TRON 2.0 Unofficial FAQ v1.0

9.5 Sound Problems

What follows in these troubleshooting sections is a list of problems, and possible solutions for

on the PC; some of which worked for NOLF 2. The author takes no responsibility if any of this advice causes more damage, instead of solving issues.

Remember to always back up your computer, before you start messing around with uninstalling and installing drivers and programs!

I can't hear some, or even all of the sounds . . . for example speech and music!

There are various factors that could be causing this. Here are the most common problems:

Drivers	Make sure you've updated your sound drivers to the latest version. Visit the appropriate site for your sound card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi / Audigy / Live nVidia nForce 2 Chipset with SoundStorm feature You may want to check your motherboard manufacturer's site first, in case you require specific drivers for your motherboard, instead of nVidia's. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Hercules Fortissimo / Game Theater Realtek AC97/HD Codec Chips C-Media AC97 Codec Chips SoundMax/Analog Devices AC97 Codec Chips VIA Technologies AC97 Codec Chips SigmaTel AC97 Codec Chips Cirrus/Crystal AC97 Codec Chips SiS AC97 Codec Chips Using an AC97 codec chip is generally a poor solution, that steals CPU cycles and will slow down the game considerably. I suggest you read this article to find out why, and upgrade to a better sound card as soon as you can afford it! If you have a PCI sound card, be sure to disable the motherboard's built-in AC97 codec in the BIOS and uninstall the drivers for it. Read your motherboard's manual to find out more. Step-by-step instructions to do all of this stuff, isn't provided . . . it would go beyond the scope of this FAQ. Sorry.
EAX	Check to see that your sound card supports at least EAX 2.0, if you have the EAX option turned on. Otherwise, turn it off. To turn EAX off: From the Main Menu, choose Options. Now choose Sound. Set Enable EAX to No. This can also be done from the game launcher, but I suggest doing it in the game instead because you may forget about it later.
Codec Problem	Codecs are "compression/decompression" drivers, that let you see and hear video and audio files. installs a Windows Media Audio codec package that is required to hear the speech and sound effects in the game. It's possible that you have a different version of one of the codecs installed, which can be caused by a codec pack such as the Nimo pack. The game will then end up using the wrong codec, and hence no sounds. While I'm about to show a solution that could cure this problem . . . the author doesn't recommend you ever install the Nimo pack at all. If you have the Nimo pack, or another pack, uninstall it. You don't really need it. Install the codecs you need individually, and forget about these packs with hacked codecs! To possibly fix the codec problem: Open My Computer or the Windows Explorer. Open the C:\WINDOWS\System folder (98/Me), or C:\WINDOWS\System32 folder (2000/XP). Look for a file called l3codeca.acm. Rename it to something like l3codeca.old. The following four files may not need to be renamed, but are added for good measure. Look for l3codecp.acm. Again, rename it to something like l3codecp.old. Look for l3codecx.acm. Rename it to l3codecx.old. Look for lameacm.acm. Rename it to lameacm.old. Finally, look for imaadp32.acm. Rename it to imaadp32.old. If Windows gives you an error message about the file(s) being in use, use a DOS boot disk or go to Safe mode by hitting F8 when the computer boots, and rename the file(s) that way. So it would be cd C:\WINDOWS\System (98/Me) or cd C:\WINDOWS\System32 (2000/XP), and rename l3codeca.acm l3codeca.old. Another optional step you might want to try, is using Windows Media Player to help download and replace any original Microsoft codecs that are missing (since the game relies on Microsoft codecs), which may not be replaced by running the program WMFADist.exe mentioned below. This step probably isn't necessary, but there's no harm in trying it. It should work identically on both Media Player versions 10 and 11. Right click in the top or bottom bar of Media Player, and choose Options. On the Player tab, put a checkmark in the Download codecs automatically box and click OK. Right click in the top or bottom bar, and choose Check for Updates. This will cause Media Player to download and install any codecs that are missing, like the ones we renamed earlier. Open the folder where you installed the game. Run the program WMFADist.exe and follow the instructions. If you can't find it here, it's also on the second CD. If the program gives an error message before it finishes, see further below. When it's finished, try running the game again. You may need to shut down Windows and restart first. If you can't find the .acm files in the System/System32 folder, it's probably because you have Windows set not to show hidden and system files. You need to change the settings from either My Computer or the Windows Explorer. To see hidden and system files: Open My Computer or the Windows Explorer. Go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options. Select the View tab. Select Show hidden files and folders. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files. A confirmation dialog will appear. Select Yes. Now click OK. If the WMFADist.exe program gave an error, you can manually finish installing it. To manually finish installing the program: Open My Computer or the Windows Explorer. Run WMFADist.exe again. If you're lucky, it may finish installing on its own this time. If not, go to the next step. When the program pops up a dialog with an error, don't click on the button. In Windows 98/Me go to the folder C:\WINDOWS\Temp. In 2000/XP go to C:\Documents and Settings\User Account\Local Settings\Temp, where User Account is the name of the account you logged in with. Make sure your hidden and system files are set to be shown. If not, follow the instructions above. Copy the folder IXP000.TMP to somewhere else. Then you can click on the button to end the WMFADist.exe program. Go into the IXP000.TMP folder, and run both wmad.exe and dcsetup.exe. The codec package should now be properly installed.
Sound Code Problem	There seems to be an issue with environmental sound effects dropping out, speech becoming too quiet, and music sometimes not playing. At first it was believed to be a problem specific to users of the nForce 2 Chipset, using the built-in sound feature called the "SoundStorm" APU. But since then, it's also been reported by users of all types of Creative's Sound Blaster cards. The author can attest to this bug from first-hand experience. Note that not all nForce 2 motherboards have the SoundStorm feature! So this problem shouldn't affect you, if you don't have it and are using the AC97 codec chip. However, a lot of people are getting confused about all this, and falling into one of two camps: either thinking all nForce 2 boards still use all the features of the AC97 codec sound chip, even if they have SoundStorm; or that all boards come with SoundStorm, period. Both are not true. Only if the box the motherboard came in, or your manual, says SoundStorm . . . then you have it. As for the AC97 codec still being on SoundStorm equipped boards, normally the AC97 codec is only used to convert the digital signals from the SoundStorm APU into analog ones, so you can hook up inexpensive analog speakers instead of being forced to use SPDIF only. The codec chip serves no other purpose. For boards without SoundStorm, the AC97 codec then has all its features enabled. However, if you install the driver for the AC97 codec (usually the Realtek ALC650) on a board that has SoundStorm, you will disable the features of the SoundStorm APU! Only install nVidia's drivers, not the ones for the AC97 codec! Buena Vista Games' support suggested, on the Official Message Boards, to disable the audio hardware acceleration to help fix these problems, particularly on nForce 2 SoundStorm boards. It does seem to help somewhat . . . however, it slows the game down. This is far from a satisfactory solution, and is merely a band-aid fix to a serious problem! Interestingly — though the author needs to confirm this with others — the environmental sounds don't always go "missing" with hardware acceleration enabled. It's just that the volume for them is set so low, that you can't hear them. If you increase the volume substantially, you should be able to hear the environment sounds, and characters speaking in the distance should be easier to hear. Of course, now everything else is far too loud! Hopefully an update, be it from BVI/Monolith or the sound card manufacturers, will be released to fix this. The v1.030 patch does not address the problem. UPDATE: The solution for nForce 2 SoundStorm users has arrived! Download and install the nForce 3.13 Unified Drivers or later to solve all your sound problems! To turn off audio hardware acceleration: Run the game launcher. Select Options. Look for a checkbox on the left side labelled Disable Hardware Sound. Make sure the box is checked. Click OK.

