Just got the SB Audigy ZS PCMCIA! - Page 3

Thought you were having a good experience, whac. What's the issue? Has the cracking and popping not gone away for you?

Wow... from "Two words... Kick A$$!!!!" in your first post to "This card is a piece of SH!T" in the last post. LOL. I would put it somewhere in the middle. Creative REALLY needs to work on their drivers - besides this maddening popping issue with our Dells here are some others:

1. Drivers don't uninstall completely. I once had a bad install where one of the things didn't work right so I uninstalled and tried to reinstall and its never worked on that machine since (other than for about 5 seconds every time as windows is booting up). Tried in other hardware the same and it works. Removed the card and the driver still loads (it was like creative soundfont or something like that which I checked on my 9100 and that driver isn't even running). Lots of stuff leftover in the registry even after going through a full uninstall. I recommend a system restore point before installing as on one PC I have never got the card working... it works on bootup but stops when its loading windows. (The machine is one at work and I can't reformat it)

2. Flakey on eject - reinsert etc. I was working with headphone but wanted to show a video to a coworker so I stopped and ejected the card and played.. no onboard sound... resinserted the card... stopped... ejected and the onboard sound worked on the dell.

But I still like the card if only for the reason that the onboard sound is so bad... I hear all kinds of noise from the onboard sound. The soundblaster is completly quiet unless I have it plugged into my home theater - then it is quiet when running on battery and sounds like aliens are trying to talk to me when the laptop is plugged in - no one has any answers for that but it seems to be an issue with the laptop not the card.

I have had Zero problems with my card. It sounds beautiful, works perfectly when I pop it out and then back in, etc. I used the 'bass boost' and CMSS tip that someone posted in another thread and haven't heard any pops. I *LOVE* this thing. The big issue I had was the fact that a 10$ optical cable was not included in the package. I mean, is it really that difficult?

i agree creative has baaaaaaaaad drivers

I bought this card off ebay last week for $100. It was openned but supposedly "not used". I kinda thought the person who got it might be having popping issues. Anyway I've gotten it and installed it and I dont have any poppping that I can tell so far.

All I installed was the card and the drivers from creatives site. I didnt install the software suite or anything like that. Can someone tell me how to test for the popping? Thanks. Peace

anyone reason why my BASS BOOST section is greyed out? I have the creative p5800 5.1 speaker system

Can someone post picts of the breakout box/cable that comes with this card. I don;t seem to be able to find any, even on Creative's site.

When I first got the card, I just installed the drivers off the website and I didn't experience any "popping." Being curious, I installed almost everything off of the software CD that came with the card and then I experienced the "popping." Reinstalled the drivers off the website and problem solved.

Good advice. Just install the basic audigy driver and not the unnecessary bloatware to avoid any popping/clicking/garbage issues.

Nice tip Whack. I haven't got my XPS yet its coming in a few, I'm so excited. I wil definitely will try this when I get this soundcard. This issue sounds like one I had with my Creative Extigy although different port (in which I did something similar). Also anyone got any suggestions for places to get this card? Looking for a good price.

anyone else see my above question ? cannot figure out why my bass boost is greyed out, have the creative p5800 speakers

It could be that the card doesnt support the features of your speakers? possibly?

Got mine for $29.99 at Circuit City, they had it mis-marked. It was an inventory print out error, so It might be at other stores. The labels were printed out Sunday, and I picked it up on Tuesday, so there is a good chance they might still have it mislabeled, at other stores. This card even if it has pops and cracks is well worth $29.99.

Ogre

No pops, but what about the hum?

I've read all the messages about the popping but this is not something I've experienced at all. However, the hum is another matter. This is clearly not the fault of the Audigy since I experienced it with the on-board sound of my XPS before I got the Audigy.

The hum is only present when I have the power plugged in and disppears when operating on battery power. Since I've seen no mention of hum anywhere I figure that either there is a problem with my XPS or nobody does music (or I guess games) using AC power.

All this stuff is pretty new to me. So can anyone comment on the hum?

Also, does anyone know what encoder Creative uses in the recorder?

Thanks for any info.