XP Sound Problems - Try this out

Stian · #1 November 10th, 2005, 07:27 PM

Zaphod,
Here's something you could try; a way of out finding what codecs are used when playing audio files like mp3 are using a free tool like GSpot:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html

It's a bit technical but here's a quick walkthrough;

In GSpot, go to the File menu, then Open -> Select an mp3 file (any will do I think), click Render (bottom), then look at Audio Path there and you should get the name of the codec windows uses to play the file.

Also, click on the 'Status' line and then the name of the filter for info on where the offending file is located on your system.

Then go the the windows Start menu -> Run, type 'regsvr32 /u path to codec file' and the codec should be uninstalled.

Hopefully the game will then use your the default, MS-supplied codec for mp3 playback.

Hope this helps you to finally enjoy the game!

Stian

Beeblebrox · #2 November 11th, 2005, 06:02 AM

Sounds like a better approach than deleting at random. I'll try that tonight. I've heard that codecs per definition are a source of grief, but have never had problems before. An enlightening experience...

Beeblebrox · #3 November 11th, 2005, 04:04 PM

Oki. The "culprit" seems to be quartz.dll in that case. (I did the wav-thing, so I used one of the game-wavs). Since quartz.dll seems to be a microsoftfile associated to DirectX. Removing it is not an option. The only thing I can imagine is that it has become corrupted some way or another. Ill try to replace it with a brand new one and see if that helps.

Beeblebrox · #4 November 11th, 2005, 07:46 PM

Replaced the quartz.dll with a nice new one, but... Nope. Didn't help. Obviously there is something else that is messed up. ...Or at least I thought i changed it. As it turns out, the file was again the original after restart. Exactly what codec should windows use to play wav, or mp3 for that matter?

Stian · #5 November 13th, 2005, 12:58 PM

If quartz.dll is used then the playback of mp3 files should work, are you sure this crash is related to sound playback and not some gfx driver issue?

Anyhow - you could try installing for instance AC3 filter to play mp3 instead of the default - I'm using it now with no problems...
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/ac3.shtml

Also you could try FFDShow or a third-party mp3-filter:
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/ffdshow.shtml
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/formats/mp3.shtml

S.

Beeblebrox · #6 November 26th, 2005, 05:48 PM

Sorry for not replying for ages. Lots of work and other non-gaming bits for a while. About the causality of the misbehaviour of the game. It works splendid, albeit boringly silent, if i turn the sounds off. It crashes in a few turns if i turn sounds on. I do not use mp3, since I did the wav thing suggested as a first step of trouble-shooting. On my comp, wavs are played back by quartz.dll, mp3s are not. If I were to let the game play mp3:s again, I would have to delete all installed codec to end up with the quartz.dll that has already proved inept in the wav-scenario. In sum, it certainly seems that sound is an issue here, and it would seem unlikely that mp3 would work, when wav does not. I think I'll just play silent until I do my yearly reinstall of winXP. (If that helps)

Fortunately, the game runs smoothly on my laptop (normally used for work-related stuff) :-)

Stian · #7 November 30th, 2005, 04:34 PM

Well, sorry to hear you have not yet fixed it. But on the other hand, thankfully SP is one of the few games where sound is not 'really' necessary, at least not for me.

I usually listen to the radio or music when playing the game, the sound doesn't really give me anything useful anyhow

Stian

RVPERTVS · #8 May 23rd, 2006, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Stian said:
Zaphod,
Here's something you could try; a way of out finding what codecs are used when playing audio files like mp3 are using a free tool like GSpot:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/download.html

It's a bit technical but here's a quick walkthrough;

In GSpot, go to the File menu, then Open -> Select an mp3 file (any will do I think), click Render (bottom), then look at Audio Path there and you should get the name of the codec windows uses to play the file.

Also, click on the 'Status' line and then the name of the filter for info on where the offending file is located on your system.

Then go the the windows Start menu -> Run, type 'regsvr32 /u path to codec file' and the codec should be uninstalled.

Hopefully the game will then use your the default, MS-supplied codec for mp3 playback.

Hope this helps you to finally enjoy the game!

Stian

Ok, I haven�t experienced a sinlge crash, just audio hicups (I want to know if my system is using a problematic audio codec or not) I dowunloaded and ran the Gspot v 2.21 with one of the game mp3 sounds and I had this render info:

"Direct Show claims to be able to play the file. The following combination of filters were used:

C/:Program Files/Shrapnel Games/WinSPMBT/Game Data/Sounds/2.mp3 (Audio Source)
MPEG-I Steam Splitter (Audio Pre-Processor)
MPEG Layer-3 Decoder (Audio Decoder)
Default DirectSound Device (Audio Renderer)"

Also there is some more large info (which I can print to a file if someone tells me how)when I click on any of the above mentioned fields. Anyway, the "main" driver appears to be quartz.dll

I just want to know if those audio hicups I�m experiencing are due to a problematic codec or not and want to know if these could be fixed without converting to WAV.

Any help with this will be appreciated, thanks in advance.