macgamesrule
New member
I went to install the drivers for my Audigy 2 ZS today. I have actually been using the card for awhile, but just for stereo sound and mic input, no surround features. So I put in the CD, installed, restarted, etc. None of the Creative programs (EAX, THX, etc) recognized the card. They wouldn't open and gave the error message "No supported device found", "No device registered", various things to that effect. However, stereo sound still worked, and the Audigy was recognized by the Multimeda control panel. So I went to Creative's site and used the autoupdate. No change.
I went Googling for info. I found that there is a known issue with nForce 4 mobos and Audigy 2 / X-Fi series cards. In looking thru the FAQ's, both at Creative and DFI, I noticed entries about IRQ conflict. Upon consulting System Information, I found that the Marvell Yukon Gb Enet, GeForce 7800GT, and Audigy were all sharing IRQ 18. It seemed a little fishy that the graphics and sound cards were sharing the same IRQ number, so I thought I'd see if I could change it.
My first step was to update the BIOS to a later version. The 6/23/05 version, to be exact. I went into the PnP/PCI settings and set the IRQ assignment to Manual. I didn't manually set any of the IRQ's though, just left it at that. After restart I tried the Creative programs again. No go, they still didn't recognize the card.
After looking on the DFI site again, I found an article that said that AGP and PCI1 shared the same IRQ. I checked my mobo manual and sure enough, I had the Audigy in PCI1. I shut down the comp (of course) and moved the Audigy to PCI2.
I next restarted in safe mode, uninstalled the Creative drivers, and ran Driver Cleaner. Restarting back in to normal Windows, I renistalled the drivers and ran the autoupdate. Success! (well pretty much). The Audigy is now alone on IRQ 19. Most of the Creative programs recognize the card. Still a few problems though... the sound icon in the system tray doesn't work, I have to go the Control Panel to change the volume. This isn't too much of a problem since I usually adjust it with the control on the speakers anyway. The speaker calibrator didn't work too well, after running it the sound volume and quality was degraded considerably. Fortunately, all I had to do was reopen it and cancel out of it, and normal sound performance returned. And I have yet to find a clear guide on how to connect my case's front (top actually, for the Tsunami) headphones and mic ports to the Audigy's pins... it has a dozen internal ports, but nothing in the manual or on Creative's site on which ones to connect to the case's pins.
The sad thing is, Creative doesn't seem to be very concerned about the Audigy 2/X-Fi and nForce 4 issue. It seems that quite a number of people have this issue. Creative's solution seems to be to RMA the card so they can flash the firmware... and it must be on an individual basis, because there's not anything official on their site, just a bunch of anrgy people on their forums. I expected a bit better from the recognized leader in consumer PC sound, especially considering that the Athlon/nForce 4 is the prefered gaming platform at the moment. Just shows how much it helps to be 1337... if you want something done right, you can't count on anyone but yourself (and possibly Google).
I hope this helps those who are having problems with Audigy 2 / X-Fi and nForce 4. If it doesn't work with just a standard install, I suggest you try the following:
1. Update your BIOS
2. Switch the card to a different PCI slot
3. Remove the drivers, run Driver Cleaner (follow their directions!), renistall, and get the updated drivers.
Edit 2/10/06: I do not have the Karajan audio module (Lanparty onboard sound) installed, either physically or in software.
I went Googling for info. I found that there is a known issue with nForce 4 mobos and Audigy 2 / X-Fi series cards. In looking thru the FAQ's, both at Creative and DFI, I noticed entries about IRQ conflict. Upon consulting System Information, I found that the Marvell Yukon Gb Enet, GeForce 7800GT, and Audigy were all sharing IRQ 18. It seemed a little fishy that the graphics and sound cards were sharing the same IRQ number, so I thought I'd see if I could change it.
My first step was to update the BIOS to a later version. The 6/23/05 version, to be exact. I went into the PnP/PCI settings and set the IRQ assignment to Manual. I didn't manually set any of the IRQ's though, just left it at that. After restart I tried the Creative programs again. No go, they still didn't recognize the card.
After looking on the DFI site again, I found an article that said that AGP and PCI1 shared the same IRQ. I checked my mobo manual and sure enough, I had the Audigy in PCI1. I shut down the comp (of course) and moved the Audigy to PCI2.
I next restarted in safe mode, uninstalled the Creative drivers, and ran Driver Cleaner. Restarting back in to normal Windows, I renistalled the drivers and ran the autoupdate. Success! (well pretty much). The Audigy is now alone on IRQ 19. Most of the Creative programs recognize the card. Still a few problems though... the sound icon in the system tray doesn't work, I have to go the Control Panel to change the volume. This isn't too much of a problem since I usually adjust it with the control on the speakers anyway. The speaker calibrator didn't work too well, after running it the sound volume and quality was degraded considerably. Fortunately, all I had to do was reopen it and cancel out of it, and normal sound performance returned. And I have yet to find a clear guide on how to connect my case's front (top actually, for the Tsunami) headphones and mic ports to the Audigy's pins... it has a dozen internal ports, but nothing in the manual or on Creative's site on which ones to connect to the case's pins.
The sad thing is, Creative doesn't seem to be very concerned about the Audigy 2/X-Fi and nForce 4 issue. It seems that quite a number of people have this issue. Creative's solution seems to be to RMA the card so they can flash the firmware... and it must be on an individual basis, because there's not anything official on their site, just a bunch of anrgy people on their forums. I expected a bit better from the recognized leader in consumer PC sound, especially considering that the Athlon/nForce 4 is the prefered gaming platform at the moment. Just shows how much it helps to be 1337... if you want something done right, you can't count on anyone but yourself (and possibly Google).
I hope this helps those who are having problems with Audigy 2 / X-Fi and nForce 4. If it doesn't work with just a standard install, I suggest you try the following:
1. Update your BIOS
2. Switch the card to a different PCI slot
3. Remove the drivers, run Driver Cleaner (follow their directions!), renistall, and get the updated drivers.
Edit 2/10/06: I do not have the Karajan audio module (Lanparty onboard sound) installed, either physically or in software.
not sure if thats the case with the newer audigy cards.
