julienrob2004 wrote:
One thing i will say
Having been to the Realtek site myself to update my codec when i clicked the link for the latest driver , it gives you a warning message that you should go through your motherboard manufacturers website to update to the motherboards specifications .
Then personally on the website for mine there were no downloads . This makes it worrying for many that if they install from the Realtek site that it may mess it up completely . As someone who is not a computer geek I could not say what would be best , update anyway or leave the driver as it is .
I definitely understand your concern, you raise a very good point. Unfortunately, as you have observed, most manufacturers websites have weak driver offerings that are severely outdated, leaving little choice in possible solutions to resolve the matter outside of an independent generic driver update. If something should go wrong, it is pretty easy to roll back to the previous driver through 'Device Manager' under the 'Sound, video and game controllers' category.
I personally did not experience the 'no sound bug', as I live for driver updates and already had the latest one from Realtek. But when I was reading the complaints in the forums, I instantly recognized the problem as an audio driver issue, and set out to recreate the situation. I took one of my computers, installed a stock audio driver (from 2009 I think), and was able to reproduce the no sound bug. I then went to the manufacturer website and downloaded the most "recent" (outdated) driver, but the sound bug remained. Finally, I re-installed the most current driver from December 2011 and all sound issues were resolved with flawless gameplay for the hours that I tested it. But in the interest of full disclosure, I build my own computers, so perhaps that is why they are a bit more predictable concerning independent driver updates.
You've definitely given me some food for thought though. I'm a huge techie and very computer-oriented, so I don't even bat an eye at such warnings, but I really should consider if advising people how to independently update their audio driver is the wisest move at the moment. As the Showtime EP has only been out for just over one day, I think that I will wait a week or two to see what possible solution/suggestion EA will come up with for those simmers who are affected by the 'no sound bug', and in the mean time stick to recommending system manufacturer audio driver updates only. Thank you for the fresh perspective. :)
