With the introduction of Windows Vista, we quickly changed our operating system of some of our computers to Windows Vista. One of the computer we used were back dated to year 2004 specs, but with a graphic card which back dated to year 2001.
Back then in 2001, Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value was the best sound card of all and with nearly next to none competitors. The sound card lasted for 6 years and is still in good condition right now. However, after installing Windows Vista, we were greeted with a not functioning sound card since the drivers are incompatible with Windows Vista.
This problem occurs because Microsoft completely overhauled the audio architecture in Windows Vista, causing many sound cards driver requiring a clean rewrite or tweaking to work again. Our quick check on the Creative driver downloads page revealed that since SoundBlaster Live! Value is a very old card, Creative is no longer providing updates anymore for SoundBlaster Live! Value. This means you won’t be expecting any official releases to update your card in Windows Vista.
Here Comes the Fun Part
A search of the Creative forum reveals some third party drivers giving success for some users in getting SB Live! Value to run, however it breaks others, and giving other errors for the rest. Some drivers gets one function working but breaks the other. In the end, we found ourselves a better way to get SB Live! Value to work by using the original Creative driver.
1) Download LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe from Creative download page first.
2) Get an extracting utility like WinRAR and extract the contents to a folder.
3) Navigate to “$LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG)\Audio\Drivers” in your extracted folder.
4) Run “CTZAPXX.exe” and choose driver installation. Wait a few minutes and the drivers will be copied to your computer and registered.
As you can see from the screenshots, the driver runs the sound card well, with microphone function working too. The only part that isn’t working is the tone level, which cannot be adjusted since the values there are not properly showed. Do not move the slider or you will end up crashing the driver and requires a rollback. EAX is also not working with this kind of installation.
Anthony says:
Another way to get the SB live! value card to work in windows vista is to simply download the driver file for xp and in vista right click the file, and select properties, then under the compatibility tab check the “compatibility mode” box and in the drop down menu select “run the program in windows xp SP2 compatibility mode” then click ok and run installer as per normal. This method works perfectly however still does not install the surround mixer , only the audio drivers
26 February 2008, 12:45 pmjoseph kaifar says:
u can also install this soft from device manager.it will install correctly all ways as all guys said.but the main fact is surround mixer will not work.if u have 4.1 speaker then it will not work.is there any way for 4 speaker output?if any1 know then just tell us.mail me josephkaifar@hotmail.com.its a serious problem
1 March 2008, 7:53 pma Soundblaster Live! User (the golden one) says:
Thanks so much for this HOWTO. I tried often to install some drivers, also the “Vista update” driver, but nothing had worked. I also tried the XP Driver too, but all these results in basshissing.
Thank very much. :)
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