Command and Conquer 3 Problem, Please help...

Whenever I play the game the sound is slightly messed up. It has a weird crackling or static sound. It is very annoying. Anyone know how to fix this?

It only happens during gameplay, not during cutscences.

Thanks

 

Why not just look on the EA website for help on this? I'm sure the people that made the game would be more knowledgeable than us regarding their game and its problems. I think it may have something to do with your sound card, and the reason it doesn't do it during cutscenes is because the cutscene is an actual movie and really doesn't have anything to do with the game's code. Check to see if your sound is doing any acceleration and try turning it off. go to Start > Control Panel > Sound and Audio devices > Audio > I think there should be an advanced tab here, click it, if not look around > and acceleration (performance).

 

No, EA's website did not have any answers.

Please, has anyone else come across this problem?

 

Did you atleast try what I said to try? If that doesn't work, try reinstalling

 

Tried both. Lowered volume, that didn't help. And uninstalled, that didn't help.

 

I can't remember, can you turn off high-quality audio inside the game? That's often a culprit. I also notice that you're running Vista. Drivers on Vista aren't mature yet, and Vista in general sucks because it takes a lot of horsepower to keep checking on you to make sure you aren't doing anything Microsoft thinks might be illegal. That may be part of the issue.

 

sound in Vista is fubarred right now mainly because they removed directsound support fully in preference for their own api from what i read. make sure the game is not using EAX or any kind of 3d sound option. You might even want to choose software sound in game.

 

I have the same problem...
Running Vista as well.

 

Yeah I couldnl't find anything at all on the EA board, so I started my own topic.

Maybe someone else will share their problems

http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=200226

 

I asked EA support online and this is what they said back to me:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support. I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with C&C 3: Tiberium Wars. Please try updating the drivers for your sound card. To update your soundcard driver, go to your sound card manufacturer’s web page and download the most recent driver available for your Sound card and operating system. You may also contact your laptop manufacturer and try to obtain a new driver for that device. If you need help installing these drivers, please contact the manufacturer in question, as these drivers are not our products.

And try to lower a Hardware Sound Acceleration setting on your computer to "basic". To do this, follow these steps:

• Click the Start button in the bottom left hand corner of your Desktop.
• Click on "Run".
• Erase any text already in the run prompt.
• Type in: dxdiag
• Click the OK button.
• Select the sound tab at the top of the tool.
• Set the Hardware Sound Acceleration Slider to "Basic".
• Click "Exit" in the bottom right hand corner.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase ( http://support.ea.com)

Anthony C.
EA Tech Support




I really don't want to start to mess with drivers. I have had bad experiences with messing with drivers.

And my dxdiag sound thing is already set to basic!

Fools. I told them that the computer is brand new and its not the drivers. I'll let you know if they give any other advice.



In the meantime is there anything that could help? I have tried all of the things listed above.

Thanks

 

Just because it's brand new doesn't mean it's not the drivers. It's actually MORE likely to be the drivers with brand new hardware, especially under Vista, which has spotty support across the board. As for a suggestion, try adjusting the hardware acceleration to something OTHER than basic, as you're getting the problems with basic, and make sure that none of your volume sliders are maxed out, either in your volume control applet or inside the game. That will often cause clipping sounds.

 

I went on Toshiba's website and tried to look for sound drivers. It was really complicated. Could someone enlighten me on whichi driver to download?

 

This is crazy, do you guys have dells?

I have a Dell vista laptop, and on the dell forums they are talking about possible conflicts between the wireless card and the sound card about possible frequency problems, like they are using the same frequency or something. Not sure exaclty, but mabye we could narrow this down.

 

I will try and turn off my wireless card. I have a toshiba and I have the ability to turn off and on my wireless card. I will see if this helps and get back to you. Although I would be extremely surprised if that was the problem.

 

i have winxp
with sigmatel sound card
(dell inspirone1505/6400??)

anyhow

i unsinstalled some fix from microsoft in the add/remove programs..

i dunno what the knowledge base (kb) number was but it had someething to do with the HD audio driver and such.

i uninstalled it and installed the original driver from dell and the cracklking sound is gone

i guess you may want to pass this along.

meanwhile... no more crackling!!!

might be this but im not sure... i should've written down the kb #

microsoft KB835221

 

Turn of v-sync in your graphics controller. This did it for me and I have nvidia on a vista-32. PS you need to install the nvidia driver and not use the vista version that was bundled in your vista package.

