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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHoMM2: Popping sound problem(31 posts)solved(31 posts)solved
(31 posts)solved
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Posted August 23, 2009
Hi guys.
Just bought Heroes 2 gold and im experiencing sound popping in the music tracks when playing the game...Does anyone have a solution to this problem. I have chosen to put the music option on music /w opera as is, and it doesn't seem to work any better if i change to another setting.
Please help if you can. Im running Vista x64, with soundblaster X-Fi.
Really want to enjoy this fantastic game as much as possible.
Thanks all.
Post edited August 23, 2009 by RunningManDK
This question / problem has been solved by sp0rkyimage
Posted August 29, 2009
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Horus: But remember that Windows 7 is not yet released to customers and doesn't have GOG support (yet i guess)...

Well, Windows 7 is almost completely binary compatible with Vista, that explains why this sound issue on Vista 64
is exactly same here.
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ephaestos: The fact is HoMM2 is very unstable under XP. On the contrary I have never seen any crashes with the dos version inside dosbox. My CPU4 is a Core 2 Duo @ 2 GHz and I can see one core maxed out : Dosbox is really a CPU hog as the original game runs on a 486 DX4/100.

I can't confirm that. I tried it on XP (32 bit, same machine), sound issues were gone, but game crashed several times after 2 or 3 hours of play.
I just want GOG to ship the "native" windows version of HoMM 2 too, like it was on original game cd. So that I can find
best solution by myself. There was no "this is a dos version" of the game in the description, when I bought it - just XP/Vista compatibility.
And now I've spent money on this castrated version... :(
Post edited August 29, 2009 by Mad_Max
Posted August 29, 2009
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sp0rky: I also had sound popping/skipping issues on my Linux netbook running HOMM2.
I was able to fix it by changing prebuffer=100 (milliseconds) under [mixer] in dosboxhomm2.conf.
Playing around with this setting might help with some of the skipping/popping issues if none of the other suggestions (CPU etc.) do. Worked for me, anyway. :D

Hi there m8.
You are absolutely right. Changing prebuffer to 100 eliminates the annoying popping sounds on my comp as well. I will consider this problem solved then.
Thank you for your reply, you really saved the day.
Posted August 30, 2009
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sp0rky: I also had sound popping/skipping issues on my Linux netbook running HOMM2.
I was able to fix it by changing prebuffer=100 (milliseconds) under [mixer] in dosboxhomm2.conf.
Playing around with this setting might help with some of the skipping/popping issues if none of the other suggestions (CPU etc.) do. Worked for me, anyway. :D

I gotta try that. Those popping/skipping issues are really annoying to listen to. Now, if only I could get the opera soundtrack working...
Posted August 30, 2009
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sp0rky: I also had sound popping/skipping issues on my Linux netbook running HOMM2.
I was able to fix it by changing prebuffer=100 (milliseconds) under [mixer] in dosboxhomm2.conf.
Playing around with this setting might help with some of the skipping/popping issues if none of the other suggestions (CPU etc.) do. Worked for me, anyway. :D

For me (running a Q6600 CPU on Windows 7), I got rid of stuttering CD Audio playback by changing rendering method to Direct3D using the Graphic mode setup tool.
Post edited August 30, 2009 by waagbo
Posted November 22, 2009
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sp0rky: I also had sound popping/skipping issues on my Linux netbook running HOMM2.
I was able to fix it by changing prebuffer=100 (milliseconds) under [mixer] in dosboxhomm2.conf.
Playing around with this setting might help with some of the skipping/popping issues if none of the other suggestions (CPU etc.) do. Worked for me, anyway. :D

I was able to find the dosboxhomm2.conf file so I could play around with these settings. It will let me open it up using Notepad (or Wordpad). But when I try to save the changes I make (i.e. setting it to 100 milliseconds, it won't let me do so, tells me the file path is incorrect. Specifically it tells me I cannot create the .conf file (I am using the same path trying to save over it) and to make sure the file name and path are correct.
Any ideas on how to save the changed settings? (I apologize for my ignorance, but I must confess I am irritated to have bought the game and not only have choppy sound, but I can't hear the introductions to the campaign either).
Post edited November 22, 2009 by Nixxter
Posted November 23, 2009
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Nixxter: I was able to find the dosboxhomm2.conf file so I could play around with these settings. It will let me open it up using Notepad (or Wordpad). But when I try to save the changes I make (i.e. setting it to 100 milliseconds, it won't let me do so, tells me the file path is incorrect. Specifically it tells me I cannot create the .conf file (I am using the same path trying to save over it) and to make sure the file name and path are correct.
Any ideas on how to save the changed settings? (I apologize for my ignorance, but I must confess I am irritated to have bought the game and not only have choppy sound, but I can't hear the introductions to the campaign either).

