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Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook!!!!!!!! - Page 6

post #101 of 157
12/11/04 at 6:45am
The Windows drivers are universal: they run on all cardbus controllers. I don't know of any specific TI drivers. The TI just works.
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post #102 of 157
12/11/04 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by swaaye
Well. This sucks.
Yeah. And to think I just missed my 30-day Sager return window!

*sigh* the Audigy 2 NX is looking better all the time...
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post #103 of 157
12/11/04 at 5:00pm
All of the USB offerings use tons of CPU power. I had a cheap SB MP3+ and while it worked ok, I could tell it was just draining the hell out of the CPU in games.

And, the MP3+ ran off USB power but that NX uses a wall wart which is just absolutely ridiculous and not an option whatsoever for me as a result.
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post #104 of 157
12/11/04 at 10:40pm
I still say the Xitel uses almost no resources and does not appear to affect gameplay at all, except that the sound is much nicer. Doesn't even need external power. No drivers either. Note: this is a high quality DAC, not a DAC/Amp combo that a regular sound card is. So, if your headphones or speakers don't have a volume control on them, you might have a little problem adjusting the sound volume. But of coure my solution was to buy an external amp for my headphones anyway. See my signature for a link to it.

Basic model
http://www.xitel.com/product_hfl.htm

Advanced model
http://www.xitel.com/product_phfl.htm
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post #105 of 157
12/12/04 at 3:50am
Those Xitel boxes look interesting, and they are cheap too. They seem to target people who want to play music out of their system with high quality, and little work to install. Good for its market. I was, however, looking for a lot more than just a fancy DAC.

I bought the Audigy Notebook because I wanted to not just move up in sound quality, but to get the 64 channels of DirectSound3D hardware acceleration and EAX 1,2,3,4 hardware support. I'm mainly a gamer, but I also like to listen to music as much as the next guy, so I wanted something for games first. And, Creative just indisputably owns the gaming audio card market (sadly). I paid for it, obviously, at $130. But to me it was worth it to get the better positional audio, performance, and quality.

BTW, I've been playing Chronicles of Riddick on my notebook and I'm not having any audio quality problems with this game, even in full 3D audio and EAX mode in the game. Positional audio on headphones is very good. I can tell spatially where something is. Quite nice. Lots better than my Realtek built-in crap.

So, so far Halo and SW:JK:JA are games giving me audio probs.
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post #106 of 157
12/12/04 at 4:50am
does it work with the 8790? just curious cuz i wanna get one
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post #107 of 157
12/12/04 at 6:04am
Can anyone tell me what the connectors on the Audigy 2 ZS are?
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post #108 of 157
12/12/04 at 12:16pm
spdif out, a dongle that supports 2.1,5.1->7.1, and a mic in
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post #109 of 157
12/12/04 at 5:18pm
Learn all you need to about the card at these two links:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1684442,00.asp
http://www.creative.com/products/pro...&product=10769

As for people who want to know if their machine will run it (almost certainly), or better yet, whether it will work flawlessly or not (evil ENE chip), check here. Link for Sager notebooks.
http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/tech_spec.html#1

Other notebook users: Get Sisoft Sandra Standard, go to [PCI(e), AGP, Cardbus Bus(es) Information] (under Information Modules) and look in the PCI listing in there for the brand & model of Cardbus controller you have.

If you have a TI based Cardbus controller you are likely in for one awesome experience. Otherwise, it's hit or miss. The ENE chip definitely has issues with it right now.
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post #110 of 157
12/12/04 at 9:37pm
anyone with a 5680 having trouble with this card? I'm not.................
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post #111 of 157
12/14/04 at 5:01pm
You're lucky. There are a bunch of Sager's that use the ENE chips from what I saw in their tech specs area. The TI chips seem to work perfectly, as I heard when I tried the Audigy in a friend's notebook.

Creative Tech Support has their advanced tech support dept working on it. I'm not sure what will come of it, but I'm hopeful.

I'm still playing games with the card, even though I get static in most of them. Chronicles of Riddick seems to work fine though, but anything based on Source engine has static, JK2 and JA have static, Halo has missing sounds.
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post #112 of 157
12/16/04 at 7:48am
I have this card in an ENE1410, and while listening to music and while surfing I can here small ocasional pops. The strange thing is, that while working with native instruments Traktor it seems to work extremly well without any disturbances!

