Microsoft KB Archive/321406

= Dungeon Siege: Known Sound Issues =

Article ID: 321406

Article Last Modified on 1/7/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Dungeon Siege
 * Microsoft Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna

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This article was previously published under Q321406



SUMMARY
This article describes the 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.



General Sound Issues
The following are general sound related issues that you may experience when you start or play 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 Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see 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, go 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, go to method 3.

Method 3: Replace the Preference Files

 * 1) On the desktop, double-click My Documents.
 * 2) Right-click Dungeon Siege, and then click Rename.
 * 3) Type DungeonSiege.old, and then press ENTER.
 * 4) Start Dungeon Siege, and then quit 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, 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 Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see 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 that is 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, 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, go to Method 2.

Method 2: Make sure that Your Sound Card Supports EAX
Consult your product documentation to make sure that your sound card can support the EAX audio option.

If your sound card does support the EAX audio option, go 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, go 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 additional information, see the &quot;References&quot; section of this article.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 that is 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, remove the drivers, install the Liveware! Software from Creative Labs, and then reinstall the latest drivers. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

812394 How to Troubleshoot Sound-Related Issues

