Vista Compatible Soundcard

[Amaris]

Hello Everyone,

Well, I switched over to Vista Ultimate this week (OEM - which is far, far cheaper than full retail) and so far everything has installed without a hitch except for one piece of hardware: my sound card. It's actually a SoundMax AD1888 (WDM3665) onboard processor, but either way, it won't work. I've tried downloading the XP drivers and using Vista's compatibility mode, but no luck there. SoundMax is completely silent on the issue and has not released any Vista drivers, of course that means I have to go to my Motherboard manufacturer, and PC Chips isn't offering any Vista drivers for my A31G. That being said, I need a sound card, and it can't be expensive. Right now, Vista seems to be ripping up a lot of manufacturers when it comes to driver support, and so I don't want to be the guy holding a sound card that's worthless because of non existent driver support.

So I ask those of you who have Vista and have working sound cards, what do you recommend (Everyone is free to answer of course)?

-J.

 

[Amaris]

I know this is a double post, but I wanted to make sure this wasn't overlooked if I were to edit my post:

Uh, I fixed it.

Shortly after I posted, I decided to tinker with the WDM codec and Vista's compatibility mode. After a few minutes, I was able to get the setup program for SoundMax to start. After a few protests by SoundMax's installer, it finally relented. I didn't get to install the oleau32 file, but that's okay, I'm fine with that, and right now I'm listening to Eiffel 65's "Silicon World".

Mods, I'd like to keep this thread open, in the event that someone else has audio driver issues with Vista.

-J.

 

[StolenThunder]

Plus I really think we should all criticise your choice of music.

 

[Amaris]

StolenThunder said:
Plus I really think we should all criticise your choice of music.

Or, of course, the lack of taste in those who disagree with my choice of music.

-J.

 

[Baba101]

Creative labs words for vista Ihere. Also vdsound for old games Father Allen.

 

[The Doctor]

The best solution I've found to Vista issues is to uninstall it and go back to XP.

Additionally, what few features added to Vista can be easily gained by installing a freeware app from Google. That way you get what you need without sacrificing the stability, security and compatibility that XP provides.

Hell, if it took Microsoft six years to get XP right, why the hell would you jump on Vista after only a few months?

 

[Amaris]

SA22C said:
The best solution I've found to Vista issues is to uninstall it and go back to XP.

Additionally, what few features added to Vista can be easily gained by installing a freeware app from Google. That way you get what you need without sacrificing the stability, security and compatibility that XP provides.

Hell, if it took Microsoft six years to get XP right, why the hell would you jump on Vista after only a few months?

So far it's working wonderfully aside from the issues with the soundcard, and right now I'm doing good with that, too. I imagine when SP1 comes out a lot of things will improve. I still love XP though.


-J.

 

[Charlie Kelly]

If you hadn't fixed it I would have recommended you get the cheapest PCI soundcard you could find. It's bound to be better than your onboard one if it doesn't even officially support Vista. For example this card. But you fixed it anyway so nevermind!

Charlie

 

[Amaris]

Charlie Kelly said:
If you hadn't fixed it I would have recommended you get the cheapest PCI soundcard you could find. It's bound to be better than your onboard one if it doesn't even officially support Vista. For example this card. But you fixed it anyway so nevermind!

Charlie

But I can't afford British money! I live in America!
Thanks Charlie. Right now my SoundMax chip is doing great, and I'm wont to change anything.

You know folks, this can be anything Vista related, rants, raves, technical issues, that way it can stay open and we can all talk about Vista. Personally? My opinion of it has skyrocketed over the past 2 days I've been exploring around the interface and using the services it offers.

Windows Vista Ultimate OEM is the way to go, too. It's cheap, and gives you all the same options of retail, just with an OEM branding (Dell, HP, etc) which affects nothing and is only viewable when looking at the system diagnostics.

-J.