Unable to install any creative applicati

Question

I recently built a new PC and transferred over my Audigy 2 soundcard. I used the creative speaker settings application frequently to configure my surround sound setup. Now whenever I try to install that application from the website, or install creative mediasource, or my old playcenter 3.0 software I get the message "Setup did not detect the required components, setup will exit". Now it seems that its obviously not detecting my soundcard as an Audigy 2. But the drivers install fine and it's listed in device manager as Audigy 2 (WDM). I do have Win XP SP2 installed. If there is a workaround or fix please let me know. I did a forum search for the above message and didn't get any help from that.
Thanks,
-Chad

Answer 1

I'm not sure. Games should detect EAX compatibility. You won't have access to applying effects yourself though. Using Windows Control Panel's Sounds and Audio Devices you'll be able to set the proper speaker configuration, however you will need to use special software like that in Foobar2000 to enable Stereox2. In other words, your cd's and mp3's are stereo sources so they will naturally only play out of your front 2 speakers unless your player (like Foobar2000) has an option for Stereox2. Creative's software would have enabled you to use all your speakers from all sources.
You might try clean sweeping (clean uninstalling) all Creative drivers and software. Creative has instructions on how to go about that in the knowledgebase. You might want to add using a program called DriverCleaner from driverheaven.net to the uninstall ste
ps.
I can't see you being satisfied with just the drivers. I mean, you're missing a lot. For example, if your DVD playing software is just basic you can set it to send the signal to the sound card and the Creative software will decode the Dolby Digital EX or DTS signal for you. Otherwise you just get the player downmixing to stereo or using plain Dolby Surround. (Of course, if you have a full version of PowerDVD-Deluxe or WinDVD Platinum then the player contains what you need.)
You paid for the whole package. It's not cheap. I would use Creative Tech Support and if they can't get it all working for you, take it back and get a different audio solution. M-Audio Revolution is one.
I would bet that if you removed all your hardware except for your Video Card, Mouse, keyboard, and monitor, formatted and installed the OS, applied the chipset, video drivers, installed the Creative card, cancelled out of Windows hardware detection, then inserted the install cd, then it would install fine. Just try to install the card in a PCI slot that isn't shared by another slot.
A lot of work, but it might be the only fix. I've had to do that before I discovered the CTZAPP.EXE trick. But you said your Creaati've drivers are installed by the Creative driver installer. So I suppose you're forced to wipe your dri've. Even if you return the card and get something else, I would wipe the dri've and start fresh anyway. You might as well try the Audigy first. It's great when it works!