I am having an audio problem with a new computer that I just bought and my problem seems to be nearly unique amongst other WoW players on the tech support forums. If any of you think you'd be able to help me, I would greatly appreciate it. I am about a week away from returning this computer and being hit with a huge restocking fee.
The problem: Not enough sounds can be played at the same time. During fighting in instances, I hear only about half of the sounds going on around me. For example: An arcane explosion that hits 4 enemies should produce about 5 sounds at once... one explosion sound and 4 "splashes" for each enemy it hits, or at least one "splash" to indicate damage was done. Quite often, I will hear no exposion and just the splashes, or just the splashes and no explosion. I can also hear nothing at all, depending on what's going on around me. There's no method to this madness except that when many sounds are playing at once, some or all are likely not to be heard.
What is NOT the problem: Crackling, distorted sounds. Hissing, missing music, or missing ambiance. Permenant sound loss (e.g. "I NEVER hear myself throw a fireball.").
System information
--------------------------------
Brand: Cyberpower System (homebuilt, essentially)
MB: MSI K8N Neo4 (nForce 4 chipset, nvidia raid controller)
CPU: Athlon 64 3200
Mem: 1gb corsair (2x 512)
HDD: Two 80gb SATA Maxtors in raid stripe
Vid: Radeon X800XL PCI Express
Sound: Onboard AC97. Tried a SB Live value, a SB Audigy 2, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, a USB Turtle beach sound card, and a SB Live 24bit. Nothing changes.
OS: Tried Winxp home, Winxp pro retail, Winxp pro corp.
What I have tried doing
--------------------------------------
* Updating all drivers (sound/video/mb/vid/chipset/etc) to latest version
* Updating BIOS to latest date
* Running a "skeleton bios" (Every possible feature disabled except those required to operate machine)
* Running system without chipset drivers installed
* Editing config.wtf and changing various options such as "Set Soundoutputsystem"
* Changing hardware accelleration in dxdialog and control panel
* Reinstalling operating system, reinstalling warcraft
* Tried using old, new, and custom homebrew sound drivers for 5 different sound cards
* scoured the WoW forums for any/all sound issues. Tried almost everything suggested... although I may have missed something.
* Adjusting PCI latency on various sound cards using a latency tool
* Underclocked and overclocked cpu and pci bus.
* Changed all possible graphical settings in and out of game
* Changed all possible audio settings in game
* Tried alternate USB Keyboard and mouse
* Tried alternate ps2 keyboard and mouse
Can anyone else think of something I might be missing? I am thinking that there may be some very exotic issue regarding timing/resources where my PCI-E video card is concerned. Either that, or it could be something very silly like a 0 that should be a 1 somewhere in the registry or config.wtf.
Thanks for the help in advance!
The problem: Not enough sounds can be played at the same time. During fighting in instances, I hear only about half of the sounds going on around me. For example: An arcane explosion that hits 4 enemies should produce about 5 sounds at once... one explosion sound and 4 "splashes" for each enemy it hits, or at least one "splash" to indicate damage was done. Quite often, I will hear no exposion and just the splashes, or just the splashes and no explosion. I can also hear nothing at all, depending on what's going on around me. There's no method to this madness except that when many sounds are playing at once, some or all are likely not to be heard.
What is NOT the problem: Crackling, distorted sounds. Hissing, missing music, or missing ambiance. Permenant sound loss (e.g. "I NEVER hear myself throw a fireball.").
System information
--------------------------------
Brand: Cyberpower System (homebuilt, essentially)
MB: MSI K8N Neo4 (nForce 4 chipset, nvidia raid controller)
CPU: Athlon 64 3200
Mem: 1gb corsair (2x 512)
HDD: Two 80gb SATA Maxtors in raid stripe
Vid: Radeon X800XL PCI Express
Sound: Onboard AC97. Tried a SB Live value, a SB Audigy 2, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, a USB Turtle beach sound card, and a SB Live 24bit. Nothing changes.
OS: Tried Winxp home, Winxp pro retail, Winxp pro corp.
What I have tried doing
--------------------------------------
* Updating all drivers (sound/video/mb/vid/chipset/etc) to latest version
* Updating BIOS to latest date
* Running a "skeleton bios" (Every possible feature disabled except those required to operate machine)
* Running system without chipset drivers installed
* Editing config.wtf and changing various options such as "Set Soundoutputsystem"
* Changing hardware accelleration in dxdialog and control panel
* Reinstalling operating system, reinstalling warcraft
* Tried using old, new, and custom homebrew sound drivers for 5 different sound cards
* scoured the WoW forums for any/all sound issues. Tried almost everything suggested... although I may have missed something.
* Adjusting PCI latency on various sound cards using a latency tool
* Underclocked and overclocked cpu and pci bus.
* Changed all possible graphical settings in and out of game
* Changed all possible audio settings in game
* Tried alternate USB Keyboard and mouse
* Tried alternate ps2 keyboard and mouse
Can anyone else think of something I might be missing? I am thinking that there may be some very exotic issue regarding timing/resources where my PCI-E video card is concerned. Either that, or it could be something very silly like a 0 that should be a 1 somewhere in the registry or config.wtf.
Thanks for the help in advance!
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