Wierd sound glitches! Urgent Assistance Required!

I just got a Radeon X800 Pro, and then reformatted my computer. I have the latest drivers and everything from, well, everyone, and I am getting a wierd new problem. In games, Halo, for example, my sound is messed up. Things hurry along way too fast. Some cut scenes get skipped through partially, and things like explosions are scratchy.

 

I have tested some more and found that this same problem is present in UT2004 and the CS: Source beta. My music seems to play OK, but games have lots of problems(with sound only.) Oh, and in my previous post when I stated that cutscenes get skipped through partially, its the sound that skips. This is really getting annoying.

 

I have run a myriad of diagnostics, read help files, and more, but so far nothing has helped. I get scratchy and jumpy audio when playing games on my computer. Oh, and also, in UT2004 the music sometimes sticks on a place and plays it several times before going on.

 

I really need help here ppl!!! Stop ignoring me!

 

try reducing your sound hardware acceleration in the sound properties.

 

Are you using EAX?

 

I have EAX enabled in the games that use it, yes. And the acceleration, should I put it on normal or what? It is currently maxed out, and the setting below it is like the standard DirectSound setting or something.

 

Come on ppl I really need help here!!!

 

Sound Error!

I have recently reformatted my computer, and at this time I purchased some 5.1 surround sound speakers and a new video card(X800 Pro). After installing all drivers and updates for everything I installed a few games. Some of these were Halo, UT2004, and Battlefield Vietnam. Now, in all my games the sound is screwed up! It is scratchy and choppy, and at times dialog and weapon firing sounds skip and jump. I can't figure out for the life of me what is wrong, and I just got the CS: Source Beta. I WANT TO PLAY THE CS: SOURCE BETA!!! I read somewhere that DirectX 9.0c may cause sound problems. I installed it, and maybe that is a possibility. Please help me right away.

 

Re: Sound Error!

Try running the games with the sound cards hardware acceleration bumped down a notch. Here is how to do this.

1. Click Start

2. Open the Control Panel

3. Open Sound and Audio Devices

4. Click the Audio tab

5. Under Sound Playback click on Advanced and then move the slider under Hardware Acceleration one notch to the left. While viewing this window check and see what the Sample Rate is set to.

There are a couple of other things you may want to check out also.
1. Make sure that the audio cable is firmly seated into the sound card's jack, and check the speaker wires as well. ( I know this is pretty basic but it has happened to me)

2. Check to see if there are any new drivers for you're soundcard.

 

Take it down one notch and see if it helps. Keep taking it down one and if it works when its off completley, then you can be sure its not hardware acceleration thats the problem.

 

Please don't beg.. a simple "BUMP" post in one of your threads will suffice. Remember there hundreds of posts per day. Some get lost, some don't. Please be patient.
Thank you.

 

What is a bump? And i tried all levels of hardware acceleration and that is not the problem. I have read somewhere that DirectX 9.0c could cause sound problems. Is there any possibility of that?

 

Re: Sound Error!

That all checks out, and I have the latest soundcard drivers.

 

it's possible if your current drivers don't support dx9c..
a bump is merely a reply with the word "BUMP" in it . it puts the post at the top again for all to see..

 

OK, and ya, my latest sndcard drivers are from September 22, 2003. Those is the latest drivers Creative is offering. So now I guess I have 2 choices:
1. Buy a new soundcard and get its latest drivers(Mine may not be supported anymore, it's a SB Live! 5.1 Digital (Dell). It is stupid that I got a "special" Dell version of my soundcard.)
2. Reformat my computer and don't install DirectX 9.0c

 

Might be an idea to not install 9.0c till some new drivers come out (which they will do if it is an issue.)

 

So do you think I should reformat(again... I just reformatted 4 days ago... sigh), and then install DirectX 9.0b? Because as far as I know there is no way to roll back or remove DirectX. If there is, please tell me, as that would save me lots of reformatting time and effort.

 

Did you try the automatic driver detection/download feature on the Soundblaster site. It worked great for me. That driver seems outdated.

 

I just reformatted, and the problem is still there!!! WTF!!! I did use the auto-update stuff on their site but it said that mine was the latest version. My sound card is a Dell one, so maybe it is not supported anymore. A new possibility has been brought to my attention. I recently added a new video card, the Radeon X800 Pro. I reformatted when I got it, and installed the latest drivers. Is it possible that my video card is TOO strong, making my games go TOO fast?(This would perhaps explain the skipping and jumping of sounds and music, and also the speeding up and sticking of music.) Also, I noticed that in game menus don't have any sound problems either.

