Death Inc

Team, need help here,

Over the weekend I grabbed some items from the Steam sale. Was happy as I have had these on my wishlist for many months and having them cheaply avaliable had me stoked.

So I bought, Orcs Must Die and Anno 2070. I wanted Anno 2070 the most and was happy to get it at a discounted rate. I downloaded them both and did the install. OmD was fun and worked well, however when I run Anno, the graphics are well done and pretty but the sound is crackling. Crackling so bad it sounds like an old Train Station intercomm system thats long overdue for repairs (that bad) I have also noticed that if I go into the options, the background images of the world and items pause (this is normal as the options window is open) and the sound is now normal. This had me suspects in the video card may be causing a stutter / crackle in the sound. So I did the following;

- Rolled back Nvidia drivers for my ole GeFroce GTX 460 (Same crackle issue)
- Updated to the latest Nvidia drivers (Same crackle issue)
- rolled back my sound card - Onboard Realtek on an Asus P5K SE - (Same crackle issue)
- Went to Asus and tried XP and Vista drivers as there were no W7 drivers - (Same crackle issue)
- rolled back the whole OS by 7 days and reinstalled Anno. (Same crackle issue)

Am starting to think it may be because Anno installs a DX update during the installer but cant put my finger on it or that the MB/soundcard is crap and I should get a new PC anyways.

Then things become substantially worse. I now have Teamspeak crackling when playing a game. IE TF2. People while are understandable just not clear and a slight crackle is comming through the audio. This is now making think the MB/Sound card is dying / on the way out.

I tried toggling the settings on the sound card / audio settings changing different KHz and ranges from DVD to CD quailty etc but this didnt help.

So this became problem Alpha.

Because I just wanted to relax I decided to pull out my laptop that I can use for low grade gaming and just chill from there. So fired up my old HP and was prompted with a perpetual blue screen loop of doom and memory dumps. After a few minutes I worked out the Wireless light was flashing like Chalcie in a trenchcoat on a red light corner and thus turned it off. This resolved the issue and the laptop booted. Once the laptop was started I plugged a network cable on and downloaded the game. Decided to also update the drivers on this too while the ANNO download was going as the laptop hasnt been used in nearly a month.

After updating the nic and drivers and downloading the game, all ran smooth on the reboot and I got the logon screen started then BAM! Ubi decides to have a outage so I cant logon to try Anno. I decided to leave the desk and use the wireless then and sit somewhere else with my feet up, pipe in hand and scotch by my side with my faithful dog at my feet in the den by the fireplace. Then the fucking blue screen starts up again. So the Wireless NIC seems fucked on that too. Due to the system memory dumping I ran the HP dig tools and the HDD and Memory came back fine so that was some relief. But this makes me think I have a busted wireless NIC in the laptop in a household thats setup for wireless. Fucking YAY for me.

And because I started spending money on other hardware and games, this is rattling my tiny budget. Plus if you read this far, Chalice has only one testical with pubic hair and its combed over to ensure it all looks even and fuzzy. So where do I go from here;

PC Issue
- attempt a repair to the main PC by buying a new sound card from ebay cheap or buying something with more bang from LVC/Bohica.
- buy a new barebone system. IE Case/PSU : Mainboard / CPU : RAM, only, and transfer the Video Card, all the HDDs / DVD player from the old PC to the new. Backup data, format and start a fresh OS and put back what I only need.

Laptop Issue
- let it die and use the wired network in the kitchen and dont use the wireless.
- or wipe it and start fresh and hope that its the OS thats messed up and a fresh build will save the day.
- or try ot find a similar laptop and pull the wireless from it and put it in mine to see if thats the cause / solution

Overall, am at a loss. Even my 2012 server I am building is lagging behind due to parts / money and time and the above has just seriously fucking compounded everything to a point where I am almost at a "fuck it" stage and want to hit shit with a hammer, take a year off paid annual leave somehow and starting it all fresh.

Any advice? Is it possible to get a bare something for $1,000? Shall I keep salvaging spare parts and trying to repair and repair and repair again?

Hypnosis can fix this tragic memory. I've also heard that this is requirement to become a clan captain as it shows discipline and commitment. As Dex is a clan captain i often hear reference to "the fuzzies" this further proves such an underground cult does exists.

Id ask Bohica for a new PC.

