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Best SoundCard w/Via Chipset & Win2k?

D

DrMoreau

Banned
I went through the SB LIve hell over a year ago and have been using the Philips Acoustic Edge. But it still has problems when doing certain things like adjusting the volume from anywhere other than the Acoustic Edge Sound Panel, and sometimes crashes on games.

Everything got worse when I upgraded to the most recent drivers, wdm version 1.57, so I reverted back to the original drivers. Go figure!

I've read that either the Santa Cruz or the Hercules Game Theatre XP is good for the Via Chipset and wondered if there was anyone with actual experience who can testify to this and to which one is really the best. What are some of the problems with each one?

I have an Asus CUV-4xD dual processor mb with the Via4in1 4.37 drivers installed and running Win2k.
 
Hercules Fortissimo II is a cheaper option. Newegg has it for $35 or so. I believe it uses the same chip as the santa cruz.
 
[Sorry for the thread hijack]

Flood you never responded to my PM about you oweing me a Heatware evaluation for the switch I bought off you a while ago.
 


<< [Sorry for the thread hijack]

Flood you never responded to my PM about you oweing me a Heatware evaluation for the switch I bought off you a while ago. >>



I believe I left you some heatware the other week or so. PM me if i didnt.
 
I ran the Santa Cruz on an Iwill KK266-R & Win 2K for many months. Absolutely flawless performance and killer driver support. In fact, TB just released some new ones.
 


<< 🙁

SB Live "hell"?

I have used SB Live cards on a variety of Asus boards without a problem.

Jack >>



It's not just a matter of the mb being Asus but any mb using the Via Chipset. Both Creative and Via have since released fixes for these but I have no desire to go back to the SB Live.
 
I still would like to hear people's experiences with the Santa Cruz and the Hercules on Via based mb, but to be honest I do like the Philips Acoustic Edge. Especially its abiltiy to create 5.1 positional audio for games. If only I could get it stable!

So if anyone could point me in the direction of some possible solutions that would be better for me than purchasing a new card.

Specifically, my problems with the Philips are that it will cause my computer to hang if I try to adjust the volume through the Windows volume control or the volume controls on my Logitech keyboard. When this happens my only recourse is to reboot.

Also it will sometimes crash with a BSOD during game play saying something about ntoskrnl.dll. This problem was infact rare until I upgraded to the new drivers provided by Philips, after which it would crash without fail anytime I try to play a game. After reverting back to the original drivers it didn't crash as much during game play but would still crash on occasion, particulary if I launched Motorcross Madness 2. Crashing in games is certainly not as rare as it was before I attempted the driver upgrade!

 
my santa cruz performed like a champ in win2k...performs like a champ in winxp now

using a 686a southbridge (VIA)
 
I wouldn't part with ANY of my Hercules GTXP's, I have 3 of them running on various systems, all running flawlessly, 1 running on a Tyan K7 Thunder, 1 running on a MSI K7T266, and 1 running on a Abit KG-7 and all have been extremely stable and the break out box is unbeatable. The sound quality is great and the convenience of 4 extra USB ports, headphone jack, line in and out , and gameport all on my desktop next to my monitor makes my life soo easy, no more crawling under the desk to plug something in. I have 2 SB Audigy's and 2 SB Live 5.1's to compare it to, all sharing 4 sets of Klipsch 4.1's, the GTXP sound about as good as the Audigy, the Audigy is a little bit crisper, but the GTXP has better bass. Just my opinion of the 3 cards run side by side on the same sets of speakers. Both the GTXP and Audigy make the SB Live 5.1 sound like crap, and the headaches of the incompatibilites with the SB Live 5.1 are no where to be found.
 
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