Are You SERIOUS?

Vista can't be this bad.

I installed my software and drivers for my SB X-Fi Xtreme sound card. And I can't get it to work. I've installed and reinstalled twice.

When I try to open Audio Console it says, "Audio device supported by this application is not detected. This application will exit."

When I try to open Console Launcher, it says, ""Audio device supported by this application is not detected. Do you want to select another audio device now?"

When I click "Yes," it says, "The Creative Audio Device Selection module cannot be launched. The module may be missing from your system. You may need to re-install your application."

WTF?! I've installed twice ... including getting all the updates.

Also, I can't even ****ING install Direct X9 or 10 ... doesn't it come preloaded with Vista? I can't even ****ing play C&C 3 because DX9 and 10 go into "Not Responding" upon installation.

I'm real pissed. I just got this laptop last night and did a complete clean install. I did everything right.

 

Dual Boot XP... I do

 

I don't believe Creative has released drivers that support their products for vista.

...I think, there was a very large issue on that.

 

Can't help you with the sound card. Where did you get the drivers from? Are the Vista-specific drivers? Have you tried downloading from Creative's site? Did you purchase this card from Dell?

Regarding DX9 and DX10...there's no reason these shouldn't properly install and load in Vista. Are you using versions that came bundled on game CD's? If so, try downloading the latest versions directly from Microsoft.

An editorial aside...while I'm a big proponent of reformatting and installing the OS fresh, I'm not a big fan of doing it on Day 1. If there are software or hardware issues, it becomes difficult to tell whether there's a real problem, or if something the user has done is the cause. I like running on the stock install for a few days until I see that everything operates as expected. Then if I format and reinstall and there's an issue, I can pretty much know that it's something I've done wrong.

 

What I did for my Platinum ZS:

1. Tried KX drivers
2. Tried YouPAX drivers.
3. Found a third party ISO with manipulated drivers by some guy who is getting sued by Creative for offering people a solution for VISTA. The SURROUND MIXER will not work, no EAX, Alchemy sucks, no THX, no EQ, no environments, no effects, etc.

None of the above solutions gave me quality on VISTA so I used the magic FORMAT C: command .Take VISTA OFF and enjoy the quality of your card by using XP. No need to make it sound like an onboard on VISTA!!!

 

They have released a minimum pack that will make the card work and sound like ****. I know, I spent a week trying to fix my Audigy 2 Platinum!!! I read every tutorial, every stupid way of forcing drivers, modified registry, modified my drivers!!! For what? For a fancy design on an OS? I spent 300 euros when that card came out and I cannot use it? Hell no, back to XP and stay there!

The problem with Vista is that it has a new approach that should offer better SNR and higher fidelity. Creative is working on the problem by launching a new line of products Vista compatible. The current ones will not get the support they deserve. Rip people off for money 101 .

 

My understanding was that Creative was one of the last mainstream hardware manufacturers to release Vista drivers, and that the problems affected only certain models of Creative sound cards (my Audigy 2 Value worked fine in Vista 64-bit, though admittedly, I don't take advantage of the Creative software that comes with it).

As far as I knew, DX9 and 10 are included in the Vista install. Not sure what might be causing you problems there.

 

Sorry if this sounds patronising, but are you sure you're installing the correct drivers for the XtremeAudio?

I ask because the XtremeAudio is not actually a true X-Fi, they're rebadged Audigy SE cards, and thus use a different driver set to the rest of the X-Fi range.

 

Yes yes and yes to everyone.

I DLed drivers off of Creative's website AND the ones on the install disk, to no avail.
I can't believe Dell would sell this card with VISTA when it has known problems of WORKING.

I thought DX9 came on Vista too but apparently, when I tried to install C&C 3, it said I didn't have DX installed. Went to Microsoft and DLed DX9 AND DX10 and tried to install either one. Neither worked ... didn't even get to the progess bar on the install screen and it went "Not Responding."

Rediculous. I'm gonna try another graphics driver since I installed, 174.93 for my 8600 GT ... you think that's the problem?

And Jake, I installed the specific Express Card SB X-FI Xtreme Audio drivers off of Creative's site.

 

Installed just fine on mine.

 

My Creative card now works in Vista,just not in vista 64. I had issues with that,and the sound was weaker than in XP, but now in vista 32 seems to be ok.

