A sound problem, video problem, and couple questions

Hi guys. First time asking for help here, but after playing through this for so long I can't stand it anymore, hopefully there are some fixes out there. Basically, what happens is whenever I load into a zone and start fighting something, I'll occasionally get a looping of the enemy sounds for the first mob I start fighting. It causes me horrible, horrible lag for the first 5 or so seconds where I can't really do much. I don't think this happens with every monster kind, just certain ones. My video card is rather crappy, so it might be hardware lag causing it because it's not in sync or something, but hell if I know for certain. Any ideas? I can give more info if needed, just ask.

Also, in the options for GW, there is a "3D Audio" thing you can click to enable, and then a sub-thing you can click for EAX or something like that, I already forget. I know I can't use the second, but I was wondering if enabling the 3D audio thing would improve sound on two speakers, or do anything whatsoever?

Also, whenever I'm in the last levels of Prophecies, the ones with all the shiny purplish-black walls with the ether seals and all that crap, I get increased lag because like I said earlier my video card isn't very good and doesn't handle the sheen very well. Is there something I can do to disable that junk when I'm on those levels?

And finally, I know there are extensions to the shortcuts to make the game do different things. The one I know of so far is "C:\Games\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image so that it'll download all the stuff regular patching doesn't do, that the in-game updating does. I really like that one, since I'm on dial-up. Anyways, is there a list somewhere of all the different things I can do like that? If there is could I get a link to it, or if someone would please list a bunch of ones that are useful, I'd really appreciate it.


This is all of my questions. I would be very much in you debt if you could help me at all. Thank you in advance~! <3

If your system meets all the recommended specs at least, the only thing that I could imagine causing all the lag is being on a dial-up connection. What are your system specs?

2.1ghz CPU
512MB RAM
64mb GeForce4 MX 4000
some crappy on-board audio

I'm pretty sure the dial-up is giving me the regular lag, whilst some of the lag is definitely caused by the video card. Just dunno why 56k internet would make the enemy sounds loop like that to give me extra lag.

I would think about getting yourself a better video card for starters, that's kind of an old video card you're using. I would think most of your vid card processing power is struggling to keep up with all the 3D textures and images etc. In the event of a lag spike or just a lagging period, it puts everything on hold temporarily, producing a bad looping effect in the audio sounds. RAM and processor are fine, but they're probably making up for most of what the vid card and possibly audio chipset are lacking. On top of all that you're on dial-up, so you only have so much bandwidth to work with.

I would think about upgrading to improve system performance.

Yea, that's sort of not an option. Honestly, I hate how it seems everyone tells me to go out and buy something when I have a problem. I don't mean any offense to you when I say that, just that people seem to assume everyone else has money. I owe my Uncle 2500, on top of having to get my car fixed and pay bills so I can't afford anything whatsoever for my computer for damn near a year.


I was hoping some of the things I could do to the shortcut might help with the sound loop lag but if not, no biggy. I mean, I've been playing for almost two years on this PC so it's not bad enough where I wouldn't play, just wish there was something to make it a little easier to deal with. At any rate thanks for the suggestion.

Could I get some replies about my other questions now guys? I'm really curious about them, much more-so than the lag issue.

Well, here's a list of switches you could try, maybe doing a -nosound would help the problem.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=94814