AFTER PATCH SOUND BUG FIXED!

[AlmightyPants]

I'm experiencing the same problem. I just bought GTAIV the other day as a graduation gift for myself. The sound is a complete mess. A single handbrake turn will cause the squealing tire sound effect to loop, killing all other sound effects. Dialogue during missions won't play, the subtitles will shoot by extremely quickly with no audio. If I skip a cutscene that audio continues to play in the game. The radio keeps playing after I've left whatever car I've been in.

 

I've tried everything. The beta nvidia drivers cause my computer to lock up, plain and simple, but everything else is up to date. I've tried messing with all the settings, trying every single level of acceleration via dxdiag with the results being only worse.

 

I bought the game through Steam so I don't know if it's the latest version or what. I patched it the first time I got it, deleted and reinstalled it and it's still happening, exactly like in those videos.

 

I have a Crysis-beating rig here with a Creative X-Fi Xtremegamer sound card and nothing seems to be working.

[scarybandit]

Argh!

[NIPSEN]

We need help !

[scarybandit]

 

Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Remove GTA IV.

 

You do not need to Revoke the License, and be certain to keep your Saved Games.

 

Install GTA IV.

(You will have time to eat a continental breakfast while this happens - although check back to change disks when you get to your second coffee.)

 

Once installed, you will be informed there is an update available and do you want to update it now?

 

SAY NO.

(If you say 'Yes' because of some involuntary trust reaction, return to the beginning of this post and repeat the steps above.)

 

Start GTA IV.

 

Enjoy your buggy, but patch free game. At least you have those beta drivers right?

 

Check the forums once a week for a new patch - but do not update to it unless the Read Me specifically addresses the specific bug you suffered from (in this thread: sound loops). Feel free to add to a thread demanding a new patch if it isn't out yet.

 

NB: All the other issues the patch did actually help will return, not least of which is the annoying need to reset Graphics settings everytime you start the game.

 

 

[AlmightyPants]

Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Remove GTA IV.

 

You do not need to Revoke the License, and be certain to keep your Saved Games.

 

Install GTA IV.

(You will have time to eat a continental breakfast while this happens - although check back to change disks when you get to your second coffee.)

 

Once installed, you will be informed there is an update available and do you want to update it now?

 

SAY NO.

(If you say 'Yes' because of some involuntary trust reaction, return to the beginning of this post and repeat the steps above.)

 

Start GTA IV.

 

Enjoy your buggy, but patch free game. At least you have those beta drivers right?

 

Check the forums once a week for a new patch - but do not update to it unless the Read Me specifically addresses the specific bug you suffered from (in this thread: sound loops). Feel free to add to a thread demanding a new patch if it isn't out yet.

 

NB: All the other issues the patch did actually help will return, not least of which is the annoying need to reset Graphics settings everytime you start the game.

What about those of us who got it from Steam and can't prevent it from updating?

[scarybandit]

Doesn't matter. It's crashing all the time today again anyway.

 

GTA IV on PC is about as reliable as a newspaper horoscope.

 

I'm officially giving up on this game until a realistic patch is released, or NASA gives me a supercomputer from the future.

 

What a frustrating two weeks.

[noVa]

got this issue as well, rebooting etc doesn't work.

 

atleast it's better than my other soundcard which the audio is half speed and stutters constantly.

 

At this rate im going to have to ditch my £350 sound card in favour of some sh*tty gaming one even though it works in every other game around.

 

 

I repeat what i have said many times before on other forums, consoles have ruined PC gaming forever.

[StealthPyros]

Don't bother trying another sound card. I disabled my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and used my onboard Gigabyte DS3L audio which is Realtek and I still had the same poblem.

[scarybandit]

Argh!

[JeffRay]

Fixed... Ecstasy, Nirvana..

 

I got my issue fixed after a bunch of driver shuffling. If you've got an nForce4 motherboard with Realtek audio, my fix will probably work for you.

 

See this thread:

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=388748

[GTAMonkey2012]

Oddly enough it comes down to updating of fundamental drivers.

 

Never underestimate the "Chipset drivers" for your mobo and any bios updates if the bios update states any such fixes.

[JeffRay]

Umm, fundamentally the latest drivers cause the bug (not to mention a boatload of bricked PCs -search for Nvidia 15.x problems). The 6.86 drivers are from 2006. Had updating to the latest driver worked, I wouldn't be so POed about this.

[noVa]

i found the solution for me atleast if i have v-sync disabled it loops the sounds if i have it force on/application preference in my ati control panel, then it doesn't loop the sounds

 

also -novblank (which disables v-sync) in my commandline.txt i made also had the same results so at least for me my sound problems are tied to v-sync

 

how on earth it is i have no idea, but it works for me.

 

 

good coding there.

 

i have an asus p5q-pro with an m-audio mobilepre USB soundcard btw, i doubt anyone here will have a similar setup but if your at your wits end you can try the v-sync thing.

 

still can't get my emu 1820m soundcard to work with the game which is annoying as i have to disable it everytime i want to play the game.

[Miniu]

I register just to say thx noVA.

Forcing v-sync on in ati control panel helped me to.

[noVa]

your welcome, it's certainly an odd fix though!

[benfp]

Before the patch was released, I was part of the so-called minority of people who couldn't get past the two first copyright-text-screens without getting a Crash To Desktop. Actually, I could, so I guess we all could... Once in ten times, that is.

 

Whatever way my computer was used before launching GTA IV, the results of launching GTA IV seemed consistent and dependant on it: it always crashed at the same point or worked in a very rare occasions as aforementioned.

 

Then I found out Rockstar had released a patch. Of course, I jumped on it like bees to honey.

 

And it indeed fixed my problems, as well as a few ailments affecting me:

- Fixed ATI x1x00 shadows bugs: Thank you, I could already appreciate these results

- Better memory management: Does it mean less leaks? I haven't have the chance to notice it yet, but from what I've heard it helped others, so it must be helpful to me.

 

But it also introduced the dreadful sound loop bug, which supposedly hit 1% of the current GTA IV players population. I've tried numerous ways to fix it, among which :

- trying to add the minspecaudio/fullspecaudio flags in the CommandLine.txt file,

- Updating all drivers up to date,

- Retrograding audio drivers to prehistoric versions,

- Forcing V-Sync in ATI Catalyst Program,

- Adjusting sound driver parameters (adding effects, changing standard bitrate),

 

and combinations of all the above.

 

So far, none of them worked.

 

I can play for 10 minutes average before I get the bug. I do not need to add much description to what's been pointed out though I should point out that it doesn't crash afterwards but it seems pretty obvious there are memory issues as there happens to be a lot of textures missing as soon as the sound loop bug happens (and none before).

 

My configuration can be summed up in a few words : Asus F3JP-AS090C laptop. To give a few highlights: Core Duo T7200, 2GB RAM, ATI x 1700, Realtek Audio, Vista Premium.

Edited December 31, 2008 by benfp