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View Full Version : Make your Audigy 1 or SB Live! an Audigy 2 for free



NightShade737
08-10-2003, 11:43 AM
Creative have basically dropped the Audigy 1 now, but you can upgrade your Auidgy 1 to an Audigy 2 just by changing the drivers, and this gives you 64 Hardware 3D Sound channels rather than the original Audigys 32 Channels, you also get improved audio quality and better EAX support and sound.

To do this, there are a few simple steps, and as some of them are a little hazy, I will re-write it.
You need to uninstall your original Audigy drivers first before we start though.

Firstly, download -

The Creative Compatability Patch
http://members.aol.com/dvdking2001/Pub/ctcomp.exe
(130kb)

The Latest Drivers
http://files.creative.com/Drivers/Others/2164/AUD2DRVLB030425.exe
or find the latest drivers on this page - http://asia.creative.com/support/drivers/welcome.asp?region=2&LangID=1033&OS=10&prod=118&Select=Get+Files&Submit=Get+Files&x=27&y=11
(6.88MB)

The Creative Audigy 2 Driver CD
http://users2.ev1.net/~dallasstar/a2/sb_install_multilang.rar
(119MB)


The first file is a patch which makes the drivers work on a Sound Blaster live and a SB Audigy 1.

First thing you now do is to extract the huge file to a folder on your PC (it is actually the entire driver CD),

Then extract the driver pack (the second file) to a folder on your hard drive. You need WinRAR 3 to do this - (http://www.rarlabs.com)

Now run the first file (ctcomp) and point it to the "Drivers\WIN2K_XP" folder in the folder of the driver pack that you extracted, and it should patch the files (warning is that it doesn't tell you if it failed, which isn't very useful).

Now to install the drivers, just open the folder where you extracted the driver pack, then go into the folder named "Drivers", and double click the icon named "CTZAPXX" and just click OK when that comes up, and it will install the Audigy 2 drivers.

Do NOT try and run the setup program from the driver CD as it will not work, because it will be searching for an Audigy card on your system, which, it will not find.

To install the software manually, just open the "Audio" folder from the driver disc, and then open up each sub directory in that folder and run the setup file in each of the folders, but do NOT run anything in the "Drivers" sub directory in the "Audio" folder, just ignore it.

And, that is pretty much it, it takes alot less time than it looks like :P
Note, you do not actually need the Audigy 2 driver disc at all unless you need to change the output frequency of the card, or want any of the programs off it.

Hope that helps anyone with an Audigy or Sound Blaster Live!.

NS

Furton
08-10-2003, 02:19 PM
I heard people talk about this. Looks like a nice upgrade my Sound Blaster Live! :D

ImaginAsian
08-10-2003, 06:28 PM
WTF you mean the only difference between my Audigy 2 and the Audigy is software drivers???

i could swear the 2 uses 24-bit true sampling while the 1 uses 16-bit...a hardware limitation no?

NightShade737
08-10-2003, 06:46 PM
Originally posted by HellaYellaFella
WTF you mean the only difference between my Audigy 2 and the Audigy is software drivers???

i could swear the 2 uses 24-bit true sampling while the 1 uses 16-bit...a hardware limitation no?

Both are 24bit (Says on the boxes...... and manuals....... repeatedly.....)

I would have thought the hardware audio sounds would have been a hardware limitation too (doubled the amount of possible hardware voices) but that is updated too. To be honest I think they just crippled the card by the drivers just to sell the Audigy 2's.

They only thing you don't get is 7.1 audio.

NS

ImaginAsian
08-10-2003, 06:55 PM
i recalled reading articles which said the Audigy 1 (although it listed as 24-bit, wasn't truly 24-bit) whereas the Auidgy 2 was. Could be the drivers enabling it though, would make sense - SOBs

http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/20021106/

BobGuy
08-10-2003, 06:58 PM
Nice find NS, thanks for sharing. :D

JohnnyBra
08-11-2003, 09:21 AM
Does this apply also for my SoundBlaster! Live X-Gamer?

