Solved Ancient Soundcard - lady in distress

[lady]

Please can one of you whizz kids help me? I have a SB Live 5.1 soundcard (Model SB0222). Everything was working fine for playing and recording music until I changed from XP to Windows 7. Had a new hard drive at the same time and the driver downloaded is a kX 10k1. It plays MP3's badly but can't get any sound at all in Cakewalk Sonar 8.5.

Spent hours on the Creative website just to find there is no driver available or do you know better? Really can't afford another Soundcard at the moment and if you have any suggestions can you put them in simple terms as some of the technical jargon on here is far beyond my comprehension.

Hope you can get me over this problem so that I am convinced that making the move to Windows 7 was the right thing to do. Also if you ask me a technical question about my PC please tell me where to find the information.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Lets start by getting an understanding of your computer hardware. Can you please follow this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

Once we know what hardware you have, it will easier for us to help you.

Regards,
Golden

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Check this link for Windows 7 hardware and software compatibility issues: Windows 7 Compatibility: Software Programs & Hardware Devices: Find Updates, Drivers, & Downloads

Also use the Windows Upgrade Advisor to see if your computer is OK for Windows 7: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20

If the soundcard is causing you that much grief and you can't afford a new one, you can always remove it and use the computer's onboard sound instead.

 

[stormy13]

Best you're going to get for that old card,

SB Live! series Support Pack 2.0 (04/30/2010) - Creative Labs

You also try the Kx driver,

kX Project -- Downloads page

 

[lady]

Trying

Many thanks for your help. I have tried a download from Creative without success.

Will try the other suggestions Monday and let you know how I get on. Here's hoping..........

Regards

Lady

 

[lady]

Thanks for the tip and download to find my system info. Perfect for a novice.

Couldn't get a suitable driver or get Sonar to play anything in W7, so I gave in and purchased a Creative X-Fi Soundcard and sound is great now. However its at the expense of the additional graphics card I had that worked great (Only name I can see on it is Point of View Vidia). The fitting for the W7 version soundcard has changed and didn't fit my Motherboard which is a P4VM890, so the guy in the shop used the slot for my graphics card. Now I am stuck with a bog standard VGA Graphics Adapter! Everything seems to work with the exception of 'Movie Maker'. I had made a rough video before the change and now I can't get in to edit it as now Direct X is no longer available and Movie and DVD Maker won't open.
The guy in the shop is great but he only speaks Spanish and I only speak a little. As far as I can tell he says I would need a new Motherboard but it's so difficult when we can't communicate. You can understand my plight. Oh No - More money!!!
I have learned so much from here already.
Any Suggestions please.
Thanks
Lady

 

[seavixen32]

Before you splash out on a new motherboard, see if you can update the chipset drivers for it, because it may solve your problem.

Z68 Motherboard Series - Download Files form ASRock Inc. > Latest Drivers Update

 

[alphanumeric]

Your motherboard only has one PCIe slot. The new sound card is a PCIe card and your video card is a PCIe card. Two cards but only one compatible slot so one has to go. I think I would put the video card back in, enable the motherboards on-board 5.1 sound card, and install the matching driver for it. Then see if you can do what you want to do with that setup.

 

[lady]

Before you splash out on a new motherboard, see if you can update the chipset drivers for it, because it may solve your problem.

Z68 Motherboard Series - Download Files form ASRock Inc. > Latest Drivers Update

Thanks for the advice but I have looked at the link and have no idea which one I should choose. The number of the Motherboard I quoted above is not on the list - or am I being thick! Sorry but I just don't know. Also would it mess up my PC if it doesn't work.

Can I be cheeky and ask another question while I'm here? Probably should start another thread but it's not so important. I don't know but I assume that WinRAR comes with Windows 7 but I can't understand my version as it is in Spanish. Presumably as I live in Spain it has some how picked up that I need it in Spanish. I probably won't understand it anyway but at least I'll have a sporting chance!

 

[WolfSoul]

It's not a part of Windows.. and it looks like the shopguy probably installed that since you said he's spanish
best I can give you since I found no language settings is the site WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files
Most likely uninstall Spanish version and download the one you want and install that one.. but if you have no license it's going to be in trial mode

 

[lady]

Your motherboard only has one PCIe slot. The new sound card is a PCIe card and your video card is a PCIe card. Two cards but only one compatible slot so one has to go. I think I would put the video card back in, enable the motherboards on-board 5.1 sound card, and install the matching driver for it. Then see if you can do what you want to do with that setup.

