Wierd Sound and DirectX Issues

[deluxe]

OK... I need a little help. I have put together quite a few PCs but am encountering a couple of wierd and really annoying problems.

1. The volume varies heaps randomly moving from high to low without me doing anything... really bizzare (and annoying)!! I used the card (SB Live!) in my previous P4 build with no worries at all, the speakers are Boston Accoustic and work perfectly with other devices.

2. When I try and install Fifa 07 or NFS: Carbon I am told that DirectX is not installed. I have DirectX 9.0c installed. Appears only to be with EA games as I am playing GTA: San Andreas and Company Of Heroes with few problems at all (other than the afformentioned sound issue.) CoH has randomly frozen a couple of times though...

My build is a week old, all drivers/BIOS are up to date:
E6600
ASUS P5N32-E Sli
XFX 8800GTS 320mb (Extreme Edition)
2gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400 C4
Silverstone Strider 750W
Sound Blaster Live! (from my previous PC)

If people have encountered, resolved or have good ideas for these problems help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mitch074]

If you're using Vista, be aware that Vista's DirectSound is now SOFTWARE only. If you're using XP, look at the Creative forums...

 

[specter]

About the games needing DirectX is that you need to install a newer version on DirectX 9.0C, like December 2006. There are games which need a newer version, but most of them have that on the disk. It happened to me also. The game would not run because of DirectX. I used till then DirectX 9.0C that came with XP Sp2, and after that I installed DirectX 9.0C from April 2006 and everything worked. There is a newer version but I didn't need it until now. Hope this helps.

 

[mitch074]

indeed, newer revisions of DirectX include pre-programmed shading algorithms and some patches. Install the latest version, or at least the one provided on the game's CD.

 

[specter]

Ah. And if you are not certain which version of DirectX you have, just install the one that comes with the game or another one, and if you already have a better version the one you will try to install will not be installed.

 

[deluxe]

Found a solution for the DirectX issues, I ended up having to run the Autorun.exe configured for Windows 2000.

Still having trouble getting consistant sound though, could use a hand there as I can't find much help on the Creative boards!

 

[alcattle]

ok new build. Turn off onboard sound, check for frivers, don't trust XP/Vista has good ones. PCI slot not PCI-E. I know all dumb ideas but sometimes.. Try taking card out and use onboard sound; it might be better than older sound blaster.