[Fury]

One customer contacted our tech support about similar problem not too long ago, never heard of similar happening before. I couldn't find any clues back then, but I guess it happens because your user profile gets somehow corrupted or XP cannot overwrite old settings. Try create a new user account and test if it happens with new account as well, if it doesn't, use new account instead of old one and delete old account.

Don't forget to check old user's my document's folder for any stuff that should be moved to new account.

[jr2]

If someone wanted more info/help, they might try these forums.  (Since http://www.autopatcher.com/ is still under construction.)

Autopatcher:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=89
Autostreamer:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562

[CP5670]

One customer contacted our tech support about similar problem not too long ago, never heard of similar happening before. I couldn't find any clues back then, but I guess it happens because your user profile gets somehow corrupted or XP cannot overwrite old settings. Try create a new user account and test if it happens with new account as well, if it doesn't, use new account instead of old one and delete old account.

Don't forget to check old user's my document's folder for any stuff that should be moved to new account.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. It does seem to be some issue with the user accounts, as I put SP2 on my other machine and the problem doesn't occur there.

The setting that's not getting saved (or possibly getting overwritten by the login account settings) appears to be the "windows and buttons" thing in the display properties appearances tab. Do you happen to know where the values for these things are stored in the registry?

[CP5670]

Well, I got that problem fixed by just disabling the themes service. That works out nicely; the less services running, the better.

On a side note, I unfortunately made a huge error with something else I did: I decided to update the Creative sound card drivers. The update not only didn't work, but it messed up something really badly. I can't reinstall the original driver, and I still have no sound working despite struggling with this for the last two hours. If I try to install the driver (the original one on the CD) manually through the device manager, it fails and just gives the error "The data is invalid." Do any of you know what that means?

Man, I really wish I had stayed away from that stupid update. Everything was working fine before.

[CP5670]

Okay, I have concluded that either SP2, the Audigy drivers or both were written by monkeys. I got fed up with trying the various fixes I was finding on obscure internet forums and decided to try uninstalling SP2 as a last resort, and the drivers then installed perfectly. I still don't have everything working correctly - the control panel and utilities won't load up, so I can't use the reverb effects I normally have on - but the drivers themselves now work and I am getting sound again. I might give the updated drivers another try and see if I can get the utilities working again.

The dual core hotfix no longer works, but that might actually be a good thing. It seems that the Unreal-based games that were previously having dual core related problems with that installed now suddenly work fine. Some "hotfix" that is.

I used to think all the complaints about SP2 were blown out of proportion, but the chances of me reinstalling that piece of crap on my main system are about as high as those of FS3 coming out.

[Fury]

One word; slipstream.

[Nix]

Just bite the bullet and reinstall your OS.  That's the ONLY way to see SP2 in it's PROPER state.  Like we've both said, installing it over an installation that already has it's own little quirks, is going to give you dissapointing results.  Do not write it off untill you do a slipstream, Things will be better.

Also, remember when I posted about the new X-Fi cards coming out?  Nearly EVERYONE who still uses an Audigy 1 will have problems with SP2 and drivers.  The driver set created by Creative Labs plain sucks.  You'll have to install the drivers manually, meaning before your install program closes, go rooting through the temp directory and pull the extracted driver files away from the temp folder, then run the CTZAPXX app in one of the folders there, and choose Driver Installation.  Reboot, and use CTPanel to control the card from there.  If you get fed up, consider getting an X-Fi, the basic model, as it's much better than the audgy 1, 2, whatever card before it, the X-Fi is much better.  The drivers are much better than the Audigy drivers as well, I believe there's been a few updates, and they all work fine.


@ Kosh

If you're absolutely convinced that your drive is dead, then get a livecd image of a various linux distro and boot into it using the faulty drive.  That'll definetly put your drive through it's paces and should tell you if the drive is failing.  If you can't boot from a burned CD, then your drive is failing.  And, no, SP2 will not cause your optical drive to just go belly up, it could be anything.  Age, faulty components, or just plain being used till it's wore out.  If the drive is a combo drive, it'll go out way faster than a normal CD reader drive.  I have an old mitsumi 4X that eats discs due to a goofed up retainer, but it still runs and reads.  Every single combo or DVD drive I've owned except for the two in my case right now has died in the past. 

