Problems installing Audigy 2 ZS drivers

[Hergest]

I recently installed my new kit. DFI LAN PARTY NF4 SLI DR Expert, Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 7800GT, Seasonic 500W PSU, OCZ 2GB RAM, Plextor 708A DVD-RW.

 

All went pretty smoothly. After reading some horror stories here, I was worried it was going to be frustrating. However, no cold-boot issues, RAM was detected first time, etc.

 

I ran Memtest 3.2 overnight - no issues. I ran Prime95 for a few hours - everything seemed stable. The only worry was that whilst running Prime95, I tried to open up some other application (Agent email/news client), and whilst windows was trying to display the window the machine hung up. I rebooted and ran it again for an even longer period and it was fine. Not sure if I should be concerned by this one-off system hang or not.

 

So I started to configure my windows settings and add essential applications.

 

I then remembered that I hadn't yet installed my Audigy 2 ZS card. So I put the card in the PCI slot furthest away from the GFX card and rebooted. Cancelled from the windows device driver prompts, and shut down my virus checker and firewall (as a precaution). I inserted my Audigy installation CD and proceeded to install the drivers.

 

I rebooted. During startup, the installation continued but I then experienced a BSOD STOP error

 

I rebooted again. I checked the driver disk for errors - there was one korean localisation file that reported a bad checksum. I polished the disk and tried again, and the error wasn't reported again (but I'm not 100% convinced the disk or my drive is working well).

 

I uninstalled the drivers and tried to install them again. I got the same BSOD STOP error during installation.

 

I have managed to download the latest Audigy 2 ZS drivers and install those, but they are purely the drivers - there's no mixer or other nice goodies that I seem to get from the installation disk, so I really want to install the original set and then upgrade the drivers.

 

Has anyone else had trouble installing Audigy drivers?

 

I flashed to the latest mobo BIOS and selected optimised defaults. I have not tinkered with mobo BIOS settings, other than to disable the on-board audio. Is there anything else I should have done before trying to install the card/drivers?

 

My windows installation already seems to be in a state, as some of the Creative drivers are installed but not listed in Add/Remove program files. I'm now thinking that I might reinstall windows from scratch again and load the Audigy card drivers earlier.

 

Is there any way of quickly getting a new fresh Audigy installation disk, to rule out a damaged disk?

 

I am even considering buying a newer card (X-Fi), if this is any better, before restarting the installation.

[slow&#39puter]

I had no trouble at all, Windows started the CD and installed all drivers. I even updated drivers from the Creative web site.

 

On my previous revision of the Expert, I found out that installing new drivers while overclocked gave me all sorts of trouble. Also, some S-12s cause compatibility isues with the Expert. I had one installed and it worked fine, but I have read of others that were not that lucky.

 

Have you disabled onboard audio in BIOS?

[wevsspot]

My original install CD never even saw the light of day. Downloaded and ran the latest drivers directly from the Creative website.

 

I've never been too impressed with Creative's Jukebox, mixer or any other of their crap that they include with their driver packs. They make great sound cards (IMHO) thats about it.

 

What benefits does the mixer offer over WMP10?

 

The driver I grabbed from their website also had the Creative Control Center Suite so I've got all my EAX options and what not too.

[Hergest]

I have disabled onboard audio in BIOS.

 

Wevsspot - do you remember what driver you downloaded from the Creative web site? Did you do an activeX auto-detect download, or browse downloadable files? I downloaded a driver installer, but it only seemed to install drivers; no control centre suite.

[wevsspot]

I have disabled onboard audio in BIOS.

 

Wevsspot - do you remember what driver you downloaded from the Creative web site? Did you do an activeX auto-detect download, or browse downloadable files? I downloaded a driver installer, but it only seemed to install drivers; no control centre suite.

 

Here's the linky.

 

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/d...type=0&x=28&y=7

 

Choose #1

 

Cheers.

[MadChicago]

While it is possible to install drivers from a driver CD that accompanies new hardware, it is always a much wiser idea to install the newest possible drivers from a hardware vendors download site when installing new hardware. This is most definitely the case with Creative drivers.

 

Even after installing only the most current standalone drivers from the CL website, I still have to go through and disable a bunch of other startup apps that CL likes to throw-in with the drivers.

[Thracian]

Whats the point of trying to install this...when you've admitted yourself you haven't properly setup your bios?

 

You're going to continue to have stability problems untill you properly setup your bios and reinstall windows.

 

Software talks to hardware...and vice versa. If the hardware isn't functioning properly the software will react negatively. I don't understand why people are buying performance boards...to run at "optomized defaults" WHICH by the way is a GENERAL group of settings meant to be a starting point.

 

Thrac

[wevsspot]

Hergest,

 

2 GB of what memory and what configuration i.e. 2X1 4X512?

[Hergest]

I have now updated my signature with more detailed info.

 

It is true that I haven't explored all of the options in the BIOS. I have simply selected Optimised Defaults. I need to get a bog-standard install up, so I could eg. send support emails

 

I did perform a Memtest, and the first thing I did after installing windows was to run Prime95 and Sandra to check for stability.

 

I haven't done much more than simply install WinXP, hardware drivers and updates. As I've found a few problems along the way, I do intend to reinstall from scratch again, now knowing the correct versions of things to install to get a really clean setup.

 

But this Audigy 2 ZS problem is a right pain.

 

I noticed that the soundcard was sharing an IRQ with the 2nd LAN port, so I moved the soundcard to another PCI slot.

 

I tried copying all of the install files from my dodgy CD, and doing a compare using CDCheck (http://www.elpros.si/CDCheck/). Some files came up with CRC errors, so I copied those specific ones again until there were no errors reported. I reinstalled from this copy, but I still get the BSOD STOP error.

 

I did download the latest drivers from the Creative website and these installed okay. However, you only get the drivers, not any of the support apps, such as the EAX console, etc, so I really want to install from the original installation CD, and then upgrade the device driver.

 

I found an ISO image of the original Audigy 2 ZS installation disk, which I am currently downloading. I will try to burn this to a disk and install from that.

[MadChicago]

Aren't those extra apps all here ?

[q0nk]

the BSOD should have some info in it (not all the numbers etc) like for example IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL maybe with a filename (normally a .sys) do you get any info at all like this? please post it if you do.

[Hergest]

No, I didn't see any reference to particular sys files.

 

I did a search on the internet and found a site that had an iso image of the original Audigy 2 ZS install disk. I burnt a replacement disk and tried to install from it and got the same BSOD half way through the installation.

 

So I figured that as the very first time it crashed was after installing the software, that something was now corrupt on the harddisk. Therefore I thought I'd start from scratch again.

 

I reinstalled windows, etc, and then installed from the replacement disk. The install completed without error. However, after a reboot to complete the installation, I got a crash (no BSOD - just a black screen and reboot). After that though, the next reboot stayed up and the software installation completed. I then noticed a new Windows Update was available to fix STOP 0x0000007E crashes in AES.SYS. There is apparently a timing problem with AMD processors that can cause random crashes when certain drivers are installed that this hotfix addresses, so that might explain the crash I was getting. I haven't noticed anything since.

 

Having installed the original drivers, I then installed the latest drivers, and I understand what wevsspot was talking about - the new driver does seem to have a new "classic" looking dialog containing most of the original functions, so perhaps I don't need the original "extras" after all.