causes are communication with another device being incorrectly interpreted as a call; and random fit (or even just a bug, whether with windows, drivers, another application, etc)

Sylvester the Cat

Posted 2012-10-20T13:46:57.463

Reputation: 478

I saw this problem when playing music and when I receive an instant message.

I believe the driver lowers the volume to prevent sound distortion. Volume lowering does not happen always, it mostly depends on the music I play. Although I do not have the exact data, I feel that the issue always occurs when I listen to certain music files.

To test this idea, you can lower the volume of the sound player in the mixer, and then make Windows to play another sound. If the overall volume is not changed, we've found the reason.
Lowering the master volume can also do the trick.

Alexey Ivanov

Posted 2012-10-20T13:46:57.463

Reputation: 3 900