New Creative Audigy drivers

[Megatomic]

Hey everyone, I searched first and it doesn't look like anyone else has seen this yet: Creative has released new Audigy drivers today. Here's what the download page says:

1. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2 series and Audigy 4 series Driver 02.08.0004 (34.26 MB) 24 Jan 06 Download Now


This download contains an improved version of the drivers found on the Sound Blaster Audigy®, Audigy 2 series, and Audigy 4 series installation CDs. It also supports Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition. Hide Details



Filename: SBAX_WEBUP_LB_2_08_0004.exe

This download contains an improved version of the drivers found on the Sound Blaster Audigy®, Audigy 2 series, and Audigy 4 series installation CDs. It also supports Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy including Platinum and Platinum eX series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 including Platinum, Platinum eX, and Value series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS including Platinum and Platinum Pro series
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro and Sound Blaster Audigy 4
This download also includes the following application:

Creative Audio Console
The application enables you to use the Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2 series, and Audigy 4 series features and functions.

Requirements:

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Service Pack 2, or Windows 2000
Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2 series, or Audigy 4 series audio devices listed above
Notes:

This download will uninstall the drivers for your existing audio device before proceeding with the installation.
For Audigy 2 and Audigy 4 series only: After updating your driver, download and install Creative MediaSource? DVD-Audio Player DVDA_PCApp_LB_2_00_75.exe.
Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player is unavailable for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
Do not install this driver for the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy LS or Sound Blaster Audigy SE audio device.

I've just downloaded them and I'm about to give them a go on my Audigy 2 ZS right now. I'll report back on how they do soon.

 

[Megatomic]

Ok, the install went well enough. I did notice that these drivers work for all Audigy cards not just 2 and later, but not for the budget cards it seems.

 

[StormRider]

Do these new drivers require you to have the original install CD before allowing you to update your drivers?

 

[Megatomic]

Nope. I installed them twice. The first time I installed them over the top of my old driver installation. That went really well. The second time I completely uninstalled the old drivers, ran CCleaner, rebooted into safemode and ran Driver Cleaner before I installed these new drivers. Never once did the installer ask for my driver CD.

Either way you should be all set. I'm pretty pleased so far. The release notes don't say so but I believe that OpenAL drivers are included in this set (making it official). Anyone know if this is right or wrong?

 

[Megatomic]

Excellent, I do believe I was right about the OpenAL drivers. I just played Q4 using OpenAL and it sounded great. My FPS never dropped below 60, too.

 

[professor1942]

meh, kX Project is much better

 

[Jagercola]

What's better for the orginal Audigy? Hacked Audigy 4 drivers or these?

 

[jjsbasmt]

Thanks Megatomic, I downloaded and installed the drivers. Appreciate the tip.

 

[Mem]

Megatomic thx!.....I also updated my Creative MediaSource Player to version 3.3.21 since mine was an older version,all is working fine with my Audigy 4.

 

[Mem]

What's better for the orginal Audigy? Hacked Audigy 4 drivers or these?

I would use these since they are the latest official drivers.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

* Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy including Platinum and Platinum eX series
* Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 including Platinum, Platinum eX, and Value series
* Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS including Platinum and Platinum Pro series
* Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro and Sound Blaster Audigy 4

.

 

[BDawg]

What do hacked drivers offer for sound cards? I get what they do for graphics cards.

 

[Crescent13]

goody. more creative crap....


No just kidding, can't wait until my new rig is finished so I can try theese out (decided to use my old audigy 2 ZS, and stay away from x-fi, after all, I "only" have logitech x-530s, which are freakin great BTW)

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: professor1942
meh, kX Project is much better

02/17/2004 - Version 5.00.3537 (BETA) released

I can see how it'd be so much better, what with it being almost 2 years since it was last updated and all... Use what you want man, but I'm happy to use fresh official drivers myself.

 

[PurdueRy]

Just to let everyone know, if you do autoupdate you should be able to get the Creative Audio console(I got it off a clean install so I don't know if it will be recognized if you have Creative software already installed.) Its a control panel that has all the needed features without the bloat of the previous THX optimizer and all that crap.

 

[PurdueRy]

Upon Installing this driver, it updated my Creative Audio console...So maybe its included? Does everyone else use this instead of the bloated previous console now?

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Upon Installing this driver, it updated my Creative Audio console...So maybe its included? Does everyone else use this instead of the bloated previous console now?

