Haven't attempted to mess with the Audigy but have installed the Extigy (earlier generation) on both XP and Win2K. My wife also has Creative's Jukeboxes for her MP3s so we're well-invested with Creative software.
The biggest problems with Creative's stuff isn't really the hardware but getting their software installed right. I believe the biggest problems are that they use different contract houses to produce drivers and all that other stuff that gets loaded on your system - most of which you can't really tell what its supposed to be used for.
So, my recommendations are:
* Make sure you're using the latest versions of everything you plan on installing. Download them from the Creative site and read all the Readme.txt and installation instructions. Use a yellow marker and highlight all the little notes or cautions - these are generally the gotchas.
* Make sure all the firmware has been updated to match the software/drivers you've downloaded.
* Reboot after every piece of software you've loaded. This ensures you've got the latest drivers loaded before you make the next step in the update/upgrade process.
Even with all this, there's a good chance that things will be messed up and you'll be back on to Creative support. They've not been much help to me as I don't believe Creative release-tests all the permutations of their software components. This isn't an indictment of the support staff, they just don't have the information coming back from Asia.
As an alternative, I'd suggest you consider purging the Creative stuff and look at some of the semi-pro stuff that's out there to do the same thing: M-audio and the like. Go down to the local Guitar/musician's store and you'll find lots of it where they sell the studio mixing boards and microphones. Lots of really good choices with software to support them, too.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
David
The biggest problems with Creative's stuff isn't really the hardware but getting their software installed right. I believe the biggest problems are that they use different contract houses to produce drivers and all that other stuff that gets loaded on your system - most of which you can't really tell what its supposed to be used for.
So, my recommendations are:
* Make sure you're using the latest versions of everything you plan on installing. Download them from the Creative site and read all the Readme.txt and installation instructions. Use a yellow marker and highlight all the little notes or cautions - these are generally the gotchas.
* Make sure all the firmware has been updated to match the software/drivers you've downloaded.
* Reboot after every piece of software you've loaded. This ensures you've got the latest drivers loaded before you make the next step in the update/upgrade process.
Even with all this, there's a good chance that things will be messed up and you'll be back on to Creative support. They've not been much help to me as I don't believe Creative release-tests all the permutations of their software components. This isn't an indictment of the support staff, they just don't have the information coming back from Asia.
As an alternative, I'd suggest you consider purging the Creative stuff and look at some of the semi-pro stuff that's out there to do the same thing: M-audio and the like. Go down to the local Guitar/musician's store and you'll find lots of it where they sell the studio mixing boards and microphones. Lots of really good choices with software to support them, too.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
David