Spotify Freezes my Whole Computer After 5-10 minutes of play when using S/PDIF Optical Out.

[rlynch1996]

Plan

Premium

Country

 USA

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

 I just got some new speakers that use optical out. They work just fine with the Spotify web player and every other program. However, when I use the spotify desktop app, my whole computer freezes up after 5-10 minutes of playing music. I tried updating audio drivers and doing a clean install of Spotify. EDIT: I just tried playing with the audio in 3.5 mm input on the receiver and plugging it into my computer's headphone jack and had the same problem. 

[Sebasty]

Hey @rlynch1996

That's a very strange issue you're having there!

You could try disabling hardware acceleration within Spotify (menu dots - View - Hardware Acceleration). That will restart the client.

If the issue persists, could you start a program named Resource Monitor and observe what happens to memory while Spotify plays music?

Also, could you try using Spotify with the previous setup you had for listening to music to see if the issue happens then too?

I also need to know the version of Spotify you're running (menu dots - Help - About Spotify), and if you actually resetted the app / deleted Spotify folders when reinstalling. 🙂

Let me know how it goes!

[rlynch1996]

I am running version 1.0.89.313.g34a58dea. 

I didn't see any changes in memory in resource monitor when it stopped working, nor did I see CPU or disk changes.

I don't have the old setup anymore but it does the same thing out of the headphone jack on my computer so I think it is a spotify issue that coincided with my new setup as a coincidence. 

[Sebasty]

@rlynch1996

Alright. That's a bit weird, but I guess it's something to do with a driver failure and not some kind of memory/resource hoarding process (that's what I asked this for). 🙂

I do suggest doing a clean reinstall:

1. Close Spotify and uninstall it.
2. Go to %AppData% in Windows Explorer, and delete any Spotify folders you find in Local and Roaming folders.
3. Restart your computer.
4. Install Spotify.

Let me know how it goes!

[rlynch1996 · Accepted solution]

So I ended up fixing it by installing spotify from the Microsoft store instead of the installer. Weird, but it worked.