Sound problems / Windows SP3

[jigglybean]

It appears that a number of you are experiencing problems with sound. Firstly, the easiest thing to do is to update your sound card drivers.

Secondly, if you have an intergrated sound card, please switch this off. The game should load once you have done this. However, if this is your only method of sound on your PC (remember, laptops are not supported) then unfortunately the game might not work.

Windows XP Service Pack 3
Again, a number of you are having problems with SP3 for XP. We will find out tomorrow from the test team if there are any known issues and post an update tomorrow(Monday).

If you are experiencing any problems, please give as much information as possible so it can get resolved quickly.

thanks!

[meric]

when i first experienced the sound problems (sound completely stops on san francisco half of round 2 until i return to menu/lobby) i installed the latest sound drivers (realteak hd audio 1.92). with these drivers the problem got really worse! sound crackling, fps-drops etc.
so i installed my old drivers again (1.84) and live with the muted sound every now and then ...

the recommendationto get the latest sound drivers seems not to solve the problem for everyone :D

[HDBanger]

"Secondly, if you have an intergrated sound card, please switch this off. The game should load once you have done this. However, if this is your only method of sound on your PC (remember, laptops are not supported) then unfortunately the game might not work."



Maybe you missed that part.. Integrated means onboard, and realtek is onboard, not discreet..

[DjArcas]

when i first experienced the sound problems (sound completely stops on san francisco half of round 2 until i return to menu/lobby) i installed the latest sound drivers (realteak hd audio 1.92). with these drivers the problem got really worse! sound crackling, fps-drops etc.
so i installed my old drivers again (1.84) and live with the muted sound every now and then ...

the recommendationto get the latest sound drivers seems not to solve the problem for everyone :D

We have had issues where people have windows\system32 as the first thing in their $PATH, combined with an old VORBIS.DLL.

One thing to try (and let me know if it works) - if you have a VORBIS.DLL in your windows\system32 folder, try deleting it or renaming it - old versions of this can cause all sorts of craziness!

This only seems to affect RealTek cards, and I think it might be limited to AMD machines as well.

One final ditch thing to try, if you don't have access to your windows\system32 folder, is to rename the audio\speech folder to audio\speechOLD - this will stop the game playing *ANY* speech... it *should* run fine (but don't hold me to that ;))

[jigglybean]

Those of you experiencing sound problems - the team are investigating this as we speak. Look out for an update shortly.

[Fr002]

Ok cool, a future patch ?

Because the Demo is very cool, i like the game and it work fine. But the sound doesn't work !
It work with all my others games like Crysis and Team Fortress 2 and this or that.... but not with GRID.

Hope you release a patch.
Fr002.

[Lomion]

The Codemaster's splash screen works fine, then there's no sound, king of a waste of my 5.1 surround system. Lol

Any ideas?

[DamageInc.]

Actually, I have WinXProSP3 and I have no sound-problems at all.
However, the settings say it's Software-Accelerated.
Can I change this or is that because it's a Demo?
Or would it make performance worse on my older system anyways?...

[ECH]

Actually, I have WinXProSP3 and I have no sound-problems at all.
However, the settings say it's Software-Accelerated.
Can I change this or is that because it's a Demo?
Or would it make performance worse on my older system anyways?...

I had the same problem.

Originally Posted by ECH
Same here, I have my X-Fi already set to Game Mode and it's grayed out for me. All I can do is use software mode.



OK, I fixed it. I had to go use Grid's "safe mode" executable to turn Hardware acceleration on (this time it's an on/off option not software option). Decline to reboot. This will save your settings. Then I went into Video settings and made the necessary changes. Declined to restart the game, again settings saved. Then went back to the main menu, exited and restarted the game using the regular version of Grid (ie: not safe mode). I noticed right away the added instrumentals in the introduction. Then confirmed that Hardware acceleration is enabled set to High.


Side note:
I use a video card that also has built in audio, HD 2900 XT. I have to be careful to make sure that windows actually has X-Fi selected as default. Or else you can run into problems. Although it was already defaulted for the X-Fi. I cannot figure out why it was grayed out.

