[blindLaw] FW: [JAWSBeta-Info] TSN: On Dell computers, Windows becomes sluggish, Virtual memory errors appear, or applications unexpectedly close or crash when Waves MaxxAudio Service is running.

[Andrews, David B (DEED)]

Hello Everyone

For some time now, some people who use the JAWS screen reader occasionally experience periods of unresponsiveness, slow downs, freezing up, etc. While this information was anecdotal in nature at first, it turns out there was a cause. It applies to some Dell laptops and some software they use.

Personally I had this problem, and have disabled the service on my computer – we shall see.



Subject: Fwd: [JAWSBeta-Info] TSN: On Dell computers, Windows becomes sluggish, Virtual memory errors appear, or applications unexpectedly close or crash when Waves MaxxAudio Service is running.

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Hello,



I thought it would be a good idea for all of you to be aware of this issue with Waves MaxxAudio Service that comes with many Dell systems. This can affect users with JAWS, Fusion, or ZoomText installed:  https://support.freedomscientific.com/Support/TechnicalSupport/Bulletin/1786<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.freedomscientific.com%2FSupport%2FTechnicalSupport%2FBulletin%2F1786&data=04%7C01%7Cdavid.b.andrews%40state.mn.us%7Cbd244a65d30140be40c008d9ec1fc7ee%7Ceb14b04624c445198f26b89c2159828c%7C0%7C0%7C637800443507475455%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=bjiAzw%2F7d3Cxq0mMs2bPIaVvHPegHRvy6MvoHIbcPbs%3D&reserved=0>



Short Description

On Dell computers, Windows becomes sluggish, Virtual memory errors appear, or applications unexpectedly close or crash when Waves MaxxAudio Service is running.

Problem

If your Dell PC or laptop uses the Waves MaxxAudio Service for its onboard audio chipset, problems may occur the longer you use the computer. Windows® may become sluggish. Applications such as JAWS® or Microsoft Teams may close or crash unexpectedly. Virtual memory errors might occur.

See the Detailed Description section below before continuing to the Solution if you wish to have more background information.

Solution

To disable or enable the Waves MaxxAudio Service Application:

  1.  Open Task Manager (the shortcut is CTRL+SHIFT+ESC).
  2.  Press the TAB key once. If this navigates to More Details, then press the SPACEBAR to show more details.
  3.  Navigate to the Startup tab.
  4.  Navigate to the list of items table.
  5.  Type w to navigate to the items starting with the letter w.
  6.  Press the DOWN ARROW, if needed to navigate to Waves MaxxAudio Service Application. If it is not in the list, then this is not the cause of the problem.
  7.  With Waves MaxxAudio Service Application selected, press ALT+A to disable it.
  8.  Restart the computer.
  9.  Use the computer for a few hours or so, without rebooting, until you are convinced the performance issues no longer exist. This may take several sessions.
  10. If the problem persists and you want to reenable Waves MaxxAudio Service Application, follow steps 1 through 8 but in step 8, press ALT+N to enable it.

Note:

The only real downside to disabling the Waves MaxxAudio Service Application is that the PC will no longer dynamically respond to plugging in a different output audio device. For example, if you plug in headphones, the computer will not use them until rebooting.

Detailed Description

Problem: Many computers include an onboard audio chipset that uses the “Waves Sound Maxx Audio Service”. When this service is running, your system performance is impacted when your system’s on-board audio is being used by various audio apps. Accessibility software is an example of audio software which makes use of the system’s audio interface in a way which has an impact on how the Waves Maxx Audio Service processes audio. The result is that over time, your system memory is not freed as applications like a screen reader submit audio to be output. Eventually, your system will begin making heavy use of the Virtual memory and memory pages. At some point enough memory will be used where Windows will need to begin closing applications to recover memory so that the system can continue to operate. When Windows unexpectedly closes application processes an application will either gracefully quit or an application may crash. For example, the Microsoft Teams software will often crash, whereas Google Chrome may simply exit gracefully. No crash dumps are generally generated when these symptoms occur.

Troubleshoot: To troubleshoot your system, run the msinfo32 app and tab to the system summary of information and if you find that the amount of available physical memory is less than 2 GB, typically as low as 850 MB of available memory, and if the system is using a large amount of virtual memory as much as 3 to 4 times your physical amount of memory, and your page file space is significantly greater than it usually is when you first boot up the machine, then it is very likely you have this issue. You can check this by rebooting your system and then load msinfo32. Examine the memory values that are listed under Summary. Once you know your startup values you can use the machine for 3 or 4 hours. After that time, if you examine the same msinfo32 information and you find you have little memory left or unexpectedly large amounts of memory is being used when you have almost no 3rd party apps running, then you likely have this issue.

For example, for a typical system with 16GB of physical RAM we would expect Windows 10 to bootup and have all services running with around 12.8 GB of RAM available of use. The total Virtual memory would typically be 18GB of RAM with the available virtual memory of 14.8GB and a Page file space of 2.8GB. If after 8 hours of use we close all applications and reexamine the msinfo32 summary information we should find the memory values to be near the values we had when we first booted up. It may be a little bit lower but if you have the issue described here then you would find the amount of physical memory to be less than 1GB of RAM and the total Virtual Memory to be 48GB or greater and the amount of Page file space to be more than 8GB. We have seen that Windows can have significant performance issues and even will begin closing apps in as little as 2 hours of use. This largely depends on how much one is using the machine.

Cause: The issue is not an issue directly caused by the accessibility software or by audio software like Teams. It is actually caused by the Waves Max Audio Service. We are in discussion with the manufacturer to see what can be done. But, for now, there is no good solution that Vispero can programmatically implement in our software which solves the problem. Intel will need to implement a solution on their end. Fortunately, the Waves Max Audio Service is not essential to the functioning of your computer’s audio. Applications, including screen readers and low vision software and other 3rd party applications that use audio can make use of the Realtek audio device without the use of the Sound Maxx Audio Service.

Workaround Solution: Follow the Solution section above to prevent the Waves MaxxAudio Service Application from starting when the computer turns on.

The following command line is another option to temporarily end the Waves MaxxAudio Service until the next reboot if you still want the service to automatically start up when the computer turns on:

  1.  Open cmd.exe as an elevated Administrator.
  2.  Type the following command: “taskkill /F /IM Wavessvc64.exe” and press ENTER.