Sounds constantly disappearing

[NEXUS12]

I have this strange annoying 'bug' where the game sound constantly drops out, comes back for a few seconds, and disappears again.

This does not affect the music, but the 'clicking' sounds that should be made when you click on news features, tabs, armies, etc. All of the sort of 'effects' sounds in the game just disappear completely. Then maybe after a few minutes they randomly come back. It is very off putting.

As I said before, music never changes or has any issues. Also I play with zero mods, and all DLC and updated patch.

 

[AndrewT]

Has this always happened ever since you've had the game? Or it used to be okay up to some point?

Does this affect our similar games like EU4?

 

[NEXUS12]

Hi,

I've had the game since launch, it was fine originally, but I remember getting issues around late 2018 (but I stopped playing the game for a long time until now, which is why I didn't report it then).

I also play EU4, HOI4, Stellaris, CS, and I don't have any sound issues with any of those games.

 

[AndrewT]

No real idea then, sorry. It's not at all a known problem with the game as such.

Has it been on the same computer and Windows version since 2018?


DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach your Documents/Paradox/CK2/settings.txt
From your Documents/Paradox/CK2/logs/ folder, attach system.log .

 

[NEXUS12]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I have attached the requested docs.

I get my issue is a strange one, and not one that a lot of people seem to encounter (I couldn't find any previous posts relating to the issue)

A few extra details; I've turned ambient sounds on and off, but all that affects from what I can hear is the volume of the music when opening tabs, not the effects sounds themselves.

Interestingly though, I come across the issue in both my laptop and PC. The dxdiag above is my PC spec (I no longer use the laptop).

 

[AndrewT]

Nothing of concern I can see in those files.

My guess is you have some app or utility on these machines that is grabbing the sound channel occasionally. Anything audio-related you have installed on both like that?

 

[NEXUS12]

The only thing I can think of is is use AutoHotKey to program WASD into updownleftright.

I've actually spent the last few hours today totally clearing out my PC of any old apps etc to make sure nothing could be interfering with the game. I can't imagine a scripting file would lead to sound issues though?

I am going to record a 10 second clip of how the sound in my game is affected and upload it to Youtube to show exactly what problem I have.

Thanks again for your help so far

EDIT: Not using AHK made no difference. I am at a loss right now, the sound issue is one of those things I could just ignore but it really bugs me lol.

I don't know if a savegame would help at all but I have attached it.

Also, here is a Youtube link. I uploaded it just to show you what I'm on about. As you can hear when I click, the sound effect ranges from loud, to very quiet, to non-existant.

 

[AndrewT]

If you disable music and ambient sounds, does this still happen to those sound effects?

 

[NEXUS12]

Hi,

Yeah the issue persists with both disabled

 

[AndrewT]

This one's got me I think, I cannot imagine what would cause such a problem on two machines (but no one else's!), and to only one game.


Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Sent its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

 

[NEXUS12]

This one's got me I think, I cannot imagine what would cause such a problem on two machines (but no one else's!), and to only one game.


Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Sent its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

I've played the game over the last week or so with only sound effects enabled (both ambient and music disabled, and I just play the CK2 soundtrack through Youtube lol). The issue stil persists but happens a lot less often. Very strange.

Here is the Speccy details

 

[AndrewT]

Interestingly your dxdiag reports only two sound channels:

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Headphones (USB Audio Device)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Driver Name: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 10.00.18362.0001 (English)
Driver Provider: Microsoft

Description: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Driver Name: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 10.00.18362.0356 (English)
Driver Provider: Microsoft

Whereas Speccy finds four:

Audio
Sound Cards
NVIDIA High Definition Audio
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
High Definition Audio Device
USB Audio Device
Playback Devices
Speakers (2- USB Audio Device) (default)
Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Recording Devices
Microphone (High Definition Audio Device)
Microphone (2- USB Audio Device) (default)

It's generally not good to have hardware with no drivers installed, even if they are passive devices. Not sure why the drivers for the nVidia sound hardware are not there. If you right click on those devices in Device Manager, Driver, what do you see if anything?

 

[NEXUS12]

Interestingly your dxdiag reports only two sound channels:


Whereas Speccy finds four:


It's generally not good to have hardware with no drivers installed, even if they are passive devices. Not sure why the drivers for the nVidia sound hardware are not there. If you right click on those devices in Device Manager, Driver, what do you see if anything?

Apologies for the late reply.

Strange... The only audio devices I have pluuged into my PC via USB are a headphones set and a speaker set.

I don't know what the NVIDIA audio device is. Something built in maybe? When I right click, it looks the same as anything else in the properties. I've disabled them anyway, and the issue still persists.

I'm beginning to think it is an issue I will just have to live with. Quite frustrating that there doesn't seem to be a solution (not your fault!) but it doesn't seem like many others are experiencing my problem.

 

[AndrewT]

I do not recall a single other case like this in over 10 years of doing this ... !

I am sorry to have not helped.


I would guess that a Windows reset or wipe-and-reinstall would fix it, but I know that's a lot to contemplate for such an issue!

 

[Gunthah]

Apologies for the late reply.

Strange... The only audio devices I have pluuged into my PC via USB are a headphones set and a speaker set.

I don't know what the NVIDIA audio device is. Something built in maybe? When I right click, it looks the same as anything else in the properties. I've disabled them anyway, and the issue still persists.

I'm beginning to think it is an issue I will just have to live with. Quite frustrating that there doesn't seem to be a solution (not your fault!) but it doesn't seem like many others are experiencing my problem.

Did you ever identify what causes this issue? I have had it too for many many years, also on two different PCs, where clicking sounds are quieter or disappear until I click on some particular things (CoAs). I still love playing CK2 but this really puts me off.

 

[NEXUS12]

Nope, I never found out what it was, and now I've moved onto CK3 so I guess it will remain forever unsolved. Sorry!