 

May have to. Fixing is getting harder and harder to do.

Bloody hell.

Taking a look at the angry laptop.
First things first, lets try and sort out the BSOD's. Before we start looking down the rabbithole of software/driver conflicts, lets check your memory. Download an ISO of Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) and burn it to a disk. Boot from the disk and leave a memory check running overnight. If there are any errors then it means you need to swap out the ram in your laptop and you should be ok.

If you do that and the test shows up no errors, then we can look in to other options.

(Or bin it and buy a new PC. /First world problems)

As for Anal 2069, we'll run down a list of questions. Is the cable connecting your audio jack to your headphones/speakers fucked?
Is anno just "A Shit Game for Twats" (audio is simply bugged in the game)?
To find out, buy a $19 sound card from somewhere, run it up and see what happens.

Good luck, and remember http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpH1Zn3hPuI

yeah - testing memory came up good / 100% passed on the lappy. Turning the wireless off before the OS starts saves its sorry ass from dumping to a pony blue screen of pretty.

As for sound. Yeah the sound control panel lets me pick multiple outputs. I tried two and head phones and its shit. As I said, TS, ANNO is all gone to poop :(

I better call the tech guy Ed

i would say a new pc with a dedicated sound card would be the way to go

i remember bohica saying the other week that he was able to get a decent setup of the new HW for about something around half of you budget (would confirm with him about that though)

as for the laptop what harry said :P but i reckon a fresh reinstall may be on the cards in the end if it is not a memory issue

Team, thanks to talking to an IBM Specialist for my HP laptop, the laptop issue has been resolved.

After several BSOD the laptop finally wrote something constructive to the event log where it was a driver issue with the Wireless card. What had happened was a few weeks ago I had run the MS Update service and updated the OS and drivers. Due to using the LAN not the wireless at the time it updated the OS and the wireless Atheros card. Once I disconnected from the LAN I never used the Wireless again for some time - IE yesterday, thus the issues occurred. Updating the drivers to the latest didnt do anything but after rumaging through HPs website I downloaded the older Wireless NIC, uninstalled the driver and files from the laptop and installed the newly downloaded ones and all is now back to normal.

Thanks IBM support :)

(now to work on a PC solution)

I'm confused here.... are you not a fully qualified IT nerd? Something so easy to do and you struggle with it. Surely you would test and diagnose the hardware to actually see if it works  ???

If your PC is an old shit heap, get a quote from Bohica and get it sorted! Your on the big coin in Gladstone spend some of it!  :o


Here is what I think you should do! Back up all your shit, use the laptop as a doorstop. go buy a ghey I Crap/Ipad to replace the lappy.

For your main system, the following would be the way to go!

One of these :
http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4169#ov

Sound card on board.... The new version from Creative :D

One of these :
http://www.corsair.com/en/power-supply-units/ax-series-power-supply-units/professional-series-gold-ax650-80-plus-gold-certified-fully-modular-power-supply.html

Some of these, either 8GB or 16GB:
http://www.corsair.com/en/memory/intel-memory-upgrades/dual-channel-intel-memory-upgrade-kits/cmx8gx3m2a2000c9.html

One of these:
http://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/hyperx#sh103s3

Lastly. one or two of these....
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=02G-P4-2678-KR&family=GeForce%20600%20Series%20Family&sw=


There you go bum nuts, problem solved  8) Now get onto Bohica, cause he works like a bitch and looks after us for a bowl of rice :D

Sammy  ;D

hehe Sam - you make me smile. :)

In anno 2070 what options do you have for sound driver under sound options?

I am to put a smile on the dial of many :P

Direct Sound
(From memory) A surround Sound for the Realtek Card
a 3rd

Tried all three and didnt help. Still shit. But because the sound issue is creeping into other areas. IE Teamspeak and TF2 I suspect the thing has just shat itself.

System restores, driver roll backs and driver updates have all done zip to resolve the issue. As DH said, I have tried different plugs on the sound card and headphones. So I cant narrow the fault any more to just the sound card may be borked. To test will require a 2nd sound card.

Will try to grab a 2nd one on the way home tonight if possible. I am on the island this week and getting off it is easy, just time consuming and will have to haul ass to a IT shop.

^This^ is starting to look like a good option now.

It's the only option, why go through the bullshit of trying to figure out why the doorstop has broken :P