Sound Problems and IRQ's

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...=134597&page=9

^ That is the thread where this comes from but thought I'd post in the right place for some of you smarter people to add input to. Basically like many I am having a problem with the sounds in GW right now. While playing, especially as a warrior, that there is almost no "contact" sounds. Basically instead of the hit sound I get the miss sound instead. This applying with spells as well and the system plays the incorrect sound for the spell. I contacted GWSupport and here is what they said:

Now I'm playing on a laptop: Intel 1.4 centrino mobile, ATI 9200 graphics (integrated), SoundMAX integrated sound, blah, blah. Now I thought I'd be nice and play along with the tech's suggestion, but my BIOS is set with a password from a previous owner, so I'll need to pull the CMOS battery,etc, which I prefer not to have to do if it can be avoided. Drivers and everythign is up-to-date so that's not an issue. I'm wondering if this supposed IRQ conflict has to do with the fact that both the sound and video or integrated with the board. Checking the device manager did show that both the video and the sound are on the same IRQ[10]. Any thoughts or ideas from the community that I can try to get this corrected? One last thing, I am playing with the quality slider in the middle settings which according to Gaile Gray should be just the same as the old system.

Thanks!

The most harm you can possible do by resetting your CMOS is that your clock will have to be set right again !!!

True, but I'd rather not pull everything apart if that is not going to do anything. I'm not really even sure if that is the issue however since IRQ's are shared almost as a standard nowadays (as far as I understand).

It's really not the problem. The update a few weeks ago modified the sound system and caused a lot of havoc for a lot of people. A recent patch improved but not fixed it, and another patch possibly this week should resolve more issues. Personally, I'd wait and see (hear?) what the next patch does before changing / updating anything. Use this logic:

Game worked fine, all sounds were ok.
Game was updated.
You changed nothing in your computer.
Suddenly the sounds in-game are broken.
Everything except for the game still sounds fine on your computer.

At what point should you or anyone believe they need to change or tweak or update anything on their system?

That reply you got is what's known as a cop-out. I used to work tech support, I've built / maintained / worked on my fair share of computers, and had to deal with tech support myself many times. And the first and UNIVERSAL response you'll get, every time, without fail, when tech support doesn't have a f*****g clue, is "it's a configuration error." That gets you off their back, and they can go have a cup of coffee or take the next call while you have to try to fix it yourself when there's nothing even wrong with your computer.

I don't even know what to think of anyone who would actually open their tower and start putting expansion cards in different slots, or tamper with their CMOS settings, to rectify a sound problem that's isolated to the game itself.

That was my thought (and since I also work tech support) I know that it is not the IRQ (my concern about the CMOS pass is because I'm not that experienced with laptops). My thought was simply to placate them and say "Yeah, ok what now smart guy" but it's more trouble than it's worth. The key here is clearly their software as nothing hardware wise has changed, but it would be nice if they would just admit, "We broke it, be patient and we'll fix it." (Not as if that will happen though)
Just wanted to get some additional input, and hopefully it's fixed in time for Factions because that would be a HUGE problem for potential customers.

to be honest, if its an IRQ conflict, It will either A) work, or B) not work..

You wont get it being intermittant... If it works, its because both devices on the same IRQ support IRQ sharing (which, being a laptop is the probable case) Option B occurs if 2 devices are trying to use the same IRQ, and one or both of them dont support sharing....

You CAN change this in the bios, and reserve certain IRQ's etc.. however, if it works a little, then thats 99% likley to NOT be the problem...

True, Guild Wars has changed its sound system, and I hate it, it keeps changing and making things sound like theyer in a tin can, and then it comes back to normal on town change, and will 'click' back to tin can mode again after 10 mins or so... VERY annoying... (ill take this moment to say that Guild Wars is the ONLY game that does this, and its not like I have a cheap card either)

SOME On-Board/Integrated SoundCards (especially on lap tops) are only limited to a certain number of sounds they can play at once (Its called Wav Down Mixing)

If your playing an mp3, and playing a Video on a web page at the same time, thats using 2 audio channels (channels are NOT refering to Stereo left/right and surround fron/back)

Most Cards will support a minimum of 16 channel audio (which means 16 sounds are able to 'play' at the same time) most newer ones suport up to 256 (the Audigy 4, and similar/newer cards can support up to 512)

now, since its a (sorry) cheap integrated sound card its likeley it will only be able support 16 or 32 channel audio...

now, lets count.....

Guild Wars music.... 1
Guild Wars BackGround sound.... 2
any additional background sound (such as water falls/lava etc) lets say... 4 (theres sometimes more, sometimes less)
-- Were already up to 7 --
The Sounds from the other players.... take the 7 OTHER ppl from your team, give them 1 'channel' each, thats another 7 taken up (for thier spells/skills sounds etc)
-- Were up to 14 --
now, your character... has... the sound of its feet on the floor, the sound of it attacking, thats 2 -- we have now hit our 16 channels... But wait.. theres more, we forgot the other people's 'attacking' (swords/wands hitting) we also havent taken into account the ghostly hero (assuming were in Heros Ascent) then theres also the enemy team's sounds (call it 4 per character..), and then you have pets, and if your PvE'ing, theres all the NPC's around too..

so as you can see, theres ALOT of sounds going on, and if your card cant support as many as guildwars needs, it will just.. not play the NEWEST sound, so if you have all the background sound going off, and all your teams, and your stood there... they take up the full 16 channels, then you start doing things, it cant play, and it will only play some of the sounds when a channel is available..

now, the solution(s).....
Most Integrated Soundcards are software driven, so yes, make sure your either using the ORIGINAL drivers that came with it (as I have often found they are the best, as its these ones that came with the card originally) or the LATEST drivers from the website (as these will fix any known bugs and issues)

Update your DirectX, Direct song and Direct sound can compress multipule sounds into a single channel, and also buffer them, so you could end up with a 16 channel card, playing 24, or even 32 channel audio....

the alternative is, buy a seperate sound card, they are available as both PCMCIA and USB so using them on a laptop shouldnt be an issue....

Please note though, what I have said on this post may NOT be true of your lap top, as I dont know exactly the hardware/version and drivers your using etc.. this is just things i have learned, and experienced first hand over a few years... and more importantly, recently on alot of the low-end Laptops and PC's (with integrated sound)

Thanks Ghozer, I have the latest drivers and DirectX so that should not be the problem (even reinstalled drivers and DirectX just to be sure). I'd prefer not to have to spend any additional cash since it was not a problem before, but...hopefully there will be an update that will enable continued support (if this is the issue) for older/integrated equipment. I know one of the great selling points of the game was that you didn't need the latest and greatest to make it operate nicely, currently this is not the case in the sound area anyway