Damn Creative, Damn them to hell!!!

[kane2g]

Since the forums were down. I finally decided to do something usefull that i was putting off for about a week now. Installing a Soundblaster PCI128 card in a Win98 machine.
Seemed so simple and easy.
Since I got the card off forums or ebay or somewhere, it didnt come with drivers. So I went to Creative's site and downloaded them.
The card got recognized in windows startup, but the file was a exe so i had to run it from windows. Than i get a fatal exception error when i try to run it. Hmm, download another 4MB file (about 20 mins on dialup) and try again, Same thing. They have couple of other files that i tried (all 3-6Mb in size) all failed!!!!!!!
I finally went to driverreview.com and found a zip file with the right drivers!!! A simple 10 min install turned into a 3hr project!!!
And still none of the files of the Crative site worked!!!
I say damn them!!!!!!!

OK, I'm done venting, and i feel better.
:cheers:

[Wiggo]

Good because ya don't need sound to crunch SETI w/u's. :D

[0R1()N]

lol, I feel for ya bro....lol ya creative I can name about 20 different incenadences that occured with my card that made me want to post somethnig similar. I mean how on earth can a sound card be so volitale that If the drivers corrupt, I have to go and remove 259 reg enteries. Also another thing that really ticked me off with creative was when I first got my computer I had creative play center 2, and it rocked,but unfortuneatley windows coulden't wait the 9 months to birth its first antichrist child...i.e. total metldown and I had to reformat. To make a long story short....Dell, ah yes them again... :mad: forgot to give me the creative play center 2 disk so I spent 1 hour searching their site, which I couldn't understand the navigation right away and diden't want to take the time to anyhow...:shrug: grrrrr....Finally called last-tech-resort...i.e. tehcsupport...and they said," You have to call dell and have them ship you the playcenter disk 2, becasue you can't upgrade from version 1 to version 2....akkkkk...:thumbs do oh well group hug :group:

[kane2g]

Good because ya don't need sound to crunch SETI w/u's. :D

Well its actually my buddies system. Its no good for SETI. Its a compaq P150. hehe. For whatever reason, It needs a 2gig or less bootable drive. That means we got 800MB disk with stripped down 98 to boot, and 10gig drive of MP3s.
Its soul purpose is to play MP3s. I wish i could find something better to do it. But he's on a budget. I told him that next time it breaks, Its going into garbage!!! I hate working on that thing@!

[Mr. C]

I've never had a Creative product.............and , I never will

Funny isn't it, they produced the widely accepted "SB standard" that sound cards use, but haven't made a Class A product in years.

Just shows you the value of marketing!
Don't need a decent product -- just need a lot of people to recognize the name:confused:

[kane2g]

NOT THIS AGAIN!!!!!! GRRRRRR :mad: :mad:
I was replacing a modem for someone at work. Picked up first thing I saw of the shelf. I ran the install the way it recomended. Upon reboot. windows freezes!!!! I run safe mode, remove the speakerphone option. boots fine. go to use the modem. FREEEEZEE!!! I got to trying to look on manf. website, Its CREATIVE!!!!!! OMFG. I will never have anything by them again!!! This is the ghayest company I've ever seen!!!!!!
NO MORE CLabs FOR ME!!!!!!! :grr: :grr:

[The__tweaker]

hmm, i've used Creative cards in many many setups, both vga and audio.. Never a single problem with the hardware and software.. great products! Or am I just damn lucky..:?:

:cheers:

[Mr. C]

Never investigated their video offerings:?:

As to audio, poor drivers, huge patches, tale after tale of incompatibility, and after all is said and done poor sound quality compared to products selling at 1/2 the price = enough to keep me away.

But perhaps I'm just picky:laugh:

[Suicide]

Never investigated their video offerings:?:

As to audio, poor drivers, huge patches, tale after tale of incompatibility, and after all is said and done poor sound quality compared to products selling at 1/2 the price = enough to keep me away.

But perhaps I'm just picky:laugh:

Not only that, but onboard sound these days is very decent... I sold my audigy for a couple bucks (yes single digits heh) because of all the probs and the sound on it ain't any better than the onboard sound on my mobo... and it came with the mobo.

[Mr. C]

Makes you want to run right out and price the vid cards doesn't it:rolleyes:

[The__tweaker]

Oh well, i'm going to get me an Audigy2 card for my next machine anyway.. can't really say those cards give ya bad sound now can you.. :thumb:

:cheers:

[0R1()N]

well before I dig my hole any deeper I llike creative....however I don't think its them ,cause I never had any problems with their modems. It must be the motherboard's on board sound that will start conflicing with any other sound card or programs that like raising hell with my computer. I thinks its more that than anything else , cause I know that certain programs will, what seems like, on purposely corrupt and then when you uninstall them they kill everything else.


But zoom is really good, my external usb modem rocks! It also came with a good software bundle, zonealarm, ie 5.0, za pro, photoshop, and other programs.

[Mr. C]

Oh well, i'm going to get me an Audigy2 card for my next machine anyway.. can't really say those cards give ya bad sound now can you.. :thumb:

:cheers:

Nope, never did I say it was bad sound -- just decent sound at a high price.
If it is sound quality you are after, cut your expenditure and get a Turtle Beach -- great sound, less money.

Personally, I went the Hercules route. Real nice sound, and some features that I truly enjoy.

[sKuLLsHoT]

yeah so did i - for fear of compatibility problems with my kt133 system i went to hercules for sound over creative - great choice, sorta, there just happens to be a compatibility issue with the GTXP so specific that i happen to fit it perfectly - game theatre dont like bein in a system with HPT370 controller and either the latest bios or drive for the chipset, which, i had update the firmware for it so i had the prob - all it results in is ****ty sound music for wotever reason...anyhoo i got over that and threw it on my movie PC

enuff about that - the probs described here with that system - i prolly wouldnt directly blame creative - it will most likely be IRQ setup/lack of resources be it either lack of IRQs or lack of memory/balls to do what u want - is it a winmodem by chance (being that it relies on cpu for processing)?

[C_deck]

I usually have a lot of luck with Creative 128's. The other day I installed one in a KT133 with the current drivers. I had a half dozen problems until I downloaded an older set too. I guess they are not testing newer drivers on older hardware (typical tho).