# Youtube: Audio renderer error. Please restart your computer. **URL:** \ **Category:** balenaDash\ **Created:** [April 9, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309 "2021-04-09T19:11:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/1 "2021-04-09T19:11:11Z")
Hi, balena\_NOOB here. Tech savvy, just brand new to balena. I’m having trouble getting sound through HDMI from a rpi 4, 8gb. I’ve looked through the other “sound trouble” posts on the forum. My steps: 1. Press Deploy with Balena on BalenaDash github page 2. Accepting all defaults - name balena-dash, Pi 4, Starter, press Create and deploy button on the dashboard popup that shows up 3. From applications screen click on the balena-dash application 4. On the devices page wait for the “building release” to finish 5. Click on the Add device button 6. On Add new device screen rpi4, balenaOS, V2.73.1+rev1, click on development, Ethernet only – then click on Download 7. Unzip img file, burn to microsd card 8. Boot pi4. Wait for it to show up on devices tab 9. Click on name of device. Wait for updating to finish 10. Under Device Variables tab, add AUDIO\_OUTPUT variable with a value of RPI\_HDMI0 11. Under Device service variables add variables to the kiosk service: SHOW\_CURSOR value 1, CONFIG\_MODE value 1, LAUNCH\_URL value [https://youtube.com](https://youtube.com) 12. Wait for pi to start service - YouTube shows up 13. Click on a video - YouTube looks like it is starting the video, then gives a black screen with Audio renderer error. Please restart your computer. Help! I’m trying to make solid units that I can deploy for 4 teachers at the school where I teach. What am I doing wrong? ---
**Author:** ![klutchell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/klutchell/32/861_2.png) [@klutchell](https://forums.balena.io/u/klutchell)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/4 "2021-04-09T19:21:03Z")
Hey @leow, welcome to the forums! It looks to me like you’ve done everything correctly, at least from my perspective. It does also remind me of this forum post here that may be related? [https://forums.balena.io/t/no-sound-on-balenadash-kiosk/244170/5](https://forums.balena.io/t/no-sound-on-balenadash-kiosk/244170/5) Can you confirm you are using the HDMI port next to the power connector? ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/6 "2021-04-09T19:23:01Z")
Thanks! Yes, I am using the HDMI port next to the USBC power connector. Yes, I’ve seen similarities with other posts and have been scouring them for help. ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/7 "2021-04-09T21:12:43Z")
Simply for troubleshooting purposes Leo, can you hook up some speakers or headphones to the audio-out port on the Pi, and see if any audio is present there? You might also need to unset that AUDIO\_OUTPUT Device Variable that is currently set to RPI\_HDMI0, and reboot. I realize it’s not what your end goal is, but, I am curious to see if that works, and can at least confirm audio works in that scenario… Also, I see that other user that Kyle linked to has a similar problem. I will try to do a fresh build and see if I can duplicate this behavior myself, as well. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/8 "2021-04-09T22:04:56Z")
No problem - I appreciate your help! I removed the AUDIO\_OUTPUT variable and rebooted. No joy - it is still reporting Audio renderer error - so I can’t tell if I could get sound out of the audio output port. I would actually prefer the audio output port, but am willing to use it either way. THANKS ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 11:53pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/9 "2021-04-09T23:53:44Z")
Thanks for the quick test Leo! I haven’t had a chance to build mine yet, it will likely need to be over the weekend…but I am going to attempt to duplicate this and will report back. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/13 "2021-04-11T00:24:57Z")
This is probably totally spurious - but just in case. I used dmesg|less to look at the boot log. It had one line that looked like it could be related to sound: 4.386700] snd\_bcm2835: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned. Thanks for your help! -leo- ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/14 "2021-04-11T00:44:30Z")
I don’t know for sure - but to me, this looks OK. root@5c461ff:~# lsmod | grep snd\_bcm2835 snd\_bcm2835 28672 0 snd\_pcm 135168 5 snd\_usb\_audio,vc4,snd\_bcm2835,snd\_soc\_core,snd\_pcm\_dmaengine snd 106496 10 snd\_seq\_device,snd\_hwdep,snd\_usb\_audio,snd\_usbmidi\_lib,snd\_bcm2835,snd\_timer,snd\_compress,snd\_soc\_core,snd\_pcm,snd\_rawmidi ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/15 "2021-04-11T22:37:33Z")
When I try to go to a jit.si meeting, it is saying - Audio error: Requested device not found – as if Chrome just can’t see the audio stuff or that the needed services aren’t running. Don’t know if this helps. ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/16 "2021-04-12T12:57:51Z")
I think it could be related to this thread: [BalenaOS 2.73.1+rev1 for RPI4: how to make bcm2835-codec working?](https://forums.balena.io/t/balenaos-2-73-1-rev1-for-rpi4-how-to-make-bcm2835-codec-working/289985) ---
**Author:** ![dtischler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dtischler/32/2483_2.png) [@dtischler](https://forums.balena.io/u/dtischler)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/18 "2021-04-13T21:06:13Z")
@LeoW Ok, I just got mine built, and I was able to duplicate the error that you experience. I have opened up a GitHub Issue for us to investigate the problem here: [Audio Renderer Error: Please Restart Your Computer · Issue #130 · balenalabs/balena-dash (github.com)](https://github.com/balenalabs/balena-dash/issues/130) ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/19 "2021-04-13T21:19:42Z")
OUTSTANDING – Thank you very much. I hope it is easy to find. -leo- ---
**Author:** ![phil-d-wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/phil-d-wilson/32/3730_2.png) [@phil-d-wilson](https://forums.balena.io/u/phil-d-wilson)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/21 "2021-04-20T15:09:02Z")
@LeoW - just to let you know that the bug you found has now been resolved. You can get the fix by redeploying the balenaDash app, and it will have the fix included in the latest release. FYI: the issue was a mismatch between the Raspbian base image and the latest version of Chromium. The latter expected the OS to have a pulseaudio backend, but crashed when it found the ALSA bridge we were installing as part of the browser block. We have removed the bridge, and it now works again. Thanks for letting us know about this! Phil ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/23 "2021-04-20T15:32:47Z")
OUTSTANDING - Thank you very much! -leo- ---
**Author:** ![finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@finn](https://forums.balena.io/u/finn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 11:11am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/25 "2025-11-29T11:11:47Z")
Hey LeoW, I had this exact same “Audio renderer error” on YouTube with balenaDash on several Pi 4s a while ago, super frustrating! What always fixed it for me was just adding one extra device variable: DEVICE\_AUDIO = hdmi (or sometimes AUDIO\_DEVICE = hdmi:0 works too) After adding that and rebooting the device once, YouTube audio started working perfectly through HDMI, no more black screen errors. A couple of the teachers I gave units to still use them daily in class with zero issues now. By the way, on the tablets the kids use in the same classroom we installed YouTube Vanced so they don’t get ads or background-play restrictions during lessons. I always grab the latest version of [YouTube Vanced](http://vanced.com.co), it still gets updated regularly and works great. Hope that gets your classroom dashboards running smoothly, good luck with the teacher units! ---
**Author:** ![LeoW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@LeoW](https://forums.balena.io/u/LeoW)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/youtube-audio-renderer-error-please-restart-your-computer/286309/26 "2025-11-29T13:56:53Z")
Thanks finn!