Also, I experience crackling noise on the European track but none on the USA track.

[DamageInc.]

I had the same problem.





OK, I fixed it. I had to go use Grid's "safe mode" executable to turn Hardware acceleration on (this time it's an on/off option not software option). Decline to reboot. This will save your settings. Then I went into Video settings and made the necessary changes. Declined to restart the game, again settings saved. Then went back to the main menu, exited and restarted the game using the regular version of Grid (ie: not safe mode). I noticed right away the added instrumentals in the introduction. Then confirmed that Hardware acceleration is enabled set to High.


Side note:
I use a video card that also has built in audio, HD 2900 XT. I have to be careful to make sure that windows actually has X-Fi selected as default. Or else you can run into problems. Although it was already defaulted for the X-Fi. I cannot figure out why it was grayed out.

Also, I experience crackling noise on the European track but none on the USA track.

Ehm, this doesn't work for me...

When I go into Safe Mode, it just shows the same as the Normal Mode.
So the Software/Hardware grayed out and only the options for the quality.
Which was the same as I left it in Normal Mode.

[Dodgysod]

i also cannot enable hardware sound , using an asus xonar 7.1 pci sound card

[Quick420]

Still no fix?

[ChrisNightingale]

The Codemaster's splash screen works fine, then there's no sound, king of a waste of my 5.1 surround system. Lol

Any ideas?

Yeah I was getting the same thing - I can run the game fine on my new PC, but it's my old one which has this problem - maybe I will look at updating the drivers - although the sound card is getting on a bit

[ECH]

Ok I will go step by step on what I did. I tried to uninstall then reinstall this game and Hardware acceleration was grayed out.
-checked to make sure that my X-Fi was the default driver. I then right clicking on X-Fi's volume panel
-select audio devices option
-change it from SB X-Fi to window default
-hit ok
-change it back to SB X-Fi
-Go into Creative Audio Console, make sure that EAX and Game Mode are enabled (which they are)
-Enable Dolby Digital/DTS SPDIF-In Decoder
-Use Built in Decoder

This is what I did last time and and hardware accelerations was no longer grayed out. This time I didn't have to go into safe mode. I guess you have to re-activate your audio settings (this is helpful for those without a X-Fi) for your sound card. Hopefully that will get things going. I was able to reproduce this problem twice and was able to use this same price to get it working again.

[TommyW]

Still cant enable hardware acceleration on my Audigy 2 :( Tried pretty much everything. Hopefully it'll be sorted for the full game!

[DamageInc.]

Still cant enable hardware acceleration on my Audigy 2 :( Tried pretty much everything. Hopefully it'll be sorted for the full game!

Oh man, then I won't be able to either.
Maybe our cards are finally getting too old and left out.

It's so time for a new computer for me anyways...

[ECH]

That's odd, I thought this game used openAL32.dll for high quality sound? DiRT uses it for it's sound. Should be the same for Grid. I found no such file in my Grid directory.

In any case, the before mentioned idea worked but hardware acceleration keep reading OFF every since. I added OpenAL32.dll (http://developer.creative.com/articles/article.asp?cat=1&sbcat=31&top=38&aid=46) to the Grid directory and it's reading ON again. Could be a random event. But worth mentioning. I will start the game a few times and post back.

Side note: I didn't have to install this program as it's already installed. And, I did not have to go to Windows/system32 subdirectory to copy then paste it into Grid directory because I already have Dirt installed.

[ECH]

Ok, I have started the game a few more times and hardware acceleration remains ON with audio set to High. Adding openAL32.dll could be just a coincidence when hardware acceleration started working. After further evaluation it appears to be nothing but a coincidence so far.

[ECH]

I tried it a few more times and hardware acceleration being on vs seeing that it's on is a bit concerning. It appears that H/A is actually on even though the option menu for sound says it's off or off and grayed out. I can always tell when H/A is on when you get to the "please press enter" screen to continue loading the the game. It makes a very distinct sound with H/A is on vs when H/A is not on. This is how I know it's still on even though H/A is grayed out or say OFF even though I set it to ON during my previous load of the game (which required a re-start of the game).

