Sound Blaster Live Value! w/ Win XP

I recently reimaged my PC (I'm using Win XP btw with SP2). I installed the
Creative drivers from the disc that originally came with the PC. I have a
Sound Blaster Live Value Card and the disc says version 4.06.628. Sound
worked fine although I couldn't get the mixer to work. Starting it would
give me an error of mixer failed to initialize. Just a few minutes ago, I
updated my Creative software/drivers with the LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe
(SBLW-XPWEB-W4-US) dated Feb. 28th 2003. Everything went fine with the
installation. Mixer starts fine. Only problem is that I don't have any
sound. None at all. The digital output only is checked. I ran the
diagnostics and everything passed. I just can't get any sound. I've messed
around with this whole upgrading process before I reimaged my PC and the
only solution was to roll back the drivers. I set a restore point before I
updated so it's simply a case of restoring and voila, I'll have my sound
back. But it's just bugging the hell out of me as to why no sound comes out
my speakers when everything seems to be working just fine.

One other addendum to my initial message. I just tried the analog
connection rather than the digital connection and now I get sound. Why
wouldn't the digital connection work after upgrading?

"J" <> wrote in message news:yJPTd.70196$g16.65821@trndny08...
>I recently reimaged my PC (I'm using Win XP btw with SP2). I installed the
>Creative drivers from the disc that originally came with the PC. I have a
>Sound Blaster Live Value Card and the disc says version 4.06.628. Sound
>worked fine although I couldn't get the mixer to work. Starting it would
>give me an error of mixer failed to initialize. Just a few minutes ago, I
>updated my Creative software/drivers with the LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe
>(SBLW-XPWEB-W4-US) dated Feb. 28th 2003. Everything went fine with the
>installation. Mixer starts fine. Only problem is that I don't have any
>sound. None at all. The digital output only is checked. I ran the
>diagnostics and everything passed. I just can't get any sound. I've
>messed around with this whole upgrading process before I reimaged my PC and
>the only solution was to roll back the drivers. I set a restore point
>before I updated so it's simply a case of restoring and voila, I'll have my
>sound back. But it's just bugging the hell out of me as to why no sound
>comes out my speakers when everything seems to be working just fine.
>

"J" <> skrev i meddelandet news:AOPTd.70219$g16.36316@trndny08...
> One other addendum to my initial message. I just tried the analog
> connection rather than the digital connection and now I get sound. Why
> wouldn't the digital connection work after upgrading?

Oh, I don't know, maybe because you "upgraded" to drivers that are two years
old? Is there nothing more recent at Creative's website?

You shouldn't start with installing the oldest set you have off a CD by the
way and then overwriting it with something else. Install the newest set
first. Each time you overwrite existing files and registry entries there's a
chance something has changed between versions that will cause conflicts or
incompatibilities. I'd recommend you uninstall the lot and use Creative's
driver remover tool as well, then install most recent driver package. Use
the online auto-update feature if possible.

I had installed my older drivers originally because of the problems I had
before with these newer drivers. BTW, there is nothing more recent on
Creative's site. These are the latest drivers for my card. You'd think
they'd come out with newer ones, right? Anyway, I may try what you suggest.
I'll see. I'm just inclined to leave well enough alone at this point.
Thanks.

"Lenny" <> wrote in message
news:VyXTd.131344$...
>
> "J" <> skrev i meddelandet news:AOPTd.70219$g16.36316@trndny08...
>> One other addendum to my initial message. I just tried the analog
>> connection rather than the digital connection and now I get sound. Why
>> wouldn't the digital connection work after upgrading?
>
> Oh, I don't know, maybe because you "upgraded" to drivers that are two
> years old? Is there nothing more recent at Creative's website?
>
> You shouldn't start with installing the oldest set you have off a CD by
> the way and then overwriting it with something else. Install the newest
> set first. Each time you overwrite existing files and registry entries
> there's a chance something has changed between versions that will cause
> conflicts or incompatibilities. I'd recommend you uninstall the lot and
> use Creative's driver remover tool as well, then install most recent
> driver package. Use the online auto-update feature if possible.
>

"J" <> wrote in message news:8r2Ud.39828$s16.27904@trndny02...
>I had installed my older drivers originally because of the problems I had
>before with these newer drivers. BTW, there is nothing more recent on
>Creative's site. These are the latest drivers for my card. You'd think
>they'd come out with newer ones, right? Anyway, I may try what you
>suggest. I'll see. I'm just inclined to leave well enough alone at this
>point. Thanks.
>
> "Lenny" <> wrote in message
> news:VyXTd.131344$...
>>
>> "J" <> skrev i meddelandet news:AOPTd.70219$g16.36316@trndny08...
>>> One other addendum to my initial message. I just tried the analog
>>> connection rather than the digital connection and now I get sound. Why
>>> wouldn't the digital connection work after upgrading?
>>
>> Oh, I don't know, maybe because you "upgraded" to drivers that are two
>> years old? Is there nothing more recent at Creative's website?
>>
>> You shouldn't start with installing the oldest set you have off a CD by
>> the way and then overwriting it with something else. Install the newest
>> set first. Each time you overwrite existing files and registry entries
>> there's a chance something has changed between versions that will cause
>> conflicts or incompatibilities. I'd recommend you uninstall the lot and
>> use Creative's driver remover tool as well, then install most recent
>> driver package. Use the online auto-update feature if possible.
>>
>
>

Silly question but I have got to ask. Is your amp/speaker setup analogue or
digital? i.e. do you connect to the green 3.5mm socket or do you use the
SPDIF connector. If you use the green socket then you will need to uncheck
the 'digital ouput only' option. If you use the SPDIF, uncheck the digital
option and plug some ananlogue speakers or headphoes to the green socket and
listen for any sound output. At least this will prove whether the card is
working or not.

