Signal-Desktop Switching audio source or output mid call freezes OS

Using a supported version?

[x] I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
[x] I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

I have noticed that if you try to switch your audio input or output source in the middle of a video call, it immediately locks up the OS for a while and seems to crash Signal. The OS will recover after a few minutes, but the audio will remain non-functional and will require a restart.

Steps to reproduce

Start video call
Change audio input or output source from on-screen menu
Observe crash and temporary OS freeze

Expected result

Either it should allow to smoothly switch the source or not give it as an option if it's not intended.

Actual result

Call drops, Signal crashes, OS temporarily freezes

Screenshots

No response

Signal version

7.40.1

Operating system

Windows 11

Version of Signal on your phone

No response

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.40.1/5e96f24a171b55d972391b58164a6d967b2093cdd89398a6dfa83e808050dfab.gz

Feb 03 '25 19:02 tsievert

Hello @tsievert, can you provide some more information... We can see a Windows error 0x800705AA being returned, which seems to indicate a system error like "insufficient system resources (low memory)" or "misconfigured system files".

Is this behavior new, in other words, have you need able to switch between devices successfully with previous versions of Signal?

Your post indicates that this is reproducible, but I only can find one crash in the logs. Can you provide a log after it happens again?

What are the specific devices (brand/model) you are trying to switch between? Are you able to use each of those devices in a call? Just asking in case there could be an issue with the device and not necessarily the switching. Switching devices in-call is indeed supported and should be working.

Feb 04 '25 00:02 jim-signal

Hey, I would say the behaviour is new, as in like the last month. But I also changed computer a few month ago, so I cannot exclude that.

I fully assumed I could reliably reproduce it, as it happend three times during the last month, but during the last video call a few minutes ago, I could not force the crash.

Hardware: Framework 16, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-5600 Switching between on-board audio to SteelSeries Arctis 7X caused the crash before, but worked now.

No other ressource intense software was running at the time, that could explain the low memory error.

Feb 04 '25 17:02 tsievert

@tsievert Thanks for the information. We've run some tests but can't reproduce anything yet. If/when it happens again, can you submit logs when you start the client for the first time after the crash? It should prompt you to send logs (if it detected the crash) and those logs would include some crash details we can analyze further.

Feb 06 '25 17:02 jim-signal

It just happened again: https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.42.0/af055f6b5b946620f19a618ddb87b288b11b3af82f28aa3bd7e511cefbdae5e7.gz Log was generated immediately after I could use the computer again, no restart.

I tried to switch my microphone mid-call. OS froze for three minutes, call dropped, but Signal did not crash, nor did the OS behave strangely afterwards this time. But an open Firefox tab reports that it crashed once I was able to use the computer again. Unfortunately about:crashes is not showing a log for that.

Feb 16 '25 19:02 tsievert

I have been digging into this a bit, because it keeps happening in slight variations. At the moment I have the issue that my microphone stops working mid call and that then seems to crash my audio service. As a result, I am unable to play any Youtube/Netflix video, and require to go through the Windows trouble shooter to restart the service and restart my device. If you have a look at the error log (https://debuglogs.org/desktop/7.49.0/2115db9d65033054cddee7cbecc6b5dc9e074ddae42c3a0d2ba09402c5d6d39f.gz) you see how the sent audio changes between 2025-04-08T15:59:33.889Z and 2025-04-08T15:59:43.942Z. In the Windows event viewer I can see ( 2 mins later)

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Windows Error Reporting
Date:          08/04/2025 18:02:40
Event ID:      1001
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      
User:          LOCAL SERVICE
Computer:      Sievert-FW
Description:
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: AppHangXProcB1
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: svchost.exe_Audiosrv
P2: 10.0.26100.1150
P3: fdace0d9
P4: e0d4
P5: 1114176
P6: audiodg.exe:{06b2132b-5b99-42a6-b8b6-a1709e191c70}
P7: 10.0.26100.3037
P8: 
P9: 
P10: 

Attached files:

These files may be available here:
\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\AppHang_svchost.exe_Audi_55415654394b34716521c47af147ee5f351a5f_d3a20cf1_13d87e2c-80c6-48b9-b46f-1ee0589955bc

Analysis symbol: 
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: f83e646f-893f-4b06-9cf3-ceaa9b878b8d
Report Status: 100
Hashed bucket: 
Cab Guid: 0
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" Guid="{0ead09bd-2157-539a-8d6d-c87f95b64d70}" />
    <EventID>1001</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-04-08T16:02:40.7788461Z" />
    <EventRecordID>21311</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="98732" ThreadID="102664" />
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>Sievert-FW</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-19" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="Bucket">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="BucketType">0</Data>
    <Data Name="EventName">AppHangXProcB1</Data>
    <Data Name="Response">Not available</Data>
    <Data Name="CabId">0</Data>
    <Data Name="P1">svchost.exe_Audiosrv</Data>
    <Data Name="P2">10.0.26100.1150</Data>
    <Data Name="P3">fdace0d9</Data>
    <Data Name="P4">e0d4</Data>
    <Data Name="P5">1114176</Data>
    <Data Name="P6">audiodg.exe:{06b2132b-5b99-42a6-b8b6-a1709e191c70}</Data>
    <Data Name="P7">10.0.26100.3037</Data>
    <Data Name="P8">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="P9">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="P10">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="AttachedFiles">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="StorePath">\\?\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\AppHang_svchost.exe_Audi_55415654394b34716521c47af147ee5f351a5f_d3a20cf1_13d87e2c-80c6-48b9-b46f-1ee0589955bc</Data>
    <Data Name="AnalysisSymbol">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="Rechecking">0</Data>
    <Data Name="ReportId">f83e646f-893f-4b06-9cf3-ceaa9b878b8d</Data>
    <Data Name="ReportStatus">100</Data>
    <Data Name="HashedBucket">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="CabGuid">0</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

and

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Hang
Date:          08/04/2025 18:02:40
Event ID:      1002
Task Category: Hanging Events
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Sievert-FW
Description:
The program svchost.exe version 10.0.26100.1150 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Hang" Guid="{c631c3dc-c676-59e4-2db3-5c0af00f9675}" />
    <EventID>1002</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>101</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-04-08T16:02:40.7902004Z" />
    <EventRecordID>21312</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="99816" ThreadID="102208" />
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>Sievert-FW</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="AppName">svchost.exe</Data>
    <Data Name="AppVersion">10.0.26100.1150</Data>
    <Data Name="ProcessId">0x1108</Data>
    <Data Name="StartTime">0x1dba72281c9cf94</Data>
    <Data Name="TerminationTime">4294967295</Data>
    <Data Name="ExeFileName">C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe</Data>
    <Data Name="ReportId">f83e646f-893f-4b06-9cf3-ceaa9b878b8d</Data>
    <Data Name="PackageFullName">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="PackageRelativeAppId">
    </Data>
    <Data Name="HangType">Cross-process</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

It is not the exact same error I have reported before, but I avoided trying to switch the output source in order to gather more information.

Apr 08 '25 16:04 tsievert

Hi! We recently worked on our audio backend which should fix some audio issues. Please let us know if the issue persists. thanks!

May 22 '25 20:05 ayumi-signal

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

Aug 21 '25 14:08 stale[bot]

This issue has been closed due to inactivity.

Sep 02 '25 08:09 stale[bot]