Windows 7 and Bose Companion 5 speaker system losing sound intermittently.

i would think if it keeps cutting out, often, i would buy a new set and swap out your non working set.

BJ's & Sams Club has them now in stock.....

just an idea that some of your issues are hardware failures, vs software failures.

Bose being top of the line, makes people think they will last forever, they are able to blow out just like any other speaker. Just as the amp, and computer circuits can short.

Unfortunately,I'm still where I was when I wrote my June 3rd post. I've reviewed the potential solutions, made changes to power settings, adjusted minimum volume level to 50, changed USB cable (was, and still is a single 6' cable), changed the power cable, although a "special" cable which I have a couple extras, and also changed the power source/outlet from my UPS to straight wall-power per Bose recommendation. Nothing has helped. When booted, the first sound wav file played is clear, the second a bit distorted, and from there, the quality just deteriorates and cuts out completely within 15 seconds of playing test sounds via Sounds/Playback. If I disable the sound, I can come back hours later, enble the sound, and it will work as described at boot time. In other words, the sound doesn't "logically" deteriorate until sound is actually played on the Bose. I've found only two methods of recovery. Either power-cycle the Bose, waiting ~30 seconds between removal of power, and plugging back in; or rebooting Win-7 Pro. Either will work without the other. The important piece of this puzzle is that the sound worked PERFECTLY when running Vista 64-bit Home Premium. At one point, I had both the Vista system disk installed, and the separate Win-7 Pro system disk. I could easily switch back and forth. The Bose consistently was solid on the Vista OS, but consistently failed on the Win-7 Pro OS. That one change of switching OS's was all it took to make, or break the Bose. Unfortunately, I've since overwritten the Vista OS disk. Perhaps it used a driver that I could have migrated to Win-7 Pro. Also, if I use the puck on the Bose, and use a headset, the sound is fine. Go figure.

At this time, I do not have my headset to try the experiment stated in the above post, although what I did with the headphones earlier on accomplishes the same thing. I don't believe that the Bose is going to sleep itself. When the sound just degrades from the start to a point where it cuts out, it almost indicates a bus contention problem. With the Bose being its own USB Composite Device, per the Device Manager, and NOT under a root hub as originally configured at build time, there's nothing left to compete for the bus.

Bottom line is that all is the same since my June post.

I AM 99% PERCENT SURE THE USB MAY BE SOME ISSUE, BUT i think its more a power save feature then anything else.

Unlike most i watch tv and movies, so my speakers are on 80% of the day.

i notice my cuts out and freezes when the volume levels are too low.

make sure all the volumes are high enough to register at least 50%.

IF YOUR FREEZE, I FOUND THE ONLY THING THAT FIXES IT QUICKLY, IS TO PLUG IN A SET OF HEAD PHONES. AFTER 30 SECONDS OR A MINUTE, IT WILL UN FREEZE AND TURN ORANGE (SLEEP).

ITS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE UNIT GOING TO SLEEP.

REMOVE HEADPHONE PLUG AND TAP THE MUTE SHOULD COME RIGHT BACK.

USING WIN7 PRO AND COMPANION 5 SPEAKERS

I had this same problem, strangely replacing the power cord seems to have fixed the issue. I replaced the power cord over three months ago and have not had another problem. I know it sounds like a strange fix, but it worked (at least so far) for me. 

Previously, the problem seemed to be happening more and more frequently. When comparing the new cable (3rd party) with the original power cable, I noticed the original had become a little loose, whereas the new cable fit much more snug than the original. 

BTW, I do see the date of this original post (its now nearly 3 yrs later. I'm just posting for others to see just in case they have the same problem now. :D

System 

AMD Phenom III X4 965 BE

AMD RadeonHD 5870 GPU (single)

Windows 7 Home Edition