Sound Breakup in BG2 SoA

Knights_Gambit · Post by **Knights_Gambit** » Thu May 23, 2002 6:01 pm

I have the following hardware running under WIN98:
Athlon 1.3 Ghz
60 Gig HD
256 ram
ATI Radeon 8500
Via AC '97 Soundcard

My problem:
Fully installed BG2. Sound was fine until chapter 2 windspear hills. The sound is now breaking up (monster EFX and voices especially). Have defragged the HD twice but sound is still jerky. No problems with sound in other programs, audio CD's play fine. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu May 23, 2002 7:18 pm

Do you have the latest game patch? Do you have the latest audio drivers for your motherboard (it sounds like you have onboard sound)?

You also might want to reduce the number of sound options running (voices, environmental sounds, footsteps, etc.). I haven't played BG2 with AC97 motherboard sound in a long time, but I do remember having some problems with the sound. I picked up an inexpensive SoundBlaster 5.1 card for $50 and the games sound much, much better (and would sound even better than that if I'd buy a high-end sound card and really good speakers).

Knights_Gambit · Post by **Knights_Gambit** » Fri May 24, 2002 12:35 am

Sound Problem with AC '97

Have drivers of 08/00 installed. Via's website for driver updates is offline. Don't understand how game can be functioning okay in chapter 1 and not in chapter 2? Should sound problems affect all issues ie audio cd's? Any thoughts?

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Fri May 24, 2002 5:27 am

AC97 is an audio codec and is for the most part software controlled, and is output through a very basic sound chip. Chapter 1 does not have much in the way of background noise compared to the rest of the game, so you may find that your sound system is simply being overworked. You'd get much better performance and sound quality with even a basic Soundblaster card as HLD has suggested.

Knights_Gambit · Post by **Knights_Gambit** » Fri May 24, 2002 8:18 am

Consider it done. Thanks.