test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Playing STO Kills My Soundcard?
olivia211
Member Posts: 675 Arc User
I have been dealing with this issue for over a week now, thinking maybe it was a bad driver for either my soundcard, or my video card as those can sometimes interfere with the working of a sound card.
The reason I think there is a link to the game is the ONLY times my sound card dies is when I am playing an STF in space. At no other time while playing STO or doing anything else on my system, even building videos or CPU and graphic intensive work, do I have this issue. During the STF run, usually about 6-7 minutes in, my sound completely dies. No matter what I do it will not come back on at all, not just for the game, but for ANYTHING I do on my computer. This has happened 4 times, all doing the exact same thing - doing a Space STF. 3 of the STFs were Cure Found Elite and the other was Conduit Elite. Again, at no other time does my computer experience any sort of problems at all.
The only way I can fix the issue is to reseat my sound card so my computer is forced to recognize it again. Even turning it off and on in the Device Manager does nothing. I have made sure my drivers are all up to date.
Any ideas?
My Build
AMD FX-8150 8 Core running @ 3.9ghz - Liquid Cooled
MSi 970A G46 Mobo
OS - Windows 7 Premium Home
16 gigs RAM - Kingston HyperX Black Series
Galaxy GTX 760 GC - 2 gigs DDR5 Vid RAM
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro Zx Sound Card
Additional Notes
My Mobo also has onboard sound, but that is disabled as it is not used. Again, NO OTHER activity causes my sound to die like this.
The reason I think there is a link to the game is the ONLY times my sound card dies is when I am playing an STF in space. At no other time while playing STO or doing anything else on my system, even building videos or CPU and graphic intensive work, do I have this issue. During the STF run, usually about 6-7 minutes in, my sound completely dies. No matter what I do it will not come back on at all, not just for the game, but for ANYTHING I do on my computer. This has happened 4 times, all doing the exact same thing - doing a Space STF. 3 of the STFs were Cure Found Elite and the other was Conduit Elite. Again, at no other time does my computer experience any sort of problems at all.
The only way I can fix the issue is to reseat my sound card so my computer is forced to recognize it again. Even turning it off and on in the Device Manager does nothing. I have made sure my drivers are all up to date.
Any ideas?
My Build
AMD FX-8150 8 Core running @ 3.9ghz - Liquid Cooled
MSi 970A G46 Mobo
OS - Windows 7 Premium Home
16 gigs RAM - Kingston HyperX Black Series
Galaxy GTX 760 GC - 2 gigs DDR5 Vid RAM
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro Zx Sound Card
Additional Notes
My Mobo also has onboard sound, but that is disabled as it is not used. Again, NO OTHER activity causes my sound to die like this.
No, I am not who you think I am. I am someone different. I am instead a banana.
Post edited by olivia211 on
0
Comments
I am by no means an expert here, but it could very well be a windows related issue not liking the device and/or driver related to it.
May also need to double check the actual soundcard's connection on the MoBo, as it may be loose or degrading.
I am going to assume you are using W7 64bit, and not a 32bit OS?
If it is a 32bit that in itself can be an issue.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I did some research on the Creative site and they recommended putting the card as far away from my Vid Card as possible which I have done. Again, all other operations work perfectly. It is just so weird that the issue only occurs in Space STFs. I have been playing the game today, doing all sorts of other things like ground missions, Defera, Fed Alert, even a couple of episodes and all is just fine. I watched Netflix, check my emails, facebook, all the usually stuff. But again, about 6-7 minutes into an STF it happened again. Once I can see, twice...perhaps coincidence, but 4 times? All while doing the exact same thing in game? That is just too much of a coincidence.
Thank you for the reply though. I am glad a few people are reading my post.
FYI - 16GB on the MB indicates a 64 bit OS as a 32 bit OS can't see more than 3GB.
As for help. I found this thread on the card with someone experiencing cut out issues, and there are some follow up post with things to try/check:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1337761/official-creative-sound-blaster-z-zx-zxr-series-club/1220
Also, you might want to check the Creative Lab site (if you haven't already) and see if there's a newer driver available. You also may want to make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed as STO uses it for sound:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179113
If the issue still persists in STO; it could be anything from a hardware issue on your end; an issue with STO's coding that's causing the issue - or a driver issue with the creative lab driver and STO.
