First of all here is the system: P4 2.4 533Mhz FSB PNY GeForce FX 5200 128mb Nvidia 45.23 drivers 512mb DRAM Creative SB Live 5.1 DirectX 9.0b I recently updated both video and sound drivers but have had the problem prior to doing so. Whenever I am in or near heavy cloud I experience stutters in the sound. Kind of hard to describe but I get a lot of crackling noisesand distortion. If I clear the weather it is perfectly fine. I have adjusted the sliders in DirectX to every conceivable positon. I have removed my sound card and used the onboard sound. I have repositioned my sound card well away from my vid card. I have disconnected my yoke (CH Products) and reconnected. Never had this problem with FS2002.And yes I have uninstalled and reinstalled not only FS2004 but my entire WinXP Home OS.If anyone could be of any assistance I would sure appreciate it.Thanks in advanceCraig S. [email protected]

Win XP gives me better response with my system similar to yours.Win98se tends to jerk about some.Allen

Try turning down your sound accelerator (part of XP).

Make your sound settings look this, this can be accessed from the Control Panel->Sounds Speeches & Audio Devices-> Sounds & Audio Deivces, then set the sound quality in FS to low.http://members.shaw.ca/kstangrecki/sound.jpg

Yep, this is an interesting issue that I have encountered and been able to resolve... For some reason I believe that the sound problems (i.e. crackling, popping, distorted and/or unreadable ATC as well as visual stuttering) are indirectly/directly related to graphics card limitations in relation to the chosen display settings.System:P4 2.4GHz @ 2.96GHzASUS P4C800 Deluxe2x512MB PC3500 DDR MemoryWindowXPDirectX9.0bVisiontek GF3 Ti500 (det. 30.89)Sounblaster Live!, etc.I noticed that by reducing display resolution, or not using FSAA, or reducing level of anisotropic filtering or a combination of these helped to reduce the sound artifacts and visual stuttering. I played around with DirectX sound acceleration levels, but this had no effect and in fact could make things worse (a lot worse). I downloaded the latest drivers for my SoundBlaster Live!, but no difference at all.So, all that said and done I was in the process of resigning myself to poorer visual quality than I was used to in FS2002 in order to keep the stutters and sound artifacts to a "minimum" when I read a post that BestBuy were selling the ATI Radion 9800 pro for $249, so I thought what the hell, I'll give it a go. I could always take the card back if there was no difference. Well, this brand spanking new 9800 pro is most definately not going back! This is really the first time I have ever experienced a quantum leap in FS20xx by upgrading to a new video card. I'm running 1600x1200x32 resolution, 4x FSAA and 8x anisotropic filtering. Oh, and what's more? Yes, no sound artifacts and no visual stuttering whatsoever. Frames are locked at 25fps and I get that most of the time, but they do drop off momentarily to 14fps or so, but nevertheless very smooth given my settingsSound like I'm on ATI's payroll, but I am damn impressed by the improvement this upgrade has made. Point being that I believe that the sound issues and visual stuttering many are experiencing is related to insufficient graphics horsepower for the display settings that they are attempting to use. Why that should impact sound I cannot explain, unless it has something to do with when CPU utilization pegs or something?Regards,Joe

Thanks to all for the responses. Nice to know I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. I'm sure Joe is correct that it's a combination of sound and video probalby more video.If I set my clouds to simple the problem is almost non-existent. In the mean time since I don't have the bucks for a new video and/or sound card I've made it livable by changing acceleration settings.Regards,Craig

Craig,Understand the reluctance to part with hard earned money for the sake of a flight sim and especially if you have found an alternative (free) solution.Just just wanted to correct one thing. I bought an ATI Radion 9800 and not the 9800 PRO. See my post in FAQ section, #21 I think.Regards,Joe