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Santa Cruz and Windows 2000

B

Blayze

Diamond Member
My live value has bit the dust and left me with no sound on my athlon system. 🙁

Anyway I am going to sell off some old computer parts to get me a Santa Cruz.

My question is are there any problems with the Santa Cruz and Windows 2000?
If so what are they and how do you fix them.

I dont want another SBLive thats why I am going with the Santa Cruz.
 


<< My live value has bit the dust and left me with no sound on my athlon system. 🙁

Anyway I am going to sell off some old computer parts to get me a Santa Cruz.

My question is are there any problems with the Santa Cruz and Windows 2000?
If so what are they and how do you fix them.

I dont want another SBLive thats why I am going with the Santa Cruz. >>




No problems that I am aware of. The latest Win 2K drivers are very nice, and full of features.
 
Thanks

I had read somewhere that the SC had some problems with games in Win2000.
Oh well looks I have nothing to worry about 🙂

Thanks again for the info.
 
There are some issues with the Santa Cruz in Win2k and DX8 and the sound positioning in games in Ad3 EAX and direct sound. Crimson Skies is the only game I play that has been affected by this issue but I saw a list of 20 some games somewhere I think at the 3dsoundsurge site. This issue is also on the Santa Cruz faq and they recomend you dont use DX8 untill they find a fix for it. I found the cpu utilization is high also when you use some of the game presets like the Games Turbo 3d performance preset. When I run this in Q3 1.27 Some of the levels start to slow down and choke on the level five and six levels. It never did this before with the SBlive 5.1 setup I was using before. If I shutdown the eq and the second effect and run a straight direct sound setup with alittle reverb it sounds good and see no slowdown in the same levels. I love the Santa Cruz but the current driver set is not perfect or flawless as a few forum members keep claiming but they are pretty dam good and the few flaws are livable untill MS updates DX8 or TB beach gets the issue fixed. This sound posititiong and DX8 issue is happening with all three soundcards running this Cirrus Logic CS4630 chip. I have seen some posts claiming this issue has been fixed with the 2.01 drivers for the Game theater XP. I am tempted to buy one from my local Bestbuy and see if its true and if it sucks I have 30days to return it.

Rain

Edit Typing mistakes

Rain
 
so it only happens when you use Ad3 EAX and direct sound?
How bad is the problem with DirectX 8.0a? I think that is the version I am running:frown:
 
It differs depending on the game that has this issue. Give me some time and I will try to retrace my steps and find this list on games that are having problems and post it.

Rain
 
I'm real curious too, Raincity. Do you know if this is using the latest (dated 3-27-01) drivers?

Btw, nice sig! 🙂
 
Another thing you may want to consider that the SC (like the SB Live) does not like to share an IRQ. This information was supplied to me via a Turtle Beach Tech. They were suggesting going from an ACPI Win2000 system to the Standard PC HAL and their cards may not run on this very well also. I did this and did notice a bit of sound improvment and a definite improvement when running (or attempting to get 4 speaker mode) to start.

If you have one and are on a Windows ACPI HAL and all is well, I would say just leave it alone. I only converted over due to other IRQ issues I was having (wanted certain devices on their own IRQ, not on a &quot;virtual&quot; IRQ all sharing IRQ 9 and using system/power management to free up the IRQs).
 
The Santa Cruz is a dang good care to be sure, and I know I've seen it a few places for as low as $60, so I'm not suggesting you do this at all. But for $129 you can get the Hercules Game Theater XP sound card and avoid any problems at all in W2k that I'm aware of (if installed properly, look for my post explaining how).

Also, I know it uses the least amount of CPU cycles in the bunch, especially apparent in W2k were other cards drivers permit the system to take a noticeable hit in FPS.

Anywhoo, not a suggestion, but just something to think about.

-Chad
 
No, I haven't had a single issue whatsoever. Games, apps, updates, utilities... Nada.

The Herc GTXP is a good card too. The way I see it is that you just need to determine if the added features of the Herc is worth the extra (~$65) cash. Personally, I didn't want the breakout box, so it didn't appeal to me. But of course, that might change next month. 😉

So, if you can swing the extra cash, and want the added features, go with the Herc. If you don't care for the extra features, or don't want to spend the extra dough, go with the SC. Either way, you cannot lose.
 
Ya guys this is with the current driver set. Still looking for the list but I remember Baulders Gate and Some Star Trek elite force game, Mech Warrior 4. Any of you playing Crimson Skies in Win2k? How do the plane engines sound to you ? Alan over at firingsquad has noticed these issues and claims that the Game Theater drivers are more mature. I am not putting down the Santa Cruz and there is no way in hell I will put the SBLive 5.1 Platinum back in my machine. My SBlive always ran flawless for me on any Via or Intel board but the sound quality just plain sucks in my opinion on the SBlive. I would not really worry about this issue and say go for it. I have not experianced any system instability with the Santa Cruz but just be warned that some of your games may have a issue with the SC.

Rain
 
&quot;I am not putting down the Santa Cruz...&quot;

Isn't it sad that you have to qualify your intent, because you just know someone will take it the wrong way.

But yeah, we know you aren't bashing the SC. And no, I don't have Crimson Skies. I have the demo, though. I'll have to fire that up a little later and see if it is applicable with the demo.
 
had probems with rougue spear (echoes, weird sound) corrected by decreasing the hardware acceleration a notch.

also cant get audiostation (software for tb santa cruz) to work in win 2000, works ok in win 98


good luck
 
Thanks, Yes its sad, I only stated it as a disclaimer since so many around here want to take a statement and make a freakin flamewar over it. Another issue I have is, if I run the SC sound check it will kill my front speakers only allowing the rears to work no matter what I do In the mixer control panel. The only way to get it back to normal is to uninstall the SC and reinstall it again and then it works fine again. I took a look at the downloable 585999.txt file from the TB site and it shows Mech W 4, Crimson Skies, MS flight Sim 2k, Midtown Madness 2 having issues with the SC and DX8. At least they are aware of the issue.

Rain
 
Of those games, the only one that I've played is CFS2. It's been a little while, but I don't recall any issues. I didn't play it much, so take my previous statement with a grain of salt.
 
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