Help me diagnose... is this GalCiv2 or my own pc?? (Sound issues)

Anyone having similar issues?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I have been having some sound issues ever since I updated to v1.11 this morning. I first loaded it up and the sound was slightly glitchy during the screens where you choose your new game set up, race, planets, opponents, etc. This has happened before, though, so I wasn't worried... a minor annoyance, but no big deal. (The sound just sort of skips a little bit, every so often.)

However, this glitchy skipping of the sound carried over into the actual game once I started it, which had never happened before. Now I'm wondering if this is a GalCiv2 issue, or if my soundcard might be going bad or something equally dire. (I've been having a lot of PC issues lately, been trouble shooting some erratic behavior with my tech support, and wanted to see if anyone in the GalCiv community recognizes the issues before I report them as further erratic behavior)

I restarted the game, and loaded it up, and the glitchy sound was no longer present in the menu screen (I can't recall if its ever at the very first menu screen, or if it only starts skipping while choosing options for a new game..?), so I load my game and have been playing fine for half an hour or so, but now its starting to have some loud popping/squelch like noises every so often, not enough to really detract from my enjoyment but still a cause for concern.

Anyone having similar issues, and/or know a fix for them?

Also, might as well ask to see if anyone else has a problem viewing any sort of video player (Windows Media Player, Quicktime, Real Video, WinAmp, etc) after loading up GalCiv2? I have noticed its been happening for the past few months but had just got a new PC when I got GalCiv2, so I didn't connect the two... but today I noticed that it always stops me from seeing any video (just a blank screen with audio) on any media player after I load up GalCiv2, even if its only to the main menu and then I exit. This hasn't happened for any of the other games I tried, but again happened after GalCiv2.

My thanks for the help!!
6,003 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm assuming that nobody else has been experiencing any of these issues?
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My music sometimes skips when a new pop-up of news occurs or the research screen appears,,but not during just regular turns.. did you try re-installing the game without the 1.11 patch and seeing if it still happens.. that way you might see if its the patch or possible another program that affected your sound drivers..etc.. just a thought.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
...Real Video...
I've picked up that "Real" (or similar company) actually has the tendency of slipping malware into its programs. You may want to run a full virus + spyware scan. Free programs you can use for the scan are Grisoft's AVG (anti-virus) and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, though there will be other good ones. Even if I'm wrong on "Real", it never hurts to do a thorough check here.

I've had sound problems with specific programs and sound cards (back in the old days) and often it's "just" a driver conflict. However, it's possible that background applications are soaking up system resources that GalCiv may need to run properly.

With what you note about not being able to view video anymore, I believe it's a DirectX conflict. Most of these programs use the overlay to draw, and it's possible that some malinitialisation is causing you headaches. Check whether your drivers (audio and video) support the latest DirectX version, and whether that last DirectX version is installed on your machine.

In general, there are a number of possible causes for stuttering sound, but these two would be most likely:

Buffer Underflow

Audio is buffered before playing. If the buffer runs dry (i.e. GalCiv pulls more than the CPu pushes), stuttering will occur while you wait for the remaining data to filter in. This usually happens if your system is under a lot of stress, for instance your CPU being overused, or extensive page swapping because of low RAM.
Incompatible Driver

This covers a wide range of possible problems, from buffer mal-aligning to differing sampling rates. Check whether your sound drivers support the latest DirectX version that GalCiv uses.



Let us know when/if there's any progress!

PS: Could you post the specifications of your system (possibly with driver versions)? Some people here are true wiz kids, maybe they can spot something.

(Edit: Funny, the forum software cut out the first list item all by itself.)
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Mine often skips during the initial loading screens, or when loading a saved game.
I haven't been able to track it down yet.

It shouldn't be my system specs, I have a 2.8GHz Pentium D, 3GB of ram, SATA drive with 16MB cache, Sound Blaster Audigy 4 and Geforce 6800GS video.

I guess it could be a faulty sound card, but it does not skip except during certain times, like loading a game. It clears up pretty quickly during the setup screens.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I actually run both Grisoft AVG and AdAware, and check regularly. For Real Video, I use an emulator, not their actual player, and its totally clean of spyware/malware.

My system specs: AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 processor, 2.40 GHz, 1 gig of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra video card (using 8.1.9.8 driver), Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (using 5.12.6.402 driver). My harddrive is 10k rpm with 16mb cache and has plenty of free space (over 20 gigs).

It could be my drivers, I think neither of them are the latest versions. However, upon further testing, it would seem that the issue with my media "blacking out" is *not* isolated to GalCiv2, because sometimes I *am* able to load the game and then exit, and still have use of my media. I'm beginning to suspect its a small corruption in my OS, due to some other erratic behavior pointing in that direction as well. I will be reformatting on Tuesday and reinstalling everything. I'll also test GalCiv2 several times before I patch to see if its a patch issue.

Thanks for the good advice!!
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When I play Gigantic maps, the game often gets into a rhythm where it accesses the hard drive really fast about once per second. During that access, the music skips, and in fact my whole computer locks up, so like the mouse skips, and if I'm dragging the map, that skips too. Doesn't happen on smaller maps, so it could be a memory thing, but the game process is no where near hitting my RAM limit, so it's kind of a mystery.