XP Sound Problems - Try this out

RVPERTVS · #1 August 30th, 2005, 01:18 AM

Just one question:

Allthe problems discussed in this topic are XP related right?...I mean, there shouldn't be any issue runing under W98, with any codec or whatever the culprit is on XP right?

DRG · #2 August 30th, 2005, 06:34 AM

Quote:

RVPERTVS said:
Just one question:

Allthe problems discussed in this topic are XP related right?...I mean, there shouldn't be any issue runing under W98, with any codec or whatever the culprit is on XP right?

The key seem to be XP combined with systems that use an integrated sound chip though not in 100% of the cases. I don't recall anyone with w98 and a proper sound card having difficulties ( ??)

Don

RVPERTVS · #3 August 30th, 2005, 10:47 AM

What do you mean by "a proper sound car"?, any suggestion?

I�m asking because I�m upgrading my machine and I don�t want to spend money just to find out that my new acquired hardware has issues with the game or that there�were better hardware options to play it.

Thanks in advance

RecruitMonty · #4 August 30th, 2005, 04:24 PM

Well I think that file from M256 was damn useful. M256 you are a great help thanks a million.

d64 · #5 August 31st, 2005, 08:52 AM

I also think it's not a bad idea to have the wav files downloadable. Not because I think converting them is hard, but because I believe people should avoid installing too many programs on their computers in this day and age.

One idea that came to me is that there are many freeware command-line sound converter programs available today, which are stand-alone executables and do not require installation, so maybe the sound directory could include one of those and a bat file that would batch-convert all the files just with one doubleclick of the mouse.

Also, as the wav files are pretty big, would there be any interest in a bittorrent containing them?

(Btw, for the record, I had the game crash fairly quickly before I converted the files to wav. I am using winxp but my soundcard is a 24/96 pci card, not integrated.)

Beeblebrox · #6 October 22nd, 2005, 07:21 AM

Hi, there.

Seems like the soundprobs went away for most people but me. I have the CD version and 2.0 patch. Sounddriver is the often problematic integrated AC97, processor AthlonXP 1600+, winXP, a fairly ordinary setup. However, I have never exeperienced any problems with this particular sound unit in any other game ever. Oh, and I did the Wave-stuff already. Doesn't work. game freezes in barely a round of action. Have I missed something? Are there more tricks to try?

DRG · #7 October 22nd, 2005, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Beeblebrox said:
Hi, there.

Seems like the soundprobs went away for most people but me. I have the CD version and 2.0 patch. Sounddriver is the often problematic integrated AC97, processor AthlonXP 1600+, winXP, a fairly ordinary setup. However, I have never exeperienced any problems with this particular sound unit in any other game ever. Oh, and I did the Wave-stuff already. Doesn't work. game freezes in barely a round of action. Have I missed something? Are there more tricks to try?

Read through the entire "Games crashes and flashes" thread. There is info in there on sound problems. Integrated sound IS a problem with some computers and this game but we've found that some third party sound CODEC will give the game trouble as well.

One thing that has caused trouble for some people is mmswitch.ax . if you have it you could try unregistering the mmswitch.ax file by typing the following in Start > Run: regsvr32 /u mmswitch.ax. FYI I don't have it in my system

Don

Stian · #8 November 10th, 2005, 07:27 PM

Zaphod,
Here's something you could try; a way of out finding what codecs are used when playing audio files like mp3 are using a free tool like GSpot:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html

It's a bit technical but here's a quick walkthrough;

In GSpot, go to the File menu, then Open -> Select an mp3 file (any will do I think), click Render (bottom), then look at Audio Path there and you should get the name of the codec windows uses to play the file.

Also, click on the 'Status' line and then the name of the filter for info on where the offending file is located on your system.

Then go the the windows Start menu -> Run, type 'regsvr32 /u path to codec file' and the codec should be uninstalled.

Hopefully the game will then use your the default, MS-supplied codec for mp3 playback.

Hope this helps you to finally enjoy the game!

Stian

Beeblebrox · #9 November 11th, 2005, 06:02 AM

Sounds like a better approach than deleting at random. I'll try that tonight. I've heard that codecs per definition are a source of grief, but have never had problems before. An enlightening experience...

Beeblebrox · #10 November 11th, 2005, 04:04 PM

Oki. The "culprit" seems to be quartz.dll in that case. (I did the wav-thing, so I used one of the game-wavs). Since quartz.dll seems to be a microsoftfile associated to DirectX. Removing it is not an option. The only thing I can imagine is that it has become corrupted some way or another. Ill try to replace it with a brand new one and see if that helps.