Equalizer APO works awesome, then crashes game and Discord. reboot fix problem.
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Hi.
Just bought Steel Series Arctis 7. They are wireless Headphones with a usb connector. I read the sound would get way better with Equalizer APO so I got it. and YES, Its like night and day and now I cant use it without Eq APO, so really need some help here.
Problem is, I use Eq APO and Peace. and after some time, like 1-2 hours, Fortnite crashes and when it happens, Discord (like "teamspeek/ventrilo") loses the sound . both input and output. And Fortnite have lost the sound too when I start it again. BUT, I still got system sounds.. The problem fix itselfs after a reboot. So it seems Eq APO making Fortnite and Discord crash at the same time. It has not happend with Eq uninstalled. First time I installed EQ APO I selected all the drivers. So I thought it maybe get my graphicsdrivers to crash so I reinstalled it and only picked "Headphones , 2 - SteelSeries Arctis 7 Game, Default Device" but got the same problem. I have tried it without Peace, problem still there. dont know what else to try. Think I wouldnt get any sound at all from my headphones if I choose another output as default device.
Any suggestions?
I came here to post something really similar to this.
I also just got a Steel Series Arctis 7, and much like you, installed Equalizer APO and Peace UI after I got it.
This doesn't seem to be a problem exclusive to Discord and Fortnite. Final Fantasy XIV is pretty notorious for just hard crashing any time you change your sound devices while playing. If I'm playing this game and the issue happens, XIV will typically crash and give me several sound errors that point to "xaudio" dlls in System32. I followed many of the same troubleshooting steps as you (uninstalled, reinstalled, installed selecting exclusively the Arctis drivers) and nothing I tried fixed it. I also tried reinstalling the Arctis software, reinstalling DirectX.
I've googled around and tried some other suggestions such as removing "XAudio2_7.dll" from System32, or renaming it to something else, etc etc etc, and nothing seems to be working. For now, I'm running without Eq APO or Peace and the issue has disappeared, but like you said, now my sound is pretty shit.
Guys, just don't buy those shitty Gaming-RGB-Ultra-Cool-Headsets, especially not those with an USB-soundcard. If you still can, then return the rubbish and invest in headphones that sound good without Equalizer APO (and fantastic with) and get an additional clip-on mic.
Wow, this was super helpful, thank you for your insight!
If that means that you bought it somewhere you can't return it within 30 days, then your only hope would be using the analog connector with a DAC/sound card.
I can return it, but I don't want to. Here's hoping someone comes in with an actual solution.
Maybe try to follow the steps I just added to the documentation wiki to disable the original APOs: link
These have sometimes been the cause of stability issues in the past.
First of all, I'd just like to say it's really cool that you're here trying to help out our issues, thanks for that!
Secondly, I'll try that out now and report back with findings.
So this has worked, but it's also rendered the DTS of the headphones inoperable, so it's a trade-off, but what else can you do?
Ok, now that SourceForge works again, I have another thing you can try:
Open the troubleshooting options in the Configurator again and now uncheck "Install APO" for either the pre-mix or post-mix stage (not for both). Then test if DTS is working again. If not, try the other stage.
My guess is that there's an incompatibility between DTS and Equalizer APO. If you disable E-APO for the stage that DTS is running in, you should be able to use both simultaneously.