Low End Sound Card that is Stable in VISTA 32

[hmsrolst]

I'm looking for a pretty simple card that can decently run a good pair of stereo speakers. I don't need anything fancy but it need to have stable drivers in VISTA 32.

I have on-board sound, but there must be a problem with the drivers, because when, e.g., playing a CD, if I try to do simple things like move a window, the PC resets. Other than that, VISTA is totally stable, so I'm assuming it's bad drivers.

Recommendations please. And thanks in advance.

 

[PurdueRy]

Have you installed the latest drivers?

 

[RandomFool]

If you have installed the latest drivers did you get them from the MB manufacturer or chipset manufacturer?

 

[coupland]

Well, if you want stable drivers then you're best off with on-board sound. Creative is the best-known maker of 3rd-party sound cards, but they've basically chosen to stop writing drivers and instead rely on their incredible good looks...

 

[hmsrolst]

Good suggestions (and I did manage to find a later driver at Realtek than was at the mobo manufacturer), but the problem is still there. (I'm also using the latest video driver.) I may have isolated it in that when I turn off the Aero interface, the problem seems to have been alleviated.

Still looking for a suggestion for a sound card that's stable in VISTA. And I'd be interested in any further diagnostic thoughts.

 

[TC91]

i would check out the soundblaster audigy se or the card i have, the sound blaster live! 24 bit. they should go for around 20-30bucks or less, and they are stable in vista 32 (i have used my sb live 24 bit on vista 32bit and i had no problems). the sound quality for audio playback imo is pretty good.

 

[cvrefugee]

Audigy SE works for me in Vista 32-bit as well. $30 on Amazon.

 

[hmsrolst]

thanks for the suggestions

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: cvrefugee
Audigy SE works for me in Vista 32-bit as well. $30 on Amazon.

The Creative Audigy drivers for Windows Vista SUCK. Don't believe me? Do a Google search on "Daniel K".

I'd spend the extra $30 for a X-Fi instead to avoid the installation headaches, or perhaps an extra $50 to get something good like an ASUS Xonar instead!

 

[cvrefugee]

The X-Fi I bought did not work very well at all. Granted it's not really an X-Fi product, even though Creative calls it the "X-Fi Xtreme Audio". Horrible distortion and crackling. The Audigy SE, on the other hand, has none of those problems. Daniel_K's Vista drivers for the Audigy do not work for the Audigy SE, as it is a software-based sound card. His drivers only work for the Audigy cards that do hardware acceleration.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: cvrefugee
The X-Fi I bought did not work very well at all. Granted it's not really an X-Fi product, even though Creative calls it the "X-Fi Xtreme Audio". Horrible distortion and crackling. The Audigy SE, on the other hand, has none of those problems. Daniel_K's Vista drivers for the Audigy do not work for the Audigy SE, as it is a software-based sound card. His drivers only work for the Audigy cards that do hardware acceleration.

That's weird 'cause as far as I recall the X-Fi Xtreme Audio sports the same controller series (CA0106) as the Audigy SE. The connectivity differs. But yeah, they are genearlly not worth having versus a DSP model especially when those can be had for less than $40.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: cvrefugee
The X-Fi I bought did not work very well at all. Granted it's not really an X-Fi product, even though Creative calls it the "X-Fi Xtreme Audio". Horrible distortion and crackling. The Audigy SE, on the other hand, has none of those problems. Daniel_K's Vista drivers for the Audigy do not work for the Audigy SE, as it is a software-based sound card. His drivers only work for the Audigy cards that do hardware acceleration.

Funny... I have the Audigy SE, and I'm getting the distortion and crackling problems as well. That's why I'm not recommending the card.

It could just be that the Creative drivers for Windows Vista suck in general.

 

[cvrefugee]

Then the drivers for the Audigy SE must be better than the X-Fi I had, or I just got a bad card.

 

[hmsrolst]

Maybe I jumped too fast, but I got the Audigy SE card from Amazon--I figured for $30 it was worth a shot. Not sure when I'll get a chance to try it out (maybe this weekend), but I'll report back when I do.

 

[cvrefugee]

The Audigy SE works perfectly for me. It may share the same chip as the X-Fi Xtreme Audio but that one gave me problems.

 

[hmsrolst]

I installed the Audigy SE, and it seems to work fine...until I turn on Aero. The same thing happens with the on-board--the system reboots. So the problem was not with the sound drivers, but something else.

The Audigy will not be wasted, however. I can use it in another machine with XP, where the on-board sound is not reliable. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: hmsrolst
I installed the Audigy SE, and it seems to work fine...until I turn on Aero. The same thing happens with the on-board--the system reboots. So the problem was not with the sound drivers, but something else.

The Audigy will not be wasted, however. I can use it in another machine with XP, where the on-board sound is not reliable. Thanks for all your help.

Sounds like maybe a power supply issue or video card issue. I dunno though.

 

[hmsrolst]

Originally posted by: Shawn
Sounds like maybe a power supply issue or video card issue. I dunno though.

These are plausible to me. It's actually a very low power Mobile on Desktop system with on-board GMA 950 video. It has 2GB of RAM with 224MB allocated to video, so it should be able to run Aero, and it does until I play a CD.

 

[TC91]

do you have a spare graphics card to try out on the system? that should be able to determine if the onboard video is the culprit. have you tried playing mp3 files on your hard drive instead of CD's? it could also be the optical drive which is causing the problems. hope this helps.

 

[hmsrolst]

This seems to me to be a VISTA software issue of some kind. I've been running XP on another drive in the same machine, and it doesn't have the problem.