Creative sound card not detected

[Ndman55]

Hi,
I have just acquired a creative Audigy 2 Platinum Pro (Model SB0290) from a friend, however Windows can't detect it so I can't install the driver. In device manager a device called Multimedia Audio Controller shows up under Other Devices.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fireberd]

If you haven't done it, disable the Integrated (on the motherboard) audio in the BIOS first. Two audio devices can conflict and cause problems.

The Multimedia Audio Controller is part of the sound device/drivers. When you get the SoundBlaster properly installed that should go away.

On the other hand, the old (and that is an old sound card) card may not work on your Win 7 system or may be defective. Actually, if you have a relatively new PC (or motherboard) the integrated sound on the motherboard is as good or may even be better than the old Audigy 2 sound card.

 

[Ndman55]

I disabled that yet it still didn't work. Windows still doesn't think it's attached

 

[fireberd]

I would suspect that either its bad or not compatible. That is a relatively old sound card. I had one of those back in the Windows XP days.

Did you try reseating the card (with the PC powered off)?

 

[bobkn]

I'm not sure what to expect from Windows.

Did you try installing the Creative drivers directly?

http://support.creative.com/Product...tID=1&subCatID=205&prodID=150&prodName=Audigy 2 Platinum&subCatName=Audigy&CatName=Sound+Blaster&VARSET=prodfaqRODFAQ_150,VARSET=CategoryID:1

(The card is supposed to be supported under Win7 X64.)

 

[SirTenTea]

I recently installed a new power supply and a new Video card. The Video card is installed, as was the previous one, in the PCI Express 2 X16 slot. When I restarted my PC the Xi-Fi Extreme sound card was seen again. I reinstalled all the drivers for it etc and it worked for one whole day. Then the sound card disappeared again. In fact it disappeared in the middle of playing a video. This card is a fairly old one but why was it seen again after the other hardware upgrades and then lost again? I am running Windows 7 64bit.

 

[essenbe]

Check the proper seating of the card. I had a similar problem with a sound card. After hours of figuring it out, I found the problem was alignment with the case. When I screwed the card in, it picked up the rear of the card just enough where Windows would see it sometimes but most of the time didn't. I loosened the bracket screws just a slight bit and never had another problem. YMMV and you may have a different problem.

 

[rfxcasey]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, however, for the record it need be said. While these cards are getting very long in the tooth, it is still possible to get great value out of them as they are cheap as dirt on ebay. Creative no longer updates drivers for most if not all the Audigy 2, 1 and Live series of sound cards and none of which are officially supported in Windows 7 to my knowledge. There are however a couple of aftermarket drivers available such as the KXproject drivers that work remarkably well in 7.

That said, the nature of modern machines working with older hardware can be a bit more complex then just plug and play. If your on a modern motherboard, as am I, search in your BIOS under the PCI settings and look for a setting the likes of 'PCI BIOS priority' or something similar. If there is an option to prefer 'LEGACY BIOS' select it, save the setting and restart the machine.

My new PC refused to acknowledge my Live or Audigy cards until I changed this setting. Every BIOS will probably call it something a bit different but close enough for you to identify. Haven't tested this with any other 'Legacy' PCI devices but this will probably be the case for most others similarly.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[Indianatone]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, however, for the record it need be said. While these cards are getting very long in the tooth, it is still possible to get great value out of them as they are cheap as dirt on ebay. Creative no longer updates drivers for most if not all the Audigy 2, 1 and Live series of sound cards and none of which are officially supported in Windows 7 to my knowledge. There are however a couple of aftermarket drivers available such as the KXproject drivers that work remarkably well in 7.

That said, the nature of modern machines working with older hardware can be a bit more complex then just plug and play. If your on a modern motherboard, as am I, search in your BIOS under the PCI settings and look for a setting the likes of 'PCI BIOS priority' or something similar. If there is an option to prefer 'LEGACY BIOS' select it, save the setting and restart the machine.

