diff --git a/src/pipecat/pipeline/task.py b/src/pipecat/pipeline/task.py
index 0cf294b054..00c7082942 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/pipeline/task.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/pipeline/task.py
@@ -383,6 +383,20 @@ async def cancel(self):
         """Stops the running pipeline immediately."""
         await self._cancel()
 
+    async def force_cancel(self):
+        """Forcefully cancel the task and any running subtasks."""
+        logger.debug(f"Force canceling task {self} triggered")
+        try:
+            await self.cancel()
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.warning(f"Error calling pipecat task cancel {self}: {e}")
+            
+        for task in self._task_manager.current_tasks():
+            try:
+                await self._task_manager.cancel_task(task)
+            except Exception as e:
+                logger.warning(f"Error canceling task {self}: {e}")
+            
     async def run(self, params: PipelineTaskParams):
         """Starts and manages the pipeline execution until completion or cancellation."""
         if self.has_finished():
diff --git a/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_response.py b/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_response.py
index 40016aaa0d..13f90419f3 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_response.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/processors/aggregators/llm_response.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     EmulateUserStartedSpeakingFrame,
     EmulateUserStoppedSpeakingFrame,
     EndFrame,
+    ErrorFrame,
     Frame,
     FunctionCallCancelFrame,
     FunctionCallInProgressFrame,
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/cartesia/stt.py b/src/pipecat/services/cartesia/stt.py
index 104e4b2c5d..b7c9a0add2 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/cartesia/stt.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/cartesia/stt.py
@@ -123,11 +123,60 @@ async def cancel(self, frame: CancelFrame):
         await self._disconnect()
 
     async def run_stt(self, audio: bytes) -> AsyncGenerator[Frame, None]:
-        # If the connection is closed, due to timeout, we need to reconnect when the user starts speaking again
-        if not self._connection or self._connection.closed:
+        """Send an audio chunk for transcription, maintaining a resilient connection.
+
+        The Cartesia WebSocket can be closed by the remote side at any time. In that
+        scenario, ``websockets`` raises a ``ConnectionClosed`` (or
+        ``ConnectionClosedOK``) exception on ``send``.  Propagating that
+        exception up the stack aborts the whole Pipecat pipeline, resulting in
+        noisy logs like:
+
+            websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedOK: sent 1000 (OK); then received 1000 (OK)
+
+        Instead, we catch the closure here, perform a best-effort reconnect, and
+        silently drop the current audio buffer.  The next audio buffer will be
+        delivered over the fresh connection.
+        """
+
+        try:
+            # If the processor is cancelling/end-of-pipeline we skip sending
+            # altogether because the connection is expected to be closed.
+            if self._cancelling:
+                # Consume the audio frame silently and exit early.
+                yield None
+                return
+
+            # (Re)connect only when we are still active.
+            if not self._connection or self._connection.closed:
+                await self._connect()
+
+            # Attempt to send the audio payload
+            await self._connection.send(audio)
+        except (
+            websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedOK,
+            websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedError,
+            websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosed,
+        ) as e:
+            # Connection closed gracefully or with an error – attempt to
+            # reconnect so we can continue processing without failing the
+            # entire pipeline.
+            logger.warning(f"{self}: WebSocket closed during send: {e}. Reconnecting.")
+            try:
+                await self._disconnect()
+            except Exception:
+                # Ignore additional errors while cleaning up
+                pass
+
             await self._connect()
+            # We purposefully *do not* resend the audio buffer: by the time the
+            # reconnection succeeds the buffer would be outdated and resending
+            # could confuse the transcription stream.
+        except Exception as e:
+            # Catch-all to prevent the exception from bubbling up and killing
+            # the pipeline.  We log the error and try to keep going.
+            logger.error(f"{self}: Unexpected error while sending audio: {e}")
 
-        await self._connection.send(audio)
+        # Always yield once so the caller can keep iterating over the generator
         yield None
 
     async def _connect(self):
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/deepgram/stt.py b/src/pipecat/services/deepgram/stt.py
index da7ec535f3..7bb90c3a88 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/deepgram/stt.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/deepgram/stt.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 """Deepgram speech-to-text service implementation."""
 
 from typing import AsyncGenerator, Dict, Optional
+import asyncio
+import contextlib
 
 from loguru import logger
 
@@ -228,9 +230,35 @@ async def _connect(self):
             logger.error(f"{self}: unable to connect to Deepgram")
 
     async def _disconnect(self):
-        if self._connection.is_connected:
-            logger.debug("Disconnecting from Deepgram")
-            await self._connection.finish()
+        """Initiate a graceful disconnect but never block on Deepgram SDK internals.
+
+        The Deepgram SDK occasionally hangs in `finish()` when the TCP socket has
+        already been torn down by the far-end.  To ensure pipeline shutdown can
+        always proceed we fire-and-forget the `finish()` coroutine and return
+        control immediately.
+        """
+        if not self._connection.is_connected:
+            return
+
+        logger.debug("Disconnecting from Deepgram – v3 (non-blocking)")
+
+        async def _finish_safe():
+            try:
+                await asyncio.wait_for(self._connection.finish(), timeout=4)
+                logger.debug("Deepgram finish() completed")
+            except (asyncio.TimeoutError, asyncio.CancelledError):
+                logger.warning("Deepgram finish() did not complete in 4s – closing socket")
+                with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                    await self._connection.close()
+            except Exception as e:
+                logger.warning(f"Deepgram finish() raised {e} – closing socket")
+                with contextlib.suppress(Exception):
+                    await self._connection.close()
+            finally:
+                logger.debug("Deepgram disconnect task done")
+
+        # Run in background – shutdown must not wait for this.
+        asyncio.create_task(_finish_safe())
 
     async def start_metrics(self):
         """Start TTFB and processing metrics collection."""
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/tts_service.py b/src/pipecat/services/tts_service.py
index e502449862..d7f1afb11d 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/tts_service.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/tts_service.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 """Base classes for Text-to-speech services."""
 
