"Out of Bandwidth" Message with USB Audio Device

When you are using Universal Serial Bus (USB) audio devices (such as speakers), you may receive "Out of Bandwidth" messages when you are playing audio on the speakers or when you are playing high-quality content that requires more bandwidth than is typical.

This behavior may occur even though you have used the device before without receiving the "Out of Bandwidth" message.

USB audio devices (such as speakers) do not reserve USB bandwidth. Bandwidth for these devices is "demanded" only when the device is being used. If the demand exceeds the available bandwidth, the message may appear.

To work around this behavior, use any of the following methods:

• Add an additional USB controller to the computer, and attach the speakers to the root hub of the additional controller.
• Remove USB devices until the bandwidth usage is below the maximum when you are using the speakers.
• When you are streaming audio to the speakers (from a program such as Microsoft Windows Media Player), lower the playback quality of the content (or use lower-quality content).

For additional information about how to gauge available USB bandwidth, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: