Sound issue

[Navaja]

Okay, I've not seen much on sound problems - and that's about the biggest problem I've experienced to this point. I've down leveled my video drivers, patched, etc. But nothing I've done seems to fix this.

I can play fine for half an hour or more and then suddenly there is silence. Often times it takes me a few minutes to realize it. It's probably not as big a deal as the problems others are having, but the sounds add a lot to the whole CotN "experience". In any case, it steps on things HARD - I have to reboot this machine to get any sounds whatsoever. Sometimes I don't reboot for several weeks ... after installing CotN, I reboot several times a day.

What I have in terms of a sound card is rather basic and generic... it's the same as what is on the motherboard - but I didn't realize that until it was purchased. It is a C-Media 3878 (or something like that) with two year old drivers. I coudlnt' find anything newer, but the drivers work flawlessly with a multitude of other games. So, what is so different with CotN?

Any help would be appreciated. DxDiag is attached.

Thanks,

Navaja

[Keith]

Try reducing your hardware accleration on your sound system from the DXDIAG SOUND tab. Move the slider back a notch or two and play. If it happens again, move the the slider back another notch until you hit the minimum setting or your problem goes away.

If that doesn't work, you may have answered your own question, in that your drivers are 2 years old.

CotN requires DirectX9 compliant hardware, so regardless of what games you have played before, your sound system may not meet DX9 standards.
http://members.aol.com/dheitm8612/pics/tut_rule.gif (http://panzerblitz.proboards9.com/index.cgi#test)

[mouse]

It could be a couple of things and since it happens on a schedule my first suspect would be overheating, second suspect would be the power supply. To test ofr overheating open the case side and use a small fan to blow directly in the case. Considering the amount of hardware your running what size power are you using and how old is it.

[Navaja]

It's an Antec 480 watt power supply, about 6 or 8 months old (maybe a little older) ... this sound problem doesn't really happen on a schedule, it just happens. There are two case fans in the machine, too; overheating doesn't seem to be a likely culprit - like I said I go weeks between reboots so I think this system is quite stable, or at least it was until I started on CotN. I popped off the side of the case just to eliminate the possibility ...

I'd already reduced the audio acceleration down a notch to "standard", I've now kicked it down to "basic" and will see if that helps.

I have "ump-teen" other games that require DirectX 9 compatability but this is the first one that I've had to down-level drivers and reduce the performace settings... and it still bugs out.

It doesn't seem right that a person should have to "tune down" their system to get this game to run well on an otherwise stable machine.

Thanks for the input!!

Navaja

[Ringo]

Hello Navaja

In answer to your question in another thread,
I did find a later C Media driver (version 0644) at the this site:

http://drivers.soft32.com/driver/download.

It didn't solve my CotN problem.
Oddly, when I next visited windows update it offered me an update
to my C Media driver which turned out to be version 0643, so
now I'm back where I started.
The driver the C Media site offers is older than both of these.
Hope this is some help.

[Keith]

Since your audio drivers are 2 years old, there is a good chance that they are the culprit. They came out before DX9. CotN requires uptodate hardware and drivers. Sometimes you can get older drivers to work but you have to make performance sacrifices to do it.