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Q321406: Dungeon Siege: Known Sound Issues

Article: Q321406
Product(s): Microsoft Home Games
Version(s): 1.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbimu
Last Modified: 19-JUN-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Dungeon Siege, version 1.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes known sound-related issues that you can experience when
you play Microsoft Dungeon Siege. The information in this article is first
broken out by general issues and then by issues that have only been known to
occur on specific types of sound hardware.

MORE INFORMATION
================

General Sound Issues
--------------------

The following are general sound related issues that you may experience when
starting or playing Dungeon Siege:

- You do not hear any sound during the opening movie or during the game.

  To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  NOTE: Because there are several versions of Windows, the following steps may
  be different on your computer. If they are, please consult your product
  documentation to complete these steps.

  Method 1: Turn On the Sound Function:

  1. Start Dungeon Siege.

  2. On the Startup menu, click Options.

  3. On the Audio tab, to the right of Sound, click the On/Off button so that it
  the button is on.

  4. Drag to set the volume slider bars, and then click OK.

  If this does not resolve this issue, proceed to method 2.

  Method 2: Set the Sound Playback Device:

  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

  2. In Control Panel, double-click "Sounds and Audio Devices".

  3. On the Audio tab, in the Sound playback area, click your sound card if it is
  not already selected.

  4. Select the "Use only default devices" check box, and then click OK.

  If this does not resolve this issue, proceed to method 3.

  Method 3: Replace Preference Files:

  1. On the desktop, double-click My Documents.

  2. Right-click Dungeon Siege, and then click Rename.

  3. Type "DungeonSiege.old" (without the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

  4. Start Dungeon Siege, and then exit Dungeon Siege. This creates a new Dungeon
  Siege folder in the My Documents folder.

  5. Double-click Dungeon Siege.old.

  6. In the DungeonSiege.old folder, right-click the Save folder, and then click
  Copy.

  7. In the My Documents folder, double-click Dungeon Siege.

  8. In the Dungeon Siege folder, right-click a blank space, and then click Paste.

  9. When you are prompted, click Yes to All. The preference files are placed in
  the new Dungeon Siege folder.

  10. Start Dungeon Siege.

- Game hangs with a squealing sound from speakers.

  To resolve this issue, lower hardwaresound acceleration:

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.

  2. In the Open box, type "dxdiag" (without the quotation marks), and then click
  OK.

  3. On the Sound tab, in the DirectX Features section, change the "Hardware Sound
  Acceleration Level" to Basic acceleration, and then click Exit.

Specific Sound Issues
---------------------

The following specific sound cards and chip sets have known sound-related issues
in Dungeon Siege:

Any sound card or chip set with EAX Support:

- After you quit Dungeon Siege, your Windows sound setting may be reset to
  Desktop Stereo Speakers, even though before you played the game, the sound
  setting was set to Quadraphonic Speakers or another setting.

  To work around this issue, turn off EAX support. To do this, follow these
  steps:

  NOTE: Because there are several versions of Windows, the following steps may
  be different on your computer. If they are, please consult your product
  documentation to complete these steps.

  1. On the Main menu in Dungeon Siege, click Options.

  2. On the Audio tab, click the button to the right of EAX so it is labeled Off,
  and then click OK.

  3. Click Exit.

  4. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

  5. Double-click "Sounds and Audio Devices".

  6. On the Volume tab, click Advanced under Speaker settings.

  7. In the Speaker setup box, click Quadraphonic speakers or your preferred
  setting.

- When you try to enable Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) in the Microsoft
  Dungeon Siege 1.0 Audio properties dialog box, you may receive an error
  message similar to the following:

  Cannot detect EAX(TM) Audio support. Please make sure your sound card
  supports EAX(TM) Audio, and that you have the latest drivers installed.

  To resolve this issue, use one or more of the following methods:

  Method 1: Change Hardware Acceleration Setting:

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.

  2. In the Open box, type "dxdiag" (without the quotation marks), and then click
  OK.

  3. On the Sound tab, in the DirectX Features section, change the Hardware Sound
  Acceleration Level to Basic acceleration.

  4. Click Exit.

  If this does not resolve this issue, proceed to Method 2.

  Method 2: Ensure that Your Sound Card Supports EAX:

  Consult your product documentation to ensure that your sound card is able to
  support the EAX audio option.

  If your sound card does support the EAX audio option, proceed to Method 3.

  Method 3: Set Default Sound Device:

  1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

  2. In the Control Panel, double-click Sounds and Audio Devices.

  3. In the Sound playback pane, in the Default device drop down menu, click the
  sound card that supports the EAX option.

  4. Click Apply, and then click OK.

  If this does not resolve this issue, proceed to Method 4.

  Method 4: Update Sound Card Drivers:

  To update your sound card driver, contact the manufacturer of your sound card
  to inquire about how to obtain and install the latest version of the sound
  card driver.

  For information about how to contact , click the appropriate article number in
  the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q65416 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, A-K

  Q60781 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, L-P

  Q60782 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, Q-Z

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!

- When you try to enable Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) in the Microsoft
  Dungeon Siege 1.0 Audio properties dialog box, you may receive an error
  message similar to the following:

  Cannot detect EAX(TM) Audio support. Please make sure your sound card
  supports EAX(TM) Audio, and that you have the latest drivers installed.

  To resolve this issue, uninstall the drivers, install the Liveware! Software
  from Creative Labs, and then reinstall the latest drivers.

Additional query words: msgame

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbimu 
Technology        : kbHomeProdSearch kbGamesSearch _IK kbDungeonSiege
Version           : :1.0
Issue type        : kbprb

=============================================================================

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