how creative.com ruined my life

[xcellerate]

So i was updating for episode 1, and i updated my video card and checked windows update, and figured, 'hey, let's update the sound card...'

I log onto creative.com and click the 'software autoupdate' button. It installs a plugin and to my surprise i'm all updated. It just wanted to install a bunch of BS for dvd players, and mini disk stuff. Well i start up BF2 to kill some time, and...no sounds. That's weird, i was listening to winamp like like 10 minutes earlier (right before i installed my video drivers). But now i had no sound, so i logged off BF2 started winamp and get the error:
"bad direct sound driver. Please install proper drivers or select another device in configuration. Error code: 88780078"

windows media player, and my creative audio console don't work either. I just uninstalled and reinstalled my creative audigy 2 audio drivers. And updated directX and it didn't work. Now i can't listen to music.

Damn you creative.com, you ruined my life.


edit: i got winamp to work, but under my audio console in the control settings there's no device set for default voice or playback, and i can not set a device for it either...

 

[Garfield_]

Yeah soundcards intend to have lots of issues

 

[Lemonking]

dude,tell me about the X-Fi!! u got it right?

 

[Garfield_]

Just shout on MSN and ill tell you Lemon =)

 

[mr spoon]

Creative's drivers have always been a delicate balance. I would recommend never to update their drivers unless you have to (incompatibility, crashes etc). I've used the same drivers on mine for 18 months, they work so I don't touch.

 

[Garfield_]

Yeah, I've read that too, updates will just cause more trouble

 

[TheDan]

I have almost exactly the same problems with my ATi card drivers.

I have an X800 Pro, after deciding that perhaps I should give ATi a chance since I've not actually had an ATi card before (TNT2 was my first, then an FX 5200, and now the X800). Since I've had this card, whenever I update my video drivers, it usually takes me roughly 3 hours before I can get it working.

[Unnecessary Story]

For example, yesterday when Episode 1 was released, I got a lot of lockups at autosave points. I got directed to the steam forums where I found out that its probably a video driver issue. Sounds right, I haven't updated my video drivers for a while (because it always messes up >_<), so I head to the ATi page and download the 6.5 Catalyst drivers. So I uninstall my old Omega drivers, reboot, install Catalyst 6.5 drivers, reboot, *BSOD* - A page fault from ati2mtag.sys

So I reboot and windows tells me that it didn't start properly, what should it do (Safe Mode/last good config/normally) I choose last good config so it runs windows from when the Omega drivers were uninstalled. I uninstall the Catalyst drivers, reboot, run driver cleaner, reboot, install the Catalyst drivers again thinking perhaps it was just a bad install, reboot, *BSOD* again..

So now I'm pissed, and I'm not sure what to do, so I install the Omega drivers again, and get that working again. Then I decide to try playing HL2: E1 again - same problem! I'm really annoyed at this point because I've waited ages for the game to be released, gotten myself all hyped up in preparation, only to not be able to play the game without it crashing and ruining the mood.

At this point, I decide to check back at the steam forums, and apparently the 6.4 Catalyst drivers stop the crashes. Thought I might as well give it a shot. Spent another 10 minutes downloading those drivers. Uninstall those Omega drivers, reboot, install 6.4 drivers, reboot, and after configuring my dualies, Half-Life 2: Episode one works!

[/Unnecessary Story]

So, long story short, every time I update my ATi drivers, something always screws up and I spend half the evening fixing them -_-

 

[Cole]

TheDan, you have to boot into safe mode, then uninstall, then driver clean, then restart, then go back into safe mode and install the drivers then boot into regular mode.

With both ATI and Nvidia I never had a problem with the drivers.

 

[EC]

Creative's drivers have always been a delicate balance. I would recommend never to update their drivers unless you have to (incompatibility, crashes etc). I've used the same drivers on mine for 18 months, they work so I don't touch.

Same here. I've had the same drivers for my audigy gamer since I got it, well over a couple years ago, and they haven't failed me yet. Not to mention, their website hides their drivers from me. That, or I'm just retarded and can't find them. Either way, I don't have a need to upgrade.