Creative SB Live! vs NVIDIA/Realtek

[Mark]

Just installed A8N-SLI Deluxe system, all OK and running nicely.

I used to have a Creative Soundblaster Live card in old system which was
great, I'd got it all set up just the way I wanted playing especially.

However, it badly crashed my system (dead system just before explorer kicks
in) when I just installed it and I had to replace the registry files to get
it all back again.

Before I try again, is it worth it? What's the sound quality and tools like
with the on-board Realtek sound? Which drivers/tools Realtek or NVIDIA should
I install?

So, SB Live or Realtek?
Thanks

Mark

 

[John Doe]

Old Soundstorm vs. SBLive I would rate as equal. SBLive vs. onboard Realtek
is well worth the effort. Nvidia SUCKS for not continuing Soundstorm on
nForce4!

Use your SBLive. But remember it's old. Remember the old days of having to
configure IRQ's & DMA settings? Look in BIOS and reserve IRQ 5 for
Soundblaster. That should solve crashes & you'll be fine.

 

[Mark]

Thanks for the reply.
I never reserved IRQ on old system, Win2K just got on with it.

Any way I tried it and reserving IRQ5 didn't work, nothing I've done so far
does including letting MS install drivers when it finds hardware, doing it
myself, changing PCI slots...

I don't play games just use the PC as my main music listening source. Guess
I'll have to try the built-in sound ;-(

I like to play with sound quality (my old ears need high freq boost for
instance) and the old Creative programs remembered and allowed me to save
equaliser settings for different types of music. I need something like that.

Mark

 

[Stephan Grossklass]

Just installed A8N-SLI Deluxe system, all OK and running nicely.

I used to have a Creative Soundblaster Live card in old system which was
great, I'd got it all set up just the way I wanted playing especially.

However, it badly crashed my system (dead system just before explorer kicks
in) when I just installed it and I had to replace the registry files to get
it all back again.

IIRC the newest Live! drivers can be found at OEMs that used the card.
(And there's still some modified drivers, see
<http://www.driverheaven.net/forumdisplay.php?f=33>.) That said, maybe
you'd be better off with something more contemporary like an Audigy 2ZS
for gaming. The output stage still sucks (i.e. audiophiles would choose
another card), but at least the converters are decent (the Live! used
some AC97 codec for the front out, which is why the kX Project drivers
default to use the rear out with its better quality I2S DAC) and it's
got more processing power (and thus support for more advanced sound
effect processing) than the frequently rather finicky oldie you have.
The onboard sound would have no hardware acceleration for sound effects
(--> slower in games) and sound quality roughly on par with the old
Live!.
BTW, that board seems to give trouble with more kinds of sound cards. A
BIOS update may not be the worst of ideas. (If that shouldn't help, you
can still feel a proud bananaware owner. )

Stephan

 

[John Doe]

The following from Creative site; troubleshooting. You probably have both
issues.

"Problems with the Sound Blaster Live! and motherboards with no ISA slots

The Sound Blaster Live! card uses two interrupt requests (IRQ's) - one is
IRQ5, which is reserved by the SB 16 emulation by default - the other is
reserved by the Sound Blaster Live! card itself, and is usually of the
higher range 9,10 or 11.

If a motherboard does not have ISA slots, the BIOS assigns all IRQs to PCI.
Therefore, you need to change the BIOS setting in order to assign an ISA IRQ
to the card. Please set "IRQ5 Reserved for legacy device" to "Yes" under
Advanced -> PCI configuration -> PCI/PNP IRQ Resource Exclusion in BIOS.

SoundBlaster Live! - System hangs during Windows startup

This problem is occasionally caused by a DOS driver conflict. Follow these
steps to remove the DOS drivers:

1.. Restart Windows.
2.. When the message 'Starting Windows 9X' appears, press the F8 key.
3.. Select 'Step By Step Confirmation'.
4.. Say Yes to all entries except
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM. This prevents the DOS driver
from loading.
5.. Restart your system.
If you do not need support for legacy DOS games, and especially if you need
to free up some resources, you can disable your DOS drivers as follows:

1.. Click Start and go to Settings. Click Control Panel and go to System.
Click Device Manager. Double-click 'Creative Miscellaneous Devices'.
2.. Right-click Creative SB16 Emulation. and then click Properties.
3.. In the General tab, tick the option 'Disable in this hardware
profile'.
4.. Restart the system. "

 

[Mark]

Thanks Joe.
I saw these items today whilst troubleshooting.
I have Win2K. It ignores BIOS IRQ settings and assigns the card one used for
PCI steering, usually 17.
The DOS bit is for Win98.

I've given up. I'm running with just MS drivers which gives me some sound
until I can decide what to upgrade to.
Rear speaker doesn't work though :-(


Mark

 

[Mark]

Stephan Grossklass ([email protected]) wrote:

I'll look at the modified drivers, thanks for that. I tried all sorts to get
around the problem today and decided that it was a Creative driver conflict
with Win2K or more probably some driver used by my new motherboard,
probably NVIDIA nForce4 drivers. I managed to wipe everything clean in
registry and start again in Safe Mode installing the latest drivers for this
card and all is well until I select the SB Live! Wave Device for sound
playback.

Audigy 2 ZS

Yes, I've looked at those today but some others have problems with this and
the A8N-SLI.


The output stage still sucks (i.e. audiophiles would choose

another card),

Such as? My main use of the sound card is listening to music, mostly on CD
but also DVD. I don't play games.

The onboard sound would have no hardware acceleration for sound effects
(--> slower in games) and sound quality roughly on par with the old
Live!.

On board sound very dull, not bright enough for me. NVMixer stopped working
after 10 minutes!

BTW, that board seems to give trouble with more kinds of sound cards.

Yep :-(

A BIOS update may not be the worst of ideas.

Am using one of the latest.

Thanks for your input Stephen, appreciated.

Mark