Sound Blaster AudigyEX XP Firewire

[drfatal]

Does any know to install or have just the firewire drivers for XP?

[dx]

Hmmm...I'm not entirely sure what you are asking for my friend. The Firewire device that is integrated into your Audigy device has drivers on your Creative CD and at the Creative website.

If however, you are having problems getting a device to work on this connection...join the millions of dupes (like me) who bought this card in part for the Firewire connection. As always, Creative makes very good hardware...it's their drivers that suck.

Many devices will not work on this device...most especially Firewire Hard Drives. Also, there are quite a few Firewire video cameras that have troubles. It seems Creative made the connection mainly compatable for Firewire audio devices...esp. their own audio devices...but forgot to tell the marketing department, who is advertising it as a fully compliant Firewire device.

Big suprise Creative does this all the time

If you need a REAL Firewire connection its best to go buy one. However, you are going to have to dump the Audigy...as the drivers conflict eachother...oops they did it again

BTW, Creative just announced a new audio device that should solve some of these problems...the Audigy 2 only $129.99 at a store near you starting in late October Note to Creative...NO THANK YOU!

Sorry, I tend to rant when it comes to Creative If this is not your problem, post again to clarify the issue. I promise not to rant so much

[Almighty1]

dxkim,

I have the Internal version of the Audgy Platinum. I never knew the Firewire had drivers from Creative since mines uses the ones built into WinXP. I am having a problem where the HP DVD200e DVD+RW drive light goes off after one minute when burning Audio CD's.

[lore]

dxkim knows very well how many problems the audigy gave me..eheh So first, guys if you r planning to buy one then you shouldn't

About Firewire, yes don't install any driver from creative.. XP comes with drivers for it so no need. I had no problems with it, I use it mainly for my Sony DV cam and it works fine but I know there's a lot of people reporting troubles with many devices.

Good luck then

[mafiamann]

i have a audigy too and i regret it. and after a few hours.. the hardware sound support is gone.. disabled and has been that way after that ieee 1394 port dead.. with a " ! " on it in the device mananger.

so im back to my old soundblaster live 1024 it rocks .)

but i wanna buy a new sound card anyone here know a good soundcard ?

[Almighty1]

lore,

I never knew Creative had their own drivers for the Firewire. I dunno if my problem is the Creative card or just firewire support in Microsoft Windows XP not working with media devices for some reason.

[dx]

Originally posted by Almighty1
dxkim,

I have the Internal version of the Audgy Platinum. I never knew the Firewire had drivers from Creative since mines uses the ones built into WinXP

That's because the drivers are not entirely WinXP drivers. As it was explained to me...the Creative Firewire device is not entirely up to Firewire specifications especially the latest Oxford 911 spec. which most modern Firewire devices require (like Hard Drives).

It seems that the Creative Firewire device is a hybrid device that is part hardware and part software driven. Thus there is a little driver that is in the main Audigy software install. It is NOT an option that you can deselect on install as it would cause the whole device to malfunction. It shows up as a Firewire device in Windows, but it needs this little driver for Windows to recognise the the imbedded Firewire device as such.

But therein lies the problem. Creative is not known for their software drivers. It seems whenever there is a driver update, it seems to favor Creative devices mostly (big suprise). Sony Firewire devices also seem to work as well (esp DV cameras)...others are a bit of a crapshoot. Now, Creative could make it more compatable with other devices...but why bother when the Audigy 2, which has a true dedicated fully Oxford 911 compliant chip onboard that is comming out this month?! Creative is aware of the incompatability (for some time now), but Creative originally designed it for audio and DV...Oxford 911 compliant devices were not.

Another big problem is that if your Mobo has onboard Firewire or you want to add a dedicated PCI card to get around the compatablilty...you are screwed. It seems the the Creative drivers and the Windows drivers for a true Firewire device conflict and cause both to malfunction. Since you cannot disable the Creative Firewire device you have to disable the other Firewire device...and now you are back to where you started.

