Dale can you link to the MS article about this issue and the recommended workaround?

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd316605(v=vs.85).aspx

Discussion is in private thread, but the MSDN article clearly indicates this is something that can happen and should be handled. My patch is not a full fix, but handles the majority case (device change).

To fully handle this we need every IAudioClient/IAudioRenderClient method to passthrough the invalid error code and have a retry mechanism of some sort available to every call. Probably it's simpler to add implicit retry to all streams, i.e. if a AOS stream dies for any reason, try to replace it with a fresh one and continue.

Thanks.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/c297aad42b62f7f443868da28b21ded199e93996

commit c297aad42b62f7f443868da28b21ded199e93996
Author: Dale Curtis <dalecurtis@chromium.org>
Date: Mon Jan 22 20:50:25 2018

Attempt recovery of WASAPI audio output driver during Start().

Per Microsoft, IAudioClient/IAudioRenderClient may be invalidated
at any time; even when we're not using them. If this occurs after
a Stop() event, we won't find out until the next Start() and will
subsequently fail (triggering an unrecoverable playback error; we
only have fallback for Open() failures).

Instead if we detect that either client has an error during Start(),
we will now re-attempt Open() and subsequently retry creation of the
clients. If this still fails, we'll then continue down the old path
of signaling an unrecoverable playback error.

BUG= 803691 
TEST=switching audio devices does recovers IAudioClient.

Cq-Include-Trybots: master.tryserver.chromium.android:android_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.linux:linux_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.mac:mac_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.win:win_optional_gpu_tests_rel
Change-Id: I54f0377a483bcd4dca91e8cb82fe4e46366731fa
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/875306
Commit-Queue: Dale Curtis <dalecurtis@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Tommi <tommi@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#530983}
[modify] https://crrev.com/c297aad42b62f7f443868da28b21ded199e93996/media/audio/win/audio_low_latency_output_win.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/c297aad42b62f7f443868da28b21ded199e93996/media/audio/win/core_audio_util_win.cc

I'm still waiting to hear back from Microsoft, but early UMA results show a promising reduction in playbacks that end in AUDIO_RENDERER_ERROR. +strobe from YT as an FYI.

https://uma.googleplex.com/p/chrome/timeline_v2/?sid=5540c8242d62a2a9b34052f273af5f47

Microsoft confirms this fixed the issue. Given the positive pressure on metrics, I'm going to mark this for merge to M65.

Your change meets the bar and is auto-approved for M65. Please go ahead and merge the CL to branch 3325 manually. Please contact milestone owner if you have questions.
Owners: cmasso@(Android), cmasso@(iOS), bhthompson@(ChromeOS), govind@(Desktop)

For more details visit https://www.chromium.org/issue-tracking/autotriage - Your friendly Sheriffbot

Pls merge your change to M65 branch 3325 ASAP so we can pick it up for next M65 dev release. Thank you.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/2abd12ca8236b4b9accfbaba284b7af470229c83

commit 2abd12ca8236b4b9accfbaba284b7af470229c83
Author: Dale Curtis <dalecurtis@chromium.org>
Date: Thu Feb 01 20:07:33 2018

Merge M65: "Attempt recovery of WASAPI audio output driver during Start()."

Per Microsoft, IAudioClient/IAudioRenderClient may be invalidated
at any time; even when we're not using them. If this occurs after
a Stop() event, we won't find out until the next Start() and will
subsequently fail (triggering an unrecoverable playback error; we
only have fallback for Open() failures).

Instead if we detect that either client has an error during Start(),
we will now re-attempt Open() and subsequently retry creation of the
clients. If this still fails, we'll then continue down the old path
of signaling an unrecoverable playback error.

BUG= 803691 
TEST=switching audio devices does recovers IAudioClient.
TBR=dalecurtis@chromium.org

(cherry picked from commit c297aad42b62f7f443868da28b21ded199e93996)

Cq-Include-Trybots: master.tryserver.chromium.android:android_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.linux:linux_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.mac:mac_optional_gpu_tests_rel;master.tryserver.chromium.win:win_optional_gpu_tests_rel
Change-Id: I54f0377a483bcd4dca91e8cb82fe4e46366731fa
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/875306
Commit-Queue: Dale Curtis <dalecurtis@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Tommi <tommi@chromium.org>
Cr-Original-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#530983}
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/897964
Reviewed-by: Dale Curtis <dalecurtis@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/branch-heads/3325@{#243}
Cr-Branched-From: bc084a8b5afa3744a74927344e304c02ae54189f-refs/heads/master@{#530369}
[modify] https://crrev.com/2abd12ca8236b4b9accfbaba284b7af470229c83/media/audio/win/audio_low_latency_output_win.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/2abd12ca8236b4b9accfbaba284b7af470229c83/media/audio/win/core_audio_util_win.cc