HTPC to AV Receiver Audio Problem

I recently hooked up my HTPC to my ONKYO AV receiver and I'm having a small problem with the audio. I can play music/ watch movies and hear sound no problem. Usually when sound is being output from my receiver, I can see some light one the receiver illuminate to tell me that it is receiving PCM audio... or DTS if I'm watching a blu-ray, etc.

However, if there is no sound being output over the HDMI, the receiver seems to "lose" the connection and the lights don't show up. As soon as there is sound again, the lights will come back on, but it usually clips a small amount of audio. For example, if the computer is sitting idle and I launch windows media center, the first half second or so of audio that usually plays when you start up media center is cut off. Also, if I'm playing on pokerstars, where the sound is very intermittent, like usually when someone bets or folds, I almost get no sound. However, if I play an mp3 in the background at a low volume level, I can hear all of the sounds from pokerstars.

Is there some way to force my receiver or my HTPC to maintain a connection and not drop out? or maybe increase the "idle" time. It's rather annoying to not hear anything come out of the speakers when I can see the volume level meter in my mixer jumping up when there should be sound.

I did a small amount of looking through the owners manual for my ONKYO receiver and it mentioned something about specifying the digital input type. It is currently set to "auto" meaning that if some DTS signal is being passed through it will recognize it and decode it properly. I tried switching it to PCM, just to see if that had an effect, but it did not

I know this isn't the best solution, but you could play some subdued music at a near inaudible level. That would keep a signal going without being too obtrusive.

This sounds like a Windows or driver issue rather than an Amp issue.

Try this for troubleshooting:

1) Take the Amp out of the equation. Use speakers or headphone directly into the HTPC and see if you have any sound drop outs.

2) Is the audio over HDMI coming from the mobo or the graphics card or something else? It could be a driver issue.

3) Try using an optical cable for the audio rather than audio & video over HDMI.

4) I really doubt its an Amp issue, but it wouldn't hurt to re-check or play with the input settings on the Amp.

I've never heard of HDMI or hardware to "drop a connection" like a mobile phone. As I said above, this really sounds like a Windows/driver issue.

I just set up VT-12 for the first time with Pioneer VSX-1020 7.1 using the receivers auto set up. It complained about the reversed phases on the front left and center speakers. When I check the wires everything looks OK, and the speakers sound good too. Should I ignore it, or try to eliminate it?