Heres a FIX thats Works... Looks like it will  be on there next Patch.... I looked around in this forum and Didnt see it posted yet..... all you do is...   Make a COPY of this File and RENAME it and Drop it Back in the System32 folder.... And Whalla...Quake4 works.....
 c:\windows\system32\OpenAL32.dll     rename to   OpenAL32.d_l


  ,ENJOY Everyone

Hello, i have a very similar problem, only i seem to be the only one with this (as i dont use openAL),   my q4/pc freezes as im loading maps, it took me about a week to realise it was my sound. so to play quake4 i have to disable hardware accel completly in audio devices ( i cant put it on basic, it still freezes ), ive tried about everythink i can think of.  mine isnt an openAL problem though, as i have onboard sound  (my brother also uses onboard sound and q4 runs sweet on his pc).

yes, i have all latest drivers, infact, ive tried about every solution ive seen on a thousand 'n one forums.

any other ideas please ? :/

Also...  Disable anything and EVERYTHING that might be running in the Background or down by the clock in XP....... Virus Scanner  must be off or disabled ..Firewalls off... popup stoppers and so on..... virtual drives....NO...i repeat NO icons by clock........... I finally got mine to work after i went in MSCONFIG and Disabled all..  and now runs fine....  

Hello...
  OpenAL32  is for Audio...its a audio driver .. try browsing your system32 folder to see if its there... also.. BTW What are your PC specs?

Yep its there, i'll try doing what you said about closing everythink by the clock - although i dont see how thats gunna' work when i know its a sound issue i have. (i will try that tonight anyway, not just yet, though, ive had just about enough pc-freezing for the moment, anymore and my neighbour might find a monitor in their garden ; )

my specs:

xp2100, gf4 ti 4600, 1gb ram.  - i know its cuttin it close to minimum, but my pc does run q4, and quite well on low gfx - like i said, q4 runs nice when i disable hardware accel in audio devices, its only when its on (basic or full)  that it freezes.

any help is apprieciated.

Neil.

As stated in the thread in which this information was gotten from, it doesn't matter if you have an OpenAL sound card, or even if you have OpenAL enabled. Q4 will check for it and crash if the file is the wrong one. Deleting (or moving if you want to be careful) it is the best way to try to fix it.

doesnt work for me

So you suggest i rename my OpenAL32.dll  to something else?  even if i use onboard sound, and dont have openAL enabled in q4?

Well... i did it,  and my q4/pc still crashed, when i rebooted, windows started checking my HDD, when i got back in windows, i started getting errors on other things, and for some reason, everythink is taking ages to load, i also had to sort my network out because it was saying i was offline, when i got the network working, i rebooted, and again, windows started checking my HDD, when i finally got back into windows, programs where taking ages to load again. i started mIRC, and clicked Internet Explorer so i could post this message,  it started saying it couldnt load because i was offline (yet mIRC connected and was working), after a few minutes the page loaded.

anyway, it seems q4 has been a complete waste of £30, and has caused me more problems than its worth, im gunna' have to format later and reinstall windows.  ( for the 3rd time this week )

fantastic.

Just make a duplicate copy of the file and Renaame the duplicate...leaving both Files.... When Renaming the FILE... make sure you are able to READ THE FILE EXTENSION... the object here is renaming the file extension...not just renaming file.... the extention is what we are fixin here.... if you dont have the extensions showing  and you rename it... its not gonna work... most people dont have extensions enabled to see them... So you must Go in ... MY COMPUTER / TOOLS / FOLDER OPTIONS / VEIW (tab) / uncheck the box .... HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES ...... and Save (apply).

Now make a duplicate of the file and rename it to this.....
OpenAL32.d_l

now you should have 2 files:
#1 OpenAL32.d_l
#2 OpenAL32.dll

And it should work...... if it doesnt... you did sumthing wrong.. try again.  

This is what you dont want to happen....
OpenAL32.d_l.dll