The crackling or static sound bug.

When you play OFP, do you hear an extremely annoying crackling or static-like sound? So do many players. Some folks get it in other games, too. Is it an OFP bug? A Creative Labs Sound Blaster glitch? A DirectX sound API snaffu? It's been talked about quite a lot on the OFP forums.

In the summer of 2002, one major motherboard manufacturer, Abit, admitted that this error is occurring on its motherboards that use the Via chipset (wouldn't you know it!). So far, Abit's recommended solutions include altering BIOS settings as well as installing 3rd party corrective patches. I can't keep up with such details. So please check with your motherboard's manufacturer or scan the WEB for discussion on how to modify your VIA chipset based system to resolve this problem.

What if you don't have a PC with a VIA chipset based motherboard? Can anything else be done? So far, the only suggestions that seem to work are:

• Disable your sound card's hardware acceleration and EAX support. Read your sound card's documentation for instruction how to go about doing this.
• Check for a newer version of your sound card's drivers.
• Try ALT+TAB'ing out of and back into OFP.
• Consider replacing your sound card with one from another (reliable) manufacturer.

There's a sound card and speakers tweak guide at 3D Spotlight that contains up-to-date information that may help you with any sound problems you're having with OFP or with other games.

Updated February 17, 2003:

VIA chipset owners who have through all of the above and still have sound problems with their Soundblaster cards, might want to look into the PCI latency patch for VIA chipsets (scroll down the page there just a little to get to it).

There's also a similar page about resolving sound problems on Via chipset based computers here.

ADDED February 4, 2003:

OFP player Macka has found the following solution, which has helped many, but not all, resolve their Sound Blaster crackling noise problems: