I've been having sound trouble with FSX. I noticed it testing a new aircraft, where the start-up sounds seem to crash the whole OS. I was using on-board sound, and installed a sound card that I had around the house. That stopped the system crash, but now I've got different sound troubles: with this one aircraft, the start-up sequence goes from silent to roaring loud, and throttling up on take-off actually gives quieter engine noises.My FS9 installation seems to be fine. Drivers are current for both on-board sound (now disabled) and sound card.Anyone recognize these symptoms? I hadn't noticed a problem until I tried this aircraft, but I tried the same aircraft on another system (where I had the FSX demo installed), and its sounds were normal -- just like the FS9 version.I don't know if this problem would have shown up earlier, because I only noticed it now, and I don't notice it with my other aircraft. But it had been about ten days since I had flown with FSX, and one of the last things I did before that was install the most recent version of DX9.0c from the MS website. I don't know if that corrupted something in my FSX installation, but it's a possibility.

If you haven't done so already, I'd uninstall/reinstall the sound drivers. Make sure no anti-virus program is working in the background when you do so.Another suggestion (if you really think your sound card drivers are properly installed and working) would be to delete the FS9.cfg, restart FS9 and your FS9.cfg will be rebuilt. Perhaps it's still "seeing" your on-board sound. Edit: Just wanted to add you should also do a diagnosis of DirectX (start>Run>dxdiag). Check your sound card tab and see if their are any problems. You can also lower the sound card acceleration and test the sound card. Best regards,Jim

Mind-reading not being one of our talents, please provide full system specs - including which OS, what hardware, PRECISELY what make and model of soundcard you found lying around the house, and what drivers are currently installed?FSX pulls more system resources than FS9, so the problem could be that your foundcardsoundcard is just not up to speed. Also, HOW did you disable the onboaord sound? In both Windows AND BIOS?Allcott

>Mind-reading not being one of our talents, please provide>full system specs - including which OS, what hardware,>PRECISELY what make and model of soundcard you found lying>around the house, and what drivers are currently installed?Thanks for staying with me, Allcott -- I thought I'd ask a general "Does this ring a bell" question first, but here's the nitty gritty:WinXP Pro SP2Core2Duo 6600 (stock speed, cooling)GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 rev 2.0 motherboard2 gig RAM (OCZ brand, 800MHz, 4-4-4-15)Nvidia 7600 GS w/512 Mb (91.47 driver; also tried 93.81)CMI8738/8768 audio card using "Open source CMIDriver-1.0.6-bin-x86" (dated 15 Feb 07). I was previously using the driver from the manufacturer, C-media, but that was dated 1999 and didn't provide any better results.>FSX pulls more system resources than FS9, so the problem could>be that your foundcardsoundcard is just not up to speed. That's quite possible. Can you recommend a cheap replacement? (For example, I have seen Audigy SEs for US$30. Are they any good?)>Also, HOW did you disable the onboaord sound? In both Windows>AND BIOS?I had disabled this in Windows only. On your suggestion, I also disabled it in BIOS. Alas, no difference in the sim.Thank you for helping.

>If you haven't done so already, I'd uninstall/reinstall the>sound drivers. Make sure no anti-virus program is working in>the background when you do so.>>Another suggestion (if you really think your sound card>drivers are properly installed and working) would be to delete>the FS9.cfg, restart FS9 and your FS9.cfg will be rebuilt. >Perhaps it's still "seeing" your on-board sound. >>Edit: Just wanted to add you should also do a diagnosis of>DirectX (start>Run>dxdiag). Check your sound card tab and see>if their are any problems. You can also lower the sound card>acceleration and test the sound card. Thank you, Jim. I tried these -- alas, still no joy.

CMI belong in the `cheap and cheerful` end of soundcard manufacturers. Nothing wrong with them, but as a generic brand they tend to be only one step up from onboard sound.Creative X-Fi would be my choice - choose the one that suits your budget but the basic model is more than enough for FSX. It is also suitable for use with Vista, if you update the OS later on. This is quite a stumbling block for cards at the moment as not all are fully compatible with Vista.Allcott

>Creative X-Fi would be my choice - choose the one that suits>your budget but the basic model is more than enough for FSX.>It is also suitable for use with Vista, if you update the OS>later on. This is quite a stumbling block for cards at the>moment as not all are fully compatible with Vista.Thanks, Allcott -- that's very helpful.