Vist Basic & XFI, random loss of sound and World of Warcraft Hardware enabling iss

Question

Hello.. First off want to say that prior to reinstalling Vista last week, I had no had any issues with my XFI and Vista.. Since the re-install, while running World of Warcraft and Ventrillo, I get random loss of sound. And by that, specifically I mean, the sound shuts off, and I get a constant loud hiss noise that does not stop until a reboot is performed. If I just run WoW and no Ventrillo, I dont get the random problem and the sound runs fine. It is however a highly annoying issue that requires too many reboots in evening. Getting to the point of just trying the onboard sound, which I'd certainly rather not do.
Additionally there is an option in WoW that allows for Hardware enabling, which is supposed to improve performance. When I check this box and restart the game, the box is still not checked. Not sure if this is a CL problem, but something is wrong for sure! I'm using the latest drivers that are on creativelabs.com for my Vista 32 bit system. And again, didnt have these issues prior to the fresh re-install of Vista. Before that I had stepped up the drivers all the way from Vista. Thanks for any feedback on this.

Answer 1

Not sure why your sound is cutting out... but as for WoW, it needs ALchemy installed to run with hardware audio enabled under Vista. I dont believe its in the list of titles included with ALchemy just yet, but adding it manually with the default options works just fine. Without doing this I believe the new sound core used in WoW will automatically detect that it cannot do hardware audio and simply uncheck the box whenever you try, where-as before it would work but still give you Software rendered sound (only instead of WoWs audio engine doing it, it was Vistas - not exactly an improvement). Incidentally, this not only improves performance but vastly improves the sound quality - especially when excessive numbers of sounds are being played. (eg Mass AoE effects on larger numbers of mobs, such as two Warlocks Hellfiring along with a Hurricane and Consecration while pulling the Ballroom - 9 mobs per group - near Moroes in Karazhan) Its possible doing this may also correct your cut-out issue, but its possible it wont. Ive been running WoW alongside Vent for months now under Vista w/ALchemy and an X-Fi and never had such a problem, but then I do also run Vent off the onboard audio so I can use a small earpiece and have voices clearly audible through game sound.