G3 and garbled sound

[Jeepster]

Loaded up the new G3 on Wednesday ... looks good/great except for a few problems.

1) Went through the "can't load add-on #1" exercise, with Tech Support coming through with an answer very rapidly.

2) Now I'm noticing that the sound is garbled. Originally I thought RF was simply trying to reproduce the "real" sound one hears through a poor PA system at a normally windy fun fly event. But, when I noticed the same problem with the Virtual Instructor ... well, even I was able to deduce that there was/is a problem. Bought a new sound card ... same results.

Is anyone else having problems with the sound?

The sound will start out clear for a minute or two and then deteriorate until it sounds like it’s coming from a very bad reverberation unit. I notice it especially when utilizing one of the events. After a reboot of the G3, Limbo will sound okay for the first go-around, and then it's like listening to the announcements with your head in a barrel.

So any input from users would be appreciated. The system it's installed on is:

Dell 4600 Series, with Pentium 4 Processor at 2.4 GHz
512MB DDR SDRAM memory
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphics card with 128MB memory
Windows XP
SoundBlaster Live! 24-Bit sound card ... Model SB0410

Cheers,
Jeepster

[hobiewan]

I pm'd ya Tom. It would of help if I would of read this post first or I wouldn't of sounded redundant :o You've got the same brand of card that I've got except yours is better I think. You might go to Soundblaster's site and see if they've got any driver updates or patches available. Also, you might see if there is any sound effects turned on in the audio HQ section.
You've got mail!!
Hobie......out

[Joe Teibel]

I have done exstensive testing with the sound on and I have never experienced the kind of behavior you are experiencing. You should be able to make a recording while the sound is acting up, zip it up, and attach it to a reply. Then I can play it here and hear what you are hearing.

[Jeepster]

I think I earned several points towards the "Village Idiot Award" this time.

Yes, I know the basic instructions say to update your drivers before installing G3. But, this machine is just barely a year old ... the drivers couldn't possibly be outdated ... could they? Besides the problem is sound related ... and I installed a new sound card to fix that ... and the problem is still there. Damn! The sound drivers are so new they're not even posted yet.

Well, what to do next. Got a list of things to try from Creation Technical Support, Realflight Technical Support, and Hobiewan. Hmmm. The suggestions are almost overwhelming. Oh heck, let's start back at the beginning and update the video card drivers ... stupid to try, but what the heck. Opps, what's this, the sound problem is cured. Oh oh! Wonder if I can just simply slink away without anyone noticing ... naw ... probably not a chance.

So, my apologies for not taking care of business in the first place. I updated the drivers for my GeForce FX 5200 from version 6.14.0001.4354 dated 4/24/2003 (yep, it was already six months old when delivered to me) to version 6.6.93 dated 10/29/2004. I've played G3 for about an hour in different modes with no hint of problems.

Cheers,
Jeepster

[Highflyer]

Wow! Six months is about a century in computer time.

[hobiewan]

Well, I learned something myself. I was suprised that your vid card was upsetting your sound. Hmmm. Strange.
Thanks for being straight up about the fix. Hope you enjoy your G3. I'm not going to get it until next year sometime if ever.
Regards.
Hobie

[Highflyer]

You know that little buss inside the computer where everything is supposed to share to get the info back and forth, well if the video card or somtheing is taking too much time then something else suffrers. I had this problem when G2 first came outl.

[merto31]

i have a Sound blaster audigy 2 sound card and i get this weird no sound problem some times;

i have updated drivers on my video and sound cards

recently i found out that twitching with the sound options at controlpanel>sound and audio devices>audio tag and then clicking the advance option >performance tag brings you to 2 different slider options and moving the one named HARDWARE ACCELERATION to the standard setting instead of fully accelerated fixes All or most of the sound probles !!!!!!!!! :)

[opjose]

You know that little buss inside the computer where everything is supposed to share to get the info back and forth, well if the video card or somtheing is taking too much time then something else suffrers. I had this problem when G2 first came outl.

Bingo!

This is called "Latency" in computer geek.

[opjose]

recently i found out that twitching with the sound options at controlpanel>sound and audio devices>audio tag and then clicking the advance option >performance tag brings you to 2 different slider options and moving the one named HARDWARE ACCELERATION to the standard setting instead of fully accelerated fixes All or most of the sound probles !!!!!!!!! :)

That indicates a problem when the card is operating with native acceleration support.

In effect you are resorting to a "lowest common demonimator" which degrades overall performance accordingly.

I'd suggest trying to remedy the situation so that you CAN use full acceleration.

This will present less of a load on the CPU and probably buy you extra FPS.