Creative Audigy 2 ZS-Problems

Haven't attempted to mess with the Audigy but have installed the Extigy (earlier generation) on both XP and Win2K. My wife also has Creative's Jukeboxes for her MP3s so we're well-invested with Creative software.

The biggest problems with Creative's stuff isn't really the hardware but getting their software installed right. I believe the biggest problems are that they use different contract houses to produce drivers and all that other stuff that gets loaded on your system - most of which you can't really tell what its supposed to be used for.

So, my recommendations are:

* Make sure you're using the latest versions of everything you plan on installing. Download them from the Creative site and read all the Readme.txt and installation instructions. Use a yellow marker and highlight all the little notes or cautions - these are generally the gotchas.

* Make sure all the firmware has been updated to match the software/drivers you've downloaded.

* Reboot after every piece of software you've loaded. This ensures you've got the latest drivers loaded before you make the next step in the update/upgrade process.

Even with all this, there's a good chance that things will be messed up and you'll be back on to Creative support. They've not been much help to me as I don't believe Creative release-tests all the permutations of their software components. This isn't an indictment of the support staff, they just don't have the information coming back from Asia.

As an alternative, I'd suggest you consider purging the Creative stuff and look at some of the semi-pro stuff that's out there to do the same thing: M-audio and the like. Go down to the local Guitar/musician's store and you'll find lots of it where they sell the studio mixing boards and microphones. Lots of really good choices with software to support them, too.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

David

For any computer a 200watt power supply is too small, I would replace that no matter what. For the low sound problem make sure to check all of your volume levels, there are hidden ones that are only found once you open your volume control and go to "options" then "properties" and check all of the boxes available. I always turn all of the levels all the way up and adjust using master volume and the speaker volume.

I also have had these types of issues when sound cards were upgraded from onboard sound cards, most of the speakers provided were not amplified, so try out different speakers.

make sure you are using all of the latest versions of everything. even though you may have your antivirus doing an automatic update, it is only updating your definitions and not your program updates, make sure you are fully updated on the windows side too, I run windows update once a week, and always find new stuff, once again the auto update only downloads the critical stuff not the program stuff.

You listed the model of your PC not your printer, I would assume that you have a USB printer, I would try unplugging the printer, and turning the computer on with it unplugged, once it is fully booted up, plug in the printer.

Hi I have a problem with SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum card. I installed the drivers off the CD and the stupid thing doesn't even close the program after it's done installing. It just leaves it hanging there. So I'm forced to kill the process. Then I had to cold boot the machine to get it restart. As soon as I got back into Windows (XP Pro SP 1), I installed the latest web update.

The problem is, even with all this, I get no sound from my Creative Itrige 2.1 speakers (which are plugged into the proper jack on the card), the firewire port on the card doesn't function (nothing is detected when I plug in my scanner). But the Platinum drive works fine. I get sound through my head phones which are plugged into its head phone jack and the firewire port on it functions properly.

Is there any way to get a full driver off the web and not just an update that requires the CD? Thanks!

I have a Creative Audigy 2 - not a ZS, just a normal one. I just want to complain somewhere about my problem. I went through tech support and I got some lame answer that made no sense. Tech support had told me that the Speaker Test Software wasn't meant to test 5.1 channel digital sound, even though it clearly has the options to.

Anyway, I have Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 speakers. I want to use the digital output on my audigy card. At first when I installed it and ran the speaker test, I only got sound from the front left and right speakers. After a weekend of reformating and hair-pulling I discovered that if I selected not to have digital as the default output, the digital output would actually work in 5.1 with the speaker test.

After a while however, I lose the 5.1 channel sound, and get put back to 2.1, still through digital. I tried reinstalling the drivers but that hasn't helped. I really don't want another weekend of formating my computer.

I'm considering going back to using analog sound because of this... ARGH! The only thing keeping me fron doing that is my other computer is using the analog input on the Inspire 5700 decoder box right now.

Creative, your drivers and software are horrible.

I also have trouble with only the left and right channels outputting using digital sound output (digital coax cable) on my SB Audigy2 ZS platinum. The speaker test only does left and right channel. I'm outputting to a Midiland 8200 speaker system, which has its own DTS decoder. DVD's seem to do DTS output fine, and Winamp spans the speakers as well using directsound output. However the speaker test and and games go back to two channel. Its very annoying.