[Fury]

Not all is well in the X-Fi land either.

[Nix]

Funny..  A lot of people have had problems with the Audigy cards on Via chipsets, which is what I have, and had mega uber problems with my Audigy 1.  Using the same chipset, I've had absolutely no problems with popping or crackling on my system.  The only thing that hasn't worked properly for me was the game Savage.  It would not play back the sound effects, just the boring music.  But yeah, I'll have to spend some time out and read this behemoth.  Nice find.

[CP5670]

Just bite the bullet and reinstall your OS.  That's the ONLY way to see SP2 in it's PROPER state.  Like we've both said, installing it over an installation that already has it's own little quirks, is going to give you dissapointing results.  Do not write it off untill you do a slipstream, Things will be better.

Also, remember when I posted about the new X-Fi cards coming out?  Nearly EVERYONE who still uses an Audigy 1 will have problems with SP2 and drivers.  The driver set created by Creative Labs plain sucks.  You'll have to install the drivers manually, meaning before your install program closes, go rooting through the temp directory and pull the extracted driver files away from the temp folder, then run the CTZAPXX app in one of the folders there, and choose Driver Installation.  Reboot, and use CTPanel to control the card from there.  If you get fed up, consider getting an X-Fi, the basic model, as it's much better than the audgy 1, 2, whatever card before it, the X-Fi is much better.  The drivers are much better than the Audigy drivers as well, I believe there's been a few updates, and they all work fine.

Well, from what you're saying it looks like the Audigy 2 drivers are the source of the problem. The thing is that they pretty much worked fine with SP2 before I got the updated ones, so the problem seems to be with the installer. The only reason I got the update was that BF2 was causing some weird problems with the global audio effects, and I read somewhere that the update fixes that.

I was actually planning to buy an xtrememusic card in a few days, but I'll have to think long and hard about that now. It's obvious that Creative can't write drivers worth ****. Maybe I'll pick it up at the local Best Buy tomorrow and give it a try anyway, and just return it if it doesn't work. Do the X-fi drivers install AOL ads on your system like the Audigy 2 ones?

I might have to reinstall XP anyway at this point, so I guess I might as well try it again, as the dual core hotfix seems to be needed for some other games. I suppose it would give me a reason to move off this old hard drive to the newer one I got anyway.

By the way, I have heard of some third party drivers called the KX drivers. Are those a viable alternative to the Creative set?

[Fury]

Audigy 2 ZS has worked for me perfectly with XP SP2, but I have NEVER installed the original Audigy 2 drivers from the installation media. After you have reinstalled XP, download the latest Audigy 2 drivers from Creative's site and install those, don't even bother installing anything from the discs that came with the card. I have never seen any AOL ads on my computer, just install the drivers from Creative's site and forget the installation media.

kX drivers does not support EAX, and since the last official kX driver release was early 2004, I don't see these drivers as a viable option for gamers.

And before you reinstall XP, please do slipstream. Countless of guides out there, if you don't fancy the guide I linked in previous thread page, google for "Windows XP Service Pack 2 slipstream" and you'll find more.

And really, you should never install any drivers or software from the discs that comes with the hardware but instead download and install the latest versions of drivers available from the manufacturer. There are a few exceptions to this golden rule, like a certain software not being available for download but is on a disc. But anyway, always install the latest drivers available from hardware manufacturer. Installing old drivers and then updating these drivers is a bad choice and may cause problems, especially with ****ty drivers such as Sound Blaster drivers. And later it is always for the best to uninstall current drivers for before updating, this most likely saves you a bit of trouble in the long run.

[CP5670]

I generally do that, but the CD drivers were the latest ones back when I bought the card, and I hadn't bothered to update them until now. I'm actually wishing I had just ignored the drivers on the Creative site, which are what started all the problems.

I'll try the slipstream thing this time, but I want to make sure that it will actually work. From my experience, the Audigy 2 driver installer works okay with SP1 but hates SP2, so if I'm going to stay with this card it might be better to install SP1, then the drivers, and then the SP2 update. Although I have just about had enough of these drivers and will probably give that X-fi a try instead, as I was going to buy that soon anyway.

[Fury]

Like I said, I haven't had the slightest problem with installing the latest Audigy 2 ZS drivers from Creative on SP2. Don't install SP2 on top of vanilla XP or XP SP1 if you have the choice of using a slipstream.

