Joystick & Sound problems aaarrgh!!!

[beegrod]

Ok if someone can solve this I will be eternally grateful. I have an AMD Athlon 1GHz pro, 256Mb RAM, Voodoo 5, Soundblaster PCI512 and Windows ME. During European Air War(yes I know it's old)my joystick refuses to play ball. It will fire guns and nothing else. Yet when checked in the Control Panel it works fine. I have a game port on my Mboard and on my soundcard. It worked the first time I played but not after re-boots. Anyone know why?

Also during EAW and CIV III my sound 'flutters','echoes' or 'repeats' if you know what I mean making the gaming experience not enjoyable. It does this with most sound effects and music. Again anyone know why? Please please help me......

[Jenni]

Hi beegrod, welcome to PCMech!

Check and see what IRQ your soundcard is using. Soundblaster cards should be on IRQ 5 for the best results. You may have to assign the IRQ through your BIOS, Windows might not let you reassign it.

[beegrod]

Thanks Jenni, i'll give that a try. Got any ideas about my joystick problem? Do you think my motherboard gameport is interfering with my soundcard gameport?

[Werewolfdaddy]

From what I understand, if you have a game port on your soundcard and motherboard, you will need to disable the gameport on your motherboard. As far as the sound problems, try updating drivers or turning down accelloration, if switching irq's didn't help.

[beegrod]

Thanks werewolf. Will this problem be eliminated if I use a USB joystick or should I disable it anyway?

[Jenni]

You would eliminate the joystick problem with a USB joystick. I think with the game ports, you can have one or the other, but not both. I'm not sure about that though.

I have run into problems with MS Sidewinder joysticks being too "sophisticated" for certain gameports, mainly old ISA sound cards, or old onboard sound. The joystick puts out more data than the port can handle. I don't think that is what your problem is though.

[beegrod]

Jenni thanks, I seem to have fixed my joystick problem and think I may have narrowed down my soundcard problem. It is setup on IRQ 5. However I have noticed that the sound also echoes when I play music CD on my PC. This would suggets a CD prob don't you think?

[Jenni]

Hmmm, next time you play an audio CD, plug in a pair of headphones and see if it still echoes. If it does, then it is a CD problem. If it doesn't, then it is still a soundcard problem.