NightShade737
08-11-2003, 12:57 PM
Yes, its Sound Blaser Live! WHATEVERgarbageWEwantTOwriteAFTERit

Its the same with Audigys, they are all the same card, just different innitial software packages (and maybe the added Live drive).

NS

muckshifter
08-11-2003, 01:28 PM
I have an Audigy 1 sitting 'on the shelf', not been opened, may as well have an experiment. :D


Thank you NightShade.

JohnnyBra
08-11-2003, 01:54 PM
Yes, thank you much... Will give this a shot when I get the chance ^-^;

BitBender
08-11-2003, 01:57 PM
/me clicks install...well, as soon as I can get home and try it!

Furton
08-13-2003, 03:30 PM
anyone tried this yet?

NightShade737
08-13-2003, 03:43 PM
I have, works fine, now have 64 channels rather than 32, no other difference really, but the main point is you get to use the Audigy 2 driver updates so games are more likely to work.

NS

CorrOfcFla
08-13-2003, 08:51 PM
Sounds good to me. ;)

Downloading the files now so I can try this on my days off.

TUVM NS! :Tong:

Furton
08-16-2003, 11:37 AM
Right, tried to do this today but your guide NS is a bit "vague" especially with a hangover :lol:

I've extracted that big file but this folder "Drivers\WIN2K_XP" isn't there. Which "Big file" are you talking about?

NightShade737
08-16-2003, 11:40 AM
No, the "Drivers/XP" folder is extracted from the drivers.

The big file just has all the programs on it (EAX control panel, Sound Mixers etc).

You need to extract the drivers from creative into a folder and its in there.

NS

Furton
08-16-2003, 01:06 PM
Hmm, not sure if this worked for me as in hardware manager it still says I have a SB Live! and the "Creative volume control" in the taskbar says it can't load the components and suggest I re-install.

Jizzy
08-16-2003, 01:13 PM
Damn NightShade...if you posted this a month earlier I would've bought a SB Audigy instead of the Audigy 2.

Thanks for posting :).

jimborae
08-19-2003, 04:25 PM
Doesnt work for me either. But I think thats because I've got a conflict going on between the Audigy card & Nforce2 audio drivers that were on the board previous.

It wouldn't even recognise that it was an audigy 1 card that had been installed when I used the Audigy 1 driver cd!

Anybody got any thoughts on this???

Jim :(

ralpha6
08-19-2003, 05:13 PM
I just did a clean install of Win XP Pro, so I didn't install the Audigy drivers for my Audigy 1 card. I didn't even have sound coming from speakers. I tried this and altho I now have sound, I'm not sure that I have "Audigy 2" card or not.

How do I go about checking to see?

NightShade737
08-19-2003, 05:27 PM
Well....... if you installed the right drivers then you have an Audigy 2.......

Ralph - Open WinAMP and go into the DirectSound output drivers option screen (Under Outputs)

It should say "Hardware Mixing" and say a maximum limit of streams, if that says 64 then its an Audigy 2, if it says 32 then its an Audigy 1.

NS

ralpha6
08-19-2003, 06:33 PM
I don't have WinAMP. This is a fresh install. Should I download WinAMP or is there another way to check?

NightShade737
08-19-2003, 07:09 PM
Download it.......

Only other ways I can think of are 3DMark2003.... and some games will let you change the max voices (to 64).

NS

ralpha6
08-19-2003, 07:11 PM
I downloaded Winamp 3 and can't find what you mentioned :dunno:

I think I have 3dmark2003 around here somewhere.

EDIT: Nope it was 3dmark2001

NightShade737
08-19-2003, 07:13 PM
WinAMP 3 is pure shite and no-one uses it, you need WinAMP 2.

NS

Jizzy
08-19-2003, 07:15 PM
Ralph - please see attached. This is from Winamp 2, but it could be the same for Winamp 3. Otherwise, use Winamp 2 because it's more stable anyway :p.

ralpha6
08-19-2003, 07:28 PM
Ok, I uninstalled Winamp 3 and got 2
Here's a screenshot

Jizzy
08-19-2003, 07:29 PM
Check "Allow hardware acceleration." And 64 sounds right.

ralpha6
08-19-2003, 07:42 PM
I did thanks!