 

Alas... the world is not yet ready to go 64-bit just yet. Its moving, but not quite there.

 

lol, this isn't Vista fault. 100% Creative's fault because of their just terrible support for all of their products. Honestly that company needs to die. Sorry man, but you might never see Vista 64 bit support for your X-Fi.

I couldn't use my X-Fi (Desktop) for about a month when I upgraded to Vista. Creative, such a large company, couldn't release proper X-Fi (their most popular product line) drivers until 3 months after Vista's release. Imagine the support your rarely purchased x-fi card will get.

If I were you, I would do some searching for modded drivers for your sound card for x64. Usually the Creative community out there is much better at getting drivers to work than Creative.

 

Yes,Creative seems to be really slow about that..

 

I'm not sure why people think there's no Vista 64-bit support for X-Fi - there is, I've been using mine in Vista x64 since launch. Admittedly the drivers are rather poor however, so I'm not surprised there has been an issue with installation.

Creative are crap for drivers generally. Their recently released Audigy drivers for XP cause BSOD on my secondary machine w/ Audigy4.

 

Creative products not working properly in Vista isn't actually a Microsoft issue I'm afraid, and your Direct X issues are by no means a normality either.

I remember reading about some guy who got so sick of waiting for Creative that he hacked together his own drivers that ticked all of the boxes for both himself and the community.

Creative got pissy about it, but you'll likely still find them in a torrent hosted by disgruntled Creative consumers somewhere

An article on the matter.

 

That's slightly different though. In that case, Creative intentionally broke their Vista Audigy drivers with crippled or less features, to make people buy X-Fi's daniel_k simply modified the drivers to enable those features, which has forced Creative to release their own driver in the past few days with these features 'fixed', lol.

Their trouble with the X-Fi in Vista is because of Vista's changed audio stack and removal of hardware acceleration, which Creative failed to adequately react to. Creative rejected many of the changes to the Vista audio stack when the HD Audio specification was being drawn up. They thought they had enough muscle in the marketplace to prevent Microsoft from implementing the changes. They were wrong however, as hardware accelerated audio becomes more and more obsolete with each passing year.

 

this is for vista 32x so i'm not worried about 64x right now.

i'm gonna work on it for a while now that i've cooled down. i'm at work but when i get home i'll let you know what i come up with.

the directx issue worries me the most.

after clean install of vista 32x, and all the correct dell drivers and such.

i'm going to see if i can find directx 9 or 10 on the drivers disks or repair disk.

thanks for the help everyone. anyone know if the 174.93 driver could have caused any problems?

 

The DirectX thing is baffling, you should not need to install DirectX standalone (in fact, it's recommended you do not), but SP1 should have updated your DirectX to 10.1 upon install.

 

alright. when i get home i'll run windows update ... again ... and go thru to see if i can reinstall sp1.

if not i'll look n the driver cds and windows cd.

i'm pissed about the sound card ... why offer a card if they know it doesn't workwith vista well? and why didn't i know about this earlier lol

 

It has been like that for more than a year now. One of the reasons I don't use Vista. Don't want my Platinum to sound like crap . I need a mixer and proper EAX.

 

ok got everything to work

did another clean install. everything worked after that, not sure why it didn't work the first time.

to get the sound card to work i had to put the creative install cd in and reinstalled the drivers only. works perfectly now, and it actually sounds reallllllly good.

thanks for helping me through a rough time

played c&c 3 last night ... awesome

 

Sweet. When you did another clean install, did you choose to set up 2 or 1 partition with the MediaDirect CD?

 

as far as i know i didn't really have a choice. i managed to get down to 2 partitions tho. 3G (or whatever it is) for MD, then the rest as primary.

when you put in the mediadirect cd and do your reformat it just set it up that way for me

 

So when Im assuming you went with option 1?

Heres my worries, cause I really dont want to lose the recovery partition or the recovery D: drive, but I dunno which program to use for repartitioning... gar, it feels more trouble than its worth.

 

I'm not sure about the recovery partition. I didn't attempt it with my M1530, but on my old M140 I tried to reinatsll from scratch and leave the recovery partition intact, and while I was able to leave the partition, I was never able to actually boot to it ever again. Eventually I blew it away in some subsequent reinstall.

I don't know if the newer MediaDirect will be more successful in leaving that partition or not, but I'd tread carefully if maintaining that bootable partition is important to you.