Solution to "Failed to Initialise Audio System" Error

[Darkstar]

I encountered this error today while firing up Medieval 2: Total War again for the first time in ages. After much googling, I found many others with the problem, but every thread ended with just "I fixed it, thanks" and no actual documented solution.

I'm running whatever RealTek onboard audio came with my Asus ROG mobo, and Medieval 2 doesn't like it for whatever reason. It comes up with an error saying that it failed to initialise the audio system, then launches in windowed mode, and then tells me twice that there was a fatal error when I exit the game.

I then discovered that I was unable to start Rome Total War as well, also due to an audio issue. However, I fixed that one by uninstalling the Shark007 codecs I had installed and then reinstalling RTW from Steam. Medieval 2 wasn't fixed by a reinstall though.

So here's how I fixed it: I copied the "Miles" folder from the RTW folder to the M2TW folder, and boom, the sound worked.

If you also have this problem, but don't have RTW, then I put the Miles folder in my dropbox so you can just grab it from there: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76356832/miles.zip

Happy gaming!

[Gigantus]

Nice solution - this google term\phrase throws up responses that all indicate that only a re-installation works:
"Failed to Initialise Audio System" site:twcenter.net

Looking at both games (and both solutions) I would suggest that intially you had a faulty installation as the Miles folders of both games contain the same files with RTW having one additional file (mssdx7.m3d).

[Darkstar]

I reinstalled both and that only fixed RTW, which is why I kept digging.

When I did a binary comparison of the contents of the miles folder, there was that one extra file in RTW, but some of the other files were different as well.

I'm just happy that I got it to work :)

[Gigantus]

It certainly opens avenues of approach, thanks for the effort.

[RobinFobioRommel]

can you post the file again? my total war game also threw me an error of "Fail to initialize 3D audio!"
Thank you so much!

[Darkstar]

Looks like Dropbox decided to cancel the public link after some time. Here's a new link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/57h5y1lrvzipxtc/miles.zip?dl=0

[CarboGLJr]

Thanks for this, worked like a charm! Dropbox link still works.

[Darkstar]

Yeah I refreshed it and made new topics in this forum and the one for Rome TW because they also broke Rome and Alexander, which wasn't the case before, and these files will fix all 3 games.

[Gigantus]

Thanks for the effort, I copied the info into TWC (RTW and M2TW forum), credit was extended:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?791938
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?791937

[holypooty]

I just attempted to do this and copied and extracted your files into my game, it still gives me the same error. Does anyone have any additional suggestions?

[haking bitch]

♥♥♥♥ it don`t work wtf

[RandomAttack]

This fix didn't work for me either. I was reinstalling after getting a new computer after 7 (!!) years. What worked for me was to install the Steam edition (by entering my old CD code) -- on this version my sound worked. Copied my mod files/folders over and everything now works! Whew!