!!!HELP!!! Sound Problem (sound channels and more)

[Bull Dog]

Ok first things first, my system specs:

1900+ AMD on a VIA chipset motherboard with AC'97 audio
512MB Ram
128MB Gforce4 Ti4400
Windows 2000
Sound Blaster Live card

and

different comp with same problem
Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1 with WinXP

Ok now my problem.

I used to have Win98SE with the same specs and everything worked fine.  Then due to Win98 only supporting FAT32 and I needed NTFS support.   The Live card had 32 sound channels with Win98 and the Audigy card had 64 with Win98. The sound was also free of pops and cracks.  On my computer running Win2k BZ2 shows only 14 channels available and it won't stay set on hardware for the buffer.  On the Audigy card with WinXP it shows only 31 channels.  I also experenced "pops" in the in game sound.  I tried using the intergrated sound, a different sound card(was still a sound blaster card) and nothing works.

Please help I cant play bz2 1.3 like it is.  

1.0, 1.1, 1.2 IS NOT AN OPTION.

[Red Devil]

BD, sorry, I'm blind drunk at the moment bro, but I do remember seeing some excellent articles on SB popping on winamp.com. Check it out. Laters.

[Spacecomber]

Sorry, this is going to be more a rant than helpful, but I'm afraid that you've run into Creative's sucky driver support.  I too ran into sound issues when I made the move from Win98SE to WinXP and from BZ2 v1.2 to the new sound code in v1.3.  My previous sound card, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz was making distorted sounds with the radar "ping" and the menu roll-over sound, which became too annoying to put up with (especiallyy the radar ping).  I tried an old Creative Live card that I had, but as you noticed it has way too many pops and cracks.  This was running the latest drivers for this card that Creative had available.  

I know from past experience with Creative that they really don't put much effort into fixing issues with their cards through improved drivers.  Instead, they release a new version of their sound card and fix their problems that way.  I caved and bought an Audigy 2 ZS, and sure enough everything works fine, now.  I guess you just have to plan on buying a newer model SB anytime your card starts to run into compatability issues.

Of course, try the latest drivers from Creative for your Audigy, if you haven't already done so.  Perhaps you'll have better luck than I did.  The same for the onboard sound, see if you can find some newer drivers for AC97.  Look either at your motherboard manufacturers website or even the website of whoever made the board's sound chip (e.g., Realtek).

V1.3 is using DirectX 8 sound code, which may be why suddenly a lot of drivers that use to work no longer do, ie, they don't fully support DirectX8 and newer.  And, a lot of older sound cards were released when Win98 was the primary platform on which they would be used.  Consequently, the driver support is better under Win98 than Win2K/XP.

[Bull Dog]

Thanks Spacecomber.  I dunno what I'll do.  Things have gotten even worse I popped in the Audigy card that I have and for some reason it wouldn't work so I put the Live card back in and it all seemed like before except I dont get ANY sound from BZ2.  Nill, the movies have sound but the game (shell and in game) is as quiet as a tomb.  I suppose I could have lived with only 14 sound channels and some blasted popping but no sound?

Bull Dog

[technoid]

I have an Audigy1 and use the kX Project audio drivers for when I do digital audio workstation multitrack recording.   I don't know exactly which SBLive version card you got, but I know many digital musicians who have replaced the stock Creative bloatware with kX drivers... or even APSL  (98SE-only)... on their SBLive.  Of course, that is done for music applications and not for gaming.  I know kX is stable on my 98SE rig with BZII 1.3, so it might work for you.  Just be warned though that kX can get complicated as it has the abilities to do effects/lines rerouting.  It has full AC97 and WDM support.  It does have Win XP/2k support, but the installation instructions looks kinda rough, heh.  Check it out anyway.

http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/intro.php

[Red Devil]

BD, go to Driver Heaven and use the Driver Cleaner to clean out the old Audigy leftovers and see if that helps.

[Bull Dog]

OK I tried the new drivers now BZ2 thinks the sound card has 63 channels and Still no sound. I also used the Driver cleaner prigram.  It seemes that the DX8.1 direct sound has gotten screwed up. I dunno where the problem is.  Any one have any suggestions?  

I wanna play BZ2 1.3.  *wipes tantrum tears away*  The level this game can take people down to.......sigh

[Spacecomber]

Does this mean that when you run DXDiag you can't pass any of the audio tests?

Are you still using DirectX 8?

If the answers to both of those questions is yes, and you've got the latest audio drivers installed, maybe try to update to DX9.  I'm thinking it might essentially re-install DX for you and maybe get things working.  Maybe.

[technoid]

OK I tried the new drivers now BZ2 thinks the sound card has 63 channels and Still no sound. I also used the Driver cleaner prigram.  It seemes that the DX8.1 direct sound has gotten screwed up. I dunno where the problem is.  Any one have any suggestions?  

I wanna play BZ2 1.3.  *wipes tantrum tears away*  The level this game can take people down to.......sigh

Are you saying you installed kX?  Do you hear sound when you run another application (outside of BZII)?  Enable every port you can find (Main Volume, Wave, LineIn, StereoMix, Synth, etc.) and see what happens.  You sure your speakers/cables/headphones are working also?

[OvermindDL1]

I have the Sound Blaster Audigy as well, works perfect for me, newest drivers, have not tried any old drivers.

[Bull Dog]

Ok I can get sound in other games but that is probably because I am not using the Hardware buffers.  I installed  DX9.0c so that should not be a factor.  I think I will just "overinstall" Win2k and fix the probablem that way.  I also just bought a Audgy2 external sound unit.  Wasn't cheap But I needed to free up a PCI slot anyway.

DX diag seems to work ok

Who knows.....

Bull Dog

[technoid]

Ok I can get sound in other games but that is probably because I am not using the Hardware buffers.  I installed  DX9.0c so that should not be a factor.  I think I will just "overinstall" Win2k and fix the probablem that way.  I also just bought a Audgy2 external sound unit.  Wasn't cheap But I needed to free up a PCI slot anyway.

DX diag seems to work ok

Who knows.....

Bull Dog

I assume everything is ok in the Windows Device Manager... no yellow question marks, irq conflicts and such, if you're getting sound outside of BZ.  If all SBLive's are surround sound (I don't really know since I don't have one), then try plugging your speakers in the other speaker/line out ports if the main mix got rerouted to another port.  Otherwise, reinstalling the O/S, as you mentioned, might work.

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

as i found out...opening up the PC and cleaning all the super-fine grey dust can work wonders

[Bull Dog]

as i found out...opening up the PC and cleaning all the super-fine grey dust can work wonders

Heeh yes that can work wonders unless you computer was just recently purged of that "superfine grey dust".  

Also The windows device manager thinks that all it right with the world.

[Red Devil]

Tried using the software/hardware/auto settings in Options/Sound?