I understand what you are saying about the motherboard only having one suitable slot but I have to weigh up which is most important, sound or graphics. Both are but I can't use Cakewalk Sonar with the SB Live 5.1 as it was so old that I couldn't get the W7 driver for it. That is why I bought the Creative X-Fi titanium as it works great and mostly uses ASIO drivers for Sonar. The guy in the shop checked the fitting on the internet and showed me the picture before ordering and it should have been ok, but when it was delivered the fitting had been updated for W7.
Should I have ordered the soundcard for XP and then downloaded a suitable driver for W7 or am I barking up the wrong tree? That way I could use both slots of my motherboard and all would be great.

 

[WolfSoul]

ASRock > Products > P4VM890 Sorry whoever posted it... but that's not a Z68 board
It's a pentium 4 board Quite old by today's standard.. but if it does what you need it's not that bad
You can find downloads for the board on the left side under Overview é Specifications then Downloads

Ok sorry quick edit.. but it seems since the board is that old there's no Win 7 drivers available on there..

 

[lady]

ASRock > Products > P4VM890 Sorry whoever posted it... but that's not a Z68 board
It's a pentium 4 board Quite old by today's standard.. but if it does what you need it's not that bad
You can find downloads for the board on the left side under Overview é Specifications then Downloads

Ok sorry quick edit.. but it seems since the board is that old there's no Win 7 drivers available on there..

Thanks - just been on there and noticed that. Any other solutions?

 

[WolfSoul]

I would have to look some more but Im afraid to say switching board might be the best one..
Either that or have a PCI card.. but you bought a new X-Fi so that would be stupid
If Im correct you wanna work with sound and video creations

 

[lady]

It's not a part of Windows.. and it looks like the shopguy probably installed that since you said he's spanish
best I can give you since I found no language settings is the site WinRAR archiver, a powerful tool to process RAR and ZIP files
Most likely uninstall Spanish version and download the one you want and install that one.. but if you have no license it's going to be in trial mode

Thanks for that - so my trial will probably run out in a couple of weeks anyway. Can't see that I'll use it very much but if I need to I have kept the details of the site. Thanks for your time.

 

[lady]

I would have to look some more but Im afraid to say switching board might be the best one..
Either that or have a PCI card.. but you bought a new X-Fi so that would be stupid
If Im correct you wanna work with sound and video creations

Yes I write and record songs but I thought it would be great to create a video or pictures with lyrics to go with the songs for somewhere like YouTube.

I thought the guy in the shop said he would have to replace 3 things, one being the motherboard but of course I could of misunderstood him. Would it just be the motherboard? Just I say - but I don't mean it. He normally deals in ASUS...

It seems changing to W7 is turning out to be very expensive!

 

[WolfSoul]

Asus is great.. Ive used and still use boards and videocards
You might have to count on DDR3 ram too if you switch boards
But that's it.. the videocard, soundcard and disks or drives of any kind that you have now will work on a new board

 

[WolfSoul]

if you could use more of my opinion feel free to ask

 

[alphanumeric]

Your motherboard only has one PCIe slot. The new sound card is a PCIe card and your video card is a PCIe card. Two cards but only one compatible slot so one has to go. I think I would put the video card back in, enable the motherboards on-board 5.1 sound card, and install the matching driver for it. Then see if you can do what you want to do with that setup.

I understand what you are saying about the motherboard only having one suitable slot but I have to weigh up which is most important, sound or graphics. Both are but I can't use Cakewalk Sonar with the SB Live 5.1 as it was so old that I couldn't get the W7 driver for it. That is why I bought the Creative X-Fi titanium as it works great and mostly uses ASIO drivers for Sonar. The guy in the shop checked the fitting on the internet and showed me the picture before ordering and it should have been ok, but when it was delivered the fitting had been updated for W7.
Should I have ordered the soundcard for XP and then downloaded a suitable driver for W7 or am I barking up the wrong tree? That way I could use both slots of my motherboard and all would be great.

In one of your posts you listed the motherboard as a P4VM890,
ASRock > Products > P4VM890
Looking under the product specifications it lists, Realtek ALC653 5.1 channel AC'97 audio codec, for audio. It already has a sound card built into it, you don't need to add one. Assuming you can get a windows 7 driver that is. My suggestion was to turn it on, enable it in BIOS, and see if it will work with your programs. You would need to remove the other add-in sounds cards to do this. If you do that you may as well put the other video card back in.
If the on-board sound won't work with your programs then its back to plan "B". Buy a PCI sound card or maybe even replace the motherboard. I believe you can also buy USB connectible sound cards. As mentioned though, finding a good driver for the on-board video may improve it.

 

[WolfSoul]

Using the Windows 7 upgrade advisor might tell you plenty
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor