Another S&M audio issue, only in S01E06

dTMSr

Hi,

The other day I finally finished Reality 2.0 and immediately downloaded Bright Side of The Moon (via Steam).

Starting the episode all is fine until Sam and Max land on the moon and control is handed back to the user. As Max walks around, his first few footsteps are fine, but then the footfall sound effects are replaced by loud buzzing. In fact all sfx are replaced by buzzing and there is no music. Bringing down the options panel also generated (very loud) buzzing, along with clicking on any option (quit, volume levels, etc.) except the voice volume level which seems OK along with the voice in the game.

I've tried re-downloading the game, re-booting and changing the DirectX Hardware Sound Acceleration level but nothing has helped.

If I load up one of the previous episodes, all seems to be fine, so the problem seems to be specific to Bright Side of The Moon, which seems subtly different from any other audio issues reported.

Here's the specs for my PC:

OS: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (5.2, Build 3790) Service Pack 2
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
DirectX: 9.0c
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT x2 (SLI), Driver Version 6.14.0011.6371
Sound: E-MU 1616M

Any help would be appreciated, it's frustrating getting to the last episode and not being able to play it.

Thanks in Advance,

Kev Thomas

dTMSr

Just a quick update.

I've just downloaded and installed the demo version of Episode 201 - Ice Station Santa and it's working fine. Sot it's just Ep 106 that I've got the problem with.

Will

I doubt it will make much of a difference, but have you tried the demo from our site?

Anyway, since you have already tried redownloading, my first suggestion would be to update your audio drivers and DirectX.

Seg

Looking up your sound card, it's certainly a unique one as it's a break-out box. Yes it should work, just wasn't expecting to see that kind of card this morning.

Took me a bit of looking around the website to get some info out of it, but I found infos. Can you try updating the drivers and software for it? The link should get you directly to the hardware's drivers/software. I would assume you should update both the drivers and the application software.

dTMSr

Hi Will and Seg,

Yep, it's not your typical gamers' sound card - I use my PC for music production as well, but I've never had any issues with other games. I've made sure that the drivers are up to date.

It looks like my Direct X drivers were not the latest version (there was an update on 8th Aug) so I updated them, but I'm still getting the issue.

I've downloaded the demo and that it also experiencing the same issue. I got excited at one point as the demo seemed to be working when I re-tried it after I rebooted the PC, so I went back to the Steam version but the problem returned. I re-tried the demo and the problem is happening there again as well.

I should mention that the music is working fine when I'm in conversation with one of the characters (e.g. Superball) and the sfx are working fine for a few seconds after the conversation ends, but the buzzing re-occurs once the music fades out completely.

Will

If you turn down the Sound FX but leave music and voice on, does the problem go away? What about turning off the music?

dTMSr

Hi Will,

Turning the sfx volume had the expected effect - reducing the volume of the buzzing, but turning the music off fixed the issue - no more buzzing.

I've discovered that bringing the music back up a bit is OK, I can go up to the fifth setting without the buzzing occurring.

Result.

Thanks for your help.

Kev

Will

I wish I had the slightest idea *why* it was happening, but at least it is fixed...ish. Sorry for the complication!