Emu 0404 Causing Dimensional Rift! < Dell Dimension 8400

Mates,

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 [P4 630/ 3.0Ghz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX570, 500GB] which I recently formatted, partitioned, and installed > Win 7/ 64 Ult, with AutoCad 2007, Corel Technical X5, WP X4.

I have an Emu 0404 PCI soundcard, used off eBay. The thing is, Win 7 PnP does not recognize this card and when trying to install the latest drivers from Creative's site, Win 7 froze so severely I had to revert the computer to a restore point. I was so amazed I tried this twice- with the same result.

Am I trying making an unworkable collision of old and new technologies? Wrong Slot > PCI vs PCIe x16? Is the card possibly kaput?

> In case of damage I'm reluctant to risk trying this card in my main computer (Dell Precision T5400).

It's ancient (2004), but the Dimension 8400 is remarkably good for my 2D CAD- when running only one or two applications. When it was an XP computer, I made 100's of hours of quite good quality HD recordings using an M-audio 2496 PCI card.

Any thoughts appreciated!

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[Dell > Precision T5400, Optiplex 740, Dimension 8400, T700R / HP> Elite m9426f]


 

rinval

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May 17, 2012
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dimensional Rift LOL.... anyway. i would look at the drivers your installing and make sure they 64-bit compatible. if they are then i would look at the installer and see if it extracted the driver the a folder on your C: drive root. if it has use the windows driver update to pull that driver from the folder and not use the proprietary installer. i have had to do this ALOT with HP and Dell machines.. not sure y though...

as for the slots ... PCI shouldnt fit in PCI 16... not saying its not possible but it shouldn't as generally PCI-e slots are set slightly farther forward or back (from the mounts) on the mother board.

Yes it is possible the card is kaput but we will not know that until it is installed as your computer sounds to be recognizing the card is inserted but not installed.
 


rinval,

Creative took over Emu and therefore support for the 0404, so I went to the Creative site and selected the drivers for Windows 7, 64 bit.

Yes, I 'm hopeless with working out the slots vs. peripheral as I use computers from 1998 to 2011- and over time I forget > is the T700R video slot is AGP 4X or 8X? Will PC133 RAM work? There seem to be at least 4 PCI variants. Then > there's CPU to socket dyslexia,..

The 8400 had never detected the 0404, and Win 7 is amazing for automatically installing things > as it did a Linksys wireless card in the Precision and configured and connected to the wireless network in the HP m9426f without asking if it should. There is, in Device Manager, an "unknown mutli-media thingy", but that might have been seeing the distant shadow of the onboard audio - which had been turned off through setup off at the time I installed the m-audio 2496> in hand when I bought the 8400 in 2004. Quite sure I've never heard the onboard soundcard.

I think you're onto something regarding the C: drive root placement and Win vs. proprietary installer. As I didn't have the 0404 installation software, I think I did try to use Driver Update. I'll try the whole dance again.

I always get into trouble when I hurry.

Thanks!

Cheers,
BambiBoom


PS> Looking over, I see the 8400 is installing #64 of 106 updates. A strange thing happened> the 8400 lost it's Internet connection and wouldn't recognize any network. I restarted twice- no connection. Then > full shut down. Upon restart, I was politely informed of impending death if I interfered with installation of 106 updates- which has taken 45 minutes to do the first 65. The odd thing is, if there was no Internet connection, where are the updates coming from? It's as though Win 7 Update pulled the plug to force this- l . o . n . g update to happen, and reconnected. If true> that's really aggressive updating!

Just before this, I ran the Passmark benchmark test on the 8400 and it had an overall score of 555- quite good for it's age. For comparison, the T700R- 156 (1998 Pentium III 750MHz), the Optiplex 740- 1113 (Athlon 64 X2 3GHz), the m9426f-1831 (Quad Core Q6600 2.4GHz), and the Precision T5400- 2239 (Quad Core Xeon 5460 3.16GHz).
 
