Alright, before you ask: yes, Windows recognizes the card, and yes, I can get sound out of it, et cetera.
But that's not really what's odd. See, while this could be admittedly unrelated, for the past few weeks or so (after installing the card alongside my Radeon 9250), Windows Media Player 10 stopped working with MP3s and WMVs. WAVs and MIDIs are fair game, but MP3s and WMVs aren't. So, yeah, I've been using WinAmp in the meantime, but I kinda like WMP better...
What's REALLY odd, however, is that for whatever reason the CD that came with the card, Creative's registering thingy, and any driver updates I try to install all swear to high heavens that my card isn't installed in the computer. Obviously there's something wrong here, since I'm using the card to listen to music and random sound effects with, and even XP recognizes it... This means I can't update my drivers and/or manually toy around with EAX and/or have MIDI support at LEAST on par with my old Live! (as it is I only get that Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth that pretty much EVERY computer with XP on it has), which is pretty danged annoying.
Currently, I've got the drivers XP gave the card uninstalled and I'm ready to reseat the thing, maybe toss in the MIDI port thing in there and see if that helps (dunno why it would, though; it just looks like an extra port/waste of a PCI slot to me). Any other suggestions as to what the problem is / am I going about this the right way? Creative's FAQ thing's pretty much useless.
Alas, though Creative's products are great, the software that comes with them can be absolute garbage at times, and getting support for them is like attempting to have a meaningful conversation with that bartender robot from The Fifth Element who simply responds with one of a few meaningless phrases like "Do you want some more?"
You probably did this already, but to be sure, reinstall Windows Media Player using this executable. MP3 and WMV playback aren't native to DirectSound like WAV and MIDI. Player applications use software interpreters to decode special formats like MP3s so DirectSound can send them in a raw, WAV-like form to the soundcard driver. It's likely Windows Media Player's interpreters are broken. And even though we've pretty much isolated the problem as being WM's fault, it might also help to reinstall DirectX here.
Alternately, if you have a System Restore point available before the problem occurred, try it. System Restore's usefulness sometimes surprises me.
This may sound dumb, but does your motherboard have built in sound? If so make sure it's turned off in the BIOS because it could be causing the symptoms that you listed. A buddy of mine had the same problem after he installed a creative soundcard in his Dell but didn't turn off the mobo sound. Windows saw two devices and prefferentially used the mobo sound chip.
Jimro
Reinstalled WMP10. Still crashing. Trying DirectX now.
I might have onboard audio, but if I did I'm pretty danged certain I turned it off in the BIOS. I'll check that out soon.
EDIT: Oookay, the DirectX installation consists of a license agreement and a "your product is ready to use" screen. Obviously that's not really reinstalling jack...
Given nothing else seems to be working, attempting System Restore.
EDIT 2: Decided to give this suggestion a try. WMP still crashes, CD still won't recognize the card, but better MIDI support is back, and that's a great improvement.
Ugh, now what...
EDIT 3: Installed pretty much everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - in the Audio section of the CD manually. God-willing, this'll get EAX up and running again.
Still completely in the dark about WMP. I might try UNinstalling it before REinstalling it this time, maybe that'd help.
EDIT 4: Figured out the problem; WMP was using the wrong DirectSound drivers ("Default DirectSound Device" instead of "DirectSound: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B800]". Both problematic file formats work now. Huzzah.
Figured out the problem; WMP was using the wrong DirectSound drivers ("Default DirectSound Device" instead of "DirectSound: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio [B800]".
That shouldn't cause problems. To prevent this from happening to other programs, open the Sounds and Audio Devices panel, go to the Audio tab, and make sure your card is selected as the default device for playback.
It is. In fact it's the only option.
Anyway, as I keep fixing one minor thing at a time, streaming WMV files still results in the browser crashing, be it IE or FireFox. Irritating, especially when that's all that, say, GameSpot has for videos.
See, I'm lazy, so at this point I'd be restoring the backup from last week. Either way, I'm guessing it's more of a Windows problem than a Creative problem, though Creative software has presented me with an alarming number of frustrating repair jobs in the past.
