Acoustic Edge + WinXP = Bad?

[Audiofight]

System specs:

P4 2.4C @ 3.33 GHz
P4P800
512 MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX
WD Raptor hdd
Radeon 9200 128MB
16/40 DVD-rom
52/24/52 cd-rw
Zip100
floppy
Acoustic Edge sound card

I have installed the sound card using the drivers supplied on the cdrom. It installed without a hitch...but whenever I first enter WinXP, it will make a cracking sound right before playing the proper sound. I have also had nothing but problems trying to uncompress the latest drivers from the Phillips website. I have gotten a "Catastrophic Error" every time. I have downloaded the drivers twice and used a burnt copy off a cd-r.

Anyone else having problems like these?


EDIT:

I finally managed to "unzip" the installer .exe file. I used a different computer and then copied the driver folder over to my main system. I think the installer doesn't approve of SMP or HyperThreaded systems. I have run into some other software that doesn't approve of HT either. The new drivers really made a nice difference.

No more crackling like a SBLive!

But, I still can't get 5.1 sound output to work other than stereo, which sucks. I don't want to have to use analog cables to get a decent 4 point sound. If I wanted that, I would've used the integrated SoundMax audio on my motherboard.

Oh well, nothing will be as good as my old nForce2 mobo, should've kept it around I guess........🙁

 

[boyRacer]

My drivers were fine... but some games were just hit or miss... i would get lockups... or crashes... or in some games it would just run perfectly. 🙁 I'm assuming its from lack of driver support from Philips. It was a great card really... i bought it for its 3d positioning... but I don't know why Philips just abandoned development for it. 🙁

 

[Audiofight]

I editted my original message with the updates.

Bump for more help

 

[holdencommodore]

But, I still can't get 5.1 sound output to work other than stereo, which sucks. I don't want to have to use analog cables to get a decent 4 point sound. If I wanted that, I would've used the integrated SoundMax audio on my motherboard.

Almost all soundcards will not output 5.1 channel digital sound, unless the file is specifically encoded (like DVD's) - nForce is the only one I know of that has a built in encoder (although C-Media is planning a similar solution). If you want to get multi-channel sound from all sources easily, you will have to use analog unfortunately.

Cheers

 

[Audiofight]

Thanks for confirming my initial fear.

I guess I will have to wait until C-Media comes out with something....cause I hate analog outputs and my speakers (5.1 setup) only have front and rear analog inputs. Digital is the only way to get the center channel to work....

 

[boyRacer]

My acoustic edge always expanded all sources, be it MP3s or games, to all my speakers. It should have been in the driver settings.

 

[Audiofight]

In the driver settings, all I have to choose from is:

Disabled
Front Right and Left speakers
Rear Right and Left Speakers (which still only uses the fronts)
Center and LFE (which also makes use of the fronts, but in a different way)
AC3 passthrough...(which does nothing at all for sound in the test)

 

[boyRacer]

Isn't there another tab somewhere? Does it look like this? I just have the 5.1 selected and the Expand All option checked.

 

[Audiofight]

I just enabled everything like you suggested (obviously the manuals suggestions are outdated, thus my setting choices)

What program are you using to expand the sound to all 5 speakers for MP3 playback? I have it set to 5.1 and the speaker test only works with the fronts.

When I play an MP3, it just sounds like a moderate quality stereo source....

 

[whitelight]

the drivers should automatically expand your audio source. there isn't another program you need. try seeing if the sounds expand when you use the analog cables instead of the digital one.

 

[boyRacer]

Yeah... i just use windows media player but the drivers should expand all sources anyway. MP3s are still in sterero but they're coming out through all speakers. I can upload the driver i use if you want... i got it off an acoustic edge forum... its supposed to be beta drivers but i have no clue if it was ever finalized.

 

[holdencommodore]

QSounds QMSS will only expand sources for analog speakers. It will not work on digital (SPDIF) speaker systems. You will only get 2 channel sound with these speakers, 5.1 channels will be used for DVD's and other files encoded with AC3 or DTS etc...

Cheers