Two Creative Soundblaster cards in one pc

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ZollyMonsta

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#41257 12-Sep-2009 13:50

Should there be any problem with installing two Creative SB cards in the same PC?

One is an Audigy... the other is just a SB 5.1 card. Both are PCI.

I've also tried the Audigy card with an external USB card... either way Windows just ends up in a reboot loop after a restart.

Trying to do a fresh install of XP now.. however I don't think I'll have much luck since I've lost the licence key (yes, wasn't stuck to the PC... stupid). All else fails I will load the image of the drive done by Acronis, back to the HD and give up. :)

Just curious as if anyone has any ideas about the soundcards. I was using the built in HD sound but that appears to glitch/pop when lots of activity happening. MB is an ASUS M2A-VM

Media DevOps Engineer (TV) @ Vodafone
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boby55

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#255179 12-Sep-2009 14:04

Shouldn't have any trouble, I run my on board sound, a Creative XiFi Titanium, a Creative X-Fi Xtreme and a X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB ( tho I hardly use my onboard any more and USB only when Dj'n)

sbiddle

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#255181 12-Sep-2009 14:11

Shouldn't be an issue. I run 2 soundcards + onboard audio on a machine here with no issues.

ZollyMonsta

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#255185 12-Sep-2009 14:22

Didn't think so.. sbiddle, emailed you with some oddities :)

A fresh install should sort it all out.. hopefully. Would be nice to be able to write to DVD/CD on the PC without audio being affected (or having avaast update without it's scrolly 'ive updated!' box causing the audio to stutter. :)

I've disabled the on board sound in the BIOS.

Thus far, the onboard network is actually behaving with the DSE mini switch.. previously it was connecting-disconnecting-connecting and so on. Perhaps it was a driver update via windows update that caused that.

sbiddle

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#255188 12-Sep-2009 14:36

I get occasional popping on my Asus M2A board as well, they really are pieces of junk!

Adamal

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#255230 12-Sep-2009 17:52

I'm not sure why you want 2 sound cards in your PC???

ZollyMonsta

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#255236 12-Sep-2009 18:32

Its a radio station PC. :) One is on air, the other is 'cue' and 'record'.

Well after much fighting, I got it all working....

Now have two decent audio cards running (on board sound disabled).
Fixed video graphics not doing the native 1920x1200 of my monitor
PC seems faster

So not bad going...

ZollyMonsta

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#255299 13-Sep-2009 08:15

Hmm well I spoke too soon.. PC fine last night (11pm ish)... get up this morning and black screen.
Reboot the PC and it's in a constant reboot loop (I get to the Windows Boot screen with the updating loading timeline) and then it reboots.. coming back with the boot menu (Safe Mode, Safe with Networking etc).

PC won't boot into Safe Mode, or Last Known Good Configuration so no way of finding out what's going on.
I'm loading an image I took last night at 10pm.. However if it does work, the PC might go and corrupt again.

Any ideas on tracing this issue down?

Media DevOps Engineer (TV) @ Vodafone
Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

richms

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#255488 14-Sep-2009 02:51

Remove all creative products from the computer, clean it of any trace of the malware they call drivers and put some decent cards in it.

Maudio make some nice cards.

Second alternative is some different drivers for your creative one and use a single card for both outputs - http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/ - that makes each stereo jack on the card able to be used as a seperate device, and has none of the hopeless chaff that creatives drivers come with that give you a broken EQ, and random echo effects.

Richard rich.ms

ZollyMonsta

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#255495 14-Sep-2009 06:58

And replace the dodgy thing Asus call a motherboard....