Video and audio troublesFollow

(edit) This is for Final Fantasy XI.

I've not been able to watch the intro video at above 256x256 background resolution. Even then, the sound lags behind the video. When it fails to play altogether, which it does 100% of the time, I get up to one second of audio accompanied by a black screen before it goes to the agreement acceptance dialog. Any ideas why that might be?

Also... I gather that there is chocobo music beyond the cheesy ten second techno deal when you rent one. Is this true? It would explain the lack of music in the first zone you start in with a chocobo.

I'm starting to believe the canned email Square sent me about the issue, where they told me my sound card was a horrible piece of crap and that I don't get any support. It's an onboard AC97, made by Soundmax, part of the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. My video is a 128MB 9600 Pro on full 8X AGP, if that changes anything - and I don't think it does, because I've never heard anyone else talk about this problem. I'm probably going to purchase a Creative Labs sound card but if it's not necessary, stop me.

(edit) I decided to post the full details here, waste of space though it may be. I am indeed purchasing a Creative card: Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. I use Windows XP Professional, have 1024 MB RAM, and a Pentium 4 3.0c GHz machine.

Edited, Tue Jul 13 11:09:19 2004 by djdanlib

Yea, go with a full soundcard, try not to use the one's onboard for games such as FFXI.

Also, make sure you disable the onboard sound in your BIOS after installing the card to prevent any audio mishaps.

Oddly enough, fully disabling the onboard sound via BIOS and/or Device Manager *still* did not allow me to watch the video.

AGP is set up correctly: 128MB aperture, and other settings are correct.

This is the only game or program I have ever had trouble with.

Got any more ideas? I have a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro on order, can't wait for it to get here... I want my chocobo music!