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SDR++ Crash when no Audio output device available #1754

@eurosdavies71-dev

Description

@eurosdavies71-dev

WARNING: Filling out the template below is NOT optional. Issues not filling out this template will be closed without review.

FIRST: Before reporting any bug, make sure that the bug you are reporting has not been reported before. Also, try to use the nightly version if possible in case I've already fixed the bug.

Hardware

  • CPU: Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7820HQ CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2901 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
  • RAM: 32GB
  • GPU: QUADRO M2200
  • SDR: RTL-SDR

Software

  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise
  • SDR++: v1.3.0 (Built Mar 25 2026)

Bug Description
SDR++ application terminates on startup when no audio sound output device is present.

Steps To Reproduce

  1. ...With an output sound device available SDR++ launches as normal
  2. ...Disable all sound devices in BIOS so that the operating system has no speakers listed.
  3. ...Start SDR++, application initializes then terminates before main GUI screen is displayed.

Only If SDR++ fails to lauch or the SDR fails to start:
Run SDR++ from a command line window with special parameters:

  • On Windows, open a terminal and cd to SDR++'s directory and run .\sdrpp.exe -c (if running SDR++ version 1.0.4 or older, use -s instead, though you should probably update SDR++ instead...)
  • On Linux: Open a terminal and run sdrpp -c
  • On MacOS: Open a terminal and run /path/to/the/SDR++.app/Contents/MacOS/sdrpp -c
    Then, post the entire logs from start to after the issue. DOT NOT truncate to where you think the error is...

Screenshots
Add any screenshot that is relevant to the bug (GUI error messages, strange behavior, graphics glitch, etc...).

Additional info
Built SDR++ from source using VS Code. Used Claude AI to diagnose the issue. Claude identified a couple of issues around the AudioSink Module, AudioSink in sink_modules/audio_sink/src/main.cpp did not guard against an empty audio device list.

See attached SDRPP_Audio_Bug_report.md file for additional details and the fix identified by Claude that worked.

SDRPP_Audio_bug_report.md

Hope this helps.
Thank you.

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