rec.autos.simulators

Mike

: That sounds like a setup problem between your computer and the sound
: board. Call the sound board manufacturer.

: Mike

No way. When you buy a piece of software it should work on your system
without having to change things, assuming they were set correctly to
begin with.  If the computer in question was doing fine with the sound,
before, but not with NASCAR it's Papyrus's problem to fix it. Either put
out a patch or give the guy his money back.  As more sound cards come out
it is Papyrus's job to test their software on the new devices and make an
if needed patch, or begin listing it as unuseable on the box.  Of course
there's no law for this , but there is the respectablity of the company
on the line.

: That sounds like a setup problem between your computer and the sound
: board. Call the sound board manufacturer.

I had the exact same problem, it was on a P75 with some funky off-brand
sound board.  Setup's sound card autodetect function came up wrong.  Try
manually choosing boards until one works, start by choosing other boards
by the same manufacturer as the one Setup chose for you.  I can't
remember what I ended up choosing, it was on a friend's PC (I use an Amiga.)

Jeff

->
->: That sounds like a setup problem between your computer and the
sound
->: board. Call the sound board manufacturer.
->
->: Mike
->
->
->No way. When you buy a piece of software it should work on your
system
->without having to change things, assuming they were set correctly to

->begin with.  If the computer in question was doing fine with the
sound,
->before, but not with NASCAR it's Papyrus's problem to fix it. Either
put
->out a patch or give the guy his money back.  As more sound cards
come out
->it is Papyrus's job to test their software on the new devices and
make an
->if needed patch, or begin listing it as unuseable on the box.  Of
course
->there's no law for this , but there is the respectablity of the
company
->on the line.

That's a very valid point, but some of the problems I have run across
with hardware/software conflicts have been because of the ENTIRE
system, and not just one piece of hardware.  I believe it to be a
hardware problem, and don't expect the software vendors to bust their
butts trying to make patches to run on EVERY system with EVERY
hardware config..  If they were forced to list on the box EVERY system
that could cause problems with the game, it would be possibly a long
list, (kinda like this: If you have XX video with XX Bios version then
you will have to get the XX.XX patch to fix that).  If ALL hardware
vendors conformed to ONE standard then the problems would (almost) go
away.  Of course, we all know that in the PC industry, standards are
pretty much a joke!

My point being,
It's the hardware manufacturers fault (imo) when a new piece of
hardware (video, sound card, etc...) causes you to lose sound <or>
whatever happens after adding it.  The way it is now, certain video
boards just won't work with certain MB's & Bios chips, and like wise,
some "sound blaster" clones aren't very good clones after all, and we
shouldn't blame the software *** companies for the incompatibilty.

Dallas, Texas    Home of the Super Bowl XXX Champions

[my ranting deleted..]

: I'm afraid you're in dreamland. There is NO WAY any company can test
: every single combination of hardware software that is put on the market.
: Put yourself in that position. Why bother trying to produce the
: software? The best thing we can do as consumers is to purchase
: mainstream, proven hardware because the software companies are going to
: write to that spec. It is tough to track down those  sound issues but
: they are usually due to irq/dma conflicts with other devices. good luck.

: Jeff

I agree whole heartedly.  What I was refferring to was that the software
companies should come clean, and at least state up front which peripherals
it has tested with.  If the company wanted to put in a real effort, they
would make the program check the system before runnig and let you know if
there were any problems, rather than letting the user scratch his head and
wonder "is it the software or is it the hardware?"  saving him the time
and possibly the $$ from waiting on hold on the phone of the wrong place.
Buying only mainstream stuff will only continue the ability of the
software (and hardware) companies to pull off selling inept products that
cause problems like the initial poster of this thread had.  Just
about everything Microsoft has put out is a good example of what I'm,
errr, ranting once again about.  I better stop.

Matt

: That's a very valid point, but some of the problems I have run across
: with hardware/software conflicts have been because of the ENTIRE
: system, and not just one piece of hardware.  I believe it to be a
: hardware problem, and don't expect the software vendors to bust their
: butts trying to make patches to run on EVERY system with EVERY
: hardware config..  If they were forced to list on the box EVERY system
: that could cause problems with the game, it would be possibly a long
: list, (kinda like this: If you have XX video with XX Bios version then
: you will have to get the XX.XX patch to fix that).  If ALL hardware
: vendors conformed to ONE standard then the problems would (almost) go
: away.  Of course, we all know that in the PC industry, standards are
: pretty much a joke!

Ok, yep, totally agree.

: My point being,
: It's the hardware manufacturers fault (imo) when a new piece of
: hardware (video, sound card, etc...) causes you to lose sound <or>
: whatever happens after adding it.  The way it is now, certain video
: boards just won't work with certain MB's & Bios chips, and like wise,
: some "sound blaster" clones aren't very good clones after all, and we
: shouldn't blame the software *** companies for the incompatibilty.

Yep, if you buy a new refrigerator, take it home, plug it in, and it
doesn't work right off the bat, most companies will graciously
refund/replace it.  The computer industry somehow got around having to be
responsible for their products.

 But I was assuming the original poster had a working system to
begin with.  Maybe if the software guys would just list the (few?) cards
that they have beta'd with, or at least as I said somewhere else, have
the program do a pre-system check to locate possible conflicts that may
be inherrent only to that program.  That's a very plausable request for
some thing you pay for and shouldn't be too much to ask from a
degree'd programer.

Matt