This is a fairly common complaint but can be described in many different ways. The essence of the problem, though, is that there is some sound but that there is a definite problem with it in terms of performance. This can almost always be traced to out-of-date drivers or hardware acceleration.
FIX:
- What version of DirectX are you running? If you're not using the current 8.1 version then update it. It's not a bad idea to completely uninstall DirectX first and then do a fresh install. See the Resources section for a nifty DirectX removal tool.
- What sound card and drivers are you using? If the drivers aren't current then update them.
- Run DirectX diagnostics on the sound card to confirm that it’s working properly. Start-->Run: dxdiag.exe then Sound-->Test DirectSound
- Try reducing the hardware acceleration of your sound card or turning it off all together. You can do this easily from the DirectX diagnostic utility. It's located on the Sound tab.
- Try physically moving the sound card to a different slot in the motherboard if possible. Ideally this will be as far away from the video card as possible since they can sometimes interfere with one another.
- Look for IRQ conflicts and resolve them if/where possible.
- Turn off any unneeded TSRs that may be running since these can and do interfere with performance.
- If all else fails and you can play the music with another mp3 player (e.g. Winamp) then you could turn off the in game music and run it in the background until another solution can be worked out.