Static in my sound

[Guest SD Sim]

Greetings All,Some of you may be aware of my recent trials and tribulations concerning the assembly of my latest computer. I finally have everything up and running, but I have a minor problem with the new "server" (see my profile comments to see full system details). Here's what I think is important. The mainboard is an ASUS A7V333 with onboard sound (AC97). The problem? In FS2K2 (and only in FS2K2) I have this underlying crackling sound when I run aircraft, both default and third party. The severity seems to change with the aircraft - the Grabowski ERJ145 is bad, while the Cessna is barely perceptible. The problem isn't horrible, just annoying. I had a similar problem with my client computers A7V333 (once the "server"), which I thought I solved with a BIOS revision. Needless to say, changing BIOS versions hasn't solved the problem this time. I've also reinstalled the default FS2K2 sans add-ons and the problem is still there.This problem seems to be restricted to FS2K2, as I can play CDs without any sound artifacts. I haven't tried other games, as FS2K2 is the only "game" that I currently use (ohh how it hurts to call it a game). But I do have some old versions of MYST that I could test to see if the problem is there as well. What I'm hoping is that someone out there has had a similar problem and found the fix. If you do have a A7V333 mainboard without sound problems, please let me know. I really don't think that getting a replacement MB will help, but I'd be interested in knowing if I'm alone with this problem. Like I said above, this problem was present on my other A7V333 when I first assembled it. And for the morbidly curious, the current BIOS I have installed is 1007.I may ultimately just break down and buy a good sound card. If I do this, can a kind soul out there recommend a good card that will support a 4.1 speaker system (which I will have to buy as well). I know Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy has a good reputation, but I think I've seen posts regarding potential conflicts with a certain model of the Audigy card. Any and all advice/help would be appreciated.

[Guest]

I am running a Philips Acoustic Edge PSC706 sound card with absolutely no problems in FS2002. Have it connected to a Creative 5.1 surround sound system. Sounds great!

[Guest]

I had the same kind of problem, David. I didn't have the same motherboard but it did have onboard sound which, in my case, was driven by SoundMAX Digital Audio drivers. I had a crackling sound that only happened when certain FS2K2 sounds were playing, most notibly ATC voices and most prop engines but not jets. Like you, the problem occured no place outside FS2K2. Eventually I ran DxDiag, which is the DirectX diagnostic program you'll find in the DirectX subdirectory. In there are several tabs, hit the one for sound. There is a slide bar for sound acceleration, the default is max. When I backed off one notch, the problem went away. There's about 3 or 4 levels you can try. You have to reload FS2K2 with each change and retest. I didn't notice any loss in sound quality anywhere by doing this, just the FS2K2 problem went away. At a later time I reinstalled the SoundMAX Digital Audio drivers when someone told me they might be corrupted and I was able to return the sound acceleration to max without a problem. So that was the real fix. I hope some of this helps.Good luck,Vince

[Guest SD Sim]

Hi Vince,You win the gold star award for the evening!! As soon as I saw you mention the audio drivers, I had to give myself a swift kick in the butt. I probably should have thought of that, but I didn't :-roll. Anyways, here is where we enter the twilight zone (hats off to Rod and Geddy). I'll relay this story because it may help someone else in the future, and I can still remember what I did :-lol.The first thing I did was to reinstall the original drivers that came with the mainboard. Immediately I noticed that the start-up chime had changed to what it was when I first installed the MB. This chime had changed when I used the Windows file transfer wizard to transfer all my settings from the previous computer. So immediately I realized that something with the sound was changed at that point!! Now, I checked the driver version (the onboard sound is made by C-Media) and found that it was version 6.30. I checked the C-media website and downloaded their 6.32 drivers.Nothing out of the normal so far, right? Well, after uninstalling the old drivers and rebooting, Windows saw the sound chip as new hardware and installed the drivers before I had a chance to install the new ones that I had just downloaded. Curious, I checked the version number and discovered, much to my surprise, that Windows had installed driver version 6.36 :-eek. I started up FS2K2, and the static problem is completely gone :-yellow1. The valuable lesson I have learned is always explore the drivers when there is a problem (and of course the corollary to that is leave the drivers alone when things are working). Of course the mystery, to me at least, is where did MS get their hands on 6.36 drivers when they're not even available on the C-Media website...So thank you Vince, you saved the day. Too bad you have ratings disabled, you deserve a big old star for your help.P.S. Can anybody guess what I mean in my reference to Rod and Geddy?? The first one is easy, but the second one is pretty much for my generation.