New Audigy driver from Creative for 2K/XP

[tiki4]

Hi there,

I post it in this forum as I think it fits best in the general section. Creative finally has released new drivers for the Audigy series. They can be found at asia.creative.com (http://asia.creative.com). The direct link to the download section is here (http://asia.creative.com/support/drivers/welcome.asp?region=1&OS=%23WinXP%23&prod=%23sb_audigy%23&Select=Get+Files&Submit=Get+Files&x=44&y=9) .

I didn't test them yet, but I know there are some people waiting on that forum for that driver release. So go, test for yourself.

Regards,

tiki4

[tiki4]

A word of advice maybe:

First uninstall your old drivers before you install the new one. Second, it seems that the applications aren't out yet. I don't know if you can use the ones from the SB Live! update from 17th of July. I tested yesterday and the Surround Mixer of my old installation CD seems not to work with the new driver. And I got a blue screen by installing over the old driver, that has gone away after next boot. However, I'm on the old driver now and I think I'll wait for the complete release of the new driver. This can only take a few more days, I hope.

Regards,

tiki4

[Razor04]

You are going to be waiting quite a while then. Creative said that they were only releasing the drivers and if you wanted the updated software you would need to purchase it through them. I believe it was quite reasonably priced just a little over shipping and handling...but don't quote me on that :) The other alternative it to look in the creative newsgroups and find the thread that describes how to turn the Compaq driver CD into a new CD with the newest drivers. Good luck!

[tiki4]

Guess, what drivers I've got installed.

It seems that the new driver is one build older then the one from Compaq (?). Anyway. Creative posted new drivers and apps for SBLive! and maybe (as the drivers should be the same) one can use the apps from the SBLiveDrvPack.zip. I'll have a look in this.

Regards,

tiki4

P.S.: The price for the Driver CD is 1.50 Euro but I don't own a credit card at the moment.

[Neo Neko]

I got the Compaq CD a while back for my home made sys. Works ok for me. But it can't fix the Creative Labs products from being POS. Last time I get a Creative product.:angry: Used to be everyone would swear by their SB. Not at their SB.

[Mrafrohead]

I'm right there with you Neo Neko...

Next sound card I get is a freakin Phillips or Turtle Beach...

Creative is damn near as bad as the worst of them...

Horrible support, far and few driver updates if there even are any...

And for those of us with a Live card, just removing all of the freakin software right off of their site and making you pay for it...

Not worth the money.

[tiki4]

O.K., O.K.,

I know there are quite a many issues with Creative soundcards. Nevertheless you should do the swearing somewhere in a Creative newsgroup. I got those damn thing and I won't bye a new one. There are rare driver updates and the politics with the apps is quite strange as they offer full download of all applications for Soundblaster Live! but not for the Audigy. On the other hand they send you a driver CD (nearly) for free if you take a look at the price above.

Apart from that, the new driver works like a charm for me. I didn't find any problems till now (apart from installation if you don't remove the old drivers first). Nevertheless I just started that thread to inform people as noone else did and I still think there are quite many people owning that soundcard.

Can anybody comment on the new driver and does anybody know how to make the apps of the SBLiveDriverPack.zip work with the Audigy (some of them do). Please post some comments here.

tiki4

[((( atom )))]

i don't know about the audigy, but for the sb live! there is a driver programmed by a group of people who were upset about not being able to use the full potential of teh emu 10k-chip, so they just wrote their own.

it is in a very far development state, wich means it is rocksolid and it has tons of features, the orignial driver is missing (turns it into a real 6-channel-card, gives great control over the dsp-effect banks, etc...).

very best of it all is, that it simply enables the 24/96-capabilities of the emu 10k, so for me there is no other driver around..

also i heard of many problems people might have with ac3 were simply solved with this driver.

just checked: audigy is supported.
you can find it under www.kxproject.com

have fun

/jc

[tiki4]

I knew about the kxproject. Unfortunately the latest driver didn't really work for me. Somehow I wasn't able to get more out of the card than 2 channel stereo. Maybe I'm too dumb to RTFM and use the bundled software in the right way. Also, this driver doesn't support DirectSound in 3D, just emulates that in 2D and also EAX isn't implemented yet. So, but that's the reason I've got an Audigy...

tiki4

[ookzDVD]

This latest driver works very well on my machine ;)
all AC3 playback are PERFECT! ;)

PS. This driver does not contain AudioHQ (EAX) and SurroundMixer,
you have to install from Compaq distribution.

[tiki4]

Hi ookzDVD,

I've been waiting for you in this thread :)

Did you download the latest Compaq drivers from August? I didn't try that applications yet but did you find s.th. like a 'recommended' way of installation? I installed the apps in German but when I install the driver it switches part of that stuff to English (well, I can live with that).

When it comes to AC3, well it really works perfect, at least in WinXP. I have some problems in Win2K SP3, DX 8.1b and WinDVD 4 with SP/DIF. I get very strange oscillating noise on the sound. But I had that before and usually it's just a little screwed up setup.

Regards,

tiki4

[ookzDVD]

Hi tiki4,

thank for waiting for me ;)

btw, I'm using win2k sp3,
ooops... I've never tried to use the SPDIF out with this latest
driver, but tonight I'll try to use it, even I prefer to use
the analog output since it will produce higher sound level.

I don't install the Compaq distribution audigy's driver, cause
it not detect any audigy's card on my machine :( _but_
it will extract the driver and _apps_ (AudioHQ, SurroundMixer, etc)
to your harddisk, I just install the apps manually from there and
it works ;) PS. I'm only install the AudioHQ for EAX and SurroundMixer
since they are the only app which I need ;)

Thank you.

[tiki4]

O.K.,

I'm also using W2K SP3 at the moment as I am waiting for SP1 for Windows XP, then I will give it a new try.

AudioHQ and SurroundMixer are also the only apps I need. I don't know which versions the ones from Compaq are, but I will have a look into it. For the moment I'm running the full install of the old Compaq drivers and apps from May or something like that. I just exchanged the driver. I think it is best to install the apps in English as well as long as the driver is available in English only. The thing with SPDIF isn't really needed by me, but it's a funny thing to use with WinDVD. I don't know if the problem is in Windows 2000 or in the new driver but I had it working with the older Compaq driver in Windows XP. It seems to me that those two OS's behave sometimes a little different although they originate from the same Windows NT core. I guess M$ did really some tweaking when releasing Windows XP...

Bye,

tiki4

PS: if you want to use the installer of the Compaq drivers just delete the CToem.cfg file you find in the \Audio\Setup subfolder.