Years ago I had a SoundBlaster X-Fi card issue on a Win XP PC that caused sound to cut out in EVE Online and World of War Craft. Tried everything under the sun to fix it with no joy. About 3 months later Creative Labs had a new driver version for the card (it wasn't listing any specific issue fixed or reported) - and after updating, the issue went away. So, just saying there may be nothing you can do yourself if you've checked and made sure the card is seated, getting proper voltage, has the latest driver, etc; until Creative or Cryptic does something further on their end.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
All drivers are current. I have checked with Creative and nothing there. The sound isn't "cutting out," it just dies completely. Not just in the game but over my entire system. DX is also up to date.
Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I played a little more and everything was fine...until I went into Cure Found Elite and guess what. It did it AGAIN. That's 5 times now the the same thing has happened while playing in a Borg STF. This is no longer a coincidence. I have to think there is something in the STO code doing this.
Again, with everything I do from my editing work to sound recording to making videos and editing photos, nothing makes my sound cut out or die completely. I have run over 20 high demand applications on my computer at the same time and there have been no problems (I did this mostly to see how hard I could push my processor). We are talking 5 times now that this has happened while doing the exact same thing in game.
This cannot be a coincidence. If this IS just dumb (or bad) luck with the sound dying while doing the exact same thing in game, maybe I should go out and buy a lottery ticket.
Normally you would be 100% correct, but it is possible to install 16bg of ram on a mobo and run W7 32bit which would only make use of 3gb.
Wasteful yes, but it can be done.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I do not have voice chat running.
I would have to say that this problem start with the patch about 10 days ago. I've had my card for several months and never had any issues with it. Only after said patch did I start to run into this issue.
Again, to keep testing, I entered yet another Borg STF and for the 6th time, about 6 minutes in, the sound died.
> <
> <
>
The sound is dead regardless of which input / output I use. I have a module and have tested both ways. Either way, the sound is still dead after visiting the STF.
I would highly suggest you play with some settings. One thing that worked was having 5.1 enabled but having to use the setting for stereo. Note that 5.1 can only do 92khz sampling rate and stereo can do 192khz. I don't think this will help your situation, but you never know.
It's also a PCIe card. This means that it's sharing the bandwidth and interupts with your video card. Creative cards were always known for needing to have their own interupts as they can't share for sheit. What are your settings for the slot you're using? Are you using SLI or a single vid card? If you're doing SLI that soundcard is now in pciex1 mode and sharing with 2 vid cards interupts. If you're using a single vid card then it's in x4 mode and usually not a problem. However other devices are now being shared. Such as E sta, usb2.0 or is it now 3.0, etc, etc, etc. I downloaded your manual and it is not helpful at all in telling you what device is using what interupts, which shares with which, etc. Unlike my mobo's manual that tells you exactly what uses what so then you can decide what to not use and what slots to use, etc. So i can't tell you what to do there sadly.
I know you said you disabled your onboard audio. But is this disabled in the bios? If not then please do so. Then use add/remove programs and remove the realtek audio drivers. You can have conflicting drivers whether it's disabled or not. Also i've had issue with nvidias audio drivers as well and i don't use nvidia for any audio. Get rid of those as well and either use an old audio driver for it or let windows use an old driver for it. Just ensure it's not using an audio driver released within the last year. Start with these 2 things first and maybe it will fix your issue as something is conflicting badly as you have to reseat the card just to get windows to recognize and get the correct driver working for your card.
An answer is there. Just because you're only experiencing this while playing this game it's not an indication that it's actually the games fault. Although it very well could be. I think most of us experienced the sound issues when running the Crystalline Entity STF where only half the sounds were playing. But they resolved that issue fairly quickly. But based on my experience it's typically been a driver conflict. Be it the creative driver or a conflict between audio drivers whether or not those sound devices are enabled or disabled.
Also MSI overlay can cause issues. Steam can also cause issues when combined with certain programs, like the MSI overlay for example. Had a buddy of mine that was having issues for almost a year. I told him to play without steam and BAM FPS doubled and no more sound issues for him. So it can be many things.
Since this 6th time this happened, I haven't been back to a space STF. Kind of sad because I do enjoy some of them. I suppose if I want to play without sound I could just let it crash, but I use the sound strategically in the game.
You're not the only one who has had this problem. I've noticed since the Patch for Season 9 that my sound will completely die for the entire completer and I need to either reboot or re install my drivers in order to get sound again. I've not been able to find any solutions, however I hope that something will give soon.
It might be a single corrupt sound file that only attempts to play during an STF that causes your sound card to freak out.
My sound blaster Z card loses sound around 5-6 mins of space combat. I have to restart the PC to fix the sound.