Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

steviebuzz

macrumors member
May 22, 2010
46
1
Glasgow
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207410

Found this. Haven't tried anything yet. I'm not sure if its just referencing the update that came out a few months ago. The last suggestion is getting your MacBook serviced. I can't imagine it would come to that since it is such a common issue.

My MacBook Pro was delivered in December by which time the speaker issue was resolved. I updated Apple Software in Boot Camp anyway but no joy unfortunately. I think it's unlikely to be a speaker issue as other sounds come through just fine (as does music in other games). It has the scent of a driver issue.
 

AvengerNX08

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 21, 2015
98
18
Germany
It looks like booting the game from an external hdd does indeed work! Sound issues are gone now...but playing it on an external hdd is like 100x times slower than on that ssd :/

How come that a driver issue can cause something like this anyway?

Is there any way to emulate playing Skyrim off an hdd, while it is infact played from the ssd?
 

steviebuzz

macrumors member
May 22, 2010
46
1
Glasgow
I contacted Bethesda support directly about this issue and received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting Bethesda Support team. My name is Keith. It is a pleasure to chat with you today.

I'm sorry to say, we're unable to help with the game running on a Mac computer as Bootcamp emulates Windows, but still running on Mac hardware. You are still welcome to try and play the game, however, it will be up to the Bootcamp/Mac community for more help.

Let us know if you need more assistance, or if you need help with another issue!


I replied saying that the Mac isn't emulating Windows but is in fact running it natively but I don't hold out much hope for help there.

In terms of running the game on an external drive, I suppose a USB-C external SSD would work, but it's far from an ideal solution.
 

AvengerNX08

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 21, 2015
98
18
Germany
Bethesda will not be of much help here, I´m afraid :/
I wonder if an update to a newer build of Windows 10 might be able to solve the issue..

Running it off an external drive really is not a nice solution. It would make using the Nexus Mod Manager somewhat more difficult and Performance wouldnt be the same either. :(

Food for thought: What if the Skyrim installation was kept on the Macintosh Partition? Would that work? Obviously one would need software to read and write to it while using bootcamp.
 

Ohelm

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2017
3
0
same issue with Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Wildlands beta.
There is a Problem outside (crash back to desktop) and the allways working (!) solution is: Move the game to the main HDD!
But - sames as your skyrim problem: It is alwas on C: of my 2016 MBP 15 Touchbar.
I will try to move it to an external volume.
 

Ohelm

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2017
3
0
I put the game on an external USB stick (!) and now it dosnt crash any more.

The issure, that many games dont like the bootcamp c: only appears on the new MacBook pro 2016 Touchbar. And ist appears with games from Steam (Skyrim), ubisoft (Ghost Recon Wildlands) and so on.

So the issue is located in some bootcame-specific-configurations or -Drivers specific on the MacBook Pro Touchbar 2016.

By the way: The game runs from the USBstick - but awfull.
 

AvengerNX08

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 21, 2015
98
18
Germany
I put the game on an external USB stick (!) and now it dosnt crash any more.

The issure, that many games dont like the bootcamp c: only appears on the new MacBook pro 2016 Touchbar. And ist appears with games from Steam (Skyrim), ubisoft (Ghost Recon Wildlands) and so on.

So the issue is located in some bootcame-specific-configurations or -Drivers specific on the MacBook Pro Touchbar 2016.

By the way: The game runs from the USBstick - but awfull.

Tried to put it on C:\ - no luck :( I will try to put it on the mac partition with Paragon, lets see how that works out..
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
Tried to put it on C:\ - no luck :( I will try to put it on the mac partition with Paragon, lets see how that works out..

Just to chime in that I also have this issue, or at least a very similar one:

- No music in game (menu music works absolutely fine)
- Intermittent weapon sounds (sheathing, impacts) which happen rarely (every 4-5 strikes/equips)
- No footsteps or player sounds. Like the weapons sometimes I will get a sound if I jump, but it's rare.

