Sound card drivers in Win Me??

[Ovi]

Hi everyone
I installed Windows Millenium on my computer recently.It automatically installed the WDM drivers for my sound card (Creative Ensoniq Audio PCI 64) and its working fine.But the thing is that the creative mixer starter wasn't installed and also MIDI playback is being done thru the software synth.Hardware acceleration for the card is enabled (as shown in dxdiag)Also,when direct sound is tested,only software buffers are used. So should I leave it with the auto installed drivers or should I install the Win98 drivers that came with it?
Thanks in anticipation of your replies
Cheers
Ovi

[Guru]

"creative mixer starter" you mean that anoying icon in the system tray that you normaly cant get rid off? If everything is working as it should then leave it as it is! And a quick check at www.soundblaster.com will tell you that the drivers that comes with ME is the latest available!

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[Ovi]

Hi Guru
Unfortunately there are no Win Me drivers available for my sound card at www.soundblaster.com .What I was wondering is that although hardware acceleration is enabled,would it be used in games for 3D sound or would software mode be used?
Thanks
Cheers
Ovi

[Ovi]

Anyone??????

[Jorden]

One good thing about WinME: It's totally backward compatible with drivers for Win98 or even Win95. So YES, you can install the Win9x drivers for your soundcard in WinME. Just say NO to everything asking "I got Newer Drivers installed, do you want me to keep this file?"

Jord, still sporting a very good and working SB32 PnP (ISA)

[High_Jumbllama]

One thing is to make sure to use the inf files when installing. While the drivers do work, sometimes the automatic driver install programs do not.

At least this is what happened with my Live before the ME drivers came out.


The software buffers and MIDI are probably due to Microsoft's practice of supporting graphics and sound cards. They put enough into the driver for the card to work but with sound cards for some reason, they do not always enable all the advanced features. They'll support media player and basic playback but not much else.

[Ovi]

Hi High_Jumbllama
The same thing happened with my sound card. After reading Jorden's post,I decided to install the Win98 drivers thru the setup program. It seemed to go fine,but when the computer rebooted,the WDM drivers were still there. Then I used the inf file which finally installed the proper drivers!
Thanks
Cheers
Ovi

[Gurm]

Ovi,

That's because all the setup program does is add in the new inf file, and then remove the device and restart the computer. HOWEVER, when windows reboots it won't use the "new" .inf file because the drivers that come with ME are "newer" according to datestamp. In fact, some of the files in Creatives driver packs tend to be ANCIENT (1995, 1996) which is what creates problems for them in the first place. I've discovered that the setup program almost NEVER works properly.

- Gurm

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[Ovi]

Hi Gurm
That's exactly what happened in my case. All setup did was change the startup sound.The funny part is that it created a shortcut for the mixer starter in the start menu,but the program was not actually installed!!
Cheers
Ovi