Creative Live! 5.1 does'n work after uprgd 1GB ->3GB RAM

mircea0509

hi to all!
THIS WAS ORIGINALLY SENDED TO GIGABYTE CUSTOMER SUPPORT CENTER, BUT I'VE DECIDED TO POST HERE TOO, SINCE I THINK YOU GUYS CAN REALLY HELP ME.
-THANKS-

-My os is Win Vista Ultimate 32bit, Creative SB Live! 5.1 sound card, Kx 3539 drivers-

here goes:

"I have a problem with my Creative SB live 5.1 soundcard on a 965P-DS3 REV 1.0 Gigabyte mobo:
When i've upgraded from 1GB of RAM (2x512MB Kingston HyperX 800) to 3GB (2x512MB + 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800), my PCI Creative SB live 5.1 sound card does not worked anymore (i get a weird loop sound). Drivers are fine. I'm using Eugene Gavrilov's Kx Project 3539 (since Creative does'n have support for vista on their SB live 5.1), and with 1GB of RAM everything worked and still works fine(--when I plug out the extra RAM). I've tried different combinations of ram sticks and found out that from 2.5 GB+ my sound card doesn't work anymore. In any other comb of 512,1GB,1.5GB or 2GB, the sound is fine(so the drivers are ok since the only thing I do is to shutdown, take some RAM out to get the threshold, boot back and.. voila: it works again).
I've updated my BIOS from F6 to F12 using @BIOS, ...nothing, i've updated Intel(R) Chipset Device Software to 8.3.1.1009 from your site, ..still no sound.
I mention that I had my upgrade in 2 steps, faceing the following siptoms:
1st, Having 1GB RAM, I've updated my VGA card from Leadtek 7300GT TDH Ex to Leadtek 8600 GTS and the sound on my SB live! started to interrupt randomly once in a while(then on Kx3138m though), but my on board Realtek ALC883 worked fine.
then, 2nd, I've upgraded my RAM from 1GB to 3GB(haveing 8600VGA now) and the SB live went dead, and the interrupting problem passed to the onboard Realtek ALC883.
In this conditions, I've suspected then the power source, a noname ANS 400W, thinking that adding a bigger VGA(with extra PCI-E power conn required) and some extra RAM, drained the power for the PCI slot(although the PCI TvTuner worked fine, but still...).
'Till yesterday, (after some months of faceing the irritating problem) when I've got my Sirtec HPC 560-A12C and eliminated the possibility. The onboard soundcard problem was fixed by updateing to the latest R180 driver, but then, even updateing to kx 3539 for the PCI card, didn't fix my SB live problem, AND TODAY I STILL FACE THE SAME PROBLEM: NO SOUND FROM MY PCI CR SB LIVE 5.1 SOUND CARD running on 3Gigs even though with less than 2.5gigs in works fine...
I also mention that with the generic win Vista drivers for the SB live, my sound card doesn't work at all with any amount of RAM, and I get a BSOD after 30secs of Windows.
If it helps, the sound from my TvTUNER passes thru the sound card with no problems, in an non-passive way since I can control it from my Kx mixer, and it sounds fine; But any stream initiated from my pc.. does'n work.
Else, the sistem is stable and I use no overclock (Host clock Disabled and SPD auto)

Full Detailed config(if it helps / makes any difference):
-Gigabyte 965P-DS3 REV1.0 mobo(+Marvel LAND & Realtek ALC883 sound)
-Intel 945, 3.4Ghz, 800, 2x2 L2, Thermaltake i1 cooler
-2x512 Kingston HyperX 800Mhx + 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800Mhx
-Creative LIVE 5.1 SB soundcard
-Leadtek PCI-E NVIDIA 8600GTS 256/128, 675, 2000, latest 163.69 forceware winvista 32bit english whql
-Leadtek PCI TvTuner PVR2000
-WD2500KS HDD
-LG GSA-H22L optic Drive
-Sirtec HPC-560-A12C power source
-some peripherics (22'TN, printer, UPS, webcam, card readers, coolers)
-hope not forgotten anything

Please don't provide me any stupid throubleshooting steps.. I need I real solution to be able to have sound from my SB Live 5.1 with 3GB of RAM!!
I've tried anything that I could think of, starting from interchanging PCI slots, combining RAM sticks in any possible way or tweaking BIOS options(no harm done), to updating all my drivers, and then google the problem for about 8hours now, and no luck.. A single one case from a guy with a Creative sndcard faceing the same problem upgrading from 1GB to 3GB of RAM on Vista, but on an Intel mobo, and the topic went dead after a few posts, with no solution at all.
Could be a Physical Address Extension (PAE)problem? I don't thing so because even if using a 32bit os, I don't want to use more than 3GB of RAM....

So, please help guys!!

I don't want to change neither the hardware config, nor the vista os, I just want it to work.

Thanks."

Russ

This is a known issue...

- From 3539 Bug Reports thread:

mircea0509

then what it is to be done? it exists some newer kx version that fixed that? or any non-kx driver at all? or even the problem is solvable at all? I don't want to play crysis or Hl2Ep2 with only 2gigs of RAM, nor with my onboard sound card.... (
And still, kaze said in the same thread you poited me:

"i thins it is not hardware limitation
my sb live5.1 works 3G ram under win XP but not vistaX86"

but I'm not going back to the old Xp..

and no, mid sounds won't work neither...

so please help me somehow!! I take whatever beta you provide me just to fix this stupid bug.... or just give me an idea for how much I have to wait fur this bug to be fixed...

