Sound stutters on some game intro movies

[slaveOne 0]

I've been having a lot of trouble with intro movies in some games ever since I got my new motherboard (or maybe vid card, I got them at almost the same time, so I'm not sure which is causing it). I first noticed the problem in Battlefield 1942.

 

The EA Logo movie stuttered for the first second or so, and so did the second logo (can't remember the name). The game intro movie ran fine, however. I didn't really see this stuttering as much of a problem since it was only in the two logo movies and I hadn't experienced anything like this in any other game. That is until I tried to play Command and Conquer Generals.

 

Also an EA game, the EA logo movie stuttered horribly in this game. Though in this game, the game intro movie also stutters (with sound going in and out every second or so). Even the mission briefings (shown while the mission is loading) stutter horribly.

 

After this, I was sure it was a problem with EA games because I hadn't experienced anything like this in other games (such as Warcraft 3). That was until last night, when I installed Freelancer. One odd thing that happened when I ran this game is it told me it could not recognize my video card. Odd since I have a GeForce4 Ti4600 8xAGP with the lastest detonators (43.45). I clicked OK to continue anyway and then it went to the Microsoft logo movie which, to my surprise, stuttered quite a bit. Though this time it was only the sound that stuttered. The second logo movie and the game intro movie also stuttered.

 

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has ran into this problem and/or might be able to offer a solution. Here are my system specs:

 

Windows XP Professional w/ SP1

DirectX 9.0a

Athlon XP 2600+ (333 FSB)

ABIT KD7-RAID (VIA KT400 chipset)

512MB PC2100 DDR RAM

eVGA GeForce4 Ti4600 (8x AGP)

Sound Blaster 512

2x 120GB HDD (WD1200JB) RAID Array (striping)

Lite-On CD-RW 24x10x40

 

So far I have tried using the on-board sound (AC'97) and turning down the sound hardware acceleration in dxdiag (on both sound devices). Neither of which had any effect. If I am unable to resolve this problem I will probably buy another motherboard with an nForce2 chipset.

[Grifta 0]

Usually the problem is that they've either used a crappy codec or it's loading off the CD. Those are the only reasons I could see on a system like that.

[slaveOne 0]

Well, I don't think it's caused by either of those because the games work fine on my friend's computer and the movies are stored on my hard drive.

[mpscomputers 0]

first of all make sure you have the latest drivers and patches for all software and games.

 

then check for a bios update with abit.

 

if its a via chipset put the latest 4in1s on.

 

have you played in the bios with the agp settings? if not try a few settings and see what happens.

 

turn off wait for virtical sync.

 

let us no.

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

first of all make sure you have the latest drivers and patches for all software and games.

Tried it.

Quote:

then check for a bios update with abit.

A new bios update for my motherboard was just released a few weeks ago. I flashed my bios with it and still no luck.

Quote:

if its a via chipset put the latest 4in1s on.

Already installed.

Quote:

have you played in the bios with the agp settings? if not try a few settings and see what happens.

I tried playing around with them, but I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. I've tried the Fail-Safe bios settings, Optimized bios settings, and I've tried using the recommended settings from my eVGA GeForce4 Ti4600 manual.

Quote:

turn off wait for virtical sync.

I'm not sure how this would help, but I tried it anyway and still no luck.

[adamvjackson 0]

How about checking your disk defragmentation? Just a thought, as all the other bases seem to have been covered.

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

How about checking your disk defragmentation? Just a thought, as all the other bases seem to have been covered.

I doubt that would be it since I'm using NTFS. Anyway, someone in another board suggested that it is because I am using APIC and my sound card is not APIC compliant. So I need to disable it in my BIOS and do a repair install of Windows XP. Thanks for everyone's help.

[adamvjackson 0]

NTFS still fragments... Not sure why you thought differently. I doubt that disabling ACPI will do anything but cause more problems for you.

 

Did you try installing the latest Creative drivers?

 

IIRC, Via+Creative=Some incompatibilities.

 

Anyway, give us an update.

[slaveOne 0]

Quote:

NTFS still fragments... Not sure why you thought differently. I doubt that disabling ACPI will do anything but cause more problems for you.

Not as much as FAT. I'm sure that's not it anyway, because I can play the videos fine with Bink's RAD Tools (the C&C Generals videos are in .bik format).

Quote:

Did you try installing the latest Creative drivers?

IIRC, Via+Creative=Some incompatibilities.

Anyway, give us an update.

I have installed all the latest drivers for all my hardware.

[AndyFair 0]

Stuttering and slow videos (intro and in-campaign movies) are known problems with C&C Generals, as well as other EA games. Check the C&CG website forums for more info.

It doesn't appear to be confined to just one motherboard type, soundcard or video card.

As far as I know, EA has neither acknowledged the problem, or issued a fix for it - although I may be wrong, I haven't checked in the last couple of weeks.

 

Sorry I couldn't help more.

Rgds

AndyF