Client loses sound randomly

[Riardon]

I have this very annoying issue.
The game loses sound randomly while ALT+TABing and sometimes while in game the game suddenly stops. No error message or crash the sound just goes away and the game requires a restart to enable sound back again. This happens only to this game and nowhere else. It's been around 2 months that this happens to me.

[DarkArvan]

Got the same problem here already multiple times since several months ago. also my client crashed very often with "xaudio.dll" or similar.
The sound system in this game seems very very unstable, you cant even change the output without restart the client.

[Einmimiria]

Good Morning, and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

When exactly did this start happening and do you recall anything changing on your PC that coincides with it?

Do you happen to have a dedicated sound card? Or is it integrated into the motherboard? What kind of speaker set up do you have?

Any additional information will be helpful in finding a solution.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[Riardon]

Good Morning, and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

When exactly did this start happening and do you recall anything changing on your PC that coincides with it?

Do you happen to have a dedicated sound card? Or is it integrated into the motherboard? What kind of speaker set up do you have?

Any additional information will be helpful in finding a solution.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

My PC is new. My specs are i7-8700K, Motherboard Gigabyte 370 Gaming 7 and Nvidia GTX970 Windows 10 Pro x64 (latest update)
My setup is clean with latest drivers (motherboard, sound, graphics etc).
No AV programs installed.
I had the same issue with my older PC as well just not that frequently.
Note that only the game's sound stops and nothing else. Music plays in the background. YouTube and other games behave normally.
This issue is very old with the game it's just now that happens to me so frequently. Today it happened 2 times already.
It's so frustrating to restart the game so often to get sound back. I had this issue since XIV 2.0 launched but it was very rare.
I've never seen it to happen so often. Now I get this issue around 2 times per day and I don't know what to do.

[drebbe]

If your audio driver crashes FFXIV is unable to handle it due to poor coding quality. Your only option is to look into your driver as SE won't fix this issue. Its been around since 2.0.

[Alien_Gamer]

I've noticed recently that Discord will interfere with FF14 using the default sound device on my laptop. If I have Discord running before launching the game it will launch without sound or if I start Discord after starting FF14 the game will crash because it can't access the drivers anymore. Perhaps something similar is happening to you?

[cafffine]

Ive had the same issue for some time now. Mid run or just standing around and all sound drops out of nowhere.

[Ariellendera]

Hello Riardon, Thank you for your reply,

Do you use any overlays or background programs? If so try disabling them. please let us know if this makes a difference.

Hope to be be assistance.

[Riardon]

Hello Riardon, Thank you for your reply,

Do you use any overlays or background programs? If so try disabling them. please let us know if this makes a difference.

Hope to be be assistance.

No I don't use overlays.
Little update. Game just crashed giving me this sound related error message.

https://imgur.com/a/ZPSxz

Edit: I also noticed game loses sound when Discord is launched. For now I'm avoiding it and using Skype.

[Ariellendera]

No I don't use overlays.
Little update. Game just crashed giving me this sound related error message.

https://imgur.com/a/ZPSxz

Edit: I also noticed game loses sound when Discord is launched. For now I'm avoiding it and using Skype.

Hello! Thank you for your reply.

Based on the information provided, we have come to the conclusion that a complete reinstall of the game may be necessary. Please uninstall Final Fantasy XIV from your computer. Make sure to delete any remaining FFXIV files from your computer, including any potential files in your ‘Documents’ folder. Then reinstall the game from scratch. If you need a digital version of this, it can be found here: http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/playersdownload/na/. Any updates or expansions will be downloaded to your computer once logged into the appropriate account.

Hope to be of assistance.