Author Topic: Audigy drivers and WinXP insanity (Read 685 times)

Octavius · « **on:** November 07, 2004, 09:03:01 PM »

MSI K8T Neo FSI2R
Athlon 64 3000+
9600xt
1.0g ddr400
and my Audigy Gamer (model SB0090)
running WinXP Home.

Is there a manual way of installing Creative's drivers? The silly driver files available at Creative's website are the following:

[list=1]AUD_EAX4DRV_031031.exe

AUD_WEBUP_PCWDRV_1-84-40.exe [/list][/color]
... and they do not detect any sound card. Gives me this message every time: [list=1] "Setup could not detect any Sound Blaster Audigy on your system.
Please ensure that your Sound Blaster hardware is properly
installed before running this Setup program.

Setup will now exit." [/list]
I have searched for hours last night and today and found another person with an identical system having the same problem here.

I first tried installing them outright after downloading. Then I tried using the original CD for installation. I switched PCI slots several times... one slot ended up in a black screen and no boot. Then today I formated a clean, identical HD, fresh install of WinXP, and I'm back at the start. No dice. HELP!

How did I get myself in this situation in the first place? Honestly, it's been so long since I installed Audigy drivers, I really don't know how I got them on in the first place. They worked before, I'm sure of it, just not with this MSI board. It's a shame to see good cards go to **** because of crappy driver installations.

I did, however, find a different, independent drivers for Audigy/SB Live! cards called kX Project here. They are designed primarily for musicians, and work beautifully on my machine (mp3s, etc). I would love to stick with these as they have a richer sound than the previous drivers, but they have strange effects in games. For example, AH's doppler effect is reversed. External sounds approaching have an extended wavelength and sounds moving away have higher pitched, shorter wavelengths. Internal gun sounds also vary with speed - high speed = higher frequency.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 07, 2004, 09:14:14 PM »

Does your MOBO have an onboard sound card, and did you disable it if it does? Even if you have no drivers installed for it, some MOBOs require you use a jumper to disable the onboard sound before you can get another one to work. Others only use the BIOS, some do both. Worth checking, if you havent done it already.

Octavius · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2004, 09:48:26 PM »

Ah, yes, good old AC97 integrated. I disabled it in the BIOS. Forgot to mention it.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:09:22 AM »

Errr......... found a couple of BBS posts on the net a little earlier while I was at work. Claims the board is incompatible with the Audigy. There are no links to official sources to back that up, and it looks like both of them had boards with either a bad BIOS or some other problem right out of the box. So they could just be either more symptoms of a pre-fried board or unsatisfied customers ranting. But both mentioned the Audigy particularly and used the words "complete incompatibility". I can only find one now, I'll see if I can dig the history out of my computer at work tomorrow and get you the other link. Here's the one I could find when I got home..............

http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&file=index&rop=showcontent&id=75

2nd post from the bottom. Like I said, he gives nothing to back up his claim, but .............. Anyway, I didnt find anything to help you. If other people are having problems with this board, maybe you should have it tested? Esp. since you said one slot caused a boot failure, you could have a damaged MOBO. If you have a bad BIOS or physical damage, or something else wrong with it, dont keep it too long. You usually have 30 days or less to return one.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:40:43 AM »

Yss, many AMD (VIA) based motherboards will simply not work with the Audigy cards. It is a compatibility issue with the PCI bus.

Not really Creative's fault, but most like to blame them for it.

JB73 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2004, 10:11:22 AM »

hmm i have MSI board, via chipset, SB live, but not audigy, the older one....

i had problems in the past, and what i did IIRC was froma fresh install of XP nt let it load anything auto like the video card so on...

then load the MB drivers NOT allowing the AC97 sound card to install.

reboot, then install the SB.

IIRC there was a problem if i upgraded directX before installing the sound card too....

try that, install while still using VGA drivers so on, and NO windows updates.

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:46:50 PM »

You have the latest BIOS cOct?

I have a MSI KT4AV-L, without the right BIOS my Radeon 9800Pro could only run at 4x AGP. 8x caused graphic anomalies, new BIOS fixed it.

BTW- on that board I have a SB Audigy LS that works fine.
-SW

Octavius · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:28:15 PM »

JB: Yeah, thats what I did. AC97 was disabled in the BIOS settings from the get go. And I believe I tried the Creative drivers right away, before installing DX9 and other drivers.

SW: Yep. BIOS was up to date as far as I could tell. MSI has a nice autoupdate utility that keeps all the mobo drivers/BIOS easily updatable.

_____

Skuzzy: damn.

Question: Windows actually sees a card there, but defines it as 'Multimedia Audio Controller'. Sound is coming from the card... headphones/mic plugged into the card, which is in a PCI slot, which means that the motherboard detects *something* .... I mean, it works, to a certain extent, but I just can't install the correct drivers simply because the VIA chipset doesn't feel like it?

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:31:59 PM »

I had that happen with my SB Live!, well it detected the multimedia audio controller and trying to install the drivers gave me the same error you got "could not find card".

I ended up buying a SB Audigy because I could not do anything to get it working.
-SW

Octavius · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:40:12 PM »

It did install drivers though after it detected the multimedia audio controller. Windows also "claims", in device manager, that it is indeed an Audigy. The default sound device in the Sounds and Audio properties gives the card type: Emu10Kx Audio [EC00].

oh, and the 1394 adapter is on the card as well... not that I have any use for it though.

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2004, 01:43:28 PM »

Dunno, my problem was with Windows 98 (not second edition).

I had to upgrade to XP for the Audigy LS to work. That was depressing.

Looks like you may be fuxxed unless you remove the Audigy, reinstall XP, and then put the card back in.
-SW

Octavius · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2004, 02:24:30 PM »

Well...

Do any sound cards on par with Creative's Audigy (1 or 2) that work with this motherboard and chipset exist?

JB73 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:09:06 PM »

dude sorry i have to say (off topic)

EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! you use the european crap brown looking color scheme?????

YUCK! i can;t look at a PC with that color scheme LOL

Octavius · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2004, 06:54:30 PM »

lol, it's "Desert" and it gets the job done.

Better than the XP lollipop candy scheme. I disabled all the themes and fancy animated menus and whatnot.

The jpeg screws with the font coloring a bit.

JB73 · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2004, 08:25:45 PM »

lol i got plain old gray windows, i just scant stand that brown poop look LOL reminds me of win NT and people who didnt know how to change anything. just used whatever the IT dept gave them.

LOL