Thread: Win 7 and Creative labs soundblaster card

Yeah I had an audigy platinum with the breakout box and everything... paid a small fortune for it at the time. Then went to windows 7 during beta and they flat out stated they wouldn't support windows 7 during beta. Turns out they didn't support it for shit after beta either. Vowed never to buy another creative labs product again after MANY years of being a faithful customer. My very first sound card was a soundblaster pro.

the ignorance in this thread is astounding.
You guys do know that Microsoft is to blame for Creative's woes with the Audigy cards right?
They eliminated DS3D starting with Windows Vista and replaced it with UAA.
Creative's drivers were built around DS3D, then Microsoft completely changed directions and screwed over pretty much every discreet soundcard maker in the process.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I hate the player that couldn't adapt to the game, when all other soundcard makers stepped up to the plate and delivered. The one player who was at the plate, hitting home runs every pitch, happened to choke..... and keep on choking.

I ditched my Audigy 4 Pro, and now own an Asus Xonar D2..... sounds better than the audigy did under xp..... and geuss what, no more driver issues.....

Originally Posted by Gumby

the ignorance in this thread is astounding.
You guys do know that Microsoft is to blame for Creative's woes with the Audigy cards right?
They eliminated DS3D starting with Windows Vista and replaced it with UAA.
Creative's drivers were built around DS3D, then Microsoft completely changed directions and screwed over pretty much every discreet soundcard maker in the process.
Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Let Creative state that instead of just saying "we're not supporting windows 7 beta"... and ignoring the amount of bitching that happened after it was out of beta when the audigy cards would have nothing but static on them. And stating that they didn't intend to make windows 7 drivers for those cards at all. I substitute your reality with my own. Because I was there. I watched it happen.

The whole Creative/Vista issue is why I vowed never to give another penny to Creative. Every other sound card manufacturer was able to come out with working and fully functional drivers. Creative took 6+ months to get drivers that worked most of the time. Creative will never get another penny of my money ever again.

My XtremeGamer had issues when Windows 7 first launched. They fixed it pretty quickly. I have had this card for about 4 years now. It works great, but I do think it is getting old.

How long do you all think your hardware should work before it is considered "legacy"? Sure, Audigy was great back in the day. So was my Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card that I paid over $100 for back in... 2001, maybe? I had that thing until about 2007 when I got my X-Fi.

Microsoft moved forward... so did Creative. Remember, neither of the the companies are in business to make sure your OLD hardware or software stays working forever. They both eventually want you to up grade. I don't blame either of them.

My issue wasn't that they weren't supporting legacy hardware. My issue was that it took them over 6 months after Vista launched to even get a somewhat workable driver. Other manufacturers didn't have the issue. My solution was rather than wait for them to get their shit together, I bought a card from another vendor. Problem solved. Haven't had a single issue since.

Don't think for a second that I did not see this first hand. I had an original Audigy card when Vista came out. When I bought that card, right there on the box, it listed the OSes it was compatible with. No where did I see "Windows XP and all future Microsoft operating systems". Driver development is not cheap or free for the hardware companies. How many future OSes do you expect them to support? They are in business to sell new cards. Sure, you support your old cards for their lifespan, but you have to realize there is no money in that. Plus, I would wager that Creative considered the Audigy to be a mostly gamer's card and as I recall, most gamers did not make the switch to Vista right away because the OS sucked. Win7 had Audigy drivers baked right in. Throw in some Alchemy to handle legacy games and all was just fine for a 5 year old card.

Now, having said that, I am also VERY happy that Asus and a few others have really stepped up to the plate and made some very good sound cards. Only having one player in the game leads to stagnation. If anything, Creative was guilty of arrogance in believing their customers would stick with them through their driver woes. The smaller players in the market, like Asus, know that if they want to beat Goliath, they have to be better at everything, including driver support. Creative seems to have gotten their act together in response because the drivers for my new X-fi are just fine under Win7.

Oh, and they were not the only ones with Vista driver issues. Nvidia had problems and pretty much every scanner or digital camera manufacturer had issues too. Seems to me that the common denominator was Vista. Either Microsoft did a piss poor job of coordinating with hardware vendors in pre-release development or the manufacturers had a hard time adapting to the changes. I bet it was a little of both. I just think of Vista as Win7 Beta

Without quoting Gumby, but adding to it...

I read somewhere that Vista's big flaw was that it was pretty much Microsoft's big secret. During the design phase, they kept it hidden from hardware/software developers until the beta was released. This meant that EVERYONE was going to be late with compatible devices. Microsoft did the exact opposite for Windows 7, which is partly the reason for Windows 7 being so device friendly. Hell, I remember the first time I installed Windows 7, it installed my sound, graphics, printer... and I didn't even ask!