Sound keeps cutting out in-game

mitu

@jamietuley said in Sound keeps cutting out in-game:

External USB Sound Card usb to 3.5mm adapter (to connect the amplifier and speakers to the pi)

Are you sure the power supply is enough for both the USB sound card and the controllers ? Do you get any under-voltage warnings during gameplay ?

Can you show a screenshot of the Audio settings from the RetroPie menu in Emulationstation ?

jamietuley

@mitu Thanks for getting back to me...

I think the power supply should be fine? I just left the machine running (attract mode goes into demo mode through various games) for an hour and the sound was still running fine! The USB adaptor for sound is just one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MNRRT84/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use this as it was a solution for hissing audio - found a solution on these forums, instead of running my amplifier from the Pi's audio jack it now comes out Pi's USB via the adaptor, the setup alterations I made are here:

solution for sound.png

I also don't get any voltage warnings or any warnings during gameplay.

Hope that was everything you needed?

Cheers

jamietuley

@mitu apologies if my reply the other week didn't have the info you asked for? I've been trying to do more investigating today - couldn't really find where my audio settings are listed, in Emulationstation when I go into audio settings it just seems to be the small list of options on how you want your audio outputted (HDMI, audio jack etc).

I remembered that a while back when I installed the USB audio dongle I changed some settings in the terminal to change the sound priority order? Here's what they are at the moment:

Don't know if this helps or shows something I have setup wrong? Just desperate to sort this ongoing sound issue out!

Many thanks for your (or anyone else's) time... appreciate it.

mitu

Do you get any low voltage warning during gameplay, when the sound stops ? Any messages in the system log when the sound stop working (dmesg | tail ) ?

jamietuley

This post is deleted!

jamietuley

@mitu said in Sound keeps cutting out in-game:

Any messages in the system log when the sound stop working (dmesg | tail ) ?

Sorry as a complete novice can you let me know how I would check the system log for any messages??

Many thanks

mitu

You can use the dmesg command to see the system's log. Before running a game, run sudo dmesg -c to clear it, then run the game, see the audio being cut off, exit the game and run dmesg again. If something is logged during the cutoff, it should appear in the dmesg output.

jamietuley

@mitu hey there, so I did what you said and waited for the audio to cut in game.. exited and did a dmesg on the system log and here it is:

Does any of that give any clues??

Many Thanks for all your time

mitu

Judging by the log messages, the card disconnects during gameplay, perhaps the USB port is not getting enough power.

I would try a powered hub to connect the IPAC and the USB sound card, just to make sure they get enough power.

Did you overclock your Pi ?

jamietuley

@mitu Ok just to add more novice badges to my name! - What exactly do you mean by a powered hub? I don't really know how to overclock the Pi so I doubt it... is that something you're recommending to resolve the problems I'm having?

Cheers for the help and apologies for my severe lack of knowledge!

mitu

@jamietuley You don't need to overclock, I was just checking that you didn't have that enabled, overclocking usually needs more power for the GPU/CPU and that might affect the USB current output.

A powered USB hub is one that it doesn't draw power from the Pi's USB port and has its own power plug. This was your IPAC and USB soundcard will be powered separately.