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Stopping digital (optical) audio from going to sleep?

I

imacken

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 28, 2010
1,275
141
I know this is a little OT, but I've given up trying to get help in the 'normal' forums, so I trying here!
My iMac 2011 audio goes via the optical cable to a receiver.
After 30 seconds of no audio, I can hear a click/pop as the audio shuts down. Then, any sounds miss the first second or so when the audio is waking up, so that means in the case of system sounds I miss them completely. Very annoying.
I've tried various apps like KeepSoundAwake (doesn't work on Intel), AntiPop (seems to lock the audio after a while) and another that I can't remember.
I've seen lots of older posts on this especially to do with MacBooks, but no solutions.
Only happens on the digital output as if I disconnect the optical cable, the problem doesn't occur through the internal speakers.
Any ideas appreciated.
 
OK, good question.
I can't say for sure, but when I run Windows from Bootcamp the same thing happens. However, when I was using the same receiver on a PC with Windows, it didn't happen, so I guess it's down to the iMac.
It's very, very annoying!
(I also have issues with DD5.1, i.e. I can't get it to work, but I'll leave that for another thread!
 
Actually, I was wrong in what I said above, it doesn't happen in Windows 7 Bootcamp, so I guess it's definitely down to OS X.
Any thoughts?
 
I learn something new every day.

Most likely, my iMac sound is going to sleep, but my speaker system just isn't making a popping sound; it's absolutely silent (I use Logitech Z-5500's).

I did find a thread with this issue addressed, and apparently there are a couple of apps you can try which "keep the sound awake," so to speak. Give it a look and see if it helps.
 
Thanks again for your help. As I said in the first post, I have tried the 'app' solutions without success, almost all of them, like SoundOn and KeepSoundAwake, don't work on Intel Macs.
The only one that does is Antipop, but it has only limited success.
 
I use a simple applescript to prevent the sound from muting itself after 30 seconds. It just repeatedly plays a sound at 0 volume.

N.B. This app won't show in the dock and you have to force quit it in activity monitor should you ever need to (I never do). It takes up virtually no resources so you can set it to run at login and forget about it.
 
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Thanks so much for that. I'll try it out and let you know how it goes.
 
I made a updated version that includes an installer of sorts and a small app to toggle the background process. Feel free to try it out and report any problems you should encounter. It's all done in applescript so it's pretty crude but it should do the job sufficiently well.
 
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Thanks a lot Jimmy. The installer is nice!
It seems to be working a treat. I'll be pointing others who have this problem to this thread and hope it'll work for them too.
 
Not such good news now, I'm getting crashes from your little app.
See attached file.
Any ideas?
 

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Did the error just come out of the blue? I'll re-do a version that's fully self contained and see if that helps.
 
Try this one out. This version is completely self contained so no need for an uninstaller. Just remember to uninstall the old version using the previous installer first.
 
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Thanks a lot. I'm trying it out now.
The error sort of came out of the blue after I had quit from VLC after playing a DVD.
I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Just realised something, the system won't ever sleep while it's running. Kind of a major drawback. I'm not sure if it's even possible to work around this in applescript but I'm working on it.
 
Thanks for the update. I always force a sleep with the option-command-eject keystroke. Works OK with that.
My iMac has never done an auto-sleep, ever. I did ask here about why that was, but never really got an answer. The HD just never shuts down in auto-sleep, but forcing sleep works fine.
 
Hi Jimmy.
Just thought I'd let you know that SoundStay works well when it's loaded, but unfortunately, it is crashing a lot with the 'SoundStay has encountered an error' box.
Any thoughts?
 
Hmm, I don't know what the problem is, I am yet to experience a crash myself. Maybe there's is a conflict with another app you're using? :confused: I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for reporting the problem.
 
Thanks again. If I recognise any pattern in the crash - apps open, etc. - then I'll let you know.
 
OK, I've identified one situation where SoundStay crashes each time, and that is when playing a movie in iTunes that is passing DD5.1 through. Within about a second, the dreaded message comes up every time!
 
Great, thanks a lot for your help with this.

Try these 2 out, fingers crossed.

Thanks for your time.
 
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No luck, I'm afraid. The first one just crashes when iTunes plays a DD movie with the error box.
The second one doesn't produce an error, but just unloads when iTunes plays the movie.
 
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