Failing that, uninstall the drivers and start again!

Glennbo

It has both connections, digital and analog. When I had the digital plugged
in, I did have the digital output box checked. The sound card works. It's
not a hardware problem but rather a software issue. Everything is working
now that I upgraded except that I'm using the analog connection rather than
the digital one. Don't know why this is.
"Glennbo" <> wrote in message
news:wn3Ud.755$...
>
> "J" <> wrote in message news:8r2Ud.39828$s16.27904@trndny02...
>>I had installed my older drivers originally because of the problems I had
>>before with these newer drivers. BTW, there is nothing more recent on
>>Creative's site. These are the latest drivers for my card. You'd think
>>they'd come out with newer ones, right? Anyway, I may try what you
>>suggest. I'll see. I'm just inclined to leave well enough alone at this
>>point. Thanks.
>>
>> "Lenny" <> wrote in message
>> news:VyXTd.131344$...
>>>
>>> "J" <> skrev i meddelandet news:AOPTd.70219$g16.36316@trndny08...
>>>> One other addendum to my initial message. I just tried the analog
>>>> connection rather than the digital connection and now I get sound. Why
>>>> wouldn't the digital connection work after upgrading?
>>>
>>> Oh, I don't know, maybe because you "upgraded" to drivers that are two
>>> years old? Is there nothing more recent at Creative's website?
>>>
>>> You shouldn't start with installing the oldest set you have off a CD by
>>> the way and then overwriting it with something else. Install the newest
>>> set first. Each time you overwrite existing files and registry entries
>>> there's a chance something has changed between versions that will cause
>>> conflicts or incompatibilities. I'd recommend you uninstall the lot and
>>> use Creative's driver remover tool as well, then install most recent
>>> driver package. Use the online auto-update feature if possible.
>>>
>>
>>
>
> Silly question but I have got to ask. Is your amp/speaker setup analogue
> or digital? i.e. do you connect to the green 3.5mm socket or do you use
> the SPDIF connector. If you use the green socket then you will need to
> uncheck the 'digital ouput only' option. If you use the SPDIF, uncheck the
> digital option and plug some ananlogue speakers or headphoes to the green
> socket and listen for any sound output. At least this will prove whether
> the card is working or not.
>
> Failing that, uninstall the drivers and start again!
>
> Glennbo
>

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 09:45:25 GMT, "Lenny" <> wrote:


>Oh, I don't know, maybe because you "upgraded" to drivers that are two years
>old? Is there nothing more recent at Creative's website?
>
>You shouldn't start with installing the oldest set you have off a CD by the
>way and then overwriting it with something else. Install the newest set
>first. Each time you overwrite existing files and registry entries there's a
>chance something has changed between versions that will cause conflicts or
>incompatibilities. I'd recommend you uninstall the lot and use Creative's
>driver remover tool as well, then install most recent driver package. Use
>the online auto-update feature if possible.
>

For an initial install of any recent Creative sound card (SBLive
included), there's no way to download anything from Creative to do the
install. You *must* start with the CD. Don't you read these groups?
There are at least a half-dozen messages a month posted here with
someone complaining that they can't install their card because they
broke/lost their CD.

After installing the drivers from the CD, you should try and get the
latest driver version, but for the SBLive, the latest very well could
be the one's from 2003. Once a product is not the flagship, Creative
rarely updates the drivers.

Now don't be such as wiseass.

> For an initial install of any recent Creative sound card (SBLive
> included), there's no way to download anything from Creative to do the
> install. You *must* start with the CD.

I *must*? That's a most strange claim, because during all my years of using
Live soundcards (from its launch back in 97, I believe, up until the Audigy2
ZS was released), it was always possible to download and run the core
package that installed the drivers and the control panel applet for speaker
options, DSP effects and such. I never used the original CD after the first
few re-installs, in fact I'm not even sure where to find it anymore. I see
no reason why that would have suddenly changed for no reason.

> Now don't be such as wiseass.

Who's being a wiseass?

"J" <> wrote in message news:yJPTd.70196$g16.65821@trndny08...
>I recently reimaged my PC (I'm using Win XP btw with SP2). I installed the
>Creative drivers from the disc that originally came with the PC. I have a
>Sound Blaster Live Value Card and the disc says version 4.06.628. Sound
>worked fine although I couldn't get the mixer to work. Starting it would
>give me an error of mixer failed to initialize. Just a few minutes ago, I
>updated my Creative software/drivers with the LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe
>(SBLW-XPWEB-W4-US) dated Feb. 28th 2003. Everything went fine with the
>installation. Mixer starts fine. Only problem is that I don't have any
>sound. None at all. The digital output only is checked. I ran the
>diagnostics and everything passed. I just can't get any sound. I've
>messed around with this whole upgrading process before I reimaged my PC and
>the only solution was to roll back the drivers. I set a restore point
>before I updated so it's simply a case of restoring and voila, I'll have my
>sound back. But it's just bugging the hell out of me as to why no sound
>comes out my speakers when everything seems to be working just fine.
>Lenny is right. Dont load drivers from original disk. Downloading the
>latest driver suite from creative will install drivers, mixer,speaker, EQ,
>and everything else you need.