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Author Topic: Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1  (Read 1025 times)

Offline funkedup

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« on: May 12, 2002, 03:01:32 AM »
Seems like this card has issues with every game.  I have the latest drivers but Operation Flashpoint, Il-2, Ghost Recon, Rally Trophy, and Comanche-Hokum all have problems from sound glitches all the way up to total lockups, all attributable to the SB Live.  

I'm not looking for fixes here.  I've been through the wringer already.  These are "known bugs" for these games.  The game programmers say it is driver problems and Creative appears to have no timetable for fixing these problems.

So what are my other choices for a 5.1 card?  Is there anything out there that actually has stable drivers for Win2k that work with new games?
« Last Edit: May 12, 2002, 03:03:55 AM by funkedup »
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Offline Sox62

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2002, 03:50:54 AM »
The Soundblaster Audigy,and the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz come to mind.

 I have the Santa Cruz,and it runs just fine with XP.
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Offline SKurj

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2002, 08:47:04 AM »
hmm I've heard alotta cries about SBLive cards...

With the little list you posted Funked the only one i have a slight issue with is IL2, i get a little static over my right speaker (haven't played that injun game tho)

I've not tweaked or adjusted my SBLive, its basically set to defaults...


SKurj
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Offline maddog1

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2002, 12:37:55 PM »
I know a couple of us have gone to USB headset/mic with zero problems...... unless you need speakers.... well then I've allways defaulted to the Diamond monster.... never had a problem....
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Offline Sox62

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2002, 01:05:24 PM »
I went with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz as it seemed that many(not all by any means)were having conflicts with the VIA chipset in their motherboards.

I don't know what motherboard Funkedup has,but it something to consider.
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Offline funkedup

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2002, 01:25:43 PM »
I have Epox EP8-K7A.  It has a mixed AMD/VIA chipset.
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Offline Swoop

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2002, 12:47:01 PM »
Er......what problems?   I have an SB Live 5.1 and dont have any probs with OFP or IL2......?

:confused:

Swoop
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Offline Sox62

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2002, 12:55:28 PM »
There have been issues between the VIA chipset and Soundblaster Live and Audigy cards.

This isn't everytime by any means,more likely it's the exception.

If you're not having problems swoop,don't sweat it.
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Offline funkedup

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2002, 01:07:09 PM »
Looks like I'll give the Turtle Beach a whirl.
What chipset DOESN'T have problems with SB?
I'm done with Creative regardless.  Nothing but trouble with their products for the last 4 years.
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Offline Lephturn

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2002, 01:11:39 PM »
I personally will never, EVER purchase another Creative product.  Well maybe not ever... but not for a long frigging time.  I don't really think the problem is with their hardware... that's good stuff IMO.  They don't write decent drivers/firmware.  Never have.  Their drivers are crap, period, and it causes boatloads of problems.  They don't seem to be willing to address the problems that pop up is the biggest issue.  Creative just denies it and ignores it's users.  Well that's fine, I'll be ignoring them from now on too.

VIA mobo + Live = bad.  Some can get away with no problems... but some can't.  I've got mine working for most things, but it took me a LONG time.  Huge PITA.

I'm building an upgrade system now and going with an nForce mainboard with it's good built-in audio.  (Lowest CPU utilization of any soundcard I've seen... including the Audigy)  Decent sound too.  I'll use AC97 (blech) sound before I put another CrapBlaster in a machine I build.
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Offline Gunthr

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2002, 02:33:15 PM »
That goes for me too. I came to actually hate that piece of plastic and wire. I'm using a Philips Accoustic Edge now. I swear you can just pop open your case, toss the AE in there somewhere, and it will work with everything. Pretty good sound too.
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Offline Fatty

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2002, 02:40:54 PM »
I like my santa cruz, got it after having the above stated problems with SB and Via.  Is nice, pretty cheap, and AC3 output gives good surround sound when I'm watching divx on the living room tv.
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Offline funkedup

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2002, 04:53:06 PM »
Gunthr tell me more about AE.  Sounds like it's stable.  How is the 5.1 performance in games and DVDs?

Lephturn lemme know how that nForce works.  Does that support 5.1?  I know some of the Epox mobos support 5.1 with on-board sound, but only if you disable mic and line-in, which is not acceptable.

I guess the only good part of my experience with the Live 5.1 is the DVD performance.  I haven't had any problems with DVD playback at all.  I can write emails or browse the web and the movie plays just fine.

But most have games have stability and/or sound quality issues.
OFP - Uber loud footsteps.
Ghost Recon - Pausing, popping, ear splitting feedback loop
Il-2 - Distortion on right channels, center channel cuts in and out.
Rally Trophy - Total system freeze.
Comanche-Hokum - Total system freeze.
GPL - Engine sound distortion.
Those games make up 99% of my non-AH gaming time...

Like Lephturn I have figured out a lot of workarounds to make it work with each game, but having to change HW accel settings, mixer settings, speaker settings, EAX settings for every game is ricockulous.

BTW The only game I play a lot which works 100% correctly without special settings is AH.  Hats off to HTC.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2002, 04:56:17 PM by funkedup »
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Offline DblTrubl

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2002, 12:50:25 AM »
After having problems with the on-board audio on my old puter I got a Hercules Game Theater XP when i built my new one. Running it on an Epox 8KHA+ /w 1.4G T-Bird. It sounds fantastic and I've had zero sound-related issues. Has a game port and 2 USB ports on the external box too which is nice. AH and Il2 are the only games I have in common with you, but like I said, i've never had a prob with either...or any other app for that matter. Very pleased with this purchase.
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Offline Daff

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Sound Cards - Fed Up With SB Live 5.1
« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2002, 05:14:42 AM »
Funked, I had exactly the same problem with GPL when I upgraded from Win98 to XP Pro with my SB Live.
I bought the SB Audigy and haven't looked back. (And the quality is awesome)

Daff
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