Sounds like you're on Vista? Vista is idiotic like that. Some programmer at one point thought "nah, people are idiots who try to mess with stuff they're not supposed to, so let's make the entire Program Files folder protected so that you can't change any files beneath that folder, oh, and let's make it a feature that can't be switched off". Which is stupid enough in and of itself, but not as stupid as the fact that it's easily (albeit annoyingly) circumvented. Here's what you do:
1. Copy the file you want to edit to the desktop, or another location that isn't protected.
2. Edit and save the file.
3. Copy it back where it came from, overwriting the old file. Vista is apparently perfectly happy to let you do that.
That's what I do whenever I have to edit files under the Program Files folder. It's stupid, but it works.
Posted November 23, 2009
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Wishbone: 1. Copy the file you want to edit to the desktop, or another location that isn't protected.
2. Edit and save the file.
3. Copy it back where it came from, overwriting the old file. Vista is apparently perfectly happy to let you do that.

Or simply avoid installing anything into the Program Files folder...
Posted November 23, 2009
Thank you Wishbone & Vestin!
That certainly did the trick (successful in editing and saving the file).
However, it didn't fix the sound problem, alas. But I read the durn 143 page manual and soldiered on. It's nice to be playing HOMM2 again, and the gameplay itself seems to work fine. I'll just have to suffer without hearing the cut scenes.
Post edited November 23, 2009 by Nixxter
Posted November 23, 2009
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Nixxter: That certainly did the trick (successful in editing and saving the file).
However, it didn't fix the sound problem, alas.

Make sure you have the latest sound card drivers. And play with the prebuffer value a bit.
You can also try switching between irq at 7 and 5 (although that's almost a wild guess on my part)...
Posted July 15, 2011
Editing the configuration file solved the soundtrack popping, BUT, I'm still struggling with small "scratches" each time I change hero, go to a town, pick up an item etc. Basically, whenever HOMM has to change a soundtrack it lags/scratches a very tiny bit, but this very tiny bit is very annoying.

Would appreciate if anyone could help me with this problem because I'm rather annoyed that I just bought this game to find a problem, fixing it and finding another one.

I used to play this game on my old XP pc without problems (using a disc).

AskerB
Posted January 01, 2014
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waagbo: For me (running a Q6600 CPU on Windows 7), I got rid of stuttering CD Audio playback by changing rendering method to Direct3D using the Graphic mode setup tool.
I know this post is over four years old, but I just bought HOMM 2 in the 2014 New Year's sale and was having the popping/dropping sound issue as well in both the DOS and Windows versions. Tried about everything, but this was the only tip that fixed it for me on a Win 7 64 bit machine. Note that this tip is only applicable to the DOS version of the game. Thanks, waagbo.
Posted July 26, 2014
I've downloaded Heroes 2 and the entire game works fine, except NO sound whatsoever seems to happen when I open or play the game.
I have no interest in playing something in silence, someone please help me if there is something I can do to get the sound working.
When I'm in game the options show that sound is turned on and my computers sound is also on so I'm not sure where to go from there lol.
Posted March 27, 2015
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waagbo: For me (running a Q6600 CPU on Windows 7), I got rid of stuttering CD Audio playback by changing rendering method to Direct3D using the Graphic mode setup tool.
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Draggon: I know this post is over four years old, but I just bought HOMM 2 in the 2014 New Year's sale and was having the popping/dropping sound issue as well in both the DOS and Windows versions. Tried about everything, but this was the only tip that fixed it for me on a Win 7 64 bit machine. Note that this tip is only applicable to the DOS version of the game. Thanks, waagbo.
I have the same issue on the Windows version and no one can answer on this issue.
Posted November 29, 2018
I am sorry to dig this out, but I can't believe all the solutions in the various sound issue threads are working. I've played through Heroes 1 without issues and wanted to start Heroes 2 now but the scratching/popping is ridiculously annoying in this game.

I tried all the set prebuffer = 100, block size 4096, graphics = direct3d and so on .... solutions but none of those changed anything at all. Even worse: I got so frustrated I installed Homm2 on another Laptop and an old Windows XP machine and both, just like my PC, have the same annoying sound scratching - regardless of dosbox config settings. I tried and tested so much stuff I am close to believing the gog release is borked or at least the way the game handles the .ogg files.

Is maybe anybody out there who can at least confirm that he experiences the same scratching I do? Or is there someone with another solution aside from the obvious stated in the various threads on the forums?

Thanks
Posted December 16, 2018
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EvilDobermann: I am sorry to dig this out, but I can't believe all the solutions in the various sound issue threads are working. I've played through Heroes 1 without issues and wanted to start Heroes 2 now but the scratching/popping is ridiculously annoying in this game.

I tried all the set prebuffer = 100, block size 4096, graphics = direct3d and so on .... solutions but none of those changed anything at all. Even worse: I got so frustrated I installed Homm2 on another Laptop and an old Windows XP machine and both, just like my PC, have the same annoying sound scratching - regardless of dosbox config settings. I tried and tested so much stuff I am close to believing the gog release is borked or at least the way the game handles the .ogg files.

Is maybe anybody out there who can at least confirm that he experiences the same scratching I do? Or is there someone with another solution aside from the obvious stated in the various threads on the forums?

Thanks
Problem can be with [CPU] settings. Gog always use "cycles=max" and it always was bad choice for my games. Low value - game will run slow, high - it will stutter. So you need to find some average value. Maybe some internet site exist with optimal values for different games.

ED: there is Windows version in "Backup and goodies"
Post edited December 16, 2018 by AndreyB
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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHoMM2: Popping sound problem(31 posts)solved(31 posts)solved
(31 posts)solved