SB Live value

[dasher]

Hi All

I have a SB Live Value card and I have had enough. I run W2000 and for some reason the SB Live keeps getting screwed up. Sound sometimes not available or mixer is unavailable or 4 speakers are full of feed back or rear speakers are full of noise or or or. The list seems endless.

What sound card is an alternative. ??

Thanks

Dasher

[Technoid]

Sounds like a driver issue, but anyway:

A good choise would be the Turtle beach santa cruz....

[Sciascia]

I agree with Technoid, Santa Cruz was a great purchase. I tried the Audigy and it was a resuoirce hogging pig that did not impress me. I couldn't capture 30 seconds of video without major drops. The SC is a nice sounding very versatile card.

[dasher]

Thanks Guys

Here is a more detailed story.

I set up W2000 and installed the SB Live. All ok. I ghosted the drive. After 4 days of faultless operation on 4 speaker mode I downloaded directx8. On boot up the sound card went haywire.

So I decided to replace the system with the ghost image.

What the hell is going on here. The problem still exists!!!!

Shouldnt be possible this is the origonal installation!!!!

Device manager tells me that the drivers are ok and I do a lot of fiddling and finally get the sound back but only on two speakers. When I set the card for 4 speakers the sound is lost on front 2 and loud static noise on rear. So I format the drive and start again. Same problems. Seems like the card has a fault.

Dasher

[Ted222]

I use the Santa Cruz on two Win2000 systems with no problems. You might wanna pick up their updated Win2000 drivers though.

The software isn't as cool as SB, but the hardware is much nicer to use. And, lots of extra volume is available for outputting to tape.

Ted

[Marshmallowman]

do you have the latest win 2k/xp drivers from creative?.
also its worth stopping ahbqt.exe from loading, its loaded when windows boots(its responsible for the thunder you here on boot up amongst other things)

[dasher]

Yep I have the latest drivers installed.

ahbqt.exe ??? Where is that ???

So far today I have not been able to locate the Santa Cruz here in Oz. Anyone know where I can get one??

Dasher

[Technoid]

a slight confrimation:

I use a SBlive value (one of the original ones..) in my capture rig.
And a Audigy in my main computer....

No problems whatso ever!!!

[dasher]

Formatted and reinstalled everything again. All working just fine. See how long it takes to screw up again. This is the 4th tome now.

Dasher

[Sciascia]

Well if it buggers up again (more than likely) or if you juat want to get a better SC try looking for a Sonic Fury, it is the same card sa the Santa Cruz, just a different name for the European market. Maybe a different SW bundle too, not sure.

[Dr Mordrid]

The Sonic Fury, if memory serves, does have a superior software bundle. They use the same drivers.

Either sounds great, uses VERY few resources and is rock solid on all 7 systems I now have it in (AMD and Intel; Win9x, Win2K & WinXP).

Dr. Mordrid

[dasher]

Thanks guys. I will look for the sonic

Dasher

[Dr Mordrid]

Tip: check the Turtle Beach site for new drivers before installing it. The latest WDM drivers work very nicely in Win2K/XP.

Dr. Mordrid

[vitocorleone]

consider a pro-sumer card instead of a gaming card. depending on how many ins/outs you need/want and what kind (analog or digital).

M-Audio, Echo, Lexicon, Terratec etc. for $100 - $300. Get yourself real low latency 24/96 recording and playback (e.g., the digital in/out of SB cards is set at 16/48).

just a thought

[Sciascia]

I was just reading an older magazine the other day and it had a review of the Lucsa Films approved PC. The video card....Santa Cruz DSP. I guess that it is a good sounding card as well. Of course I know that it sounds great since I own it, but it is just another source of verification.