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

Building off of Bennalhal's suggestion to break it down to the basics, I zero'd in on the USB data issue, knowing that I was using the same WD external hard drive as him.  Here is what I uncovered:

EVERYTIME I PLUGGED MY iPHONE INTO MY COMPUTER MY SOUND BECAME GARBLED!!

I must state that I do not believe this is an iPhone specific issue.  I think the issue is related to the number of external items you might have plugged into your computer and what they may be.  I recommend that as an initial troubleshooting measure, you start by unplugging all external devices from your machine, turn on your favorite song or sound media, and begin plugging items in one by one.  You will then identify the item or USB port where the issue is originating, and then be able to take the necessary corrective action to bring that device back online without interfering with your bose speakers.  obviously, every solution will require different steps.

So, in the meantime, I simply dont play music or run media while my iphone is plugged into my computer syncing.  If anyone finds this to be a similar solution, and your culpret was the iphone 4 or the USB port it was plugged into and you have a solution to fix it, please let me know.

This whole issue was very frustrating to me as well.  I hope I was able to help at least one person on this forum.  Thank you!

Here too,  the same problem, and I mean all the problems stated above: from distortion only state... to gargling noise every 3secs and after some minutes dead speakers...to just dead speakers, to squeky noise to...salvation.

After more than 16hours!!! the sound on of the Bose companion 5 speakers is what I remembered it to be...CLEAR.

My Sound, video and game controllers on Device Manager have active  ONLY the "Bose USB Audio" and my "Microsoft life Cam", The "High Definition Audio Device" and "USB Audio Dac" are  DEACTIVATED. Also the power off for the USB is Disabled (Power options, My custom plan --CLICK THE WORDS in BLUE  "advanced settings").

The Bose USB Audio driver has - Driver Date 13/07/2009 and Version 6.1.7600.16385.

It seemed that changing the USB ports helped (every time I changed USB port the driver was installed again)

Now my USB is connected to a my keyboard hub were the driver not only was installed another time but it checked for updates and when it was installed there was the restart window option and voula ... restart and CLEAR SOUND.

AMD PHENOM II

5870 VIDEO CARD

I'll it seems Bose Companion 5 and windows are Tryed and done it  all

I have tried all the solutions above also and have not had any luck.   I was not even using the computer as a sound source. I had the speakers plugged into the computer but was listening to Pandora on my Droid phone that was plugged into the Bose 3.5mm audio jack on the audio volume control pod.  Even when I unplugged the USB cord from the speaker to the computer, the speakers continued to turn themselves off.  Seems like Win7 has damaged the speakers somehow.  I read on other forums that customers with Vista had this issue with Bose 5 also. I did not have this issue with Win XP and Bose 5.