Even the pops are very small, but still there.

What kind of situations cause you the biggest disturbances, I'd like to see how bad it can be as I still have a chance to return it.
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post #113 of 157
12/16/04 at 5:10pm
I've figured out a way to get rid of most of the pops and static. It seems to be partly caused by the PCI Latency of the Audigy card, not the latencies of the ENE controller. I'm sure the ENE controller is partially at fault though because the TI controllers run the same latencies without problems.

Anyway, if you REALLY want to get technical and hack a fix, you need to get WPCREDIT and go to the Audigy card in the devices list (at very bottom bus#129). You need to change register 0D to F8 from 20. This will up the PCI Latency of the card to 248 (it's max, I tried 255 it just resets to 248).

I emailed Creative about it.
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post #114 of 157
12/16/04 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 
dropadrop - are u using the latest ENE drivers for your PCMCIA? i'll have to swaaye's method out later because i just RMA's my laptop. I couldn't get dvd's to play video...all i got was sound and reinstalling the OS didn't help. I also let them know of the PCMCIA issue. I will have my laptop back sometime next week.
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post #115 of 157
12/18/04 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by j4ever
dropadrop - are u using the latest ENE drivers for your PCMCIA? i'll have to swaaye's method out later because i just RMA's my laptop. I couldn't get dvd's to play video...all i got was sound and reinstalling the OS didn't help. I also let them know of the PCMCIA issue. I will have my laptop back sometime next week.
I downloaded some ENE drivers from HP's site. Also, I upgraded the bios on my notebook witch supposidly helps pcmcia performance... I should note that I don't have a Sager notebook, but a Targa (same as the emachines).

I have now also run the Echo utility and I can't get pops or crackles however much I try. I have been playing doom 3 a bit too, and everything seems ok. To up the anti I have been playing around with native instruments Traktor, a dj-mixing program that is pretty stressing on the soundcard. It does not cause pops even with fairly low latencys (5ms).
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post #116 of 157
12/18/04 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by swaaye
I've figured out a way to get rid of most of the pops and static. It seems to be partly caused by the PCI Latency of the Audigy card, not the latencies of the ENE controller. I'm sure the ENE controller is partially at fault though because the TI controllers run the same latencies without problems.

Anyway, if you REALLY want to get technical and hack a fix, you need to get WPCREDIT and go to the Audigy card in the devices list (at very bottom bus#129). You need to change register 0D to F8 from 20. This will up the PCI Latency of the card to 248 (it's max, I tried 255 it just resets to 248).

I emailed Creative about it.
link for pcr file please! and basic instructions?

I got wpcredit, but without the pcr file I can not find the card.
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post #117 of 157
12/18/04 at 7:27pm
I am not planing on ever needing my audio when mobile, is there any other reason I should bet the ZS Notebook over the NX?
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post #118 of 157
12/19/04 at 1:59am
I wouldn't get the NX at all. The Notebook is more capable and has the same features. There are no disadvantages to the Audigy Notebook (I got the ENE thing figured out), other than its price. The NX is a bunch of compromises smushed together. It's very good for a USB solution though, probably the best.

Why don't you go read some reviews of it.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1473855,00.asp
http://gear.ign.com/articles/445/445...html?fromint=1
http://www20.tomshardware.com/consum...114/index.html
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post #119 of 157
12/19/04 at 2:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Warden
link for pcr file please! and basic instructions?

I got wpcredit, but without the pcr file I can not find the card.
Click on the button in the toolbar that is of a little circuit board and says 'Select Device' on mouseover. Scroll all the way to the bottom to Bus#129 Audio Controller (must have audigy installed).

Now you want register '0D'. First row in the grid. Over to right. It's 20 by default. Change it to F8. Then hit Set.

I'm not sure how to save this so you can apply it. I don't want to send you something that will set the wrong things
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post #120 of 157
12/19/04 at 11:45am
I am having the same issue with the poping noises with my 9100. i have tried several fixes but have not found one that works yet.
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