Strange "scraping" sound in music...

[Commandante]

I've noticed a some strange "scraping" sound in the background when I play the game with music turned on. It sounds as if someone is scraping the inside of a plastic jar while the music plays. As I'm absolutely certain that this problem has just appeared, since I've had EU2 installed for a year or so, I wanted to check if it's a known problem and what can be done (before I just give up and reinstall it...).

Just to check, I connected the computer to my hi-fi. The sound was still there, but even more hideous of course as the volume was greater...

Is there help in the horizon?

 

[Castellon]

“Strange sound/pops/crackles/jerky sounds/etc.” error

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 This can almost always be traced to out-of-date drivers or hardware acceleration.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.

 

[Commandante]

Originally posted by Castellon
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.

Ok. I upgraded DirectX to 9.0, I updated the sound card drivers, reinstalled the game and I turned the hardware acceleration off. What remains seems to be the physical part. Oh my, it's all very wierd because I've had the game for over a year, but I've never had this kind of problem until now...

And since I have no idea what you are talking about, what are IRQ conflicts and TSRs?

Anyway, thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

[Castellon]

I guess you have to ask yourself, What changed in your system from when you had no problems to when you did.

Did you put any new parts in or did you install an new software, update your system ...

IRQ is how the system stops to interface with a card. If two devices have the same IRQ, this can cause a conflict.

TSR is a program that runs in the background.

 

[Commandante]

Originally posted by Castellon
I guess you have to ask yourself, What changed in your system from when you had no problems to when you did.

Did you put any new parts in or did you install an new software, update your system ...

Yup, I think I'll have to sit down and have a serious talk with myself.

Thanks for the clarifications and the help, Chewie ( ). Much appreciated!

 

[Castellon]

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.