Got a new rig, and it's great! Well, except for...

[MAME]

my sound?! 🙁

I don't know why, but sometimes the sound skips. I've only noticed it during a FMV in Starcraft (the intro cut sceens) and when I play Wolf:ET, but those are the only games I've played thus far. Winamp is fine so I'm not sure it's the sound card.

Now I'm using an older (5 year old) 48x LiteOn cdrom from my old comp (600 Athlon). I thought it might be the cdrom but when I watched the SC cut scenes on my old comp, it never skipped.

As for wolf, I notice I'll fire a gun once but it sounds like I fired it two or three times once in a while.

I used the built in lan port but I also threw a pci NIC just to test it out. According to DSL reports' speed test, the pci card was only 1/10 as fast (even though it worked fine on my previous computer). So now I'm thinking, maybe the pci slots are running uber slow? I've never heard of such a thing but who knows.

Like I said, other than that, the computer has been great. I hope someone can help! Thanks.


Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
2500+ Barton
nForce2 Shuttle 400/Ultra

 

[MAME]

?

 

[XMan]

Update your chipset and sound card drivers, maybe? Is the onboard sound disabled?

 

[jmagg]

Make sure DMA is enabled on your CDrom.

 

[Davegod]

After the above suggestions, another thing thats quick and easy so worth a try:

start > run > type in "dxdiag"
click Sound tab
try lowering Accelleration

 

[Dogma420]

go to www.megagames.com or something like that and get the 'no cd patch' for your games. It is a .exe that replaces your original so no cd needs to be in the drive. (be sure to put your original exe in a folder so you have it just in case).....don't advocate piracy, but the right not to have to grab the cd every time i want to play a game i've bought legally.

...this eliminates any problems you might about sound vs. the cd rom....or buy a new cd rom, they're cheap.

 

[MAME]

I think it's the cdrom, not the sound card. I noticed it skips only when the cdrom starts spinning.
I will try and disable the onboard sound as well.

How do I enable DMA for my cdrom?

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: MAME

How do I enable DMA for my cdrom?

That depends on your OS. In XP, go to device manager and right click on ide/atapi controllers and right click on your your primary or secondary ide controller (whichever has your cdrom on it). Select properties and then click on the advanced settings tab. Make sure they all say DMA if available and check to see what mode your drive is running in.

 

[Davegod]

I'm a little surprised if it's the CDROM, Enemy Territory is a free to download game and doesnt come on a CD. Even if it's actually RTCW, like for ET the sound files are stored in the PK3's (basically .zip files) that are stored on the hard disk, I dont even think if music files are stored on the RTCW CD, seeing as for MP the CD is not required to be in the tray.

If the skips happen when some random CD is in the drive, I guess that makes sense though, simple detective work would be to take out the CD and play ET to see wether it still happens.

 

[smittybg]

i had that problem once , my sound card was clocked to high and i had to underclock it to get it to work

 

[scottws]

I have the same problem in Starcraft. The game continues to display the "cutscenes," but the CD drive has to spin up to load the sounds or something and the sound ends up lagging way behind.