I've been keeping my eye on this for sometime now and this is what I've observered for the past few days (reporting what I've seen in this thread).

Hope this helps someone.

[Fr002]

Hello, i read your post and try lots of thing but i cant figure it out

How do i start Grid in "safe mode" in Windows Vista ?

And how do iam supose to get the Hardware Acceleration turned not gray ?

I have a 8800 GTX and Sigmatel STAC92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver for the audio side...

Can i have hardware acceleration with that ?

[ECH]

Hello, i read your post and try lots of thing but i cant figure it out

How do i start Grid in "safe mode" in Windows Vista ?

And how do iam supose to get the Hardware Acceleration turned not gray ?

I have a 8800 GTX and Sigmatel STAC92XX C-Major HD Audio Driver for the audio side...

Can i have hardware acceleration with that ?


Safe Mode is also an executable file that starts the game. It's found in your gaming directory for that game. Go there instead of the icon on the desktop. If you don't have one I can't really help you with that. From what I've witnessed I've been able to do it with a few restarts of the game. It's completely random. One start of the game it can be grayed out. Once you exit and restart the game it's no longer grayed out and you can now select H/S to ON. Which requires another restart and it should work. However, once you exit the game and play it later on H/A will be OFF or grayed out again but the sound is similar to it being ON. This has been what I've observed for about a week or so now.

I am not really sure if adding OpenAL32.dll to the Grid directory has any effect on the game. The availability of H/A is still IMO completely random with my X-Fi.

[Fr002]

ok thanks for your help...

I try to re-install the game, but in my game directory i just have GRID.exe but no GRID-safe-mode.exe, i don't know for what.

Pretty werd also, because with all my games (and i have a lot) the sound is working. But not with GRID, so "Codemaster", dont tell me its my computer.

But never mind, i will buy the game (because its so cool, and it got a good review on Eurogamer) and hope they fix that (stupid) issue.

Have a nice day

[Lomion]

The Codemaster's splash screen works fine, then there's no sound, king of a waste of my 5.1 surround system. Lol

Any ideas?


To SB X-fi Extreme gamer fatal1ty professional edition (with the drivers updated last night) the sound doesn't work. The Codies spash screen has sound then it dies no further sound!.

Also no option to turn on Hardware Accell in the sound menu's screen. May try that open AL install to see whether that's the problem.

here's my dxdiag results

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 5/28/2008, 00:26:22
Machine name: HOME-PC
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_gdr.071023-1545)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dell DXP061
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 2.5.0
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1228MB used, 3076MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6000.16386 32bit Unicode


Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 8600 GTS
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0400&SUBSYS_043810DE&REV_A1
Display Memory: 1008 MB
Dedicated Memory: 241 MB
Shared Memory: 766 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Dell E207WFP
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.6371 (English)
DDI Version: 9Ex
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/17/2007 09:07:00, 4988928 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4740-11CF-8D6B-332401C2CA35}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x0400
SubSys ID: 0x043810DE
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C ModeVC1_B ModeWMV9_B ModeVC1_A ModeWMV9_A

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0005&SUBSYS_002C1102&REV_00
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1283 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: No
Date and Size: 2/25/2008 09:43:24, 524312 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

[Andy**Pro]

Why the game doesn't support older Sound Cards such as Audigy 2-4? I have a sound, but it run's in software mode and I don't like this =\

[LGFlat]

Audigy4 sound card issue
Start the game..get splash screen with GRID.. then before the opening movie starts it crashes with windows error screen "send to microsoft"

"Faulting application grid.exe, version 1.0.0.0, faulting module ctdproxy.dll, version 5.12.1.1161, fault address 0x0000b71c."

