Scratching sound during movies?

Since moving from Windows XP, 32 bit to Windows 7, 64 bit a while ago I often hear a slight scratching sound when the Civ2 movies (intro as well as wonders) are played in the game. It's subtle enough not to spoil the movies, but not subtle enough to overhear it when not paying attention. It happens in all versions (2.42, MGE, ToT), but not when I play the video files outside the games. As Civ2 problems go, this is surely a minor one, but I'd appreciate any hints about where this problem might come from and (if possible) how to solve it.

(On a funnier note, when testing this in MGE (where shift-clicking on the wonder's civilopedia entry does not work) I used the cheat menu to add all techs, choose Adam Smith (the Handel piece seemed good for testing) and add 400 shields to the production box. When I opened the production menu with all the build options available for my size-1-city in 4000 BC, the domestic advisor recommended: "We should build an SDI defense, just in case.")

This is caused by how the driver, decode, hardware, and device visualization are handled. Essentially, its a limitation of your platform. Thinkpads (e.g., edge) with the Intel/HD dont have the issue, for example. There is slight possibility that driver (or codec) can change it, but usually you're stuck with a given hardware setup.

Thanks, starlifter. I had installed Soundblaster 16 drivers under Win 3.1 within DOSBox to get 2.42 to run, but the same sound issue appears in the other versions that I can run outside DOSBox. I don't know that much about driver changes and the issue is not big enough to risk messing things up by trial and error. Since I know that it can be the hardware setup, I'll live with it and keep my fingers crossed for the next machine a few years from now.

If you want to pursue it, check the specific hardware. Use a program like siw.exe, it will tell you the exact hardware and sub-builds of the drivers, and you might can google for them and see if others have encountered and solved these issues, likely for Indeo multimedia playback. You are looking for "older" or "classic" game sound issues, not necessarily Civ 2, since this is not actually a Civ 2 issue. It can as well be the southbridge driver, and chipset for the motherboard.

I have just encountered this scratching myself, using a Laptop I thought was free from this, with Windows 7 x64, all current updates applied.

When I installed the Win XP virtual machine (from MS), and used the exact same files, with the exact same background processes, there was no scratching at all. The issue must be in how the sound driver and the x64 HLT and/or protected mode is handled (sliced?).

Since I now have the same issue, and have applied my ideas (which are rather lengthy to go into) to the x64 issue with no luck, yet have no issues with x32 Virtual XP from MS, then all I can say is for x64 to play these videos even with the newest Indeo drivers, its better to play them in an x32 environment if running x64.

I have not tried using the Oracle "free" x32 virtual environment with XP32 install. If what I suspect is true regarding the CPU instruction set, then the Oracle x32 XP virtual PC will also play the videos just fine while scratchy in x64 on the same PC.

So, my own solution is just to run the MS Pro/Ult Win XP 32-bit "free" environment for any full and painless Civ II experience. This includes all the 32-bit apps, helper programs, and scenario stuff, which so far has run perfect in x32 virt PC.

I'm glad you got it to work perfectly!

I did not have the patience to check my specific hardware yet.

My current system is Windows 7 64bit Home Edition and I believe the XP Mode only works for the Professional version. I use DosBox/Windows 3.1 as "virtual" operating system for Civ 2.42. The scratching seems less pronounced in that environment than in MGE/ToT that I run directly under Windows 7 64bit (using the patch available in this forum).

Accidentally, I noticed a similar scratching while playing an mp3 file with a relatively low bit-rate (40 kbit/s) in the Windows Media Player, but the scratching went away when I disabled the SRS WOW effects. (No idea whether that offers a clue, but it can't hurt mentioning it.)

I've recently installed Civ2 on my W7 64bit laptop plus all the Indeo codecs etc and had exactly the same issue. I've also had the familiar annoying problem of overheating combined with the fan noise. Today I installed the CPU Throttle which cures the fan/overheating problem.

Preliminary tests suggest that fix also cures the problem with the movies - every movie I've tested via the cheat menu has played flawlessly when I use the CPU Throttle. I'll report back when I've done some more testing. Anyone else had a similar experience?

Edit I'm pleased to report that after many hours of playing Civ2 the CPU Throttle fix does indeed seem to fix the problem of the movies on my machine as well as the CPU fan issue. They all play smoothly without the annoying video/audio skipping/scratching problem. Perhaps there's a clue there as to the nature of the problem? Looks like brilliant news all round to me.