Win 10 Pro Crash

Yep unfortunately some drivers don't support kernel streaming but still have the API calls in the driver (which at best do "nothing" and then crash in the driver which means BSOD time). Usually it's an instant BSOD although. It's really extreme laziness that it ever happens, on the part of the driver developer/s.

Anyways, of course if there's no proper driver, the only option is to use another API (we really need to add WaveRT support) like ASIO if available (ASIO4All doesnt count its just KS), or get some hardware that does have a proper driver like you found. Hopefully with the kind of latency possible that you were looking for.

@ WaveRT i was talking about BreakawayOne. My bad.

Don't know if it is going to help, but here is my experience with Lenovo and W10:

• The pc came with DolbyDAX2 audio driver. I also installed Realtek because I like its flateness for raw stereomix recording.
• In order for breakaway (BAE) to work properly, I had to disable in "StartUp" (ctrl + alt + esc -> startup tab -> right click: disable) both DolbyDAX2 and Realtek. The Realtek driver gives me no issue, but the DolbyDAX2, being an "enhancer" itself, was giving me a weird conflict with my BAE. Like the sound was going through both drivers instead of just one and causing peak cracks.
• I also noticed the same conflict after installing iTunes.

So my suggestion would be to disable other drivers, restart and install Breakaway and try again. I don't know if this problem is from Windows, Breakaway or Lenovo, but in my case this is what's going on.

Hello! I'm a BAO user, but I'll try my best to help. A while back I was looking into ways to get that dolby driver on standard non-Lenovo PCs, so I have very little experience with it, but I did get it working at one point. But I don't currently have it on this machine and I'm not sure how to go about finding the modified driver and app again. From memory, it seems like a per-application auto-eq and wideband compressor. I believe this was before I found Breakaway Audio Enhancer, so I don't have any experience getting them to work together.

You mention having a Realtek driver installed, but are the traces of the Dolby driver and its effects app completely gone? I'm thinking both BAE and Dolby must be attempting to use the same buffer space or something? @JesseG is likely right though(dude knows the ins and outs of Breakaway). [EDIT: This is not to be confused with Dolby Access]

I'm worried if completely removing the default drivers doesn't help, your friend will need to buy a USB sound card/DAC/interface (this includes USB headphones). You can get a very basic one for like a fifth the price of BAE off Amazon. But like everything, for a better sounding device, you'll end up paying more. Also if the headphones are any good, you'll probably benefit from an external device regardless of whether Breakaway is being used. To do this you would want to look up the Ohm rating (impedance) of the headphones and find a device that can drive them at least that hard.

As far as your music group goes, I've also successfully recommended BAE to about a half dozen friends and none of them have had any issues with BSODs. The most common issue is Windows likes to change devices when they're plugged in; whereas BAE likes to keep its original device until it's changed in the settings. BAOne supports multiple outputs, though, and a different trial mode if you have some friends who are put off by this.

Best of luck!

edit: Or your friend could try BreakawayOne, (and then add ASIO4ALL if BAO doesn't work on its own). Regardless, I gotta go with the USB DAC suggestion, even if it does work.

There is a "sticky" at the top of this thread about a new release to resolve BSOD in Win 10. Is this relevant?

I have some news on this quite old subject. There is a new version of BAE in beta testing right this moment. Once we have feedback, and Leif has made any necessary changes, a new release will come out.

I can’t give you a time line yet, but wheels are turning.