My stuttering problem and how i solved it(still need help) ATI card and AC97 sound

[ivanmadman]

Hi ppl,i thought it could be useful for other people to post about my experience with the game.
I'll start sayin my config

P4 3.0ghz
Asrock p4vm800 motherboard
2gb ram
x1950 pro agp 512 mb
c-media AC97 integrated sound card
windows xp sp3

When i installed the game,i noticed it was lagging badly everywhere,even when i was soloing,every single time i played.
I checked every option,installed all latest drivers available for my devices, and i would like to note that i reformatted my pc some days ago,so DDO it's the only game i got for now.
Nothing worked,even playin the game to Very low settings didnt help.
That seemed strange to me..i know my pc it's not very powerful,but if "detect optimal settings" in-game sets the game to very high,i supposed i should be able to play decently at very low
After a lot of trials i found out my real problem,the c-media card.
If i disable my sound card every stuttering problem it's solved,and the game runs well at high settings.
Now my real problem it's that i have to play the game without sound,and there's nothing i could do to solve this.
Every driver i tried doesnt solve my problem,if i enable the sound card the game becomes unplayable..
I can post my directx log if needed,or answer to any question that can help on this.
And i hope someone else that has my same stuttering problem and my same audio card can try my fix,and see if it works for him too.
It's nice to be able to play the game,but i just hate to destroy skeletons without bein able to hear their bones crushing xD
Every suggestion it's welcome.

[ivanmadman]

Update: i tried updating OpenAL drivers,didnt help.
Tried using DirectMusic instead of OpenAL,same thing.
Tried lowering hardware acceleration,didnt work either..
I obviously also tried software instead of hardware,but nothing changed...
I just dont know what else i can do,i'm running out of ideas
P.S. dont tell me to buy a new sound card lol

[joker965]

In my opinion it is a combination of factors. Every piece of hardware on your PC is borderline. The only thing I can think of is a bios update for your motherboard. Is there a firmware update just for the integrated sound card?

[Cleitanious]

This same phenomenon is apparent on my older rig. I have not found a way around it... yet.

Other specifications inlude: Intel P4 3.8ghz CPU & Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX PCXE

[Impaqt]

Pickup a Cheap Audio card and pop it in. You can get a basic soundblaster for about $30

[Cleitanious]

Pickup a Cheap Audio card and pop it in. You can get a basic soundblaster for about $30

I can confirm that this would work.

[ivanmadman]

Thanks for taking the time to answer me guys.
About the BIOS update i did it long time ago,but my motherboard is somewhat old and it's not supported anymore with updates.
I know buying a sound card should solve my problem,but DDO it's the only game i have sound problems with.
So i suppose it depends if i will continue playin or not (still lvl 3 for now xD ).
Btw if someone comes up with other suggestions or ways to solve this problem without buyin a sound card it's always welcome.

[Impaqt]

I guess you could always turn to a life of crime and Steal a card....

[ivanmadman]

You know...i'm 24,with a rent,a car,and some other things i have to pay to live.
I just lost my job and the last thing i can use my money for atm it's for a sound card, lol
And now that i look at it,it's true my pc is very old,but it's still better than what it's supposed to be the recommended requirement to play the game(http://www.ddo.com/component/content...m-requirements),and i dont see sound card requirements.
Unless they add some info like "if you got an integrated sound card you can have problems playing" i'm supposed to think it should work
But i accept your suggestion,if i'll ever feel like i want a sound card i'll steal yours xD
thanks for your help

[Cleitanious]

You know...i'm 24,with a rent,a car,and some other things i have to pay to live.
I just lost my job and the last thing i can use my money for atm it's for a sound card, lol
And now that i look at it,it's true my pc is very old,but it's still better than what it's supposed to be the recommended requirement to play the game(http://www.ddo.com/component/content...m-requirements),and i dont see sound card requirements.
Unless they add some info like "if you got an integrated sound card you can have problems playing" i'm supposed to think it should work
But i accept your suggestion,if i'll ever feel like i want a sound card i'll steal yours xD
thanks for your help

I'm 23 with rent, a car and other expenses.

The sound card works, and it's good enough for the game, but since it's on the mainboard it's bottle-necking your system.

[ivanmadman]

I'm 23 with rent, a car and other expenses.

The sound card works, and it's good enough for the game, but since it's on the mainboard it's bottle-necking your system.