Hope this helps

 

How do I turn off v-sync??

 

To turn off v-sync use yor graphic card utility. If you have nvidia (like I do) then right click on the desktop, start the utility and then click the 3-d utilities list, handle 3d-settings and then browse the global setting list to the bottom and turn it off

 

Doing a VERY quick google on it I've glanced over some forums where Vista+Creative+C&C3=Bad Sound OR just Vista+C&C 3=Bad Sound...take your pick. I read early on with C&C3 that it wouldn't support Vista at all. This is way early on in the games development though. I am playing C&C3 with MCE and the Audigy "upgrade" with no isses at all. Just can't crank Powerstrip as high I've noticed...it crashes the system.

 

I have the same problems too.
Dell Inspiron 6400 and even with the sound mute I still get the annoying noise.
Only way to stop it so far is to cover the front speakers.

I really need help on this one.
Dont fancy messing with drivers, as it isnt old laptop and all other games work.

XP is fine and not the issue I am sure of it.

Please help

 

I tried to do what you told me about the v sync. However, there is no 3d utilities list for me to click on. It only has 3d settings and there is hardly anything listed.

Maybe Vista does it a different way.

Any word on how to disable my v sync with vista?

Or any other way to get rid of this annoying static?

 

i have winxp
with sigmatel sound card
(dell inspirone1505/6400??)

anyhow

i unsinstalled some fix from microsoft in the add/remove programs..

i dunno what the knowledge base (kb) number was but it had someething to do with the HD audio driver and such.

i uninstalled it and installed the original driver from dell and the cracklking sound is gone

i guess you may want to pass this along.

meanwhile... no more crackling!!!

might be this but im not sure... i should've written down the kb #

microsoft KB835221

 

Unfortunately I cant uninstall or remove the update you mentioned.
It simply doesnt exist in my window updates.

any other advice?

 

umm well if you google crackling sounds in EA games it comes up with a forums post on that stuff

I had crackling with BF2 and C&C3 but that was only for the demos.

After that i reformatted and the full version does not have those problems.

So i never really resolved it but i hear it has to do with either a creative sound card or a file in the Punkbuster client.

Hope that helps

 

I also have this issue. Fortunately I worked out a fix after messing around with settings. I have been having trouble trying to find other people with this issue to test my fix to see if it works for others. This is what fixed it for me:

1) Change your Vista theme to "Vista Basic" as oppsoed to "Aero"
2) Run the game but with "-win" on the end e.g. :

"C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Command & Conquer 3\CNC3.exe" -win

Note: you may want to turn the games resolution down sligtly so that it fits on the screen.

If this does work please reply noting what version of the game you have (country, disc or ea link, standard or kane edition) for example mine would be
UK DVD standard

I hope this works, if it does it will help me understand this issue more and hopefully allow me to contact EA to notify them with this issue and help them make a patch to fix this.

 

I' having the same issues with my C&C3 here and like to resolve it. Turning Aero off could be a good tip. I thought programs effected by it would do it automatically (like FSX does) but if C&C3 needs it the hard way no problem.

But what on earth is that "-win" supposed to do???

Edit: Wait a sec, isn't that windowed mode enabled? Might be a neat idea.

 

Ok, a small update on that issue. Using "-win" indeed fixed the sound issues on my system. Using Aero or not does not do anything. Windowed mode works the magic, no idea why.

Besides, windowed mode has other benefits. I've chosen 800x600 as res (instead 1024x768 before) and instead set every detail to highest/max. It plays just as well and looks so damn good now. And no, the lower res does not make the game less comfortable. And I always has my system monitoring and sidebar in sight. Now that is fun!

 

It's good to hear that this worked. Can you please tell me what version of the game you have. What country it is, whether it is DVD or EA Link and if it is the Kane Edition or standard; i.e. mine is UK/DVD/standard.

 

I've the european Kane DVD. There's english, german and frensh on the disk as far as I can remember. I run an english installation of C&C3 Kane Ed. version 1.03 atm.

 

I have DELL Inspiron 9400, with sigmatel audio, running on XP

I have same problem with Command and Conquer 3, have tried everything that is posted here, nothing helps... plz help

 

installed latest audio drivers (SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio),
installed latest C&C3 patch (1.03)

works fine, sound is ok

 

Well, I am still having the same problem. I tried the -win thing, that didnt work.

Can anyone please try to finally help me put this thing to rest?

I have noticed that the only way I can get the crackling to subside is to turn my graphics settings to low.....


Thanks again