Is there still a Soundblaster Vista Issue?

[tgboyes1]

I wanted to get the x-fi soundblaster card for my new 64bit vista based machine. I just wanted to know if there would be any compatibility errors. I have heard about them in the past, but never heard of a solution.

 

[Kamrooz]

Although I don't have vista, take this with a grain of salt since I'm not up to date regarding the matter..

But Vista runs OpenAL, and has removed support for directsound, so there are issues. I'm not sure of the severity, but it's pretty bad, you have to pretty much run a application called Alchemy for soundblaster cards, in order to get decent quality sound and directional hearing.

Once again I don't have vista, so you should listen to someone who has both vista and a soundblaster card to give you the entire picture.

 

[crashed97tsi]

It was a nightmare in the beginning, especially if you had 4 gig ram and the 64-bit OS. The combination of fixpacks and driver updates improved the situation immensly. Honestly though, if I could I would use the onboard sound on my motherboard or a soundcard other than Creative.

Alchemy works, but is updated only once in awhile and does not have support for many games.

My specs
Biostar Tforce 590 SLI Deluxe
4 GIG Corsair XMS2 DDR800
AMD 5600+ AM2
miscellaneous hard drives
Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music

Little bit of a rant, this company was one of the worst hardware companies I've ever dealt with. I bought Vista in the very beginning, and everything worked decently except this card. Not until the october of 2007 patch did I consistently not have crashes anymore. I do believe I still get them occaisionally. People will come in and say it was Nvidia or Microsofts fault, but they (Creative) would release drivers that would make the situation worse rather than better. Just a bad experience overall, and not something that is deserving of my time or money.

My personal opinion: Avoid Creative like the plague.

 

[Dooyas]

I agree with Crashed.

I picked up a couple of X-fi cards summer last year, when Vista Beta came out I jumped on board. The only thing that had issues was the X-fi, but I was in Beta so i understood the problem, its new, they need time to make drivers.

Jump ahead to Feb 2007, Vista is released, Creative was still using the beta drivers from August.

It took till this summer to actually get a set of drivers that were signed, and not beta's.

I will not buy another creative card again. Too much a pita.

 

[tgboyes1]

I have never purchased a sound card other than a Soundblaster. What are my options. What is the killer sound card that "all the cool kids" are using?

 

[Dooyas]

Onboard.

 

[parawizard]

Realtek HD Audio Onboard Sound. ALC8XX series. It will also do digital signal encoding on the fly.

 

[Kamrooz]

Well it is indeed not creatives fault, but I wouldn't speak for their driver support which is flat out TERRIBLE. Creative is know to have great hardware products, but their driver support is horrendous.

But it is indeed microsofts fault, the removals of directsound and switching to OpenAL literally left all sound cards with issues. Creative didn't help with their lackluster driver improvements...But it is Microsoft's main fault at hand. But regardless of that, the fault lies on both companies.

 

[randomizer]

It was a nightmare in the beginning, especially if you had 4 gig ram and the 64-bit OS. The combination of fixpacks and driver updates improved the situation immensly. Honestly though, if I could I would use the onboard sound on my motherboard or a soundcard other than Creative.

Alchemy works, but is updated only once in awhile and does not have support for many games.

My specs
Biostar Tforce 590 SLI Deluxe
4 GIG Corsair XMS2 DDR800
AMD 5600+ AM2
miscellaneous hard drives
Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music

Little bit of a rant, this company was one of the worst hardware companies I've ever dealt with. I bought Vista in the very beginning, and everything worked decently except this card. Not until the october of 2007 patch did I consistently not have crashes anymore. I do believe I still get them occaisionally. People will come in and say it was Nvidia or Microsofts fault, but they (Creative) would release drivers that would make the situation worse rather than better. Just a bad experience overall, and not something that is deserving of my time or money.

My personal opinion: Avoid Creative like the plague.

Exact same problems my dad had. Extreme amounts of noise even when no sound is playing, and then stalker would BSOD the computer when it wasn't running vanilla (unpatched). The latest drivers worked a charm though. SP1 RC seems to have brought back the nightmares again, however I have not tried it myself.

 

[ivanski]

I have it on Vista basic and initially you couldnt get true surround sound.
Now they have drivers,so everything works on Open Al.
It sounds just as good as It did with XP.....I'm using a Turtle Beach 5.1 headset so I know.

 

[ausch30]

I am using Vista Home Premium 32bit and a X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS and have no problems at all. The only annoying thing about Creative is switching between Entertainment Mode and Game Mode

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Honestly, I had a creative soundblaster live 5.1 that did not work, even after the updates it does not work right. I just use the onboard sound and it's not bad. If you have a decent mobo, onboard sound has improved a lot.

 

[tgboyes1]

I think I will hold off on the soundcard purchase and use on board sound until I can determine if it is adequate

 

[randomizer]

Honestly, I had a creative soundblaster live 5.1 that did not work, even after the updates it does not work right. I just use the onboard sound and it's not bad. If you have a decent mobo, onboard sound has improved a lot.

I'm still using my live! Kills onboard.

EDIT: The vista driver for the older live cards is just to make them work with (or rather, be detected by) the OS, not work well.

 

[Dooyas]

Well it is indeed not creatives fault, but I wouldn't speak for their driver support which is flat out TERRIBLE. Creative is know to have great hardware products, but their driver support is horrendous.

But it is indeed microsofts fault, the removals of directsound and switching to OpenAL literally left all sound cards with issues. Creative didn't help with their lackluster driver improvements...But it is Microsoft's main fault at hand. But regardless of that, the fault lies on both companies.

How is it that Realtek had working drivers out months before Creative did?

As for the hardware, I will admit there is not much out there for competition, but that does not make them great. Ever try to hook your front audio panel up to a X-Fi? Pain in the ass to say the least. Thier stupid propritary crap plain sucks.

 

[ausch30]

How is it that Realtek had working drivers out months before Creative did?

As for the hardware, I will admit there is not much out there for competition, but that does not make them great. Ever try to hook your front audio panel up to a X-Fi? Pain in the ass to say the least. Thier stupid propritary crap plain sucks.

I have an X-Fi with the front panel and you are absolutly right, that huge ribbon cable going directly in the middle of your system. And what if I want to use the mic or headphone connectors that are on my case I guess I'm just s.o.l, still sounds better than onboard on my Pro-Media's

 

[jsc]

I have an X-Fi with the front panel and you are absolutly right, that huge ribbon cable going directly in the middle of your system.

Use a round IDE cable.

 

[ausch30]

Use a round IDE cable.

proprietary connectors

 

[randomizer]

Like Sony and it's proprietary memory sticks, DELL and it's proprietary everything etc.

 

[tgboyes1]

I think I am going to test my new system with my old Audigy 2 if that works then I will purchase the newer SB card