[Scott Miller]

About a year or so ago I installed the Myst 10th anniversary collection on my system (AMD 3200+ Athlon cpu, NVidia GeForce FX 5700 LE graphics card, and Creative Audigy 2Z sound card running Windows XP Home Editiion). The installation went smoothly and all three games ran perfectly.

A week ago I installed new hard drives and switched to Windows XP Pro. When I installed the Myst 10th Anniversary collection on the new hard drives and ran the games I ran into problems with Myst Masterpiece Edition and Riven (no problems with Exile). When I launched Myst Masterpiece Edition the intro ran perfectly but when I got to the game proper all I got was the hand shaped cursor, sound, and the border (when I pushed the cursor to the top of the screen).

When I tested Riven, the graphics ran fine but I get a constant click-click, click-click, click-click....static type noise throughout the introduction. When I get to the start of the game and begin moving around I get a similar clicking or popping static like sound for the first 2 or 3 view changes then it stops. The noise resumes when I move to a new position but goes away again after changing view directions several times. When I return to a previous location the noise does NOT return again (at least, so far as I can tell), provided I don't stray too far from a given location.

My initial thought was that the problems with both Myst Masterpiece and Riven was caused by the switch from Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro since I thought I had made no other changes to my system (other than the change in hard drives). However, several posts here and elsewhere pointed to QuickTime as being a possible cause. I removed the QuickTime 7.5 version I had installed on the new boot drive and replaced it with the 6.3 version that came with the Myst DVD collection. This fixed the problem with Myst Masterpiece Edition but not the Riven problem! I'm still getting the clicking, popping static noise. Uninstalling and reinstalling Riven after the change in QuickTime versions had no effect.

As an experiment I installed a copy of the old Win 95 version of Riven I still had and discovered it ran with no such sound problems! While I could just go with this I'd really rather replay the DVD version since it avoids constantly having to stop play to switch disks and the distracting humming of the CDROM drive spinning as it reads each disk.

I'm at a loss on what is causing the sound problem with the DVD version of Riven this time around since I'm using the exact same graphics/sound card combination I used the first time I installed and played the game. It seems unlikely that updating the graphics card or sound card drivers would correct the problem. I greatly dislike changing drives unless absolutely necessary as this can cause more problems than it solves! In any case, I'd greatly appreciate hearing from anyone, particularly those who have encountered this problem and I might be able to resolve it!

[JoSmiley]

You don't need to uninstall the newer quicktime version - I have several quicktime versions running on my machine for different games/applications. When I look at my original Riven game specs, it says Quicktime 2.5
So try installing an older version from your disk in addition to the other version you have and see what that does.

[Scott Miller]

You don't need to uninstall the newer quicktime version - I have several quicktime versions running on my machine for different games/applications. When I look at my original Riven game specs, it says Quicktime 2.5
So try installing an older version from your disk in addition to the other version you have and see what that does.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you!

It turns out that the problem was caused by the 1024 x 768 screen resolution setting I use on my 17" flat screen monitor. I discovered (just tonight in fact) that dropping the resolution down to 800 x 640 before running Riven eliminates the problem (The first time I played Riven it was on it was also on a 17" CRT monitor set to a 800 x 640 screen resolution)!

This begs the question of why the Windows 95 CDROM version of Riven runs just fine without having to change the screen resolution before starting the game!

Anyway, Thanks for the help!

[JoSmiley]

Glad it works for you! ...but that is a curiosity now that you mention it. I bet Jadesl would know the answer....HEY JADE! Where are you? *looks around for her favorite tech guy*

[jadesl]

Hi! In fact i have been so busy at work,that my visits here has become too rare,,"sigh" and i dont know straight answer to your question.

[JoSmiley]

You're working too much! I miss you!