Audigy 2 ZS Platinum - heavily bloated software

[Ogewo]

I just installed this card and some of the software that came with it and I'm really upset at how much memory is now being eaten up! Even using the remote will throw another 20-40 megs into memory. Whatever performance advantage you gain from having this card must surely be negated by the excessive memory usage.

Anyone else peeved about this? Can some stuff be uninstalled without sacrificing game performance and audio quality? I searched around but couldn't find any discussions on this topic. Maybe people with a gig of RAM don't really care, but with 512mb I can't spare 40-80mb for a sound card.

 

[BFG10K]

Just install the raw drivers and nothing else. They're about 2 MB on disk and the card runs just fine without the rest of the software.

 

[Ogewo]

Won't be missing any of the fancy EAX, surround sound, etc features that way? I'll try loading nothing but drivers tomorrow, see how she runs.

 

[BFG10K]

No. If games support EAX or multi-channel sound they'll use it through the drivers.

The fancy Creative applications you install are just basically media players, nothing else.

 

[Ogewo]

I see......thanks mate.

 

[AIWGuru]

That's because you suck at teh msconfig.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: AIWGuru
That's because you suck at teh msconfig.

Haha! Most people haven't even heard of the most useful application that comes with Windows: msconfig. I've seen people who had hardly any memory (or system resources, which is even worse), after they booted into Windows, because they had installed a few things like anti-virus software and a video card and sound card.

 

[Ogewo]

The point was I wanted to find out if I actually needed any of that software for the card to perform properly. Since I now know I do not need the software, uninstalling it makes much more sense than just removing it from msconfig.

myocardia: yeah I feel awful when i see people running norton utilities, a pop-up blocker, aol, aim, yahoo, msn, print monitor, task scheduler, etc..... sometimes their legitimate programs cause as much grief as the spyware does.

 

[myocardia]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've spent <5 minutes messing with people's computer (and never opened anything except msconfig), and it was roughly twice as fast when I walked away from it (after the reboot, of course). Hey, you don't want to remove all of that software. The "Audio HQ" and the "Surround Mixer" are both well worth having, and neither of them loads on startup.

 

[AIWGuru]

The point was I wanted to find out if I actually needed any of that software for the card to perform properly. Since I now know I do not need the software, uninstalling it makes much more sense than just removing it from msconfig.

well, you sort of DO need the software.
Actually, the only software that you need running at startup is the remote software.
If you're not using the remote, you don't need anything in startup.
However, if you want cool features like selecting EAX effects and screwing around with them in detail while you have your guitar plugged into the front, you need the software (but not in startup)
AND if you want your speakers to turn off when you plug in your headphones, you need the software (but not in startup)

But complaining about the extra software for extra functionality is like complaining about extra software with an All in Wonder.

 

[beatle]

Some of the software is pretty nice to have, especially the setup utilities that allows you to change delay and volume levels. This is especially useful if you output to something other than a home theater receiver. CMSS is also well done, and sounds great in games.

Also, you won't be able to play DVD-Audio without Creative's player... it's the only way.

If you're running a 2 channel setup, you probably don't need any of the software.

 

[c0oKi3]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Yeah, I know what you mean. I've spent <5 minutes messing with people's computer (and never opened anything except msconfig), and it was roughly twice as fast when I walked away from it (after the reboot, of course). Hey, you don't want to remove all of that software. The "Audio HQ" and the "Surround Mixer" are both well worth having, and neither of them loads on startup.

sorry to be off topic... but... what did u tweak from msconfig?
just the startup? and also how could i know which ones are safe to be disabled?
cos my startup list is approx 50 items long.

 

[beatle]

This site is a Godsend when using msconfig and looking for suspicious processes. What a hero! The site can be a bit flaky sometimes, but it'll usually work.

Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have msconfig but there are alternatives such as Startup Control Panel.

 

[MangoTBG]

I've recently reloaded windows (my memory usage was unusually high and my system just felt unusually unstable). After reading this thread I went with just loading the drivers (I have an Audigy 2). Now I only have the front two speakers working on my Logitech Z560s. Is there a way to enable the rear 2 speakers without loading the software up? I'd hate to have to do that.

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: beatle
This site is a Godsend when using msconfig and looking for suspicious processes. What a hero! The site can be a bit flaky sometimes, but it'll usually work.

Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have msconfig but there are alternatives such as Startup Control Panel.

1st link is down for me...

 

[John]

Originally posted by: dquan97

Originally posted by: beatle
This site is a Godsend when using msconfig and looking for suspicious processes. What a hero! The site can be a bit flaky sometimes, but it'll usually work.

Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have msconfig but there are alternatives such as Startup Control Panel.

1st link is down for me...

TASK LIST PROGRAMS: (including WinNT4/2000/XP/2003 Services)

 

[ginfest]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: dquan97

Originally posted by: beatle
This site is a Godsend when using msconfig and looking for suspicious processes. What a hero! The site can be a bit flaky sometimes, but it'll usually work.

Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have msconfig but there are alternatives such as Startup Control Panel.

1st link is down for me...

TASK LIST PROGRAMS: (including WinNT4/2000/XP/2003 Services)

Nice site, never saw that one b/4 but it's book-marked now

thanks,

Mike G