This is the message I get from event viewer and after searching it looks like it is file from the Sound Blaster Driver

Game will start if I disable sound as pointed in a different forum over another game (go control panel-sounds and audio devices-hardware-usb audio devices-mixer devices and do not use mixer... ) but as expected I will have no sound .. which is not good

Mention: for some reason when disabling the "usb audio device" it will let me with no sound..card is NOT usb

Also I played ANY and ALL decent games(including all Race Driver series and CMR Dirt) with this "old" sound card so drivers or system stability is not an issue

[EDIT]After further searching the mentioned file may be linked to my usb mic (since the other usb devices are not sound related); the aforementioned mic uses its own "recording device" which is not the SB one; either way disabling it will render my whole sound off so I am stuck with an unplayable game

[EDIT#2]As per another thread in the tech section I turned sound accel off in dxdiag but still same error

[UPDATE]Played the game without sound for approximately 20 hours alltogether.. ran perfect and smooth without ANY glitch or crash; conclusion is someone somewhere screwed up a bit the sound..in my case to the point where it will not let me start the game with it

[FIXED]I updated drivers with the latest from creative site and it WORKED! Still no idea why it won't work with the old ones which proved good so far but oh well... WORKED

Attached the dxdiag.txt for full specs

[andyr2005]

Hi,

I am just wanting to find out some information regarding GRID and the OpenAL implementation it uses.

For example, when GRID has been to to enable Hardware Acceleration, does it:


Enumerate all Devices, and choose best available. (Best used for Native OpenAL devices, like Audigy and X-Fi's etc)
Render using Generic Hardware Device
Render using Generic Software

Also, there should be an option added to allow the more advanced user to be able to force the use of a specific device.

For example, I for one do not want my sound rendered using the Generic Software mode, if I have a Native OpenAL Sound Blaster X-Fi.

[GanjaStar]

Hi all i have the X-fi extremegamer card. Im on windows xp sp2 latest sound drivers and open al installed. I have no problem selecting hardware acceleration in game, but it's not exactly working right.

First of all there are random clicking sounds that really break the immersion. Also a few times i have gotten a weird garbled sound for a second or so. Also occurs randomly.

I have no sound issues in any other games, nor do i ever experience garbled sounds or clicking noises outside of this game.

As soon as i switch my card from game mode to enterntainment mode, i cannot select hardware acceleration in game and the sound is working properly. I have tried reisntalling OpenAL, sound card drivers, but its still the same.

In the readme it says you can pick between openAL and directsound, but i dont see any options for that in game.

[Atomic_Punch]

Hi,

I am just wanting to find out some information regarding GRID and the OpenAL implementation it uses.

For example, when GRID has been to to enable Hardware Acceleration, does it:


Enumerate all Devices, and choose best available. (Best used for Native OpenAL devices, like Audigy and X-Fi's etc)
Render using Generic Hardware Device
Render using Generic Software

Also, there should be an option added to allow the more advanced user to be able to force the use of a specific device.

For example, I for one do not want my sound rendered using the Generic Software mode, if I have a Native OpenAL Sound Blaster X-Fi.

Audio

i) Performance

The audio system in GRID has been designed to scale greatly, to suit all machines and cards.

Hardware acceleration on
This option uses the OpenAL system, and is designed for use on Creative Labs X-Fi cards. It allows utilisation of high DSP quality and supports hardware audio acceleration on XP and Vista. Some budget X-Fi cards (such as X-Fi Xtreme Audio) do not support 'game mode'. If you have one of those you will only be able to select software audio.

Hardware acceleration off
This option gives you a software mixer. This uses the PC processor to mix sounds to stereo or up to 5.1 channel surround (depending upon your Windows settings). It gives the maximum compatibility with all sound cards.

ii) Drivers

You should ensure you have the latest drivers for your soundcard. If your drivers aren't up to date, you may not be able to choose OpenAL or DirectSound3D mixing, or you may be limited to DSP being LOW or OFF.

iii) Acknowledgment

Uses Ogg Vorbis libraries © 2006, Xiph.Org Foundation, http://www.xiph.org/ (see disclaimer below)

[JohnEboy]

Audio

Hardware acceleration on
This option uses the OpenAL system, and is designed for use on Creative Labs X-Fi cards. It allows utilisation of high DSP quality and supports hardware audio acceleration on XP and Vista. Some budget X-Fi cards (such as X-Fi Xtreme Audio) do not support 'game mode'. If you have one of those you will only be able to select software audio.