My new PC refused to acknowledge my Live or Audigy cards until I changed this setting. Every BIOS will probably call it something a bit different but close enough for you to identify. Haven't tested this with any other 'Legacy' PCI devices but this will probably be the case for most others similarly.

Hope this helps someone.

Agreed, my Sabertooth declined to allow my awesome Audigity 2 ZS to work in the only PCI slot on the motherboard. Worked fine and dandy on a 2 year old Asus AM3 motherboard on 64 bit Windows 7. I was using legacy bios. Had to buy a new card (shame ). You sometimes have to retire perfectly good hardware as things move forward. Have placed the ZS sound card in an older motherboard and it is sounding great. They were designed for Windows XP.

 

[rfxcasey]

Its rather disturbing that Creative Labs forces you to update from your otherwise perfectly good card by simply dropping driver support. In contrast you can get just about any legacy video card to work with at least basic functionality on modern systems. However this is usually due to Windows installing some generic driver for it. Doesn't seem to work like that with Creative sound cards. I'm sure third party drivers really get creatives goat and if so I'm glad.

Paid over 200 dollars for my Live! Platinum back in around 2000. I think the last driver update from Creative was in 2004. They actually dropped support even before certain issues were resolved running under XP. I remember in particular several titles from Ubisoft including Splinter Cell had horrible static. The only fix was to start using the KXproject drivers and I have never looked back since. Still using an Audigy under Window 7 today I have a bit of satisfaction knowing that when Creative tried to screw me, I turned around and screwed them in some small part.

Used to lover Creative cards however having experience Creative's policy of forced obsolescence I don't think I will ever buy anything from them ever again, if not just out of principle. The problem is, for most people if the sound card is working they don't see a need to upgrade to 24bit resolution or 192Kbps sampling rates. Creative worked themselves into a corner by making sound cards so good that from one generation to the next the improvements are so minimal for your average user upgrading is not justified.

I don't mind spending hard earned money if there is a good reason for it, however Creative's need to boost revenue alone is not a good enough reason if you ask me.

Basically all you wind up doing to paying for a new driver and as a side effect replace perfectly good hardware for little to no reason. The beautiful part is, now you can get some really great 'Legacy' sound cards on Ebay for under $20 buck that work great in Win 7 if you know what you are doing.

 

[Indianatone]

Its rather disturbing that Creative Labs forces you to update from your otherwise perfectly good card by simply dropping driver support. In contrast you can get just about any legacy video card to work with at least basic functionality on modern systems. However this is usually due to Windows installing some generic driver for it. Doesn't seem to work like that with Creative sound cards. I'm sure third party drivers really get creatives goat and if so I'm glad.

Paid over 200 dollars for my Live! Platinum back in around 2000. I think the last driver update from Creative was in 2004. They actually dropped support even before certain issues were resolved running under XP. I remember in particular several titles from Ubisoft including Splinter Cell had horrible static. The only fix was to start using the KXproject drivers and I have never looked back since. Still using an Audigy under Window 7 today I have a bit of satisfaction knowing that when Creative tried to screw me, I turned around and screwed them in some small part.

Used to lover Creative cards however having experience Creative's policy of forced obsolescence I don't think I will ever buy anything from them ever again, if not just out of principle. The problem is, for most people if the sound card is working they don't see a need to upgrade to 24bit resolution or 192Kbps sampling rates. Creative worked themselves into a corner by making sound cards so good that from one generation to the next the improvements are so minimal for your average user upgrading is not justified.

I don't mind spending hard earned money if there is a good reason for it, however Creative's need to boost revenue alone is not a good enough reason if you ask me.

Basically all you wind up doing to paying for a new driver and as a side effect replace perfectly good hardware for little to no reason. The beautiful part is, now you can get some really great 'Legacy' sound cards on Ebay for under $20 buck that work great in Win 7 if you know what you are doing.

