Overwatch Audio Woes

I ran into this super frustrating issue with Overwatch recently and after hours of googling I didn’t find anyone else with my exact problem. Inspired by this post, I wanted to document the steps I tried and the final unlikely workaround I found.

The Bug

Changing voice channels (team to group chat) or toggling the team chat on and off (if not in a group) would cause my Logitech G930 headset to reinitialize. Windows would make the device disconnecting chime, its entry would disappear from the playback device list in the Playback tab on the Windows Sounds pop-up, then about 1–3 seconds later windows would make device connection chime and it would re-appear in the playback device list. In the interim, sounds will playback through my desk speakers. This device reset will also crash Netflix or YouTube (giving an error screen for both) if the video is playing, requiring a refresh.

Reproduction steps

1. Launch Overwatch
2. Play > Custom game > Start
3. Open social menu (Click P)
4. Toggle team chat off (Click the filled-in headset/circle icon to the right of team under “Channels”)

=>Headset resets/crashes as described above

Expected results: You should be removed from team chat but audio device should not change or reset.

NOTE: Sometimes but not consistently, after a reset has occurred, on the next attempt to open the playback devices pop-up you will be give you an error message reading “Windows has detected that audio enhancements for the following device are causing problems” Even though there is no enhancement tab for the G930.

Alternative Reproduction steps

NOTE: I found these reproduction steps as I was doing the write up.

1. Right click speaker icon in task bar and open Playback device
2. Click Recording tab
3. Click back to Playback Tab

=>Headset resets/crashes as described above

Expected results: Nothing. Headset should not reset.

Attempted solutions (These did not work)

• Reinstalling Overwatch, motherboard sound driver, and Logitech driver
• Reinstalling Windows and trying with all default drivers (no motherboard audio or Logitech driver installed)
• Inspired by this post; Reverting back to Windows default Windows drivers instead of the Logitech ones, after installing motherboard audio and Logitech on fresh windows install, by doing the following: ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍‍From the playback devices
  right click the G930
  click Properties
  click Properties button
  click Change settings button.
  click drivers tab
  click update driver
  select browse my computer for software driver
  select let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
  make sure compatible devices is selected
  Select USB Audio Device
  Click Next
• Changing the USB port the receiver was plugged into. Trying both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 slots.

Eliminating Variables

• The same headset and receiver pair worked perfectly on my windows 10 laptop and neither set of reproduction steps reproduced the bug.
• My 3.5mm analog headphones plugged into the front audio port create another audio device that dose not reproduce the bug.
• I couldn’t find any errors with i/o devices in the event logs.
• Overwatch Log can be found here. At first I didn’t find it particularity helpful but It gave me the idea to check the recording device tab while the bug occurred to see if the microphone device listing was also resetting.

Workaround and Conclusion

I discovered this workaround trying to eliminate variables. My headset has a microphone that is listed under the recording devices tab in the Sound pop-up. I wanted to see if the microphone was also resetting when I reproduced the bug. To my surprise when the Sounds pop-up is open and on the Recording tab, the bug does not reproduce. It reproduces as expected with the sounds pop-up open and on the Playback tab but for whatever reason when attempting the Overwatch reproduction steps on the recording tab, it does not occur.

In conclusion, the fact that the same headset works on a diffrent Windows 10 machine, it occurs with both the Logitech and default Windows drivers, It occurring after a fresh Windows and driver install, and the second set reproduction steps eliminating Overwatch as a sole contributor, I believe this is a hardware/on-board audio/motherboard issue. If you are experiencing this bug, feel free to contact me with any info related and I will update the post. Thank you for your time. Hope this helps.