 

Greetings , I was surfing the window's support page for sound problems for you, and came up with this link for you it addresses all sound related problems on windows XP. Hope this is helpfull , Glenn


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307918

 

I tried all the stuff in that but to no avail. I have, however, managed to isolate a possible suspect. My USB headset works fine with all of these games. But my speakers do not, and when I use normal headphones with my soundcard, I get the same problems as with the speakers. USB is not a part of my soundcard, and it is fine. So perhaps my soundcard is the problem. But it could be the card, the drivers, or a conflict between it and other drivers, or something else. But I bet it is in some way related to my soundcard.

 

Bump

 

Oh, I noticed something else. My sound appears to be perfect with Doom III. Yet another factor to help SOMEONE help me fix this.

 

OK I have compiled a large amount of info on this problem and posted it on other forums, so now I'll post it here as a sort of update.

About a week ago I bought some 5.1 surround sound speakers. They worked great with my computer, and my games had surround sound. Soon after, I bought a Radeon X800 Pro. I reformatted my computer and updated everything to the latest version. My games now have strange sound problems! In Halo, music in the game speeds up and slows down sporatically, as well as people's speech speeding up and skipping. Also in Halo, when i fire my weapons quickly many shot sounds are skipped partially or completely(eg. Instead of click click click bang bang bang I might get click click click bang bang). Also in Halo, there is a crackling in my speakers that seems to occur only when I look around. In Star Trek Elite Force 2, cutscene and other speech is often skipped partially or entirely. In Unreal Tournament 2004, music often catches and plays the same part of the song several times. In the Counter Strike: Source Beta, sound repeats, crackles, and is garbled. I have found that with the exception of the CS: Source Beta, the menu sounds and music of these games is just fine. I have also found that Battlefield Vietnam is just fine, as is Doom 3. I have tested all settings of hardware acceleration and volume on my soundcard, and none of these is the culprit. I had thought that it was a problem with DirectX 9.0c, but after reformatting and using DirectX 9.0b, the problem was still there. I also emailed support at Creative's site and was told that there were no known issues with DirectX 9.0c. I have tried some headphones plugged into my soundcard and these had the same problem as the speakers. I then tried a USB stereo headset and the problems were not there. This leads me to believe it is a problem with my soundcard, since USB is on the mobo instead of the soundcard. My speakers work fine with other things(sounds in Windows itself, music, videos, etc.), just not in games. This told me that it was not a problem with the speakers themselves. This leads me to believe that my problem is a software(probably driver-related) one. Everything worked until I got the new Radeon X800 Pro. This leads me to believe that it is perhaps some kind of conflict with my sound and video drivers. Is this possible? Please give me some feedback here, I have tested MANY things and so far gotten no results. This is the strangest problem I have ever encountered.

My specs are as follows:
CPU: 2.66 Ghz Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB Dual Channel PC2700
HDD: 74.4 GB 7200 RPM
Video Card: Radeon X800 Pro
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Digital (Dell)
OS: Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1
DirectX 9.0b

 

Then it must be the sound card drivers.

did you go to http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/ and check the sound card drivers? Chances are the "Dell" sound card is just a rebrand of a SB card, so the SB drivers should work fine.

In fact, that card is listed as Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital (Dell)

 

I have the latest drivers for everything.

 

Now it has gotten worse. My Windows sounds are messed up. I don't know if it is related to the game problems, but now when I click a link or minimize or maximize or empty the recycle bin(all of which I have sound for), sometimes the sound plays only partially or not at all.

 

I think I fixed the new Windows problem, I just reset all sound settings to their defaults.

 

Just learned that Half-Life(Latest Steam version) has no sound problems.

 

OK, I tested out some more games, and here are the results:

Counter Strike 1.6(Steam) - works fine.
Counter Strike Condition Zero(Steam) - works fine.
Condition Zero Deleted Scenes(Steam) - works fine.

Also, I set all the settings on my video card to their highest instead of application preference, and now the Counter Strike Source Beta works better. It's only problem now is that has some static, and also at time a loud, steady clicking comes out of the speakers.

 

Never mind. The CS: Source Beta was only working by luck, lol. It's back to being messed up again.

 

bump