Armed Assault major sound problem XP

[Bucic 1]

Same thread at Creative support forums

Problem description:

After few minutes of playing most sounds fade away. The most clear indication of the problem is lack of enviromental and walking sounds. Affects communication with AI - AI won't obey. It makes ArmA unplayable (lack of many sounds alone).

I already tried:

* All acording to Creative FAQ except clean boot as it seems not necessary - I always remove anything not essential from startup procedure.

* Clean reinstallS of ArmA, ArmA profile, OpenAL and Audigy driver latest versions etc. plus few combinations of other versions.

* Mulltipple OpenAL reinstalls including few with /f parameter and in XP safe mode

* EAX off, hw acceleration off and -dsound startup parameters are NOT considered solutions as they create other sound issues.

* No such problem under Vista 32

Win XP SP3 32-bit

Intel Core2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz

2GB DDR2-800 RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB (Gigabyte GV-NX96T512HP)

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product....ID=2785

ASUSTeK P5E-VM HDMI Rev 1.00G

Barracuda® ES ST3250620NS 7200RPM 16-MBcache NCQ AHCI

Creative Audigy Platinum (SB0090)

ArmA 1.15 beta or 1.14 Polish version,  NO MODs, with -openal startup parameter or not (both tested)

OpenAL 2.0.6.0

C:\WINDOWS\system32\OpenAL32.dll v6.14.357.23

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wrap_oal.dll v2.2.0.5

Creative Audigy Platinum SB0090

[Bucic 1]

The latest OpenAL can be found by manually extracting the latest drivers from Creative. In my case the location was <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">\Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum\SBAX_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0001\Drivers\wdm\common\i386\OALInst.exe

Current OpenAL version status

Installer 2.0.6.0 [April 23, 2008]

wrap_oal.dll 2.2.0.5

OpenAL32.dll 6.14.357.23

For diagnostic purposes - my ALCapsViewer log:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">------------------

System Information

------------------

                 Report Time: 2009/2/15 20:52:56

                          OS: Windows XP Professional Dodatek Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)

                        BIOS: A_M_I_ - 4000828 BIOS Date: 04/28/08 20:05:46 Ver: 08.00.12

                   Processor: ~3895MHz Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E7200  @ 2.53GHz

                      Memory: 2 GB

   Default Audio Device Name: SB Audigy Audio [E880]

       Audio Driver Filename: ctaud2k.sys

   Audio Driver File Version: 6.0.1.1361

Audio Driver Product Version: 2.18.0.1

      Audio Driver Vendor ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00511102&REV_03

        ALCapsViewer Version: 1.0.2.0

-----------------

OpenAL Components

-----------------

Name            Path                    Version        

OpenAL32.dll    C:\WINDOWS\system32\    6.14.357.23    

ct_oal.dll      C:\WINDOWS\system32\    6.0.1.1361    

wrap_oal.dll    C:\WINDOWS\system32\    2.2.0.5        

--------------

OpenAL Devices

--------------

                  Name: SB Audigy Audio [E880]

         Sample Offset: Yes

 Linear Distance Model: Yes

Exponent Distance Model: Yes

               Capture: Yes

           Enumeration: Yes

               EAX 2.0: Yes

               EAX 3.0: Yes

               EAX 4.0: Yes

               EAX 5.0: No

                 X-RAM: No

         Enumerate All: Yes

               EFX 1.0: Yes

                  Name: Generic Hardware

         Sample Offset: Yes

 Linear Distance Model: Yes

Exponent Distance Model: Yes

               Capture: Yes

           Enumeration: Yes

               EAX 2.0: Yes

               EAX 3.0: Yes

               EAX 4.0: Yes

               EAX 5.0: No

                 X-RAM: No

         Enumerate All: Yes

               EFX 1.0: Yes

                  Name: Generic Software

         Sample Offset: Yes

 Linear Distance Model: Yes

Exponent Distance Model: Yes

               Capture: Yes

           Enumeration: Yes

               EAX 2.0: Yes

               EAX 3.0: No

               EAX 4.0: No

               EAX 5.0: No

                 X-RAM: No

         Enumerate All: Yes

               EFX 1.0: Yes