Windows 8 turns program sound volume down randomly

I recently upgraded to Windows 8 from Win 7 64 bit and have started to encounter a strange issue. When I have any program running which plays sound, such as a game or spotify, after a random interval (usually around 5-10 minutes) the program sound will set itself really low.

If I Alt-Tab to the desktop and check the Mixer I can see that the Application volume has automatically set itself really low - the other volume levels (i.e. the Device speakers) stay the same. I'm able to just set the application volume back to a reasonable level and it stays that way for another 5 - 10 minutes then goes quiet again.

My sound is Realtek High Definition Audio and my machine is an Acer Aspire 5738G if that helps in any way.

Any help much appreciated!

peacemaker

Posted 2012-11-11T01:13:52.910

Reputation: 895

Answers

122

This is often caused by Windows thinking (often incorrectly) you are running an application that uses a microphone/telephony, and lowers other sounds for you.

Try the following to disable this behavior:

In the Start menu, search in the Settings category (Win+W)for "Change Sound Card Settings".
In the Communications tab, change "When Windows detects communications activity" to Do nothing.

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mtone

Posted 2012-11-11T01:13:52.910

Reputation: 11 230

Works for windows 7 too! – JJS – 2014-12-08T18:02:07.557

@danijar They probably implemented it before Microsoft did and never bothered to disable it for Win8 and later. – RobH – 2017-02-24T22:08:40.633

Thanks for that, I'll give it a try now and mark the answer if it works :) – peacemaker – 2012-11-11T03:08:02.183

2Right there with you FailBoy, this was bothering me ever since I installed Win8 a few weeks ago. The intention of this function might be good, but it's implemented very poorly. I connected my wireless mouse dongle and it lowered the volume. The same when I disconnected my external HDD. Thanks mtone! – gligoran – 2013-07-31T21:57:13.927

Wow. I thought that I was just going deaf. Good find. – kobaltz – 2013-08-10T02:48:18.277

1This was driving me nuts, I'd be watching a Youtube video and the sound would suddenly cut out. Thought it was a bug in the Drivers and tried updating, reinstalling. but it kept happening. Can't believe it was so simple, yet buried into oblivion. Yet another terrible design decision by Microsoft. Makes me want to switch back to Linux, despite needing Windows for work. – japzone – 2013-10-07T03:42:36.063

There seems to be more to this functionality than this one Communications setting. I have had this turned off for a while and still experience very heavy handed volume mixing depending on what applications I open. – Jeff Swensen – 2013-11-05T22:04:56.523

1I set this option but it didn't helped. In the end, it was caused by a very similar Lenovo feature called "Optimize sound effects for voice communications" which can be turned off in the settings app. Don't know why they cross implemented a Windows feature, though. – danijar – 2013-12-26T13:13:57.757

2Thank you so much for this. I wonder why this setting got enabled in the first place... – Ian Macalinao – 2014-01-13T00:53:55.967

Be sure to check other communication applications as well. I found that Mumble was actually the cause of this after trying to disable this. – narkeeso – 2014-05-27T05:53:36.303

Similar to mtone and danijar, I had this issue with a something that was modifying the volume in an attempt to keep it constant. It was a program called "Dolby Digital Plus" which has an option called "Volume Leveler". I opted to turn the whole program off tho - problem solved!

I did notice lots of my music had very different volumes, but I go through them and change their volume as I come across them.

B T

Posted 2012-11-11T01:13:52.910

Reputation: 603

Ugh, I've noticed my volume being leveled again, and I still have Dolby off. I don't know what this new garbage is, but its been a while since I've had this problem. – B T – 2015-11-06T00:08:03.653

It seems my original problem is an issue with Razer blade's specifically (or possibly machines with Dolby Digitla Plus specifically): http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/volume-level-problem-with-the-razer-blade-14-2014.753457/

– B T – 2015-11-06T00:12:00.910