This occurs for me in both Skyrim and Skyrim SE. Oddly it wasn't an issue on my old iMac 2011. The game is installed to C:\Program Files (x86), which appears to be the Steam default, and I only have one drive for windows, which is a 1TB partition of the main drive. So far I've tried:

- Running the exe in various comparability modes
- Re-installing DX runtimes from the local folder in Skyrim
- Manually extracting sounds from Sounds.bsa
- Using audio replacement mods
- Editing the .ini file to move Sounds.bsa to the second archive line/argument (nb this disabled sounds altogether!)

I've not updated any drivers so my graphics and sound card are whatever the default ones that came with boot camp (the sound card driver is the one that includes the blown speaker fix).

Notably, when I ran the audio replacement mod I had the same issues for the weapons (it's the weapons where I've been testing things mostly): sound would only occur every 4-5 strikes, and when it did occur the mod audio file was used.

I personally don't think it's a driver issue (all other sounds work fine) as I just can't see how. My bet would be some kind of incompatibility with the game engine and this hardware combination. Interestingly, it seems other people have had this issue on regular windows computers when running their Skyrim game from an external drive.

I've briefly tried fallout 4 and that didn't seem to have the same problem. However, that's since been returned as I wasn't happy with the performance so I can't do any further testing. I do have Fallout 3 and NV so I may try those. I'd also be curious to see if Oblivion suffers the same issue.

Hopefully there is a fix from Bethesda soon :-( - or if anyone is able to diagnose!
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0

KadenCalderwood

macrumors newbie
Dec 7, 2016
3
0
I don't have a USB C to HDMI dongle, but someone should try to hook their MBP to a tv and see if that will work. It uses a different driver, so if it I a driver issue, it should work with the TV. This will at least pinpoint the problem and then we can bug apple to update their bootcamp drivers for us
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
I don't have a USB C to HDMI dongle, but someone should try to hook their MBP to a tv and see if that will work. It uses a different driver, so if it I a driver issue, it should work with the TV. This will at least pinpoint the problem and then we can bug apple to update their bootcamp drivers for us

I don't know if this tests your theory but I encounter the same issue with both the internal speakers and wireless BlueTooth headphones.
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
Another update: Fallout New Vegas is absolutely fine. Obviously, it's a different game but it still uses an earlier iteration of the game engine (if I'm not mistaken).
 

AvengerNX08

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 21, 2015
98
18
Germany
It has got to be something that is very specific to Skyrim´s iteration of the engine, as Fallout 4 is fine too. Has anyone managed to try it out on another partition of the main SSD?

Quite unlikely to see fixes by either Apple nor Bethesda for just a handful games...
 

steviebuzz

macrumors member
May 22, 2010
46
1
Glasgow
I've been trying out Oblivion again, and although I haven't played it for a huge amount of time, there has been no in-game music there either and some of the sound effects are patchy.
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
Ah that's a shame about Oblivion; was going to try it myself once it went back on sale.

In other news I tried an 'alternative' exe for SkyrimSE, to replace the one installed by Steam, but the same issues occur (I suppose I was being overly optimistic!).
[doublepost=1488529111][/doublepost]
It has got to be something that is very specific to Skyrim´s iteration of the engine, as Fallout 4 is fine too. Has anyone managed to try it out on another partition of the main SSD?

Quite unlikely to see fixes by either Apple nor Bethesda for just a handful games...

I'm going to try the Steam Mover tool, hopefully this weekend, (I've not used it before, but have seen references to it). I will see what I can do there.
 

AvengerNX08

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 21, 2015
98
18
Germany
I really want to try to put it on another parition, but somehow installing HFS+ doesnt make the Mac partition visible...

Well, probably wouldnt work, as I just made a partition in Windows 10 - same sound issues...
 