This driver conflict is a bit of a blame game...Creative blames Windows and Windows blames Creative. If this sounds familiar...this same exact scenario was happeneing 1 year ago between these two companies over the Sound Blaster Live and the Audigy's drivers. Nothing changes

Personally as much as I would like to blame this on Windows, its really Creative and their crappy drivers that is the problem.

Moral of the don't buy Creative.

BTW, don't bother buying an Audigy 2...a little known secret is that it's DCMA compliant. So even if you want play that mp3 or Windows media file, if its copy protected, it won't play Since when is an Audio card supposed to do that?!

[TELIOS]

drfatal

i had the same problem with winxp and firewire card
and then i read an article
at h**p://w*w.tweakxp.com
"data invalid fix for winxp problem"
maybe it will help you

[Almighty1]

Thanks for the explanation dxkim... I only bought the SB Audigy Platinum because of the features and it's PCI. I had a Terratec AudioSystem EWS64XL before but I wished Terratec had something that has all the I/O on it and the same compatibility options since that was a $500 soundcard. The Audigy 2 does have DMCA but I bet there is a way around it and it does play DVD-Audio Multi-channel so I guess you win some and you lose some. Maybe the DMCA is only if you use their software to play the files and not when you use third party applications.

[dx]

Almighty1...no problem with the explanation.

If you want good Firewire...purchase a dedicated PCI card for it. Adaptec, Western Digital, and Maxtor all make good Oxford 911 compiant firewire cards. I have used all three without incident on various PCs and MACs.

As far as the Audigy 2...yes, if it is software DCMA there will surely be a hack. However, I have heard that it may use hardware DCMA which has the potential to cause all sorts of problems. Guess we will find out in the next 2 weeks as the Audigy 2 becomes available.

[Almighty1]

dxkim,

But I thought you said you can't have a good firewire card co-exist with the Audigy Platinum?

[dx]

They usually do not work properly on the same Mobo...as I mentioned earlier. Some are lucky and have gotten them to work together, but most have problems.

But then again if you followed my advice, you would have already dumped the Audigy and thus your shiny new Firewire card would not have a crappy sound card to conflict with...now would it!

A great all around digital sound card, is the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I have yet to hear bad things said about it especially conflicts with other hardware or various incarnations of Windows.

[Almighty1]

The problem is none of the current crop of soundcards meets the number of Digital I/O's I needed. I had a Terratec AudioSystem EWS64XL which was good but the problem is it's ISA only and not PCI and the Audigy was about the only thing that had everything in the specs even though all SoundBlaster products have been crap. I'm not a believer of SB or Creative Labs products since using soundcards about 12 years ago... There was the Adlib and then there was the ProAudio Spectrum which were good at the beginning but Roland was always the best soundcard.... Advanced Gravis came out with the Gravis UltraSound which was good as it was WaveTable Synthesis while SB and the others were all FM back then.... The GUS was the board that started the loadable patches and had CD quality sound as well as on board memory and uses no cpu time. I ran the GUS Mailing Lists from 1993-now and had the original GUS, the GUS Max and even the GUS PnP. Those were truly the good cards then Advanced Gravis stopped making soundcards due to money problems and the company got sold to Kensington... That's when I picked up the Terratec for $600US.... After 5 years, the Audigy seemed to have stuff going for it as Creative Labs bought out Ensoniq and Emu which are one of the famous synthesizer companies besides Roland, Yamaha, Korg and some others. But then there was no new Terratec on the market which uses the DREAM chipset.... There was something but it was the Gullermot/Hercules high-end cards but I think it didn't support WinXP at all. The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz isn't bad but it's more like a basic soundcard and I'm sorta a audiophile and the Hercules GameTheater is basically the same card but it lacks certain things the Audigy has so hopefully the Audigy2 is better since no one else has THX Certification and can play DVD-Audio formats