The sound in FS9 has been fine except for some occasional scratchiness during takeoff roll. I decided recently to try out the lessons. As soon as Ron speaks his voice becomes distorted. The rest of the sounds are fine. In investigating this, I noticed that Directx9a listed my Soundblaster Live as "emulated." It therefore is only using software buffers. I tried reinstalling both the card and Directx a number of times--still shows "emulated." I installed a different, older, soundcard which installed fine but still had the same problem and Directx still showed it as "emulated." I have another computer with WinXP and a Soundblaster 5.1 and it works fine and does not list it as emulated. I have tried settings in the Bios which include PCI Latency, and other settings. My system is not overclocked. I am running the latest XP drivers off of Creative's site. I have installed the Windows Update patch for Creative cards. Nothing has helped. My specs are below. Any help is greatly appreciated.RandallAthlon XP 2000+Epox 8rda3+ Dual Channel (Nforce 2)motherboard384 MB DDR 2100Radeon 9700Soundblaster Live

Have you tried your onboard sound? It's actually very good (if yours has Sound Storm its better then a SB Live both in sound and CPU usage, and just under an Audigy2) Onboard sound on NForce2's is not like onboard use to be. Mine works awesome in the games I tried so far. (FS2004, F1C-99to02, and WWIIOL) I have 5 empty PCI slots and love it!!!Also, have you tried newer NForce drivers?Also, you really should bump up your ram a bit. WinXP takes around 120MB, FS2004 well over 200Mbs....your close to if not exceeding your ram right now. I always recommend 512MB as the min for XP and games.

I don't have Soundstorm, just C-Media (AC97). I have tried it but have the exact same problem. I'm using the newest Nforce drivers (2.45). I agree about the RAM though I don't think this is related to the system insisting on using emulated drivers. Thanks for the suggestions, though.Randall

I solved my problems by updating via AC97 drivers in "windows update"

RAMRAMRAMand moreRAMI have seen my RAM usage peek at 730Megs when using FS9 alone under XP with VM turned offIf you only have 512 it will swap and this will cause some slight stuttering...

Thanks for the responses. I'll check for AC97 updates. More RAM certainly couldn't hurt.However, this doesn't address the basic problem of DirectX apparently not loading the hardware drivers. Look at dxdiag. Is anyone else showing their sound card as emulated? Everything else shows as a properly installed card-no error messages, no exclamations in device manager.Randall

Yes, I too have problems with the SB live. ( Distorted sound and dramatic drop in frame rates in spot view ) It also shows "emulated" in dxdiag(dx9b) After no responses to two posts on the subject, I'm binning the SB live and installing a new Audigy2 card(hopefully tomorrow) I'll let you know if my hard earned cash has done the trick. Regards,Russell.

Randall,Besides the obvious need for more Ram, have you tried lowering the hardware acceleration a notch and see if it goes away? Do you have the Creative playcenter installed also or just the drivers?. I have seen the CPC cause issues at times.Someone above stated that the use of onboard sound is a possibility to solving your problem and that may be true. You said you did and still have the same problem so basically you can rule out the SC as the problem. Have you tried hooking up a different set of speakers and seeing if the problem is still there. A bad set of speakers will exibit the same symptoms you speak of. The human voice is full of weird freq. that will really test a speakers true sound quality. Also, the use of onboard sound regardless of who makes it will use more CPU cycles than an add-on card. I agree the Soundstorm quality is as good if not better than the SB but it still uses CPU cycles that the SB doesn't.After running DXDIAG on my wifes machine I show no mention of emulation for her SB Live Value. Have you tried reinstalling DX9 and see if the problem goes away. If the problem only shows in FS have you tried deleting your CFG file and letting it rebuild itself?Hope some of this helps.Bobby

Please let me know what you discover. I tried an old Aureal Vortex 1 card. It installed fine, worked fine, except for the same distortion problem with the lessons.Thanks for the response,Randall

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Speakers are high quality and have proven fine. I have reinstalled both sound drivers and directx a number of times. I don't have Playcenter installed. I have also tried deleting the CFG file. Oh well, it's a mystery. Thanks again.Randall

Well Randall, I dumped the SB Live and had the Audigy2 fitted a couple of hours ago. Fingers crossed (it's early days) but it seems to have done the trick. The planes that were giving the most trouble now give 17/25 fps in spot view, and NO sound distortion. I still can't understand though, why, when looking up at the aircraft into a clear blue sky, which effectively gives a static, unmoving picture, the fps still constantly rotate between 22/32. I would have thought they should be pretty constant. BTW,I find the difference in sound quality playing CDs makes the Audigy2 more than worth the expense. Hope you get sorted.Regards,Russell.

Thanks for reporting back, Russell. My problem is almost completly limited to Rod's voice during lessons. I don't have sound problems with ATC or anywhere else (except for some brief scratchiness during takeoff roll). I've tried different PCI slots, different motherboard drivers, installing in safe mode, etc., etc.Glad you are enjoying your Audigy. Does Directx detect its drivers or is it "emulated?" I'm assuming this is the reason for my sound problem but I can't find a solution.Thanks again for the help.Randall

Not "emulated". Gives driver as--ctaud2k.sys.Ver.5.12.0001.0383(english). Logo'd-Yes. Provider Creative. Sorry I can't help. There are some clever lads out there,hopefully your post will catch one of them.Hope you get sorted soon.Regards,Russell.

I had LESS sound problems after updating XP especially regarding that USB patch for some reason it was querrying it too often or something in thqt natureAllen

Thanks for the responses everyone. I was able to fix this problem by going into the registry. For some reason, the DirectSound entries were incorrect. Emulation was the only thing enabled. I went through the registry and for every instance of DirectSound, I enable the WDM and VXD entries (changed form a 0 to a 1). After a reboot, DirectX listed the drivers for the soundcard and the sound is without any distortion. I had re-installed directx a number of times but these entries were never fixed. Anyways, thanks again. Now I can get back to flying!Randall