Nothing to do with drivers, it is to do with the hardware being to old to work in the new motherboard. I can still use the card in another Windows 7 machine. You are looking at old technology not supported by new technology. New technology is too fast for such an old card, stuff moves on in computing. You would seem to be saying I shpuld be able to run Windows 7 on a 700 Mhz Athlon with 256Mb of ram with a 32Mb ATI video card and a 10GB hard drive???:sarc::sarc::sarc:

 

[matts6887]

Dunno man I've never had any issues with sound blaster sound cards. I've been using them for years without issues. But I
Guess for whatever reason creative decided that it's
Better for them to drop support for certain cards which in some
Ways is understandable because as technology and designs keep changing so do product offerings. And creative just can't keep support for old sound cards around forever so maybe it's justified that they have discontinued support for certain cards

 

[rfxcasey]

Nothing to do with drivers, it is to do with the hardware being to old to work in the new motherboard. I can still use the card in another Windows 7 machine. You are looking at old technology not supported by new technology. New technology is too fast for such an old card, stuff moves on in computing. You would seem to be saying I shpuld be able to run Windows 7 on a 700 Mhz Athlon with 256Mb of ram with a 32Mb ATI video card and a 10GB hard drive???:sarc::sarc::sarc:

Yes, it has everything to do with drivers. Motherboards which have a PCI expansion slot (which most modern motherboards do) are equipped with such to support 'legacy' devices'. The PCI standard really hasn't changed since 2002 with revision 3.0 which is backwards compatible. The last driver from Creative for my SB Live card was made in 2004 and lacks Win 7 support. That is the only issue, the lack of Win 7 support at the driver level. If you have a PCI sound blaster card and a modern motherboard with a PCI 3.0 expansion slot, an undamaged card will work just fine with the proper BIOS setting and drivers. As long as all bus/devices adheres to the standard set by the PCI Special Interest Group there should be no issues. Perhaps you are confusing PCI Express and PCI?

I'm using my SB Audigy PCI on a BIOSTAR TZ77B motherboard running an i5 3570K and 16GB of RAM by way of the KXProject drivers and have zero problems. What does that tell you? I've also tested my old SB Live! Platinum card and it works just fine even in modern games like BF3 with the proper drivers.

Your argument for new hardware being too fast for older PCI devices is rubbish. The PCI standard is the PCI standard, plain and simple. If your chipset supports PCI then it supports PCI regardless of processor speed. PCI latency may be adjusted to your liking in the BIOS.

My motherboard supports PS/2 keyboard and mouse as well and it not 'too fast' for it.

 

[Indianatone]

Nothing to do with drivers, it is to do with the hardware being to old to work in the new motherboard. I can still use the card in another Windows 7 machine. You are looking at old technology not supported by new technology. New technology is too fast for such an old card, stuff moves on in computing. You would seem to be saying I shpuld be able to run Windows 7 on a 700 Mhz Athlon with 256Mb of ram with a 32Mb ATI video card and a 10GB hard drive???:sarc::sarc::sarc:

Yes, it has everything to do with drivers. Motherboards which have a PCI expansion slot (which most modern motherboards do) are equipped with such to support 'legacy' devices'. The PCI standard really hasn't changed since 2002 with revision 3.0 which is backwards compatible. The last driver from Creative for my SB Live card was made in 2004 and lacks Win 7 support. That is the only issue, the lack of Win 7 support at the driver level. If you have a PCI sound blaster card and a modern motherboard with a PCI 3.0 expansion slot, an undamaged card will work just fine with the proper BIOS setting and drivers. As long as all bus/devices adheres to the standard set by the PCI Special Interest Group there should be no issues. Perhaps you are confusing PCI Express and PCI?

I'm using my SB Audigy PCI on a BIOSTAR TZ77B motherboard running an i5 3570K and 16GB of RAM by way of the KXProject drivers and have zero problems. What does that tell you? I've also tested my old SB Live! Platinum card and it works just fine even in modern games like BF3 with the proper drivers.

Your argument for new hardware being too fast for older PCI devices is rubbish. The PCI standard is the PCI standard, plain and simple. If your chipset supports PCI then it supports PCI regardless of processor speed. PCI latency may be adjusted to your liking in the BIOS.

My motherboard supports PS/2 keyboard and mouse as well and it not 'too fast' for it.