Then you should know how hard it is when you have so many things to pay for,and some problems getting the money
About my pc,it's a lot of time i'm planning to buy a new one , and it's the first thing i'll do whenever i'll be able to.
I understand your point about the bottle-necking,what i'm wondering is..
can that bottle-neck make so much difference?
i mean, i cant even play at lowest resolution with very low settings in solo without stutterings, but i can play at high settings with 1440x900 res and antialiasing 2x without sound and without problems.
I'm seeing i still enjoy the game (D&D addicted) so if i cant solve that problem i'll just live with it, but is it really possible that this is just a bottleneck problem and not also a client problem with my config?

[Cleitanious]

Then you should know how hard it is when you have so many things to pay for,and some problems getting the money
About my pc,it's a lot of time i'm planning to buy a new one , and it's the first thing i'll do whenever i'll be able to.
I understand your point about the bottle-necking,what i'm wondering is..
can that bottle-neck make so much difference?
i mean, i cant even play at lowest resolution with very low settings in solo without stutterings, but i can play at high settings with 1440x900 res and antialiasing 2x without sound and without problems.
I'm seeing i still enjoy the game (D&D addicted) so if i cant solve that problem i'll just live with it, but is it really possible that this is just a bottleneck problem and not also a client problem with my config?

I don't even get to eat some weeks! I thought being an American automatically meant I got to be fat.

In this situation not only is the sound chip very slow, It is actually slowing down your CPU, because it does most of the processing itself. You will also experience stuttering when sounds are played for the first time and then again after they have been removed from memory and are re-read. You can check this by simply running into a swarm of mobs and swing your weapon and notice the stuttering coincides with the time where the sounds should be played. Footsteps in video games are also very troublesome for onboard low-end sounds cards, especially when dealing with multi-legged creatures. Unfortunately there is little you can do to combat this besides disabling any sound related enhancements in your control panel, device manager and sound card's driver application.

People who do have additional sound cards that are being used instead of the onboard chips should be sure to disable the onboard chip in their device manager to be sure it's not eating any CPU cycles, memory or energy.

[Impaqt]

Onboard sound rarely uses an excessive amount of CPU Clocks.

The issue here is that the Drivers for you system are out of date. Its not Turbines fault ASRock decided to never update their driver offerings....

How hard have you looked for an updated Driver? Just because its not "ASRock" doesntmean it wont work. the CMedia CMI9761 chipset was pretty popular for a while. I'm sure other manufacturers refined the drivers over the years.

Heres one form May 07
http://www.nodevice.com/driver/CMI9761/get43220.html

Nearly 2 years newer thanwhat ASRock has on their site...

Maybe you could post yoru DXDIAG so we could take a deeper look at the driver issue.

Of course, the possibility always exists that you have a bad chip onthe motherbaord as well... Just because your having issues does not mean its turbines fault for not supporting your chipset correctly.

It certainlyseems that C_Media has dropped the ball on that chipset as well.

[ivanmadman]

Hi people, i'm here again to tell you what i've done so far.
I already tried every driver i could find for cmi9761 chipset,and i have to admit some of those solved my problems with stuttering while streaming videos online,but none of those solved my problem with the game.
Out of desperation i even tried audio drivers for VIA 8237R,but it obviously didnt work.
I started to think it's not even a driver fault probably,as Impaqt suggested.
It's highly possible it can be a bad chip on my motherboard,cause i found another person with my same mb and he didnt have my issues..
Finally i did what you told me in the beginning,i went to my father house and stole his sound card xD
It's very old ( an avance als4000 -.- ) but it did what i needed.I can finally play with sound enabled,and enjoy this great game!
Now my next problem will be to plan how and when i'll go multiclass with my cleric (probably just 1 fighter lvl or something like that,nothing too strange),but that's another story
Thank you for taking the time to read my rants and give me your help,it's very appreciated.
See ya in game (and hopefully hear ya too lol )

[Cleitanious]

Hi people, i'm here again to tell you what i've done so far.
I already tried every driver i could find for cmi9761 chipset,and i have to admit some of those solved my problems with stuttering while streaming videos online,but none of those solved my problem with the game.
Out of desperation i even tried audio drivers for VIA 8237R,but it obviously didnt work.
I started to think it's not even a driver fault probably,as Impaqt suggested.
It's highly possible it can be a bad chip on my motherboard,cause i found another person with my same mb and he didnt have my issues..
Finally i did what you told me in the beginning,i went to my father house and stole his sound card xD
It's very old ( an avance als4000 -.- ) but it did what i needed.I can finally play with sound enabled,and enjoy this great game!
Now my next problem will be to plan how and when i'll go multiclass with my cleric (probably just 1 fighter lvl or something like that,nothing too strange),but that's another story
Thank you for taking the time to read my rants and give me your help,it's very appreciated.
See ya in game (and hopefully hear ya too lol )

I'm glad my theory was proven correct. That will be $40 for diagnostic assistance.