This download also includes the following application:

Creative Audio Console
The application enables you to use the Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2 series, and Audigy 4 series features and functions.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: supafly

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Upon Installing this driver, it updated my Creative Audio console...So maybe its included? Does everyone else use this instead of the bloated previous console now?

This download also includes the following application:

Creative Audio Console
The application enables you to use the Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2 series, and Audigy 4 series features and functions.

Ah Excellent, Like I said, this was first offered to me in a autoupdate, glad to see they have moved to it permanently. It is much much better than the previous console.

 

[duragezic]

I have my Audigy Platinum eX soft-modded to a Audigy 2 ZS. AFAIK, the only advantage to this is you get to use A2 drivers and apps. So its pretty minor, but sicne I bought the Audigy used without an install CD I figured I may as welll do it.

Does anyone know for sure if these drivers requires XP SP2? I'm still running SP1 (patched up) because I could care less about the windows firewall I'm not gonna use as well as wireless stuff I'm not going to use.


So the drivers include the Audio Console which has all the features that were previously separated into the EAX Console, THX Settings, Speaker Settings, etc?

So I could uninstall anything Creative, use Driver Cleaner to further remove everything, then install these drivers? No more need for soft-mod (the only "hack" required for the soft-mod was to apply the Creative Compatibility Patch to any A2 ZS drivers so that they didn't bitch about the incorrect hardware) it seems.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: duragezic
I have my Audigy Platinum eX soft-modded to a Audigy 2 ZS. AFAIK, the only advantage to this is you get to use A2 drivers and apps. So its pretty minor, but sicne I bought the Audigy used without an install CD I figured I may as welll do it.

Does anyone know for sure if these drivers requires XP SP2? I'm still running SP1 (patched up) because I could care less about the windows firewall I'm not gonna use as well as wireless stuff I'm not going to use.


So the drivers include the Audio Console which has all the features that were previously separated into the EAX Console, THX Settings, Speaker Settings, etc?

So I could uninstall anything Creative, use Driver Cleaner to further remove everything, then install these drivers? No more need for soft-mod (the only "hack" required for the soft-mod was to apply the Creative Compatibility Patch to any A2 ZS drivers so that they didn't bitch about the incorrect hardware) it seems.

1. There are more reasons to update to SP2 than just the firewall, update

2. Yes They replace that.

3. As long as these drivers are for your card too...

 

[imported_Detoyminador]

Megatomic, I've got a couple of problems with my latest driver install for my Audigy 2ZS.

I installed them soon after they were released which went along smoothly, but when I played the game F.E.A.R. I noticed a crackling noise so I found your post on using CCleaner and Driver Cleaner (I did it in safemode) I then rebooted and installed the drivers again. Now I can't adjust the Creative Speaker Settings, It gives me an error message saying, This application has failed to start because CTIntrfc.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

I've tried re-installing a number of times with no joy. I've tried playing F.E.A.R. and the crackling noise has gone which is good but have stuffed something during the driver clean.

 

[Mem]

Detoyminador: this thread might help.

 

[Megatomic]

Sorry to hear about the difficulties Detoyminador. I've been too busy at work to do more than play a few hours of games since I posted this thread, but my system's pretty trouble free. In event viewer I've got no errors being reported at all.

 

[StormRider]

I just uninstalled all my old drivers and applications and installed the new drivers. It seems like it's working great and I definitely think Creative is going in the right direction with the new Audio Console.

But I noticed that I don't see any way to manage Soundfonts with the Audio Console -- so I guess I still need to have the Soundfont Manager?

 

[imported_Detoyminador]

Thanks Mem, I think I've sorted it all out. I uninstalled all the creative software even for my zen mp3 player and all files and folders it the temp folders, even registry entry's. I then reinstalled all the software, my creative audio console works fine but noticed with the fresh install of the sound card drivers it doesn't install the creative speaker settings option so I'm without that but I just use the windows master volume, treble and base settings, not sure if this is right that I don't have THX adjustments and such but I don't get any errors.

 

[fire400]

You do not need the CD prior to installing Creative drivers from their website. However, it does help if you want a direct version that will work without hassle without the need to download it from the website.
In saying this, because one of the drives were buggy and would make a popup error everytime I started windows. To eliminate this, I had to rollback to drivers that I got with the CD to get the annoyance out of the way.