Sound Choppiness

[gunner154]

I've checked the main site already. But my game music and sound effects are slower than usual, the music is slower, and the game 'seems' to be slower, and lastly, there's this irritating dop dop sound going on in the game.

[Nyarlathotep]

You state slower the usual, so I assume it has worked before. What changed since then ? Also, coul you provide a dxdiag output with the tests on the sound and video tab run ?

[gunner154]

What's that?

[Nyarlathotep]

Go to start => run and type there dxdiag.

[gunner154]

I don't quite get the output thing, but all tests were successful.

[Nyarlathotep]

On the first page of dxdiag, there are several buttons below. Press the one that says "Save all Information". Save it as an txt file on your desktop for easy access...

[gunner154]

Okay, here goes:

[Nyarlathotep]

Looking at the specs, it's not the best machine to run the game on. Never the less, I believe there are newer drivers for your videocard. Try them.

Also, you state slower then usual. Did it work okay before ? If so, what changed ?

Also, what are the ingame graphical settings ? I would set them to low and be sure to set shadows off.

I think the sound choppiness is due to the fact that the processor has too much to handle. Also, make sure that the background programs are closed, except for "systray" & "Explorer" (press [ctrl]-[alt]-[delete] once and click end program to what you see there, except for the earlier mentioned).

Be sure to keep me updated if you try the above.

[gunner154]

It used to work properly before...now it's screwed up.

I tried the ctrl+alt+del and killed off everything but Explorer but Systray last time according to the website...but nothing good came up. It was still slow.

[Nyarlathotep]

What changed since the game worked fine ?

[gunner154]

Not too sure. I installed Heroes3 Complete. But I'm pretty sure Heroes has nothing got to do with sound choppiness.

After my exams, I tried to play Emperor, the sound was slow and choppy, and the music suffered the same fate.

Oh yeah, my CDs all don't autorun. Normally in My Computer they'll show the icon of the CD (for my case Emperor shows Diablo because I installed Diablo before) but now it just shows a picture of a CD. Same for Heroes3, no longer shows a shield, but a CD with a drive behind it (CD-Rom drive). To explore a CD I must right-click on the icon and click open. If I double-click it I get the same result as auto-running the CD.

Unfortunately, I need not right-click and click on open to explore the CD...I can just double-click! It won't autorun. To start the autorun file I must double-click on some Setup.exe or Autorun.exe file (whatever the game is).

[Nyarlathotep]

Try to defrag your harddrive(s).

About autorun, if you want it to be turned on, do the following:

Open control panel and dubble click "system". Locate your cdrom, select it and click on properties. Select the tab "Settings" and make sure "Auto insert notification" is thicked.

If it already is, it might be that the following registry key contains incorrect values for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry:

HKEY_Current_UserSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

Do the following if the above applies:

1) Click Start , and then click Run .

2) In the Run box, type regedit , and then click OK .

3) Locate the following registry key:

4) HKEY_Current_UserSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer

In the right pane of the Registry Editor window, locate the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry.

5) Edit the entry to display the following correct binary value in the Value data box:

NoDriveTypeAutoRun 0000 95 00 00 00

To do this, right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun , and then click Modify . Under Value data , type 95 00 00 00 , and then click OK .

6) On the Registry menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

7) Restart your computer.

[gunner154]

Thanks, it can autorun now.

But however, after defragmenting C: as well as the drive which Emperor is located (in this case, D:), it still doesn't get any better!

[Nyarlathotep]

Have you tried re-installing EBFD?

These problems are always difficult to track down. The cause could be anything, like outdated drivers, low memory, heat in the computer..

[jacobdouds]

I never knew, and I still don't know. Can you defrag a pre-writen CD? ???, I thought you couldn't.

[Nyarlathotep]

.No, you can't defrag a cd..

[gunner154]

I reinstalled it before the moment I got this problem.

Still doesn't work. Luckily I kept my savegames.

[Nyarlathotep]

Does it happen right away, or when your ingame for a little while ?

[gunner154]

Okay, here's when it happens and when it does not (as far as I can remember):

Slows down and gets dup dup:

Main Menu

Load Game Menu

Advanced Game Listings

Chatrooms

Ingame

Loading Game

Ingame Options

Savegame Menu (Ingame)

When it becomes normal:

In main menu, when the screen turns from one section to another

When saving a game (like half a minute)

When the screen zooms and rotates down toward your MCV (or construction yard or any other available forces) at the start of level

PS: If I notice any more I'll modify.