[0.16.36] Mic freezes while using any application with game

[Moocow9m]

While playing Factorio I normally chat with friends over Skype, Discord, and Teamspeak. However, around the update to 0.16.X My mic will all of the sudden just stop submitting sound to these applications. This only happens when Factorio is running. In discord, reselecting the mic will cause it to start working again but will stop shortly after if Factorio is still running. It seems to happen within 5 seconds to 3 minutes from last re-selection. No CPU or memory spikes were seen during this time, nor does any other game cause this problem(or any application for that matter). This happens with and without mods.
Log: https://pastebin.com/raw/g4yKbS9n

[Jon8RFC]

I know that Steam does mic management (Steam Settings>Voice), so maybe something about Steam managing the mic and interacting with Factorio is problematic, if all other games you play through Steam don't cause this problem. Maybe it's a tweak they need to make just for Steam.

EDIT:
I wonder what would happen if you set it in Steam to push-to-talk, to a key like the equals sign, which isn't used in Factorio.

EDIT2:
It certainly seems like it's a Steam-Discord issue rather than anything to do with Factorio since it doesn't use the mic.
I suggest trying setting the key to something different, and/or follow these directions:
https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articl ... references

[Jap2.0]

Does it happen in the standalone version?

[Moocow9m]

No other steam games causes this. Standalone also has this issue. Steam is not causing this (was closed during standalone test).

[TruePikachu]

Is the microphone set to allow applications to take exclusive control over it?

[Moocow9m]

Is the microphone set to allow applications to take exclusive control over it?

No, no one application can take over it.

[smartaleq]

Hey, just want to chime in to say that I also have this issue. Factorio is the only steam application that has the problem. Have tried with microphone "allow applications to take exclusive control" enabled AND disabled, both with same problem.

[Twinsen]

I have no clue how Factorio could cause this, we dont even use microphone input. More people are reporting this for other games.

Do you have a Logitech headset ? Try the solution mentioned here: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackops3/comm ... verywhere/

Also try this: Right click the speaker icon on your system tray, then click recording devices. Then right click your microphone device, click properties, then under advanced, ensure that both tick boxes are unchecked.

[Moocow9m]

I have no clue how Factorio could cause this, we dont even use microphone input. More people are reporting this for other games.

Do you have a Logitech headset ? Try the solution mentioned here: https://www.reddit.com/r/blackops3/comm ... verywhere/

Also try this: Right click the speaker icon on your system tray, then click recording devices. Then right click your microphone device, click properties, then under advanced, ensure that both tick boxes are unchecked.

This does not solve the issue, also I do not have a Logitech headset or mic.

[Rseding91]

As Twinsen said: I can't reproduce this - and we don't even touch mic anything in Factorio (there's zero code that does anything mic related in the game that we know of).

Unless someone can show that it's something we're doing I'm going to move this to 0/1 magic.

[Pin-Lui]

so i have the same exact problem. i run hundreds of games, steam origin you name it. not a single problem. I start up discord an chat with my friend, as soon as i open factorio my microphone freezes, reconnect and after 2-10min it freezes again. the problem makes me crazy and it only happens wit factorio. i never had any issues before! i can literally reproduce the bug by simply open factorio, there is no randomness to it or somthing it just stop working. after the initial game start it is really random, sometimes i can play for 30min. and sometimes 30 seconds.

I have not changed anything hardware wise or software wise, the oly thing i update is Steam and factorio....

[Jon8RFC]

Just wanted to share additional possibilities I've found for Windows users (I don't have this issue, however). People mentioned specific games struggling with mics and causing stuttering, freezing, or even crashing, so it may just be coincidental with Factorio like those other games.

Audio drivers are causing problems...
I specifically saw a mention of realtek-based audio drivers being the culprit for one person. Uninstall your audio drivers and use the default drivers Windows installs; alternatively, try installing the specific audio drivers for your motherboard or sound card if you're using the default Windows audio drivers.

Bluetooth mics/headsets have issues caused by the bluetooth drivers.

Just one person mentioned that their recording and playback sample rates needed to be identical, at either 48000 or 44100. When mismatched, they had issues.
Sound properties>playback tab>speakers>properties>advanced
Sound properties>recording tab>microphone>properties>advanced


I remember a friend having a headset/mic combo which used a usb connection and it caused an intermittent problem I can't recall, but when I took off the converter and plugged it in to the standard 3.5mm audio ports, not using usb, the issue went away.