Last edited:

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
As expected the Steam Mover tool didn't help. However, I did not move the game to an external HDD, instead I just moved it to the top level of C:\. Still no sounds :(
 

tanka909

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2017
2
0
Are there any news on this? It seems as if weeks go by without any solutions whatsoever.. -.-

I did a couple of things that seemed to at least fix the weapon sheathing/swinging/impact sounds, though have not tested on shouts yet.

- Install Steam directly to C: (root directory). That didn't seem to help.
- Changed permissions for ../Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim. Right click and select Properties>Security>Full Control (check) (Ok; Ok)
- Erased Skyrim - Sounds.bsa (in Data folder) and used Steam to verify game integrity.
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
I did a couple of things that seemed to at least fix the weapon sheathing/swinging/impact sounds, though have not tested on shouts yet.

- Install Steam directly to C: (root directory). That didn't seem to help.
- Changed permissions for ../Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim. Right click and select Properties>Security>Full Control (check) (Ok; Ok)
- Erased Skyrim - Sounds.bsa (in Data folder) and used Steam to verify game integrity.

That sounds promising. Do you have one of the Touchbar MacBook Pros?
823 x 200
 

gollwyn

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2017
6
0
That sounds promising. Do you have one of the Touchbar MacBook Pros?
823 x 200
I just tried the above - to include a full re-install after deleting the sound folder, unfortunately that did not resolve it for me on my Macbook pro 15" with touchbar.
 

keff

macrumors newbie
Dec 31, 2016
12
0
I just tried the above - to include a full re-install after deleting the sound folder, unfortunately that did not resolve it for me on my Macbook pro 15" with touchbar.

Ah, that's unfortunate. Presumably you changed the security settings for the folder as well?

EDIT: I've previously tried the method of deleting Sounds.bsa and redownloading it as part of the cache-verification process, but that alone did not work. The element to test (for me) is seeing if the security settings of the folder make any difference.
 

gollwyn

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2017
6
0
Yes, I set everything in steamapps to full control for all applications and users. (The 'nuke it from orbit' approach). - btw this may be more than the permissions model or drivers; steam installers and many game apps built with multiple executables really don't seem to like windows 10 - I had a very similar problem with Fantasy Grounds from steam and ended up having to move it into the documents folder - it wasn't just permission - there's some kind of ownership (?) of the location at play that meant the documents folder was even better than root c: - but I'm not sure how to move all of skyrim into the documents folder (or if that is even possible).
 

tanka909

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2017
2
0
Yes, I set everything in steamapps to full control for all applications and users. (The 'nuke it from orbit' approach). - btw this may be more than the permissions model or drivers; steam installers and many game apps built with multiple executables really don't seem to like windows 10 - I had a very similar problem with Fantasy Grounds from steam and ended up having to move it into the documents folder - it wasn't just permission - there's some kind of ownership (?) of the location at play that meant the documents folder was even better than root c: - but I'm not sure how to move all of skyrim into the documents folder (or if that is even possible).

You could try steam mover, and then redirect steam (not sure about the results, haven't tried that). I don't know if the problem is the skyrim location, or the location of steam, or both.

So, also on a MBP 2016 15" w/ Touchbar:

After fiddling with this some more, here's what I get: in a vanilla install, most of my sounds work, except for weapons sheathing and PC noises (weirdly enough magic sounds work fine, no clue about thums). I can actually hear occasional sheathing/PC sounds, but they seem to be coming in with a massive lag, and/or only at certain camera angles. So I wonder if it's actually several different problems, with both permissions and driver. Has anyone tested the game with a different sound driver (say, a bluetooth headset?)
For what it's worth, using a modded version of the game that replaces all vanilla sounds with a mod doesn't solve the problem.
 

gollwyn

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2017
6
0
I installed "Become a Bard" mod and none of the songs from that play either, though the animations play and the results of playing in taverns happens as though you played - so it is something about accessing sound files - even completely new ones in a mod. What a weird issue...
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.