• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Is it a sign?

S

SilverMK3

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 15, 2002
Messages
1,346
So I finally caved in and bought an Audigy 2 ZS for my gaming rig to see what all this EAX-HD fuss was about. It seems that Creative has a pretty good stranglehold on game developers & hardware manufacturers on choices for sound APIs.

Well. it looks like it wasn't meant to be. This was in the pristine looking retail box:rolleyes::
A2ZS_Disc_Front.jpg


A2ZS_Disc_Back.jpg
 
you were going to install the drivers from the cd?
Doesn't everyone go online to get the newest drivers when they buy hardware?
 
Bah, I'm done with Creative. I have an old SB Live! but no driver CD, and the drivers on their website cause a lockup whenever I try to access any of the sound tweaking utilities. If I could get the darn thing to work my sound would be 1385697236523 times better than the pathetic onboard of my VNF3-250. :( :eek:
 
Stinn said:
you were going to install the drivers from the cd?
Doesn't everyone go online to get the newest drivers when they buy hardware?
Click to expand...

Nope, that's the problem. The download site only offers "updates" to the drivers and apps included on the CD. Its for this reason that I have always wondered how people manage with an OEM Audigy 2. You can have Creative send you a CD for a fee. In this case, I'd imagine that a warranty would cover a broken CD in the retail box.

Creative can get away with this because there is NO competition. No other card features a DSP which can offload effects-processing from the CPU. It costs money to fund a software organization which constantly tests, develops, and releases new drivers rapidly enough that it makes sense to offer them for download on a website. Besides, you can't do anything about it, its a monopoly. :-(
 
Use WinRAR to open the install .exe- it's just a package, the drivers and apps are inside.
 
There are copies of the driver cd floating around, or hit up creative's tech support for a new one.
 
thomase said:
Nope, that's the problem. The download site only offers "updates" to the drivers and apps included on the CD. Its for this reason that I have always wondered how people manage with an OEM Audigy 2. You can have Creative send you a CD for a fee. In this case, I'd imagine that a warranty would cover a broken CD in the retail box.

Creative can get away with this because there is NO competition. No other card features a DSP which can offload effects-processing from the CPU. It costs money to fund a software organization which constantly tests, develops, and releases new drivers rapidly enough that it makes sense to offer them for download on a website. Besides, you can't do anything about it, its a monopoly. :-(
Click to expand...

Exactly.
The site only has patches for the original drivers on the disc. They won't install if you don't have the original drivers. I'm currently using the standard WDM drivers from windowsupdate.microsoft.com, but I can't apply the new patches for them. I can play BF2 for a whole 2-3 minutes before it crashes now... yey Creative. lol.

I've switched back to SoundStorm until I can get a new driver disc.
 
i retract my statement then.
Instead I replace it with this: Aren't there hacked drivers you can download?
 
Heh. I'm sure there are some hacked ones somewhere, but it was easier to email the company I bought it from and get them to ship me a new disc. Its in the mail now. :)

Anyway,
My initial impression of the A2ZS after using SoundStorm audio for the last couple of years are actually quite positive. I sold my spare receiver so I'm back in analog-land for my gaming rig.

I have to admit that EAX has come a long way since I last had a Creative card. The positional audio is much more defined in BF2 vs what I heard via SoundStorm w/ EAX 2. Also the DACs on the Audigy aren't half as bad as what I was expecting - The quality is almost indistinguishable from the M-Audio Revo 7.1 I have in my HTPC box and leaps and bounds above the 5.1 performance of my mobo's onboard CODEC and my roommate's AV-710.

We'll see if I still have warm & fuzzy thoughts of Creative when the driver & applications disc comes though. lol.
 
thomase said:
The download site only offers "updates" to the drivers and apps included on the CD. Its for this reason that I have always wondered how people manage with an OEM Audigy 2. You can have Creative send you a CD for a fee.
Click to expand...

If I hadn't already decided years ago that their products were generally a waste of money, that right there would turn me off from ever buying from them.
 
We have been over this how many times?
All you have to do is use a archive utility like Winrar to extract the files from the updates you get from Creative and manually install them in the device manager.
You can also use the ctzapxx.exe utility they include in some of the updates.

Let's try a tutorial style thing here. :D


Download this driver and save it to your desktop.
http://us.creative.com/support/down...75&Product_Name=Audigy+2+ZS&OSName=Windows+XP

one8za.png



Right click it and extract the files to a new folder.

two9th.png


Working:

three5td.png


Results:

four0ud.png


Double click to open the new folder:

five8fh.png


Navigate to the drivers sub folder:

six3mp.png


Double click the CTZAPXX.exe file and allow it to do it's thing.
When you reboot you will have the latest drivers and none of the bloatware. :)
 
Is that chunk about to fall off or is it just on that side?

If the chunk looks secure you could probably still use the disc....I doubt there is 400mb of drivers on there. If your afraid of something happening put a peice of tape over it, and if you want put a matching piece on the other 3 "corners" to make it balanced.


EDIT: OK, I see the crack is both sides...try some superglue in the crack. Like I said there is a good chance that the data doesn't extend out that far and you would be able to use the disc.
 
It would be better just to download NEW drivers anyway, rather than risking destroying your CD drive.

Awesome n00b guide Mr. X :)
 
yea i had no idea i had to install the CD drivers before. The sound blaster beta drivers arent updates and can be used as stand alone
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top