Sound card and video card conflict, only on w7

brreaker · 29 Aug 2013

First, because my integrated graphics does not support bf3, for example. Second, because it uses shared memory, which lowers my RAM by quite a bit. I am aware it is a low-end card, I am aware of the solution that you keep telling me of (no offense), but my goal is to be able to use both cards, seeing how I paid for them and how I need them, it is fairly logical to me that I should be able to use them without any restrictions. Apparently, this audio problem is a known problem by nVidia, but they didn't release any fix or pull out of the market the cards that do this. This is something they can get sued because of.

fireberd · 29 Aug 2013

If its a known problem with this particular NVIDA card, then unless NVIDIA does something to fix it you are stuck with the problem you have.

brreaker · 29 Aug 2013

That's the thing, not just this card, a whole range of cards. They developed a fix for vista, which doesn't work on win7
However, the person I talked with told me that it should be fixable through windows considering that it works under windows XP.

fireberd · 29 Aug 2013

The issue is that Windows/Microsoft does not have to be compatible with NVIDIA. NVIDIA must be compatible with Windows. Thus its NVIDIA's problem to fix.

I have that problem with an old game, Soldier of Fortune. It works with an AMD Radeon video card, but does not work with NVIDIA cards. AMD did have a problem at one time but they fixed their problem. NVIDIA never has. I have one system with an NVIDIA GTS450OC video card and a dual boot Win 7/Win 8 and the game will not work with the NVIDIA card. I have another dual boot system Win 7/Win 8 with an AMD Radeon HD7770 and it works OK on both Win 7 and Win 8.

Getting back to who's problem it is (NVIDIA's). A comparison would be you have a Ford car and you install a non-Ford aftermarket part on the car and it does not fit correctly. Its not Ford's fault or problem, its the company that made the aftermarket part that was sold as fitting.

brreaker · 29 Aug 2013

Very much so, however it is not only nVidia's fault, if you think about it, microsoft restricts you from installing whichever hardware you want (for example multiple soundboards)

fireberd · 30 Aug 2013

The multiple sound cards is a Windows restriction, as are some other items, but that is not the issue here. When it comes to 3rd party hardware or applications then it becomes the 3rd party's responsibility to make it work or be compatible with the Operating System.

Hardware vendors and software companies are given or are involved with the Beta releases of an Operating System well in advance (sometimes years) and have time to develop or redesign their products to work with the new OS.
It isn't something they find out about after the new OS is released. At one time, Microsoft made a new OS 100% backward compatible with older OS', but that stopped with Windows XP and as the OS' have evolved they have reduced the backward compatibility even more. Audio functions are an example, in Windows XP and earlier some audio functions were handled a certain way, with Vista (and later OS) those functions are handled differently in the OS and audio vendors had to change their drivers to accommodate how the new OS handled those functions.

brreaker · 30 Aug 2013

I am very aware of that, nVidia should offer a way or a fix so windows doesn't block the soundcards based on it, Creative should create a driver that lets you install the board even though it is not detected, so you can select it as primary in Speakers and let windows prioritize on it, microsoft should let you manually overwrite this protection. In my opinion, all parties have a bit of a fault. The thing is not that the device isn't working with windows, because it is, just that windows prioritizes it instead of the soundcard (which I find rather strange)