Sound Driver Problem

[Chief Savage Ma]

I just bought this game on Steam today and whenever I try to open it it gets through the intro OK then freezes on Initializing Sound... ; Alt-Tabbing out reveals an error message that says HOI has encountered a problem with your sound card. Please obtain and install the latest sound drivers from the sound card manufacturer. If the problem persists, contact the technical support. I tried opening it with the launcher disabling the music but it still fails. I checked for a new sound card driver but could not find one.

 

[Balesir]

You can also disable music in settings.cfg (in the root game directory), but that won't affect other sfx, so may not fix the issue. If you can say what sound card you have it may be possible to check if anyone else has one?

 

[Denniss]

Do you have OnBoard sound or a separate soundcard ?
If OnBoard please tell us your motherboard model, or in case of a pre-built system the system model like HP Pavillon 1221 or similar.

 

[Chief Savage Ma]

I have onboard audio from an eMachines W5233. http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=W5233

I've upgraded the RAM to 2GB, the video card to an nVidia 9400 GT and added an external HD and CD drive since. Sound is unchanged. I've never had this problem with HoI2 for reference's sake.

 

[Lennartos]

Try to install HOI2 and see if it works.
What windows version are you running, at what directx version is installed?

 

[Chief Savage Ma]

HoI2DDA works fine and I can hear all the sounds. I've played it for years on this computer.

I have Windows 7 Home Premium and DirectX 11 installed.


Here's a pastebin of a dxdiag I ran.

http://pastebin.com/2tpLPt2r

 

[Denniss]

I'd try to install the latest Realtek audio drivers, AFAIR you have to install it twice, in the first round it uninstall the driver and after reboot Windoze reinstall the standard drivers. Then you should be able to install the Realtek drivers.
This driver behaviour may have changed since I tested this early in 2010 or not.

Other options would be to start the game as administrator, if you are starting it via the launcher then try to start as admin using the aodgame.exe.

If all this fails update your DirectX
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

 

[Chief Savage Ma]

I attempted all three of your solutions to no avail. And now the same problem has surfaced with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.