Hello Audacity Community - I’m from Italy, so add the Italian accent to the post below, corrected and improved with Ai 
Thanks for reading … yet, it’s a real & serious issue. For real
I have managed to turn a simple habit into a weapon of mass operating system destruction, and I need your help to disarm it.
The Setup (The Peaceful Part)
I am recording my Yamaha MX88 keyboard using a standard USB printer cable. My Windows 11 Pro PC sees this as a LineIn connection.
Because I like to ponder my musical choices between pieces, I use Audacity’s Sound Activated Recording and have Detect Dropouts enabled. It works beautifully. If I don’t play, Audacity waits patiently.
When I remember to act like a civilized human being, I finish playing, walk over to my PC, hit Stop, save my project, and exit. Life is good.
The Plot Twist (The Reflex)
However, I am… let’s say seasoned. Old habits die hard. Frequently, by pure muscle memory/reflex, I finish playing and immediately flick the power switch on my Yamaha piano before hitting stop in Audacity.
This sends Audacity into a state of absolute existential dread.
The Catastrophe (The Domino Effect)
Once the piano dies first, Audacity freezes completely. But it doesn’t go down alone. It decides to take my entire system hostage:
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The Ghost in the Machine: Audacity becomes completely unresponsive.
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The Task Manager Lie: If I force-kill Audacity via Task Manager, the UI disappears, but the damage is done. All media playback on my PC is now completely blocked. No YouTube, no Spotify, no audio whatsoever.
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The Infinite Loop: I try to restart Windows 11 to fix it. Windows gets stuck on the “Restarting…” screen indefinitely. It will stay there until the heat death of the universe.
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The Nuclear Option: The only escape route is a physical, hard-press of the reset button on my PC tower.
The Silver Lining
Remarkably, once Windows boots back up after its near-death experience, Audacity’s recovery system works flawlessly. I get my audio back, and I can record again.
Technical TL;DR:
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OS: Windows 11 Pro
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Audacity Version: 3.7.7
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Host/Interface: Yamaha MX88 via USB (LineIn)
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Features Active: Sound Activated Recording + Dropouts enabled.
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Trigger: Disconnecting/powering off the active USB audio device while Audacity is still technically in a “paused/waiting” recording state.
Please help save my PC’s reset button from early retirement. I cannot promise my old brain will ever remember to stop the software before turning off the hardware!
Thank you very much!
