Why does DW make my video card squeal?

[XanderF]

As above - when playing DW, my video card emits this rather annoying high-pitched squeal. This happens in both fullscreen and windowed mode....but ONLY when there is no 3d window on the display. Going to the 'Options' screen is the most obvious way of seeing this. On the '3d' tab, when the preview window is up...no squeal. Switch to another tab, squealing. Back to the 3d tab...no squeal.

Something about how DW is doing the 2d interface display is NOT agreeing with my system. Strangely, I have no problem with 'pure' 2d games, such as the "Icewind Dale" titles. And using DXDIAG, both my DirectDraw and Direct3d tests complete with no errors or unusual sounds coming from anywhere.

I've tried playing with all the video card settings I can think of - alternate DVI modes, FSAA or Aniso on or off, desktop at 16bit/32bit, various mipmap and v-sync settings, etc - nothing having any effect at all.

Which is odd, as I have a BUNCH of games on this system, and have been using it to play quite an assortment of titles with no problems at all (and I'm not just a 'mainstream gamer' - I'm talking "Indigo Prophecy", "Falcon 4.0 AF", "The Longest Journey", "Silent Hunter III", "Morrowind", "Icewind Dale", "Pacific Fighters", "Tribes 2", etc).

It's DW, and DW *only* that appears to cause this issue. And the sound is definitely coming from the video card itself - even turning off my speakers and monitor, it's still clear as a bell.

System as follows:

• AMD Athlon64 '3200+' (Winchester)
• - ATI Radeon X800XT 256mb VIVO PCI-E video card
  - ATI Radeon X800XL 256mb PCI-E video card
• - Dell 2005fpw 20.1" LCD (DVI, VGA)
  - NuTech L921G 19" LCD (DVI, VGA)
• 2gb OCZ PC3200 DDR
• Jetway A210GDMS-Pro motherboard (ATI XPress200/Uli M1573 chipset)
• Enermax Noisetaker 420w PSU
• Catalyst 5.13 video card and chipset drivers
• Windows XP Home SP2

ANYWAY, interesting addenda:

- FYI: Noticed this first on the retail 1.02 DW. Installed the 1.03 Beta patch, and that made no difference. Just eliminating it as a possibility.

- Recalled the similarity between DW and SC's engines. Hmm. So, I installed "Sub Command" and patched up to 1.08e. And THAT is working fine.

SO...how about THAT? Something in the 2d engine (not the 3d engine, that's fine - just 2d) that changed between "Sub Command" and "Dangerous Waters" is what is causing this.

Addenda #2 (new system! new OS install!!):

• AMD Athlon64 X2 '4200+' (dual-core Manchester)
• ASUS 'Silent'-brand ATI Radeon X1600XT 256mb VIVO PCI-E video card
• Sony SDM-HS75P 17" LCD (DVI)
• 1gb PQI Turbo PC4000 DDR
• Shuttle ST20G5 chasis+mobo (ATI XPress200/Uli M1573 chipset)
• Catalyst 6.4 video card and chipset drivers
• Windows XP Home SP2

Yes, it squeals.

Interestingly - I got the squeal to go away on all the tested cards. If I *force* 4xFSAA and 4xAniso, it stops. Of course, that's not a valid solution, as FSAA is quite 'broke' in this title - periscope view goes all funky, flashing colors on the map displays, etc.

Further, the integrated graphics on my current system (the ST20G5) - using the onboard Radeon Xpress200 - has no squeal at all regardless of settings! And let's not suggest it's a fan on the video card - the Asus 'Silent' X1600XT has no fan on it, it's a passive 'heatpipe' card.

And, of course, on any of the cards, Sub Command (so very similar 'behind the scenes' to DW) is just fine - no squeal, any settings.