Audigy SE working Multichannel in Vista!

[arjun rantu]

After sending a message to Creative about my Audigy SE and its lack of a Creative driver in Vista they told me it most likely would not work. After trial and error I got it to work perfectly and it is pushing my speakers harder than XP could have imagined! Here is what I did!
A) Take your Creative Driver/Install CD, copy it to your hard drive.
B) Goto Setup.exe right click, goto properties, goto the Compatibility tab.
C) Set it for Windows XP SP2.
D) Run installs the Creative Audigy and if you need MediaSource WMP11 Will pop and hiss while multitasking I recommend Media Source as it does not although the "Sources" is glitchy.
E) Restart when told to
F) I recommend getting the updated drivers (XP Drivers!) from the download section of Creative's site
If you do F
Install and Restart when told to
After F or Without F
G Part 1) Right click on the speaker icon by the clock, click Playback Devices this will open Sound right click and Configure Speakers... set it to 5.1 Read step 2 and experiment, then continue to H
G Part 2) Goto Speaker Settings, Set the configuration to 5.1/7.1 depending on what you need, then make sure Sync with Control Panel is UNCHECKED I found that is the critical element! Enjoy your multichannel! NOTE: With RTM the Sync with Control Panel doesn't seem to have any bearing as far as I can determine!
H) Click Control Panel goto Hardware and Sounds, then open Device Control I put mine on max! Then right click the speaker click Playback Devices, Now right click and hit properties click on the Advanced Tab, set default format to match "24 bit, 96000 Hz (Studio Quality)". Hit apply.
I) Well after all this you should have full 5.1 functionality, although CMSS is not working yet, I will continue to experiment, but I have found this to sound nice in comparison to the Feb 16 Vista driver!
Good luck and I hope this helps!

[Eru]

Hey it worked for me, yes it works! Ill tries to upload an ISO of the installation cd for all those who want the equalizer and extra goodies. Give me a sec. Alright Kiddies here's the ISO for Audigy SE. I know most have thrown their installation disk away so they can't get the EQ and other goodies anymore. Just download this file and follow the above info for the VISTA install. I didn’t install the newest Audigy Se driver. I think it blocks all the previously installed EQ info. Just use the others writeup with this ISO and keep the old drivers and you’ll be set.

[Aandaleeb]

OK I am keen to try this. However the instructions in G:
G Part 1) Right click on the speaker icon by the clock, click Audio Devices. Right Click on Playback Control, goto properties click Configuration Set it to Stereo hit apply.
G Part 2) Goto Speaker Settings, Set the configuration to 5.1/7.1 depending on what you need, then make sure Sync with Control Panel is UNCHECKED I found that is the critical element! Enjoy your multichannel!
Do not match what i get right clicking the speaker in the clock gives open volume mixer, playback devices, recording devices and sounds options i presumed that your instructions applied to playback devices however once you click that the rest of the options do not match either, no playback control tab and then no way to find the do not sync with control panel option. Can anyone straighten this out?

[arjun rantu]

Hey guys I am going to update this experimenting with some various drivers. Now that Vista is RTM and I got Ultimate about 3 weeks I haven't tried my old method but I cannot stand playing things without bass redirection so I hope my old method works. If not I will edit and post my findings! Sorry to hear about your freezing this method was developed on Beta 2 x86, so I hope I can refine it until Creative officially supports our card!

[Rahul Mahajan]

After messing around with this, I finally did get all channels to work. However I did notice when I chose the format, I can only make it 16 bit 96000HZ, and not 24 bit. The only way I even got it to work was screwing around in the creative control panel that now works. CMSS even works for me. If overwrite the driver with the Feb 16 Vista drivers, it will give me the 24 bit option, but 5.1 will not work because none of the creative software will open enabling me to change it. It just says no audio device.. So I guess for now I’m stuck keeping it at 16 bit. Any ideas? Thanks

[MACuser]

I assumed we need to download the latest XP drivers/software which I did and it still works. I am still playing with it but so far everything appears to work fine but have a problem with no audio with Line-In, this works fine in XP but did not work with the limited Vista driver I uninstalled and doesn't work now, don't know why. Two problems remaining:
1. can now get a Line-In signal which can be monitored from speakers but no signal gets to sound recorders and I have tried several different types.
2. Diagnostic application doesn't work.