 import asyncio
+import re
 from abc import abstractmethod
 from typing import Any, AsyncGenerator, Dict, List, Mapping, Optional, Sequence, Tuple
 
@@ -394,8 +395,15 @@ async def _push_tts_frames(self, text: str):
             await filter.reset_interruption()
             text = await filter.filter(text)
 
-        if text:
-            await self.process_generator(self.run_tts(text))
+        if text and text.strip():
+            # Additional check: ensure text contains at least one alphanumeric character
+            # This prevents sending text that's only punctuation (which Cartesia rejects)
+            if re.search(r'[a-zA-Z0-9]', text):
+                await self.process_generator(self.run_tts(text))
+            else:
+                logger.debug(f"Skipping TTS for text with only punctuation/whitespace: '{text}'")
+        else:
+            logger.debug(f"Skipping TTS for empty/whitespace text after filtering: '{text}'")
 
         await self.stop_processing_metrics()
 
diff --git a/src/pipecat/transports/base_output.py b/src/pipecat/transports/base_output.py
index 36d0536d79..af9c543634 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/transports/base_output.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/transports/base_output.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
     BotStoppedSpeakingFrame,
     CancelFrame,
     EndFrame,
+    ErrorFrame,
     Frame,
     MixerControlFrame,
     OutputAudioRawFrame,
diff --git a/src/pipecat/transports/network/fastapi_websocket.py b/src/pipecat/transports/network/fastapi_websocket.py
index 5ddaacff77..4c328a9bd5 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/transports/network/fastapi_websocket.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/transports/network/fastapi_websocket.py
@@ -71,23 +71,34 @@ def receive(self) -> typing.AsyncIterator[bytes | str]:
         return self._websocket.iter_bytes() if self._is_binary else self._websocket.iter_text()
 
     async def send(self, data: str | bytes):
-        try:
-            if self._can_send():
-                if self._is_binary:
-                    await self._websocket.send_bytes(data)
-                else:
-                    await self._websocket.send_text(data)
-        except Exception as e:
-            logger.error(
-                f"{self} exception sending data: {e.__class__.__name__} ({e}), application_state: {self._websocket.application_state}"
-            )
-            # For some reason the websocket is disconnected, and we are not able to send data
-            # So let's properly handle it and disconnect the transport
-            if self._websocket.application_state == WebSocketState.DISCONNECTED:
-                logger.warning("Closing already disconnected websocket!")
-                self._closing = True
-                await self.trigger_client_disconnected()
-
+        if self._can_send():
+            if self._is_binary:
+                await self._websocket.send_bytes(data)
+            else:
+                await self._websocket.send_text(data)
+
+        # NOTE: HL OVERRIDE, this Fix below from pipecat 
+        # https://github.com/pipecat-ai/pipecat/commit/74280829fcf5e03754ba5263162ff70eaabcdc4a
+        # can catch the error but causes occasional stalling
+        # fall back using the HL Override below in FastAPIWebsocketOutputTransport
+
+        # try:
+        #     if self._can_send():
+        #         if self._is_binary:
+        #             await self._websocket.send_bytes(data)
+        #         else:
+        #             await self._websocket.send_text(data)
+        # except Exception as e:
+        #     logger.error(
+        #         f"{self} exception sending data: {e.__class__.__name__} ({e}), application_state: {self._websocket.application_state}"
+        #     )
+        #     # For some reason the websocket is disconnected, and we are not able to send data
+        #     # So let's properly handle it and disconnect the transport
+        #     if self._websocket.application_state == WebSocketState.DISCONNECTED:
+        #         logger.warning("Closing already disconnected websocket!")
+        #         self._closing = True
+        #         await self.trigger_client_disconnected()
+                
     async def disconnect(self):
         self._leave_counter -= 1
         if self._leave_counter > 0:
@@ -311,7 +322,19 @@ async def _write_frame(self, frame: Frame):
             if payload:
                 await self._client.send(payload)
         except Exception as e:
+            # NOTE: HL OVERRIDE, detect closed websocket and shut down pipeline
+            msg = str(e).lower()
+            if (
+                ("cannot call" in msg and "once a close message has been sent" in msg) or
+                self._client._websocket.application_state == WebSocketState.DISCONNECTED
+            ):
+                logger.warning(f"{self} detected closed websocket, shutting down pipeline")
+                await self._client.disconnect()
+                await self.cleanup()
+                return
+            # Otherwise, log as before
             logger.error(f"{self} exception sending data: {e.__class__.__name__} ({e})")
+            
 
     async def _write_audio_sleep(self):
         # Simulate a clock.
diff --git a/src/pipecat/utils/asyncio/task_manager.py b/src/pipecat/utils/asyncio/task_manager.py
index 8445361867..4589bf8036 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/utils/asyncio/task_manager.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/utils/asyncio/task_manager.py
@@ -240,6 +240,12 @@ async def cancel_task(self, task: asyncio.Task, timeout: Optional[float] = None)
 
         """
         name = task.get_name()
+        
+        # Avoid awaiting on ourselves which would lead to a recursion error.
+        if task is asyncio.current_task():
+            task.cancel()
+            return
+        
         task.cancel()
         try:
             # Make sure to reset watchdog if a task is cancelled.