I need a SB LIVE! Driver for DirectX 8.1?????????????

[Navaros]

Today I installed a game in which the sound is all screwed to Hell. This is the second new game to which this has happened to me with. I have noticed that the thing that both of these games have in common is that they *forced* me to install DirectX 8.1 and run them with it. Both of the different tech support depts. say it's probably my sound card drivers which need to be updated to support DirectX 8.1!

I am using an SB Live with Windows 98 SE, and the latest driver for that card by Creative Labs is from 5/5/2000!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the heck????!!!!

Don't tell me I'm gonna need to buy a new sound card because Creative Labs refuses to release drivers that work with DirectX 8.1 for the SB Live???????????????????????????!!!!!!!

I am QUITE peeved about this. Two new games that I was *really* looking forward to playing which are no fun to play on my comp because of the sound abnormalites.

Please help.

PS: BOYCOTT CREATIVE LABS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gobalopper]

Buy Turtle Beach then, I haven't had any problems with mine.

[number6]

What game did you recently install that caused the problem? I have a SBLive value on Windows 98 and none of the new games I have installed have this problem. I am also running some old drivers for my SBlive (8/26/1999). It could also be a motherboard issue. What is the model/manufacturer of your motherboard? As always your DXDiag and Easy report are very useful and I would ask that you attach them in your response.

[ethan]

hmm, i had a sound blaster 32 and it worked with all kinds of new games. lol.

what game was it?

[zamboe]

I have my SB Live

[Navaros]

The games are GTA 3 and Hitman 2.

Hitman 2 works only if I turn EAX off, otherwise the voices are fine but all the gunshots and much of the other sounds are extremely low and muffled, and also my computer completely freezes if I run the game for 10 minutes or so. Turning EAX off solves this problem, but that takes a *huge* amount of the fun out of the game. I need my EAX!

All the voices in GTA 3 would play at 20% of the volume of everything else so it was *NO* fun to play at all. I actually had to demand a refund for it. I had my WAV volumes and every volume control on the "Play Control" panel at maximum; so it was not anything wrong with my software settings or hardware.

And my card works FINE in all other games. The only thing these two new games have in common is that they both use DirectX 8.1 and all my other games which work use an earlier version of DirectX.

Gob, does the company you mentioned *support* their cards continuously with new drivers? And are their products EAX and EAX 2 compatible?

[Gobalopper]

Well the Santa Cruz is a year or two old now so the driver updates aren't as often. But I have yet to have any problems with it.

Here is the product page:

http://turtlebeach.com/site/products/santacruz/producthome.asp

And just look for some sound card reviews on hardware sites, there are some newer cards out there that are probably well made. For example this one:

http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/overview/0,12069,450305,00.html

[zamboe]

Did you check that the surround mixer is correctly configured ?

There are some special efects drives for some specific games that are suppoused to be configured within the surround mixer, some of those special drivers are available at creative's site, i downloaded a bunch of them, but those are for games that i don't play, well I don't play much anyhow.

[Nyarlathotep]

Today I installed a game in which the sound is all screwed to Hell. This is the second new game to which this has happened to me with. I have noticed that the thing that both of these games have in common is that they *forced* me to install DirectX 8.1 and run them with it. Both of the different tech support depts. say it's probably my sound card drivers which need to be updated to support DirectX 8.1!

I am using an SB Live with Windows 98 SE, and the latest driver for that card by Creative Labs is from 5/5/2000!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the heck????!!!!

Don't tell me I'm gonna need to buy a new sound card because Creative Labs refuses to release drivers that work with DirectX 8.1 for the SB Live???????????????????????????!!!!!!!

I am QUITE peeved about this. Two new games that I was *really* looking forward to playing which are no fun to play on my comp because of the sound abnormalites.

Please help.

PS: BOYCOTT CREATIVE LABS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same soundblaster card as you have, I'm running Windows ME and DirectX 8.1. I haven't got any problems what so ever. It's no surprise that both tech departments state that your soundcard drivers need to be DirectX 8.1 compatible. Heck, why should they investigate while they can blame it on another company ::)