And you might want to read the link about X-Fi's I posted earlier. (My second post on this page)

[CP5670]

Yeah, I've heard of that crackling problem and it sounds pretty bad. That being said, I have also seen widespread complaints about a somewhat similar problem with the Audigy 2 (the squeal of death), but I've never run into that myself. These cards really seem to be hit or miss, but if I buy it from a B&M store and it doesn't work, I can return it easily. From what I'm reading this card seems to have better driver support than the Audigy 2, which alone might make it worth the upgrade. Even before all this, a number of EAX enabled games were resetting the options for the global environmental effects with the Audigy 2, and I'm getting rather tired of that now.

Are there any alternatives to Creative that work well for games? I've seen people recommending M-Audio cards, but those seem to be geared towards audio professionals rather than gamers.

[Fury]

For gamers there really aren't alternatives. However, I'd still recommend you to try your Audigy 2 with latest drivers after you have reinstalled XP, you might be surprised positively and want to hold off with that X-Fi upgrade.

[CP5670]

Everything seems to be working fine now. I decided to get an x-fi, especially as I needed some sound card (the Audigy 2) for my other computer anyway. I made a slipstreamed SP2 CD and just put it on top of my existing SP1 install, and I haven't run into any problems this time. If I still have issues I can do a clean install, but for now it looks like I can avoid that hassle.

The x-fi is actually better than I expected. The control panel is much more clean and resource-efficient than the Audigy one, and games and music (particularly midis) both exhibit subtle but noticeable improvements over the Audigy 2. The extreme highs and lows especially sound quite a bit clearer, and several games sound better just because EAX is actually working correctly in them now.

That being said, it seems that the Audigy 2 had a lot more of the global EAX environmental effects and options for customizing them. I might just be looking in the wrong place though.

Nix, do you happen to know if there is any way to get reverb on midis on these cards? My old Live 5.1 can do this but only in 98/ME, while the Audigy 2 can't do it at all.

[Nix]

Reverb on midis, I don't know if it can be done or not.  I remember using my old Audigy, there was an EAX panel or something, that allowed you to select an input, apply reverb/echo/EAXpreset to it, then save the settings to a preset file.  Unfortunately, I dont think the X-Fi has that.  Try looking in the Soundfont manager, and/or in the 3D Midi player.  I think you can add effects there, and it *might* be able to apply your changes globally, so you wont have to use thier goofy looking software.

I've  had no problems on my system, and I think it's a great card.  I think the popping/crackling problems happen mainly on Nforce4 boards, instead of the VIA boards, which is what I have.  I've had mine since January, so I'm thinking if it doesnt start going out anytime soon, it'll last for quite a while.  My Audigy 1 still works fine, but the drivers provided for it on XP are terrible.  98's drivers are a lot better, as this card was released back when 98 was still the hot home OS to use...  Oh well. 

BTW, if you do get a pair of DT-770's, you should notice a difference between cards.  The X-Fi is quieter than the Audigy, background noise wise.  No strange hissing or humming. 

[Kosh]

My Audigy 1 still works fine, but the drivers provided for it on XP are terrible.

If it did everything right with no issues, it wouldn't be a Creative driver.

[Descenterace]

The only problem I've ever had with my Live! card drivers was a tendancy for speaker layout options to go missing, requiring a reinstall. This problem seems to have stopped, though, because the last reinstall was around December and everything's still fine.

Of course, this could have something to do with the system spending less than a third of its uptime in Windows since I got Gentoo working.

[Cyker]

My Audigy 1 still works fine, but the drivers provided for it on XP are terrible.

If it did everything right with no issues, it wouldn't be a Creative driver.

That is sooo true

It all started after they bought Ensoniq and made PCI cards. ALL their PCI cards suck - They follow PCI specs very loosely, which is why they always seem to have trouble cropping up.
With chipsets which are designed to be very relaxed, e.g. Intel, they tend to be okay, but stuff that strictly follows PCI specs always has trouble.

And Creative cannot write drivers for ****.
I had been hoping they would pull and ATI and start making decent drivers, but nope. They are still like the Rage128 era ATI.


I'm just bitter Gravis and Aureal went out of business, because as others have said, there are NO alternatives now