Would anyone like to help a newbie? Anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes my sound completely cuts out. Only way to get it back is to shut down and re-start computer.

Hello,We need to see what your system specs are. A FULL list of them would be great.Are you using an onboad sound card? If so, what motherboard do you have? This may not be what you want to hear, but if you're using an onboard sound card and you motherboard is not an nForce2 or nForce 3 motherboard then I would say that you should seriously consider getting a good PCI based addon sound card such as one of the Creative Labs Sounblaster Audigy2 series of cards.Otherwise, you could open up DxDiag, go to the Sound tab and turn down the Hardware Acceleration slider and see if that helps cure your sound problem. At that point though I believe you are disabling any hardware acceleration of the sound card and your Flight Simulator performance will probably suffer.You should open up DxDiag anyway and make sure that you are running DirectX 9.0b and check all the tabs on there to make sure there are no problems found and run the tests, especially the tests on the Sound tab.Press 'Start' --> 'Run' --> (type in) 'dxdiag' --> press 'Enter' on your keyboard.I wish you good luck,JimIntel 3.4C(C = Northwood) on Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, 1 GB Muskin '222' Special PC3200 RAM, NEC MultiSync FE2111SB 22" Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Videocard with v4.7 Catalyst Drivers, DirectX 9.0b, Creative Audigy2 Soundcard, 250 GB w/8 MB Cache Western Digital HDD, WinXP Pro SP1

Mr. One Tin Solier: Thank you so much for your reply. I am very new at this, and I do not know what the following specs mean but my wife got them from BeLarc Advisor, PC Audits.Windows XP. Processor: 2.07 gigahertz AMD Athlon xp128 kb primary memory cache. 512 kb secondary memory cache.40.03 gigabyte usable hard drive capacity.29.3 gigabyte hard drive free spaceMaxtor hard drive 40.04 GB1024 MB installed memoryNVIDIA GeForce FX5200 (display adaptor)All this was a $800.00 upgrade and my performance is not very good compared to screen shots I've seen here.I did decrease hardware accelerator to "basic" Maybe a little better but sound still cuts out. Can you comment. Please.

Hi,Well, those system specs still don't list what your Sound Card is!Even if you have an onboard sound card you may be able to use it. But the problem might be that you need to update the driver for it. You should try and update every driver on your system, Chipset driver, video card driver, flash your BIOS with the latest version if your motherboard does not have the latest version of the BIOS that is available for it, ect. Those items can be quite important towards solving problems.To try and get an idea of what sound card you have go here...Control Panel --> System --> Hardware Tab --> Device Manager --> Click the '+' next to 'Sound, video and game controllers'After clicking the '+' sign there are a number of items probably listed in there. But, for example, my sound card shows up in there as 'Creative SB Audigy 2 (WDM)'.Get an idea of what your sound card is and then see if there are newer drivers available for it. If it's listed as a 'Soundmax' then I believe you have an onboard sound card and should consider purchasing a new good quality sound card then...Pull up the Device Manager, click on the 'Soundmax' sound card in there and then remove it(if it will let you). Reboot and go into your BIOS(you press the 'Delete' key(usually but not for all BIOS's) during the POST process toget into your BIOS. please see my guide pinned at the very top of this section of the forum), disable the onboard sound while in your BIOS.I recommend you do not turn off the power to your system while you are still in your BIOS, so...Boot to a 'bootable' floppy disk. Or optionally, keep pressing 'F8' during the boot process until you get the WinXP boot option menu. THEN, power off the computer. Install your new sound card. Then boot into WinXP and download and install the lastest drivers for it.Even if the device manager does not list your card as being a 'Soundmax', it's possible that it is an onboard sound card but just a different brand than Soundmax.It's also entirely possible that you have a decent sound card on your computer and that you should ignore my tirade about crappy onboard sound, and you just need to get the latest drivers for whatever sound card it is that you currently have. The first thing you need to do is find out what you have though. ;-) Then you should be able to go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest driver for it. Having the lastest driver(s) installed is very important! Including the Chipset drivers for your make and model of motherboard. If the lastest drivers do not cure the problem then you should either e-mail the manufacturer about the problem or see if they have a forum and post your Technical Support problem there, or do both.I'm sorry that this isn't a little more simpler, but it's just the way it is. Computers systems are actually among one of the most complex things made by humans.Regards,Jim

Thank you again for taking the time to respond. You really helped me get started in navigating through my system. Soundcard is Aureal vortex 8810 (WDM). Did web search. In chapter 11 with no support anymore. Think I will get a new card. Perhaps what you have. Creative SB Audigy 2. Printed your optimization guide. In a few months, I should know enough to try some of them. Thanks. George

Hi George,You're welcome and I'm glad I was able to help point you in the right direction. After a time things will become second nature with your system. I also think you will be happier once you get a newer sound card. The Audigy 2 series of cards is pretty good and I think you'll find that FS2004 will be much happier with it too. ;)Best wishes,Jim

Yep, the sound card that you report having, the Vortex is an old chipset that 'died' basicaly a few years back. The Creative is a good alternative as it has good sound, and has good on-board hardware acceleration for sounds, meaning that your PC's main CPU (the Athlon) is not having to worry too much about generating sounds aas well as running all the logic behind the game: where you are, what you are doing, the weather, AI aircraft, ATC, etc.I would also recommend another type of replacement soundcard, that depends on how much you are prepared/able to spend on said item, and also availablity. In Europe there is a manufacturer called Trust. They produce low-cost PC equipment which actually works pretty well, and having tried a few sound cards recently; primarily because I wanted one with Optical digital SPDIF outputs to feed my surround-sound receiver, I have settled on the Trust 514DX card. It has the optical digital outs, uses hardware acceleration, is EAX compatible (a Creative Labs sound effects system), and is very inexpensive! It also sounds pretty damn fine too!! Here in the UK, it cost me

There is a fix for your Aureal Vortex 8810 card. Google search for WPCR_EDIT.EXE and WPCR_SET.EXE.http://www.geeknowledge.com/view.php?section=guides&id=16http://www.tigersurplus.com/Drivers/vortex/Don't be concerned about not downloading the PCI Latency tool. Stop at the bottom of page one. You don't need to do the items on page 2.If you can follow the instructions, your Aureal Vortex card will stop cutting out.W. Sieffert

Mr. Sieffert. THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!You have solved my problem. I have struggled with this for a long time. The time you took to respond to my plea for help is very much appreciated. George