Hardware acceleration off
This option gives you a software mixer. This uses the PC processor to mix sounds to stereo or up to 5.1 channel surround (depending upon your Windows settings). It gives the maximum compatibility with all sound cards.



I too cannot enable Hardware acceleration on my audio. (I can get sound but Im presuming its software coded).
I have an XFI Fatility Gaming Edition on my XP SP3 built machine yet no matter what I do (Including going in via safe mode), the Hardware Acceleration box is greyed out and turned off.
I have the most up-to-date XFI drivers installed and, yes, my card supports 'GAME MODE' and I have checked that I am running in 'GAME MODE' but no deal. All has worked perfectly with every other game since I bought it so its not my machine.
Judging by the amount of other users with this issue, seems like a bug in the game? I mean, the XFI is the 'recommended sound card' for the game - so presumably my XFI Fatality Gamers Edition should be sufficient, surely?!!

[GanjaStar]

Judging by the amount of other users with this issue, seems like a bug in the game? I mean, the XFI is the 'recommended sound card' for the game - so presumably my XFI Fatality Gamers Edition should be sufficient, surely?!!

yeah it sure makes you wonder how much beta testing was done on the game when the sound mode specifically designed for x-fi cards, doesn't properly work on x-fi cards....

[Richoa]

Hi

I have loaded demo to windows xp, game appears to run ok but sound works all but engine sound. engine sound is there when I look right or left.

any ideas what I have set wrong

Richo

[Sweeper]

I ran into audio problems for the drift events.
For an instance the hired drivers drift events seem to pass with sound rather nicely but those where I run with my own team it is 100% quiet even in the menu's afterwards.
Sound also seems to come and go during those events, I could hit the wall in a crash and the sound would come on for a quick second to give me the mix of my engine revs and the crash before it was back to silence again.

I am running Windows XP SP2 on the following hardware:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
ABIT IX38 QuadGT (Realtek onboard sound is what I am using, I boycott Creative)
6Gb of memory (3Gb recognized in 32Bit OS which is normal)
2x Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 512Mb (Crossfire setup)
500 Gb Western Digital drive housing GRID.

Elsewhere the sound seems to be working the way it is supposed to for now and no other oddities.
I am running updated drivers for my Realtek so that is not a problem.

[MFCosta]

I had problems with the sound too.
Can't hear my engine, the girls and guy voices were almost mute (barely you can hear them) and in the opposite side, you can hear your opponents engines very well as well the crows as if the are inside the car.
How do I fix my problems?
I run OpenALGridRelease.exe again as well I restore from the game cabs on the DVD the ogg.dll, vorbis.dll and vorbisfile.dll

[Kris3]

Just throwing this back up to see if anyone has resolved the problem of no sound (after the Codemasters video intro)? This is the case on my PC for both demos, and I'm reluctant to buy the full game without sound. Thanks!

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 531
BIOS: oC)Phoenix - AwardBIOSTeDell System v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 3070MB RAM
Page File: 1041MB used, 5302MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_1028020E&REV_1000
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHDA.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5636 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 6/2/2008 18:11:40, 2147544 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

[bik0304]

I have an Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS 5.1 sound card in my computer and whenever i tried to start up GRID i would get the logo screen and then my computer would freeze, that bluescreen would come up and then it would restart. HOWEVER if i disable the audio card and use the integrated audio card on my motherboard the game works fine?!?!?!?!

please if anyone has info or a patch or something to fix this problem. I wanna use my soundcard cuz its better than the onboard audio and sounds MUCH more better. Any help would be great thanks

[andyr2005]

Hi,

People who are having problems with the latest Beta drivers from Creative for the X-Fi's and Audigy's, note that this issue will not be resolved by Codemasters, it is not a bug they have introduced.

The problem is a driver bug, similar issues such as audio drop-outs etc are also apparent when using the 2.18.0000 driver in Mass Effect, BioShock and others.

Make sure you DO NOT install the driver, until it is released as a final end-user release.