14 replies to this topic

[Vermin mg]

I have a very strange problem with in-game sound on my laptop.

Sometimes (quite frequently, every 7th game, I suppose) all sounds become distorted (like when your ears are plugged up*). Usually, it happens during the battle.
All weapons, steps - are distorted. However, when, for instance, the announcer phrases are played, all sounds recover for a couple of seconds. Also, I can clearly hear other players speaking.
The only way to make it normal is to restart the application.

I do not have this problem with any other games and applications on the laptop, only with MWO.
=

• Model: Asus K501UQ
  
• OS: Win 10 x64 (exact build doesn't matter, I have this issue for a long time)
  
• Audio: Conexant SmartAudio HD Audio
  
• Audio chip: Conexant CX20751/2
  
• Driver #1: 8.66.26.53 (provided for this laptop by ASUS)
  
• Driver #2: 8.66.75.57 (the latest I was able to find, driver date is 28.09.2017)

=


What is chosen in MWO settings, Direct Sound or Windows Audio Session, doesn't affect anything.


Any chance somebody has the same issue and/or knows how to fix this problem?


*No, my ears are not plugged up because of loud alpha strikes

Edited by Vermin mg, 29 January 2018 - 03:52 PM.

[BTGbullseye]

Check your Windows audio settings to see if your "communication" tab settings have it set to "reduce the volume of other sounds by XX%" when Windows detects communication activity. It could be interfering with in-game settings.

[Vermin mg]

BTGbullseye, on 29 January 2018 - 10:03 PM, said:

Check your Windows audio settings to see if your "communication" tab settings have it set to "reduce the volume of other sounds by XX%" when Windows detects communication activity. It could be interfering with in-game settings.

Hm... Strange if it will work, but who knows, let's try....
Thanks, I will try to play with this feature switched off today.

[Vermin mg]

Didn't have much time to play to test properly, but was able to get this issue once again.

Thanks, it feels that after the changed setting the distortion is less, although it still can be heard.

Maybe something else can also affect the in-game sound?

[BTGbullseye]

Ok, then go to "Playback Devices" and select your specific audio device in there, and check to see if any of the "enhancements" are enabled. If they are, disable them.

Start by just disabling each individual enhancement, and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't, put a check in the "Disable All Enhancements" checkbox.

If that still doesn't fix it, your sound card may not be able to handle the number of simultaneous sounds that are getting sent to it. If that's the case, you would need to change settings for the game, or just get used to it.

[Vermin mg]

I was wrong, it didn't help, still the same issue...

Hm, I have all enhancements disabled.

Settings for the game? Does MWO have smth else to adjust besides Direct Sound/Windows Audio Session?

I could blame the sound card and its drivers, but MWO is the ONLY game where this problem appears. Stellaris, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Singularity, CoD and many other games are working well without issues at all. I highly doubt that Wolfenstein sends fewer sounds to the sound card:)

[Tarl Cabot]

It could be several issues. On that laptop, does it have only 8gigs of ram?

System power options, set to balance or high performance?

What are your MWO game settings, exactly?

Run MWO in 32bit mode instead of default 64bit mode. Drill down to MWO\bin32 and send to desktop as shortcut mwoclient.exe. Use MWO Portal to check for patches and such but run the 32bit version.

There is at least another thread here that a player was having similar issues with MWO and TS. Running both as 32bit resolved his issue by reducing the footprint each was allowed to have. The other player is also using a laptop with 8gigs of memory. There is likely a better explanation but that is the gist of it.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 01 February 2018 - 07:05 PM.

[NARC BAIT]

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say that the best way to fix your sound issues, is to buy a USB sound card, and plug that in ... maybe just some straight USB headphones or something, although they tend to have their own issues ....

really, your problem probably relates to how sounds are calculated in MWO, and all the ******** hoops it jumps through to 'not play' a sound effect on HPG ... but hey, I didnt code it, dont fire me ... and having the game settings set to low, sets two limiters on the amount of sounds that can be played at once, to 32 sounds .... and if you think about it, thats really not very many ... when you might have two piranhas firing 12 mg each at each other, running in circles, with each bullet having to be calculated individually ... your pretty much at the 'low' limit right there, before you fire your 10 lasers, and when the LRM guy next to you sends off a salvo of 80 LRMs .... well ... its a mess ... like everything, its a big old mess ... and a relic from the beta days ... when someone told them that sound pierceability was going to matter, even when everything was scaled much bigger than the engine devs intended ...

[BTGbullseye]

It definitely matches perfectly with overloading the sound system with too many sounds at once, or MWO sending a request for hardware acceleration of an effect that errors out.

Try running the repair tool for MWO, and see if that helps. If it doesn't, see if uninstalling your soundcard drivers, and letting Windows reinstall the generic drivers will fix it.

Edited by BTGbullseye, 02 February 2018 - 11:52 AM.

[Vermin mg]

Tarl Cabot, on 01 February 2018 - 07:02 PM, said:

It could be several issues. On that laptop, does it have only 8gigs of ram?
System power options, set to balance or high performance?
What are your MWO game settings, exactly?
Run MWO in 32bit mode instead of default 64bit mode. Drill down to MWO\bin32 and send to desktop as shortcut mwoclient.exe. Use MWO Portal to check for patches and such but run the 32bit version.

12gigs... Power is at "better performance", but it is connected to power supply anyway. Game settings at low (if you meant graphics), sound settings, as I mentioned, doesn't matter.
Thanks, I will try to use the 32-bit version. Will be sad to lose some performance as the machine is not very powerful, but it is better to have proper sounds.

NARC BAIT, on 02 February 2018 - 09:05 AM, said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say that the best way to fix your sound issues, is to buy a USB sound card, and plug that in ... maybe just some straight USB headphones or something, although they tend to have their own issues ....

You are right, it probably can be a workaround, but the downside is that all external USB cards take some CPU performance.
Anyway, thank you for a reminder - I have a USB audio card and speakers. If no software ways will be found then I will probably try to use them.

BTGbullseye, on 02 February 2018 - 11:52 AM, said:

Try running the repair tool for MWO, and see if that helps. If it doesn't, see if uninstalling your soundcard drivers, and letting Windows reinstall the generic drivers will fix it.

Repair tool? Can you tell me, please, where I can find it?

Edited by Vermin mg, 02 February 2018 - 04:05 PM.

[Tarl Cabot]

MWO portal, left upper corner, click on the lines then Repair tool... Steam.. integrity check

[Tarl Cabot]

Another item is possible physical issue due to heat build up while playing MWO, especially since you have it nailed at approx every 7th game or so. If you have a headset, does the issue show itself then?

Take control of the fans, Speedfan or such and ramp them up. Clear out any dust buildup on the heatsinks/exits.

[Vermin mg]

32-bit version has the same issue.

Will try to use repair tool now.

Tarl Cabot, on 02 February 2018 - 05:56 PM, said:

Another item is possible physical issue due to heat build up while playing MWO

I doubt it, 7th game is just approximate, sometimes it happens on the 1st one. Plus, the fan was cleaned recently.
But it is a good idea to check with the headset, sometimes line out behaves differently. I will check it if repair tool doesn't help.

[NARC BAIT]

using a different sound device will help you to know for certain if its something between the hardware / driver of the sound card, or if its better to put your time looking at other things ... in theory, you could use a HDMI to a TV or something, and see if problem repeats ....

[Vermin mg]

Repair tool didn't find any issues and clearing cache didn't help. Headphones also have the same problem

Finally came to the last solution, to use another USB audio device - I have Creative X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro. Let's see if the problem disappears....