Windows 7 and drivers

[Joe Delaronde]

Just installed Windows 7.
My sound card is a SB Live Drive. Have the old drivers on disk, but they are not compatable anymore.

Can't find win 7 drivers for my card. Any advice??
Thanks
Joe

[Mitch Drumm]

Have the drivers provided by Microsoft on the Windows 7 disk failed?

I assume you have shaken down the Creative Labs website and failed to find new ones?

If all else fails, you can try Vista drivers in compatibility mode.

Sound card issues are fairly common with Windows 7---you may lose some functionality even if they install.

Worst case scenario, you buy a new sound card, but I'd confirm none of the above help first.

[Jack Stoner]

Generally, you need Windows 7 drivers for SoundBlaster cards. Windows 7 is basically Vista "improved" but for some reason the Vista SB drivers seem to have problems. Installing in a compatibility mode doesn't seem to help either.

The card you have is an "old" sound card. Best option is to just get a new sound card that is Win 7 compatible (what most are doing on the Win 7 and Dell user forums with old sound cards that are not compatible). Creative just recently released a Win 7 driver (both 32 bit and 64 bit) for the inexpensive SoundBlaster Audigy SE and that may be one to consider. They were about $30 the last time I checked.

Another possibility, if your motherboard has built in (integrated) audio, many of these older SigmaTel and RealTek chips have at least Vista drivers and they seem to work OK in Win 7 (and don't need a compatibility mode).

[Bob Martin]

My installation of Windows 7 Ultra searches the internet for new drivers when I install new hardware and has found drivers for all of my hardware so far. Then when I double checked just to make sure the versions have all been the latest drivers. I'm guessing that it does this for all versions of Windows 7 but maybe not. It's all still pretty new to me and as much as I researched Windows 7 before installing it I still find little places that I didn't know existed

Bob

[Jack Stoner]

Windows 7 doesn't search the net for drivers. It can search Microsoft for drivers that Microsoft has (that have been submitted by hardware vendors). However, the drivers that Microsoft has are not always the latest version and in some cases will not work or work properly. Generally, it's best to go to the hardware vendor, e.g. Creative (SoundBlaster) to get the drivers. In the case of PC Vendor proprietary hardware, many cases only the PC Vendor's drivers work or work properly and Microsoft's drives can corrupt the device. I see this a lot on the Dell forum.

Microsoft has a validation program, vendors submit their drivers for validation by Microsoft. This can take a long time and by the time Microsoft validates the driver the hardware vendor has issued new drives or could have even had several driver updates issued. Thus the Microsoft supplied driver can be an older driver.

Whether you have Windows 7 Basic, Home, Professional or Ultimate it's the same. The only difference in the versions are the features available, not the basic Win 7 program or in this case Microsoft supplied drivers. In the case of a DAW system, Home is more than adequate.

[Bob Martin]

Thanks Jack, we can always depend on you or Wiz to keep us up to date on these kind of things

Bob

[Dale Gray]

My built in sound card will play music on utube, but not any music I have installed, including the sample music that came with Win 7. Any suggestions?

[Jack Stoner]

Dale,
More info is needed. What kind of PC? Did it come with Win 7 or did it come with something else and you installed Win 7?

Look at the Sound in the Device Manager and see if there are any errors. You can access the Device Manager by holding down the Windows key and then press the Pause/Break key. Device Manager can be accessed from the list in the upper left of the panel that comes up.

Go to Control Panel - Hardware and Sound and finally the Sound Panel. In the Playback, your "Speakers" should be set as the Default Playback Device. Left click the icon for your speakers to highlight it then Click on the Configure button. Make sure your speaker type (e.g 2.1) is selected and then test the speakers. Let us know if you hear sound on the test.

[Dale Gray]

No errors at the device manager, did get sound at test point. Does play music on utube and the sample music. My downloads are listed as wma files. I download driver from realtec but my system is using MS drivers. This is a home built pc using a biostar m/b.

[Mickey Adams]

This may be a BIOS issue. If youve got a sound card built into the motherboard, and you have a sound card installed on top of that...they may be fighting for resources...Try the boot menu if this is the case and try disabling the onboard if you have one...

[Dale Gray]

Only 1 sound, built into m/b

[Jack Stoner]

The RealTek drivers are probably better (or later) than the ones supplied by Microsoft (which are RealTek drivers too).

What Media Player is default? If the Windows Media Player is not default, make it the default and see if that helps. Click Start then "Default Programs" and then "Set Your Default Programs" and set Windows Media Player as default.

Uninstall the RealTek in the Device Manager (DO NOT uninstall the drivers) then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. This cures a lot of flakey problems and may take care of yours.

It may also be a codec is missing. You can download and install the Klite codec pack in case something is missing Click Me