'Grinding noise' bug

[pandalet]

After updating to U7, I now get a random looped sound effect. This starts up about 30 - 45 minutes after starting the client. I can make it stop by muting and unmuting (via the audio control panel), but it starts up again in a minute or so. Restarting the client makes it go away for another 30 - 45 minutes; relogging does nothing.

The exact sample that's looping isn't the same every session, although once it's started, it mostly stays the same (i.e. after 40 minutes or so, a sound sample will start looping; from then on, the sample will start looping every minute). I think the sounds are spell casting sounds, but I'm not certain of this.

This is apparently a known issue. The entry in the 'known issues' thread says alt-tabbing to another app makes the problem go away "for a time". I've submitted a bug report and a technical assistance request, so we'll see what comes of that. Having to toggle mute or alt-tab once a minute is making the game pretty much unplayable for me, and completely muting audio isn't really an option either (no voice chat). I'm posting this here so that anyone else with the same problem can speak up.

I'm running under XP, haven't changed anything in settings or hardware (aside from letting U7 download and install), never had this problem before U7.

[Atree]

I get this as well. I found that turning off just the effects sound makes it go away at the expense of not hearing the monsters go squish every time you swing. Can still hear voice chat so game is playable albeit a tad less fun.

[damon81981]

I get the same bug, and it is extremely annoying. You would think they would have found this bug when they playtested the U7 software.

[pandalet]

Thank you for contacting Turbine Technical Support. There is a known-issue with this sound in the recent update. This should be fixed in a future update. In the mean time, switching from the DDO client to another application and back, or logging in an out of the game, will correct this issue.

Ok, so I'm going to assume that this slipped through the U7 testing, for whatever reason; these things do happen, but never mind. There's a bug that affects so many people that you need to put an announcement on the log-in screen, asking people to stop reporting it, yet the best you can come up with is 'switch to another application or restart the client'. "Sorry guys, I know we're half way through Harry, but I need to restart my client. Be right back!"; "What happened to the heals?!? Oh, I had to alt-tab away, and that takes a few seconds".

And the best Turbine can come up with is that it'll be fixed in a 'future update'. So, in other words, they might fix it, sometime, if they can be arsed, and there's something else going out as well. And the so-called support team are stuck spouting the party line, and dealing with irate customers to whom they provide a complete absence of support.

This is a major bug, and should be treated as such. I would hope that Turbine would push out a hot-fix (or whatever they call out-of-cycle releases) soon. FWIW, I considered buying some points in the recent sale, but decided not to due to the way Turbine go about fixing stuff (lag, etc); in retrospect, I'm glad I made that decision.

For anyone else with this problem, toggling the mute will make it stop for a (short) while - you can keep the audio control panel open on one side of the screen to make this easier. Alternately, you can turn the sound effects volume off, which detracts considerably from the play experience, but at least means you can still get voice chat.

Poor show, Turbine!

[donfilibuster]

ok, theres plenty of threads on this issue, bumped or not, can someone make or point to a master thread?