I've recently decided it's time to get back into flight simming, so I bought a copy of FSX... and encountered a really annoying problem. About every other sound (ATC message, raising/lowering of flaps, etc.) comes out sounding nothing like what the sound should be. The closest things I can think of to describe it are the sound made when you blow into a landline phone or the sound of static on a TV or radio. I've tried reinstalling the sound drivers with no luck. Since the only sound card I have is the onboard one that came with the motherboard, there's no other one to switch to. Specs are listed below... does anyone have any idea how I could fix this?Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VMCPU: Athlon 64 X2 3800+Onboard sound card: ADI AD1986AVideo Card: NVIDIA GForce 6600GT1GB RAM2 x 200GB HDD, RAID 1 configurationWindows XP Pro SP2Seems like I'm forgetting something... if it's anything relevant, just ask. Thanks in advance for the help.Mike... once known as Tripod Todd PS. Wasn't sure where to post this... if there's a proper forum for problems like these, feel free to move it.

First question: Are you using the correct speaker configuration for whatever your setup is - 2, 4 or more speakers? That and up-to-date drivers should take care of any hardware problems from the soundcard itself, so the next thing to check is that you have all the relevant codecs on board - IIRC the FSX DVD gives you thins option and you should check it when installing, even if you think you already have those codecs.Finally, there;s always the option to lower the hardware acceleration:`Start` - `Run` - type `dxdiag`, click on the sound tab and you'll find the slider. Many onboard soundcards might struggle with the resources called by full acceleration on top of the demands placed by FSX itself.Try those first, then let us know how you get on!Allcott

Thanks! I appreciate the help... it seems the hardware acceleration was causing the problem, as the ATC transmissions all came in fine after I turned it off. Would leaving it down/off affect the computer in any negative way?Mike... once known as Tripod Todd

Lowering the Hardware Sound Acceleration Level from the default setting of `full` acceleration may disable certain advanced audio processing techniques, such as 3D spatialization, and prevent them from functioning.If you were using advanced sound techniques, you wouldn't be using on-board sound, so no, no detrimental affects.Allcott

My only suggestion would be to run Direct X diagnosis and make sure there are no problems with your sound card (Start>Run>DXDIAG). If everything appears okay, you might look into getting a separate sound card as I heard onboard sound cards don't really work very good with FSX.Best regards,Jim