[Erubiel]

Here’s what I did.
Latest Vista Audigy/SE drivers downloaded from SB site doesn't include some applications which come with the CD. So I researched the installation process a little and found out how to integrate applications like Equalizer to the latest XP driver pack.
1- Download "SBA_PCDRV_LB_1_04_0061.exe" from Creative site.
2- Extract it to a folder like “DrivePack” using Winrar or your rar/zip app.
3- There’s a file called Support.cab inside it. Copy this file to a temporary folder (on your desktop) right-click on it and select “extract to Support\”.
4-Inside the Support folder open “Common\Webdrv.ini” file
5-You’ll see “[DoInstallExternalAppls]” section. This is the list of applications to install. We can add ones from CD.
6- Insert Creative Drivers CD to your CD-Rom.
7-Copy “CTEQ”, “SurMixer” folders (They’re inside the “Audio” folder) to “DrivePack” folder you created in the first step.
8- Add these codes under the “[DoInstallExternalAppls]” section of the Webdrv.ini file:
Setup04 = CTEQ\setup.inx
Setup05 = SurMixer\setup.inx
9- Save file.
10- Download and install CABTOOL_SETUP.ZIP file. This tool works only in XP. For vista you have to find another way to make a folder cab.
11- Delete Support.cab file on the desktop. Right-click on the "Support" folder on the desktop. Select “Send to\Cab tool”
12- Copy the new Support cab file to “DrivePack” folder and overwrite it.
13- You can install by executing setup.exe file inside the folder.
In Windows Vista, surround mixer is useless. So I don’t install it. I use this pack on clean installations which prevents installing some other useless applications installed from CD. (Like register app. etc.)
CMSS isn’t working.

[Cale]

Hi guys, I'm joining you in battle. Also have the same troubles like you: SB audigy SE + vista = STEREO SOUND (2.1 mode) only GREEN plug send audio there's nothing I could do still now to fix that issue. I follow the instruction in this post to make a clean installation of Widows XP sp2 driver that comes with original CD copy that files onto HD set administrator rights set compatibility mode with xp sp2 and so on the only things that I could gain with this was SLOWER system, random freezes and yap, I could make that all speakers sound when you enable effects in EAX console but with distortion, down volume (still setting up 100% of effects) and NO QUALITY. CMSS3D still not works! There’s no real multichannel. I also try making a hybrid with lasted xp drivers and CD installation source, and both vista 32bits drivers available in creative webpage without luck!

[Felix46]

At the end of the post are my Ring specs, but in summary I own an audigy SE OEM version and 2 speaker systems from creative: an INSPIRE P7800 (7.1 system) and an INSPIRE P5200 (5.1 system) and I get sound ONLY from GREEN out if got 3 connectors plugged into your SB, just unplugged green one and sound will die when u said that you could get full 5.1 sound is only when u enable EFFECTS from EAX console or not? Just make a test: DISABLE EFFECTS in EAX console, now only GREEN plug sound? You can also make another test to make sure your SB is good installed: when your 5 satellites were playing music, change position of GREEN with BLACK plug, did you hear some difference between speakers? Try also GREEN/ORANGE plug and by last TEST, unplug GREEN one and turn up volume did you hear good sound? Not distortion and all? With XP drivers you could only get some EFFECTS from black/orange plug with very LOW VOLUME, can you confirm this cat? The only ways to get REAL 5.1 sound will be when creative give us a driver that supports CMSS 3D with VISTA (Still not available) if not please tells me! I'll burn my SB.
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SB CREATIVE AUDIGY SE
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