Buzzing Sound from Speakers

I have noticed that sometimes, when the game is loading a zone, such as when you go to the Hospital or exiting a mission, there is an annoying feedback buzzing sound emanating from my speakers. I can still hear game sounds and/or music playing, but it's all "buzzy" sounding. It usually persists until I enter a door mission. I have noticed this more while doing the story arcs in First Ward, but it has happened also in other zones.

Any clue how to solve this problem?

I've only heard buzzing due to my cell phone being to close.

GoNukemHigh, what are your system specs (e.g. CPU, video, soundcard, speaker system, etc.)

Do you hear this buzzing at any other time, e.g. in other games? Have you updated any drivers lately?

Sounds a bit like it could be mains hum - not sure why it would be more apparent during zoning though.

Check that your power leads are not routed alongside your speaker cables - or indeed any other cables carrying data (mouse, keyboard, network etc)

Your problem could be related to a PCI bus latency issue that has been known to cause problems on many systems. Basically, the PCI latency timer is a part of the PCI bus which controls how long PCI devices can hold onto the bus for data-transfer before giving up control to other devices. If set too high, it may lead to some devices that need frequent bus access running out of data. Creative Labs soundcards are notorious for being pretty demanding with their PCI bus transfers, and on some motherboards a high PCI latency timer value can cause the soundcard's buffers to run out, causing audio dropouts or distortion.

The default or maximum PCI Latency is usually set in the motherboard's system BIOS; check to see what the current value is (write it down if you have to), then try setting it to a lower value (32 or 64 are often recommended), reboot, and try again. Note that not all motherboard BIOSes will expose this setting and allow changes. If yours doesn't, you can also try PCI Latency Tool since you're running Windows XP. However you make the adjustment, be careful not to set it too low, as this may cause performance issues.

You could also try moving your sound card to a different PCI slot (swapping other cards around if needed), and make sure you have the latest drivers for everything (especially sound and video, but also your motherboard chipset).

If this doesn't help, you can try running DPC Latency Tool, which checks for related bus-latency issues. Run it first while the system is idle; the graph should be continuously in the lower "green" zone. Then keep it running while you launch City of Heroes and zone a few times, switching back to the tool and watching the graph as the zone loads. If the graph starts spiking up into the red area (especially when you experience the sound problem), you have a latency issue. Follow the advice on that page and [carefully!] disable devices one at a time in Device Manager, starting with things like your network card and sound card, and see what happens.

Hope all this helps you.
Target

I was in Atlas Park and zoned in from a DFB trial and was getting the buzzing sound again. On a whim, I opened up the Options menu and under the Audio Tab, I clicked off 3D sound and the buzzing sound immediately went away. I clicked 3D sound back on and the buzzing did not return. I'll see if this was just a fluke or if its a way to solve this situation.

If it continues and the switching off and on 3D sound doesn't fix it, I will look at the BIOs stuff you suggested Target One.

Thanks.