I really don't know where to start; I could practically write a book about my experiences with this piece of junk (my audio card that is, not the drivers.) Let me start by saying that this really isn't a problem with the kx drivers and it's not really a problem with the Creative drivers, and it's probably not really a problem with the physical sound card either, but rather a problem with my specific setup. Because of that, I'm really sorry to bug everyone here, as this is more a problem that Creative should help me with. Unfortunately, they suck and have helped me in no way, and basically, I really don't know who else to ask or what else to do.
Ok, well the problem is really hard to pinpoint but the gist is that with my Audigy 2 ZS and Radeon 7500 PCI installed at the same time, I'm getting constant high-pitched beeping sounds anytime I run a number of programs, and on occasion, complete system lockups that just totally freeze everything - no mouse or keyboard functionality, no sign of life at all except for a constant high pitched squeal coming from my speakers. The kx drivers have reduced the number of beeps and the number of programs that make them, but I would like to defeat them once and for all, and of course, I'm still getting the really annoying crashes that could really ruin a good day's work (or some good progress in a videogame
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So I've found that if I use onboard sound and the Radeon, I get no beeps and everything works as fine as it did before I bought the Audigy 2 zs. Also, with just the sound card and onboard video, things work fine and dandy too, although of course I don't get to use the higher resolutions and that kind of stuff that comes along with a better video device. It's only when I have the two devices going at once that the poo hits the fan.
So I tried just about everything that Creative's tech support recommended. Let's see - I've tweaked the IRQ's and latencies every which way. I've updated all the drivers I could find to update. Updated the bios - didn't really do anything; I've got a piece of junk 4 year old Compaq so of course they don't let you tweak any of the good stuff. I've tried alternative drivers for the sound card (these drivers) and the video card. I tried to disable all the junky unused devices I could like onboard sound, etc., but I could only do so through the device manager in Windows. So I doubt that's really all that effective. I guess I'll say that's it, so if there's something not here that you think might work, please tell me.
As annoying as the beeps are, the crashes are worse. They're pretty bizarre too - the computer only crashes when I'm doing something (like watching a movie or playing a game) and the internet connection goes down. So I figured, maybe if I took out the networking card it might fix the problem. Instead, the programs would freeze the whole danged computer right whenever I started them. The same thing happens if I turn off the modem, unplug the modem, or disable the networking card in the device manager. So it basically sucks.
Some info on my system: windows xp pro sp2, radeon 7500, 384 megs of ram, really junky intel 82810e motherboard/video and stuff, cripes I don't know what's important so if you think you need more, I'll be happy to post it.
Some of the things that cause beeps - Windows media player with movies, especially in fullscreen. Many games, 3D or not, recent or not, resource demanding or not. (Note: with the kx drivers I'm able to play a lot more games without beeps, but there's still the risk of crashes.) Winamp, but only whenever I use a DSP plugin that hogs the CPU (hopefully if I ever get this audio card to work I won't have to use a DSP plugin anymore.) And pretty much anytime a sound is playing and a lot of activity is going on on-screen, especially if a program is in full-screen mode.
Congratulations if you've made it this far. Thanks for any help you can give me. I've been working for 1 week exactly now, 80% of those days I was using all my free time to get the computer to at least be stable. So here I am. If you can help, then I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, I'm seriously considering taking this card out and just swallowing the $80 loss.
