Liveware 3.0 for Windows2000 out

[Hunsow]

http://www.soundblaster.com/liveware/w2k/

[Chucky Cheese]

Hunsow,

did you get an event in your system log during setup? mine generated a "windows file protection" error...like this;

File replacement was attempted on the protected system file c:\winnt\system32\ctl3d32.dll. This file was restored to the original version to maintain system stability. The file version of the bad file is 2.31.0.0, the version of the system file is 2.31.0.0


i am observing wierd sysmptoms while playing quicktime(4.01) files, and it does it in single processor or dual processor boots. like the "desktop (2560 x 1024 16 bit) refreshing every 2 or 3 seconds...it doesn't crash the system and it didn't do it before the installation...i have no clue except the error message!

and playback of my mp3 files with playcenter now sounds like a record that skips and has a scratch!

chucky

[Hunsow]

I have problems too, not the ones you have, but the creative software doesn't work, it tells me to reinstall because it can't find the necesarry hardware or drivers, however the drivers work flawless. Very weird.

[dwright]

I got the same error as Chunky so somthing was not updated. So far however it seems to be ok. My mp3 play back is ok, digital output is ok, WinTV & FM still works, midi is ok, and enviromental audio effects are ok. I picked custom install and did not install Creative Launcher and changed the win2000 startup sound back to microsoft. The machine seems to take longer to boot now.
If you find a fix for the protected dll problem please let us know.
Thanks

[Nuno]

The instalation went fine here and it´s working great. I did exactly what they recommend - put all the files in /temp and ran setup.exe

[Buuri]

Worked fine from c:\temp. I installed only AudioHQ.

_
B

[Alegria]

Worked absolutely flawless after the download. Complete install, no errors or events occured. EA works, SF's work, mixer works.
Regards, Alegria

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The pump don't work, 'cause the vandals took the handle...
Bob Dylan

[Snake-Eyes]

I had problems getting the applications to recognize the card and the drivers after the installation, too. I had originally installed the Dell SbLive! Win2K drivers (which BTW, include a more complete set of the Creative software tools - closer to what is in the Win9x drivers).

I first tried to remove the drivers for the card, through the device manager. Then, without rebooting, I ran the setup program for the released drivers, which I did not have in the /temp directory. The installation appeared to run fine, but first prompted me to remove older drivers (!?). When the machine rebooted, sound was working fine, but of the Creative utilities included, only the (somewhat annoying) Launcher and the Recorder would recognize the card/drivers and run.

Next, I attempted to remove the drivers again (same method), and moved the installation files into the /temp directory. After reinstalling, I still had the same problems.

Last try. I went into the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs applet, and found the Creative SoundBlaster Live! entry, which I selected. I was prompted for which programs to uninstall (selected all), and removed the software. I also permanently uninstalled the drivers through the add/remove hardware applet. Rebooted. Sound was working! Windows had reinstalled the standard W2K Live drivers (entry in the Device Manager lists Creative SoundBlaster Live! Basic (WDM) ).

I reran the installation again from the temp directory, and BAM!, everything's working fine, all apps detect the card and drivers.

Now, I'm not sure whether these drivers are an improvement over the Dell drivers I was using, but at least I know for sure that they're certified now. Possibly a few of the unexplained BSOD's that I received (mostly while playing games, like UT) were caused by the other drivers, since I haven't experienced any more of them. But I'm not qualified to say for sure.

So, if you've been using the Dell drivers up until now, and want to install the official Creative drivers, make sure to uninstall the original software through the Add/Remove Programs, as well as the drivers through the Add/Remove Hardware (there are 2 SbLive! devices to be removed). Reboot, make sure that Windows is using the standard MS provided drivers, then place the new drivers in the C:/temp directory (or D:/temp, if like me, you're dual booting, and Win2K is on the D drive) and run the setup program.

I hope this helps someone else. I know it was a little frustrating for me to have had to spend around 2 hours to get them working properly. It took away from my UT enjoyment time.

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Ace


[This message has been edited by Ace (edited 24 March 2000).]

[Chucky Cheese]

...ok

first i cleared all events, turned off the dual head(..for some reason) and unloaded everything(..including the speaker) from the system tray

i downloaded a "fresh" set of files into the c:\temp directory...uninstalled the previous setup and ran the c:\temp\setup.exe again.

the same error message showed up in the event log! the symptoms with the screen refresh i was able to clear up with the control panel > quicktime > video settings applet(..it was only with mov files anyways). the mp3 sound quality still sucks!

so here is my question...my win2k installation is on a ntfs partition, i install all my software there except games(..which by the way work great!, sound and video), the video and mp3 clips/rips are on fat32 partitions. could there be some file system symantecs going on? i ran win2k's version of scandisk on bootup and it said there were no errors. i purchased executive softwares "disk keeper v5.0" for win2k and did a defrag(..i know win2k had lite version).

i'm thinking about converting the other 3 drives to ntfs...any ideas out there? one other question...i ripped all the mp3's in win98(..which is off my system now!) with audio catalyst(v2) @ 160 kbits...could this be the problem? is there a way to resample those files?

chucky

[Chucky Cheese]

...update,

the problems with my mp3's sounding like crap turned out to be the "format" of the files...i was digging through some paperwork on my desk and found out that i had paid for a "lifetime" upgrade for musicmatch jukebox, so i downloaded the latest version(v5.0).

i resampled the xing files to a 128 kbit vbr format and they play great with musicmatches player(..no annoying skipping!) but still skips with "playcenter"...i still can hear a faint tic when i turn the volume down real low and with my ear right against the FL speaker, it gets proportional with volume increase.

i guess i'm making progress..i'd still like to know why that file protection error happened.

chucky


[This message has been edited by Chucky Cheese (edited 29 March 2000).]