Windows 7: SoundBlaster Live! (EMU10K1) terrible sound?!

Hi, i know this is an old card but i just built up another pc from old bits to play some games on and have a serious sound issue with it and windows 7.

The driver i have installed came from windows update called "Creative driver update for Creative EMU10K1 Audio Processor (WDM)".



The problem is the sound quality is terrible! It sounds almost like the bass has been turned up x500. Windows sounds are not so bad but its really apperent when playing games.

Any suggestions?

im using windows 7 and a soundblaster live..and im having same problem ...sounds all crackled and like bass is turned up 1000 times more than it should be...help would be very appreciated...thanks in advance

I hate to be one of those guys that doesn't have a solution, just the same problem, but I'm right there with you. I have a Sound Blaster Live! Platinum (with Live! Drive). It's not the 5.1 model, but most people I've encountered have the same problem with the 5.1 version.

I've done a great deal of investigation, mostly into Vista forums (I didn't think the drivers from Vista to 7 would change that much, but apparently they did.), and I found a whole lot of people with similar problems while using Vista. Here is the data I've collected.

I'm running Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 on an AMD K7 Athlon XP 2400+ processor.

1. I get horribly distorted sound (i.e. too much bass, as first poster described) in when I use the drivers that Windows Update provides me for my card (I think it is a generic EMU10K1-based card driver).

2. I get decent quality sound, but crackly and some pops, when I use a hacked driver by NGO that is supposed to be "fix" for Vista.

3. Another fix I have encountered is to use the latest Vista drivers for the Creative X-Fi card series, except to select the WDM EMU10K1 driver manually (running the setup gives a blue screen). This has the same effect as Scenario 1. above, except for one thing. If you go into the properties, and select 5.1 in speaker configuration, it will sound better. I thought this had fixed it (as people suggested it has in Vista), but it turns out I started getting the crackling and popping again as in Scenario 2.

I did a lot of other things in between, including messing with DMA mode on my drives in my BIOS, updating my motherboard chipset drivers, etc., but nothing gave me any change from the two effects I noticed above.

Anyone have similar/different experiences?

Google Daniel_K driver download..
Fixed my creative sound problems 100%...

SB live
audigy Series..
XFI series..

Bleeds

Yes i am using the one with the live drive also, i picked it up in a second hand pc so not 100% sure of exact model. i think sounblaster live! value + live drive 2.

Ok am gonna try these daniel k drivers..... googling..

EDIT:

just tried SBL_VTDRV_LB_2_10_0001A.exe and it will not run i get a file error even when using vista compatibility mode to run the installer.

I am now downloading P17X_PCDVT_LB_1_04_0079.exe and hoping this will work... (that didn't work either, went to install but said my device was not supported)

Now downloading P17XFXA_PCDRV_1_04_0080.exe and starting to think about going into town and buying a new card lol!

EDIT2:
NON of the above worked... sigh...

Darn..Sorry it was worth a try...
good luck..
Bleeds

I am using a SB live! value with the live! drive. The mobo sound is probably quantum leaps better than this old SB live!, but I like the live! drive.

The beta driver clearly has issues. I started using the KX project drivers.

I am using kxdrv3541. I installed it and the sound is fine. Expect an error message each time you log on. It will say that the driver hasn't initialized. But it's working fine. Just click on the button to close the dialog.

But you may have to go to the sound applet in control panel to get sound. On the playback tab, you have to have Wave Out 6/7 selected as the default device (not the default communication device) to get the back jacks working. If Master Mixer is the default device, the headphone jack on the live! drive works. (that took some time playing with it to learn).

Hopefully M$ and creative get to fixing their driver eventually.

This sounds good apart from that dialog on logon would really grate on me... i have resorted to dual booting xp/7 now so i can play games with decent sound, agreed the onboard sound on my mobo would also be fine but i also like the live drive and it works in xp so i wish to make it work in 7 also. I know its only a small amount of cash for a newer card but still.....

Just come across this on the TechNet forum, it sounds (oops sorry for the pun - sounds) very similar to your problems and it is down as a fixed thread. Meaning it sorted the problems.

I did some more tinklering. The dialog at startup wasn't from the driver. It was the mixer. The Kx mixer doesn't work in Win 7. Just use MSConfig to disable the mixer at startup.