Strange high-pitched sound in DW

[AirHippo]

Hi all, quick question: I went back to DW recently, only to find myself contending with a very weird sound emerging from my loudspeakers. Thinking it might be LWAMI 3.08, I disabled the mod; nope, still there, so it's definitely something to do with the stock DW engine.

On every screen in the game, except the 3D view, I hear a constant, high-pitched, fairly quiet screeching noise. It sounds quite like that odd hissing noise one gets from duff capacitors. In the sound setup screen, I have an error message saying that the game failed to find 3D Hardware Sound, and could not create a 3D Hardware Sound buffer; could this be my problem? I have no idea what the heck else it could be. This sound makes DW all but unplayable, to be honest (it's supremely annoying), so any help would be appreciated.

[Red October1984]

Maybe a sonar ping?

EDIT: I don't know what the odd hissing noise sounds like. Can you post a sample of this sound or something?

[AirHippo]

Definitely not, although it sounds like it's not too far off the helo sonobuoy frequency. It happens everywhere, including in the main menu screen adn all submenu screens, and is continuous. It fluctuates whenever disc swapping occurs, but only goes away entirely in 3D view. :hmmm:

Edit: Will try to get a sample, may have to buy a M-M cable and hook it up to the Line In.

[AirHippo]

As an aide, it sounds very much like the sort of sound you might get from a loudspeaker turned up to full. A sort of static/white noise hiss.

[Red October1984]

I don't exactly know how to help you because I've never had that kind of problem.

You think it's a speaker issue or a game issue? I say reinstall DW and find out.

[AirHippo]

Oh, wow. The plot thickens. It's definitely not a speaker error; I heard the same sound from my headphones when I plugged them into the speaker socket. I also don't hear this sound on anything else.

However, it may not, in fact, be a game error either. See, I always play SC and DW with the headphones on, because the active sonar pings are immensely annoying to anyone else in the house (not to mention dogs). I thought this noise was coming from my speakers. It isn't. It's actually coming from inside the tower.

It's as if DW is somehow stressing part of my PC so much it's screaming! Very odd.

[Red October1984]

Oh, wow. The plot thickens. It's definitely not a speaker error; I heard the same sound from my headphones when I plugged them into the speaker socket. I also don't hear this sound on anything else.

However, it may not, in fact, be a game error either. See, I always play SC and DW with the headphones on, because the active sonar pings are immensely annoying to anyone else in the house (not to mention dogs). I thought this noise was coming from my speakers. It isn't. It's actually coming from inside the tower.

It's as if DW is somehow stressing part of my PC so much it's screaming! Very odd.

Wow. Does it only happen with DW? No other games cause this?

Post in the PC Forum in GT. They might be able to help you. This is a strange problem.

[drEaPer]

It is your GFX card.

Don't ask me why, but it got to do with capacitors as far as I know.

Only under certain strain (or lack of) it appears.

http://theovalich.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/nvidias-deadly-flaw-and-how-to-fix-it-no-more-gtx280-squealing/

http://www.overclock.net/t/476207/squealing-capacitors

[AirHippo]

It has to be under a lack of strain, I reckon; the card's an NVidia GeForce 7800GT. It can trundle along with 2007-vintage games (BioShock, HL2 and Episodes, Burnout: Paradise) with ease, so I find it hard to believe DW can possibly be over-stressing it. Maybe it's just being made to work at a very specific frequency while DW runs. I did knock a capacitor a bit when I was putting the card in... :oops:

ETA: Moreover, the only time it goes away entirely is in the 3D view - the place I'd expect the vid card to be under the greatest strain of all. Unless rendering the control panels is more demanding than I thought.