Distorted sound when playing Nascar Racing 2003

Coye,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

If the sound is working properly in another game but not one in particular, then the issue most likely lies with the suspect game.  See if the vendor has updated drivers for  this.  Does the sound work fine inside of Windows?

I have a solution that works.  Use these (ftp://210.51.181.211/pc/ac97/alc650/wdm_a357.exe) drivers from Realtek in place of the ones Dell gives you for your sound card.  They can be found at http://www.realtek.com.tw/ in downloads -> ALC650 -> Drivers -> Windows 98Gold/98se/Me/2000/XP Driver only.  I have been using them on my i8500 for about 8 months now with no problems whatsoever, and NASCAR doesn't sound like Indy either!

Hope this helps!

DerekD

Make sure you clean out all the older sound drivers from your system.  I'm not sure what kind of sound card the i600m has, but that driver I listed should certainly work for any AC'97 sound device (like I mentioned, it works fine on my i8500).  What do you mean it wouldn't play windows system files?  Also make sure your DirectX is up to date and NR2003 is patched also. 

Also, try looking around the offical NR2003 message boards (this address should work - http://community.vugames.com/WebX?13@148.IfkgdYMVfmg.0@.efb812c).  Although I'm almost certain the only solution you will find is to use the drivers I listed.

You can just e-mail me at valvenis3@hotmail.com if you want, maybe we could set up a time to race together at some point

DerekD

Message Edited by valvenis3 on 04-09-2004 05:00 PM

One thing I don't understand.

I have a sigmatel sound card. Why would realtek audio drivers work?

Because you have an AC'97 sound card, and the drivers for them don't always need to be brand specific.  The realtek drivers should work fine for your SigmaTel card, and most importantly they fix the engine sound problems in NR2003.

Derek

Just downloaded the drivers. Installed them and sound works fine and nascar works beautifully.

I guess sigma tel uses a generic chip set and just writes their own software.

SCF

I have a new 9100. I had the same problem with the in-car audio. I downloaded the realtek drivers posted in this thread and the sound works great. Now the problem is I can't control the volume of the internal laptop speakers. I only have one volume - loud. The mute will work and the volulme control will work for the jack for speakers or headphones. Anyone have this problem or have any suggestions on how to use this driver and still contol the volume. All game patches and updates are current. If I un-install the realtek driver and re-intall the sigma tel driver the volume contol will work.

I want to publicly thank valvenis3 for the tip on the RealTek audio drivers!

After spending near $4,000 on a new Inspiron 8600, with the intent of game playing only NR2003 (besides doing real work), I was devastated at the chain saw sound that wasn't a problem on other computers.  I'm here to tell ya the RealTek drivers work on this computer, and solved the problem.  I also don't have any problem adjusting the volume of the internal speakers like the guy with the 9100.

Mr. Moderator, for your information, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season was the LAST of the BEST NASCAR simulation on the market.  NASCAR got big bucks to award an exclusive license to Electronic Arts and their NASCAR Thunder, so Papyrus and Sierra had to discontinue NR2003, and no longer do any development for it.  Despite NASCAR's endorsement of the EA product, all the drivers and serious fans use NR2003, and the user community is keeping it up to date as possible for subsequent seasons.  With problems like this, either the software can be fixed for the only driver that causes problems with it, or the driver can be fixed for the only software that causes problems with it.

Since the software can't be fixed for this driver, if Dell will not get Sigma Tel to fix the driver, all we can do is recommend other fans choose something besides Dell, or only those Dells known to work with Real Tek drivers.

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Moe

Windows Hardware Wizard is reloading them from C:\DRIVERS\Audio.  Drag INFCACHE.1 and the ONBOARD folder out of the Audio Folder.  I also dragged these files out of C:\Windows\system32\drivers

drmk.sys
ks.sys
portcls.sys
stac97.sys
stream.sys

these files and these file out of C:\Windows\system32

ksprosy.ax
ksuser.dll
stac97.cpl
wdmaud.drv

These are installed from C:\Drivers\Audio.

The next time you reboot, Windowst won't be able to find them.  Then run the RealTek install and reboot. 

I didn't hear it on the laptop speakers before I posted last night, but I sure did as soon as I plugged in headphones or external speakers.  The Real Tek drivers are causing static and popping noise on NR2003.  Haven't tested it with other stuff.

So they aren't the perfect solution.  We still need Dell to address this issue!

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@Coye wrote:
sound seems to work fine thru windows, we have another laptop in our office, it is a Inspiron 8600, both of these laptops mine and his have sigma tel sound cards, we also have dimension 4550 pc's. What is strange, engine sound is correct on those machines but our two laptops, engine sounds like a chainsaw. So is this an issue with sigma tel??

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Users: 

The statement above leads me to believe that this is not a Dell issue.  If the audio in this one game is affected, then you will need to seek a software patch from the vendor.  You can seek a patch that Dell has not tested or verified from Sigma Tel directly.

Bob, did you not read my post above?  A software patch isn't going to be available from the application vendor.

If Dell wants to wash their hands of this, I can help you do this.  I downloaded the NR2003 demo and installed it on a new Gateway Tablet PC with the Sigma Tel hardware and driver, and the problem happens on it as well.  So, as you suspect, it isn't just a Dell problem, but it IS a problem with one of Dell's suppliers.

However, if Dell wants to help, rather than point fingers, they can make Sigma aware of this issue and press for a fix.  This is THE most popular NASCAR racing simulation, and it looks awesome at 1920 X 1200 in 32-bit color.  The ATI 9600 has the horsepower to run it at this level, and the 9700 would be even better.  Solving the audio issue would help make Dell the portable of platform of choice for it.