Update > Issue Solved !

Mates,

Regarding the destructive installation of an e-mu 0404 PCI sound card > I discovered that the drivers I was trying to install were specifically for the PCIe- PCI Express and definitely not for the PCI. On their support site, the PCI and PCIe drivers were under the same group, so I thought they used the same version. At least I wouldn't expect the PCIe drivers could kill the Win 7 64 Ult OS only by trying to install them.

Fortunately, Creative maintains drivers for products no longer directly supported, and this page lists the 0404 PCI drivers for Windows 7 listed as "beta":

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=95146&h=13

This Win 7 0404 PCI software file is about 33MB and actually installs the 0404 drivers and configures the card. I ran this from it's place in the Downloads folder. When that programme was finished, Device Manager showed the 0404 as working and listed the just-installed driver.

But> no sound. I went through all the places there are sound settings, and then I remembered the 0404 has a mixer panel/ utillity programme. In the unsupported products realm, it's wasn't made clear that you have to have this second application in order to use and control the card.

I downloaded the utility application "Patchmix DSP" version (10MB) as used by the PCIe > EmuPMX_PCApp_US_2_20_00.exe

from >

http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=237&CatName=E-MU+%2f+Creative+Professional&subCatID=942&subCatName=PCIe+Audio%2fMIDI+Interfaces&prodID=20022&prodName=E-MU+0404+PCIe&bTopTwenty=1&VARSET=prodfaq:pRODFAQ_20022,VARSET=CategoryID:237

> and installed out of the Downloads folder.

Restarting, with some fiddling with settings in the panel/mixer, and SOUND !

I ran the analog outputs to my logitech Z-2300 2.1 (2X40W, 1X135W) computer sound system. I like this one as it has a remote control with POWER, BASS- a "how much subwoofer" dial, and best of all- headphone jack. The sound is respectable- a bit "boomy", but better than it should be for the price ($150).

I have to say, the e-mu 0404 was worth the trouble, as the sound is miles better than the m-audio 2496 "audiophile" of which I've three since 2002. The stereo image was clearer, less mud in the bass, and a general liveliness as compared to the 2496. Of course, the 2496 is quite elderly-2002 -10 years, and the 0404 must be a newer design- 2008? BTW, the 2496 price dropped by almost 50% recently to about $60 while a new e-mu 0404PCIe is $125. My $28. eBay purchase- for once- was a bargain!

Is there a new m-audio card on the way to replace the 2496 ?

After all this fuss, I may have to swap the 0404 in the Dimension 8400 for the 2496 in the Precision T5400.

Anyway, success at last- in spite of my general idiocy.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 

bahamaking

Honorable
Oct 21, 2012
3
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10,510
It will not work on Win 7. Sorry, but I had the same problem with a brand new one pon Win 7. It works great on XP though.

I'll buy it from you if you want. I scrapped Win 7... it's the worst OS I ever used, and I'm a hardware tech for Lockheed, trained on Gateway, HP, Comp[aq and Dell. I'll never use one of these new OS again!!!

anyway, run a shadow XP OS on Win 7, but it's a hassel... but it works and you can run all your XP programs on it.
OR... you can partition your hard drive and put Win 7 on one partition (Drive C), and install (through the bIOS only) XP on the other partition (Drive D) .
Windows will ask you which OS you want to boot to at startup (Windows 7 on DRive C or Windows XP on Drive D).

I do that all the time, ot I'll install a second hard drive in the PC (Drive D) and load a different OS on each one of them
Best to do is load XP on one drive dedicated to the internet (Drive C), and XP on the other (Drive D) for recording or doing real work. Then if you get a virus, you can simply launch the good PC hard drive (Drive D) and go about doingyour work and/or formatting (Drive D) so you can reload windows. This won't take long because you have all you data files and work filed on (Drive D), the drive that never saw the $#@%$!@ internet, and thus is always clean!

peace will

cslee@tampabay.rr.com

let me know I'll give you a fair price for it.