Er EXCUSE me. I do know what I am talking about. I have seen this on several occasions with sound cards. Some of the Audigity 2 cards will not work on 64 bit systems with more than 4Gb of RAM. The isssue is not drivers, the PC locks up before you even get to the desktop to install the friggin drivers and NO I am not mixing up PCI e with PCI.
The rest of your response in moot as the PC as I said freezes and no amount of fiddling in the bios makes any difference, the card works fine in its new home in an older Asus Motherboard running Windows 7 64 bit. Perhaps you should go back and read the whole thread. As I have said this already, for crying out loud stop hacking around with unofficial drivers and spend some cash on a new modern soundcard. You will be surprised at how much better they are.I have 2 or 3 Soundblaster Live sound blasters in my junk pile and a spare X Fi Gamer in the drawer for my next build from parts

 

[rfxcasey]

Doesn't mean a thing, there will always be the potential for compatibility issues between certain hardware and specific manufacturers motherboard which is the case now as it ever was. The Audigy 2 had compatibility issues with motherboards from its own era which mutes your point. The fact of the matter is I am on Win 7 64bit with 16GB of RAM and have no issues with my old creative hardware. The point of my original post was to possibly help someone who would like to still use there old creative hardware on new machinery. It is absolutely possible and I can attest to that. I don't know what your issue was that you couldn't get a similar setup working but its more likely a failure, ah hem... sorry I will try to remain civil, oversight on your part or with the mobo's bios. There are many variables that you are taking for granted. To just say that new machines are too fast for old hardware because you had a problem you could not fix with a particular setup is pretty much just ignorant.

Apart from that you can belay your "hack" insult whereas if YOU go back and read my post, the official creative drivers had unresolved issues back in 2004 that were only solved by using 3rd party drivers at the time. I've used those "hack" drivers ever since with no issues as creatives drivers have always seemed to have problem with certain programs. The KXproject drivers were written from scratch so even referring to them as "hacked" is a misstatement showing a further tenancy towards ignorance. I, for my part, do what works and try not to let ignorant or narrow thinking cloud my judgement. I would suggest you take that as a word of advice.

That's my peace spoken, I have nothing more to say on the matter. Take it as you will.:drool:

 

[Indianatone]

Doesn't mean a thing, there will always be the potential for compatibility issues between certain hardware and specific manufacturers motherboard which is the case now as it ever was. The Audigy 2 had compatibility issues with motherboards from its own era which mutes your point. The fact of the matter is I am on Win 7 64bit with 16GB of RAM and have no issues with my old creative hardware. The point of my original post was to possibly help someone who would like to still use there old creative hardware on new machinery. It is absolutely possible and I can attest to that. I don't know what your issue was that you couldn't get a similar setup working but its more likely a failure, ah hem... sorry I will try to remain civil, oversight on your part or with the mobo's bios. There are many variables that you are taking for granted. To just say that new machines are too fast for old hardware because you had a problem you could not fix with a particular setup is pretty much just ignorant.

Apart from that you can belay your "hack" insult whereas if YOU go back and read my post, the official creative drivers had unresolved issues back in 2004 that were only solved by using 3rd party drivers at the time. I've used those "hack" drivers ever since with no issues as creatives drivers have always seemed to have problem with certain programs. The KXproject drivers were written from scratch so even referring to them as "hacked" is a misstatement showing a further tenancy towards ignorance. I, for my part, do what works and try not to let ignorant or narrow thinking cloud my judgement. I would suggest you take that as a word of advice.

That's my peace spoken, I have nothing more to say on the matter. Take it as you will.:drool:

Like I said the soundcard is working in another motherboard a couple of years old just fine on Windows 7 64 bit with a six core Phenom II and 16GB ram but it would not work in the one PCI slot in my new motherboard. You can do as you like and I am glad it works for you but it does not work for me. I have seen it several times myself. If you are happy running an ancient sound card fine, but don't tell me an electronics engineer what is right and wrong. As far as I am concerned if the drivers are not written by the OEM or Microsoft or Linux they are hacked.