Is there something else I can do to get the music working? I've tried lots of things, and it still cuts out!

There is something you can try. I've noticed that when the game first loads a level, often times there's no music. If you load the level again, the music should suddenly start.

I can't hear Jet's footsteps sometimes, but all the other environment sounds seem to work!

Don't forget that the Fuzzy Signature subroutine will quiet Jet's footsteps, if you have it installed in memory. I know I forgot!

I'm getting crackling, popping, or screeching sounds sometimes, or sounds are still dropping out . . . or even worse the game crashes!

The author has personally noticed that this starts to happen, once you reach the fCon levels of the game. Before that, this problem didn't occur. Your experiences may be different. Buena Vista Games' support, on the Official Message Boards, said that an updated nVidia driver will be required to fix this on nForce 2 boards with SoundStorm.

UPDATE: The nForce v3.13 drivers or later solve the sound problems, but the game still crashes on the fCon levels a lot.

An option to turn down DirectX Sound Acceleration was also mentioned for SoundStorm, plus other sound cards.

To turn down DirectX sound acceleration:
- Go to Start, then choose Run, and type dxdiag.
- Select the Sound tab, and move the Acceleration Level slider all the way down. Click on Exit.
- Try running the game. If it works, you may want to run dxdiag.exe again, and move the slider up one notch. Repeat until the game has problems. This way you can determine the highest setting that will work with the game, until a better fix is discovered.

The speech and sound effects are slowed down or low pitched, and I get a lot of screeching sounds!

Load your Player.txt player profile into an editor like Notepad. It can be found in the C:\Program Files\Buena Vista Interactive\Tron 2.0\Profiles directory, or x:\YourTronDir\Profiles if you did a custom install.

Do a search for soundmultiplier. You will see four entries of interest, all next to each other. They are speechsoundmultiplier, defaultsoundmultiplier, weaponsoundmultiplier, and sound16bit. Try adjusting the numbers behind each of the multiplier entries . . . say, changing an entry from 1.000000f to 0.500000f or 2.000000f. Play with the numbers and see what results you get when you run the game again. After doing this, you can also try changing the value of sound16bit from 1 to 0 and see if that helps any.

None of the previous tips have helped me!

If your problem hasn't been mentioned as being fixed in an upcoming patch, and all else has failed to help . . . try re-installing or updating your sound drivers. See the top of this page for sites to visit, in order to download the latest drivers.
I also recommend downloading Driver Cleaner, which helps get rid of all traces of many driver types, when you need to re-install. The program works in all versions of Windows.
For some people, when they run the game for the very first time, the Disable Hardware Sound option in the launcher will be ticked off. This can cause problems, and degrade performance. Check to see if that's the case. Of course, for others, the Disable Hardware Sound option actually helps, as you may have read above. Either way, find out how to access this option.
On Creative sound cards, make sure your EAX Environmental EQ setting in the Mixer is set to off! These ambient effects are fun for the desktop or older games, but will screw up the sound in your newest games.
Check to see that your Speaker Profile in Windows, matches your speaker setup.

To check your Speaker Profile:

98/Me Specific	Open the Control Panel. Click the Sounds and Multimedia icon. Select the Audio tab. Click on the Advanced button in the Sound Playback section. The Speakers tab should already be selected. Make sure the selected profile matches your speakers. If not, select the right one from the drop-down menu, and click OK. Click OK again, on the previous dialog box.
2000/XP Specific	Open the Control Panel. Click the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. The Volume tab should already be selected. Click on the Advanced... button in the Speaker settings section. The Speakers tab should already be selected. Make sure the selected profile matches your speakers. If not, select the right one from the drop-down menu, and click OK. Click OK again, on the previous dialog box.