Sound troubles

Report bugs or find solutions to hardware problems regarding KQ1VGA and KQ2:RTS.

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Darxide
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Sound troubles

#1 Post by Darxide » Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:47 pm

I'm having trouble getting the sound to function in both KQ1 and KQ2 VGA.

I have downloaded the sound and music packages for both games and have installed them.

In both games, I have selected the following sound options:
Digital Sound: Default DirectSound Device
MIDI Music: Default MCI Music Device

Both check boxes are checked.

Whenever I start the game, I receive an error with the following:

Code: Select all

Unable to initialize your audio hardware.
[Problem: Digital sound driver not found]
There is music during the Tierra intro video but then the sound stops completely. There is no sound of any kind afterward. Unchecking the boxes does nothing. Changing the Digital Sound option to Default WaveOut Device causes this error:

Code: Select all

Unable to initialize your audio hardware.
[Problem: DIGMID patch set not found]
All other combinations of settings have no different effect.

I am running Windows XP SP2
I have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card with the latest drivers

Help is greatly appreciated,
~Darxide

MusicallyInspired
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#2 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:29 am

I don't know if this is related or not, but do you have the latest DirectX installed?

Darxide
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#3 Post by Darxide » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:54 am

I have DirectX 9.0c installed

MusicallyInspired
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#4 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:14 am

Strange. I also have an Audigy 2 (ZS, though) and it works fine. I can't think what the problem would be.

AsianMusicGuy
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#5 Post by AsianMusicGuy » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:18 am

Install directx 10
here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
switch audieo settings to default run a sound test on audio  devices
and if all else fails reinstall the game and its media packages

MusicallyInspired
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#6 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:20 am

No you don't need DX10. I know that for SURE. You need Vista for DX10 anyways.

AsianMusicGuy
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#7 Post by AsianMusicGuy » Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:30 am

No accually I have DX10 on Xp

Darxide
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#8 Post by Darxide » Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:43 am

Ok, this may sound a bit odd, but bear with me.

I started poking around and noticed that in "Sounds and Audio Devices" from control panel, if I went to the "Audio" tab the only devices shown was "Modem Line (Emulated)" or something to that degree. I had no option for my SoundBlaster. I removed the analog modem (which hasn't been used in years) and when I restarted the computer Windows began to "install" my Audigy card. That's odd, because it was already installed (at least according to Device Manager). Well, now in "Sounds & Audio Devices" I get "SB Live! 24 Bit" as the audio device which is even odder since my card is an Audigy (Model SB0570) but the two devices share the same driver package, so that could be the problem. I ran DxDiag tests and everything is ok there.

Now since removing the modem I get a completely different error! The new error is this:

Code: Select all

Unable to initialize your audio hardware.
[Problem: Failed to init digital sound driver]
Stranger by the moment...

Thanks for the help so far,
~Darxide

EDIT:
Running the Creative Diagnostics on the sound drivers results in a failure of the test "DirectSound Tests". This doesn't make sense since DxDiag shows no problems.

EDIT 2:
Setting the "Digital Sound" option to "Default WaveOut device" gives no error and the sound plays but it pops and crackles during any voice overs. I'm sure the DirectSound would work better. Any ideas?

MusicallyInspired
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#9 Post by MusicallyInspired » Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:28 pm

Download the Audigy drivers and install them again. You shouldn't be running on SB Live! 24-bit Audio.

Darxide
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#10 Post by Darxide » Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:11 am

I have installed the drivers found here:
http://us.creative.com/support/download ... 0&x=9&y=15

As you can see in the description they are listed as drivers for "Audigy Value/SE/LS and Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit"

SB0570 is the model of my card (That's what is printed on the PCB itself)

In Device Manager it is listed as "SB Audigy" but in "Sounds and Audio Devices" (from Control Panel) it is labeled as "SB Live! 24-bit"

Again, I think it's just a mislabeling due to the fact that both cards use the same driver package.

Image

~Darxide

MusicallyInspired
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#11 Post by MusicallyInspired » Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:33 am

Do you have an Audigy 1 or 2? I thought you said you had an Audigy 2? Audigy 2 doesn't have the same hardware as an SB Live. And Audigy 1 does, though.

Darxide
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#12 Post by Darxide » Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:44 pm

Apparently it's an Audigy 1 SE. I thought it was an Audigy 2.

I have tried to install DirectX 10 from the link above, however it would only install 9c again. DirectX 10 is for Vista. There is a "hacked" installer out there that I found that will install 10 on an XP machine, however they warn that it is "hit or miss" and it works for some and doesn't work for others and they don't know why. I'd rather not tempt fate.

The Creative Labs knowledge base isn't any help, either.

~Darxide

MusicallyInspired
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#13 Post by MusicallyInspired » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:09 pm

That's strange. I really don't know what to tell you.

Told you so, AMG.

Darxide
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#14 Post by Darxide » Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:22 pm

Well, after extensive investigation I have made some more discoveries.

If I uninstall the Audigy drivers and reinstall them from the original CD then the DirectSound test is fine and the game plays perfectly with great sound, no static or crackle. Upon updating the driver the problem reoccurs. I have done this at least 6 times now. I have updated the drivers manually, with the Creative AutoUpdate and through Microsoft's Windows Update.

Each time the DirectSound passes with the original (older) drivers and fails with the new drivers.

In my attempts to figure this out I registered and posted on Creative's forums only to discover that there's some turmoil over in the Creative camp right now. Apparently there's some legal fiasco about them purposefully disabling certain features of their cards with newer driver updates in an attempt to force users to buy new cards. Needless to say, they're a little busy to answer my question and help me.

I'm wondering if this is one of those "forced upgrade" situations and they're trying to disable my card to get me to buy a new one.

For now, I'll be sticking with the older drivers until a better solution comes along.

Thanks for all the help.

~Darxide

MusicallyInspired
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Posts: 4030
Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 8:57 pm
Location: Manitoba, Canada

#15 Post by MusicallyInspired » Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:17 pm

Lol wow. Yeah, stick with the old ones.

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