Russ

I do not know, maybe it cannot be fixed. Eugene is the developer of the kX driver, and he said he will see if it is possible to fix it... Thats the only info there is right now about it.

It appears to be a hardware issue with the card itself, so I am not sure I would call it a bug (at least as far as kX goes). I doubt it will be fixed any time soon.

Hans-Peter Gutt

mircea0509 - Here are the best set of answers/options I think are available to you at this time:

1) For absolute control, flexibility, and quality of sound kX remains the finest SB/Audigy driver for Vista, but you cannot do 3GB + Creative in Vista X86 and you cannot do Vista 64 w/kX.

2) If you must have 3GB, prepare to be experimental ! During the past couple of months a Brazilian coder named Daniel Kawatami has dissected every Creative/OEM Vista release for SB/Audigy/X-Fi and discovered that substantial quality support exists for the SB/Audigy series cards in current driver packages but has evidently been deliberately disabled at the installer level.

He has now made available three sets of recompiled Creative drivers for the Audigy series, the last of which is so good that I have provisionally switched from kX because finally the 3GB problem is solved.

Now it becomes complicated for you.

Another hacker has adapted Daniel Kawatami's work for Sound Blaster 5.1 and claims excellent results. I cannot verify this because I am using Audigy 2 ZS on my Vista rig. Here is the Forum Thread and link:

'sb live series vista driver OpenAL,Eax,Surround sound,Louder volume,same XP quality'

sb live series vista driver OpenAL,Eax,Surround sound,Louder volume,same XP quality 10/07 - Windows Vista - Creative Labs

3GB support is not claimed for the SB 5.1, but it may be worth a try.

3) Otherwise, if you absolutely need 3GB, in all seriousness, buy a 'new' Audigy 2 or 2 ZS on eBay for $25 or less, and then go to this Creative Forum thread to study and link to Kawatami's latest (today) comprehensive driver/utility package that supports 3GB:

'SB Audigy series Vista Support Pack, including drivers and applications'

SB Audigy series Vista Support Pack, including drivers and applications (10/28) - Windows Vista - Creative Labs

Alternatively, I would post a question for Danial K on this thread inquiring if he might eventually adapt the 3GB driver for the SB Live! series.

Personally, I do not game, so I cannot speak to EAX functionality. However, the quality of music in Winamp and DVD soundtracks in PowerDVD is as fine as I experienced for several months using kX 3538m. Beautiful sound + normal volume + 3.3GB + Surround Sound + correct headphones + Aux In 2 on the external drive + compatibility w/Compro H900 TV card = Vista aural happiness.

A final note: if you decide to try these adaptations of Creative's drivers, you will need the following free tool to completely - really completely - uninstall Creative between attemtps/updates/changes - 'Guru3D Driver Sweeper'

Guru3D - Driver Sweeper v1.0 Final Relased

Before running this utility, kill the Cthelper.exe process in Task Manager.


Good luck . . . .

mircea0509

first of all, I would like to thank you guys for support and pieces of advice

second...
nope it doesn't work with the modified drivers from <<SB Audigy series Vista Support Pack, including drivers and applications (10/28) - Windows Vista - Creative Labs>> neither .

--The story:
I found it to work on the 2ch, 24bit (??!?! Live! is a 16.., whatever) 48000 sample rate, as naimadekar said it will work on one at chance, but it worked randomly, as sometimes still did the loop annoyng sound, and in poor sound quality with distors even at low wave / master vol and badly equalised(too much bass, no treble, done the eq: min bass, max treb and still no good). Plus.. I got BSODs one after another at about 3 mins after each boot...
I gave up...


now I look forward to buy another sound card, not right now but soon...
so... please advice me a little...
If I understood corectly.. Audigy is still based on a similar processor arhitecture as SB Live! --10kx1,10kx2.. so I will still have head akes making it work on 3GB with Vista.
X-FI it will work fine for me?

Please provide me -if you have/saw/found- ,maybe a chart with all audigys and all X-FIs, with differeces and resembles + specs + maybe prices. I will apreciate it, as there are SO MANY ver of them and I dont' know what to choose...
And please point me if you can some good choices, haveing in mind that I will run it on a 3GB Vista and I will use it more for music / multimedia than for games or synt..(I need clear sound, large drive bass, no metalic hi s.
As speakers -I use one Sony MHC-RG310 2.0 (2x80w RMS, not realy, but still.. it sounds good) + one Sony MHC-RG595 2.1 (2x180W + 180W RMS) ... so 4.1

Temporarly, I switched my SB Live! for my father's pc sound card: a Creative 128PCI SB, -- as he only have 1.5GB of RAM...
Amaizingly.. the Blaster works fine for me with the generic drives windows found on the net, aside being older than the SB Live!.... but I'll miss the sound q of the Live!, the 6 outs -as now I have to split the single out by wires-(sound being copied- but not that I had any 4.1 mp3s ), and last but not least, I'll miss KX drives....
But at least now I have sound and I can play... As using the shit called "Hi Def Realtek ALC883" on my speakers would have been too much of a sacrifice to me....(the shit only stayed pluged into my lcd's speakers )

In the end, as a conclusion:
-please provide me any info for what sound card you recommend
-Any info on the Audigy/X-FI series
-any news if Eugene releases any kx ver that fixed my Live! problem
-and maybe an opinion for Asus Xonar D2 ???

I know I demand a lot. Sorry and THANKS. But if any of you guys, as being more experinced than me-, has or founds any peaces of info, please provide it to me as it is and I will put it toghether.......

excuse my bad english... I'm from Romania

mircea0509

the mail is still sended to Gigabyte Global Technical Service... I'm curious what they'll respond / if they will...