Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I let my daughter install the card., September 26, 2004
I've read the poor reviews for this soundcard. However, I thought for the price of this card (30 bucks), I'd give it a try.
In other Amazon posts I've said, "When all else fails read the directions," and this installation is no different. I went through the installation procedure with my 12-year-old daughter. I did help her with lining up the card on the board, but after that we turned on the machine and booted into XP (we put the Sound Blaster installation CD into the CD drive before Windows fully loaded). The system found the card immediately and pulled the driver from the CD.
She said, "Is that it?" I said, "I believe so," and yep it sure was. Now we have pure, crystal clear surround sound from a thirty dollar card!! I also do not have any hissing or cracking noises out of the speakers others mentioned.
The Sound Blaster Live! CD also lets you install apps that work with the card and they were just as easy to install, but I did not install all of the apps.
Now I am not saying you will not have any problem (how would I know that?) as I have had some Creative issues with some other products, but I have always gotten around them.
Some tips:
1. If you are going to purchase this card online goto the Creative website and do some research. (e.g. is the card compatible with your Operating System? do you have any available PCI slots, how much memory does it require? THE BASICS!). Otherwise, just goto your friendly neighborhood office supply store and read the specs there (and be careful when the friendly clerk wants to give you a lesson in sound cards, you'll pay more in the end).
2. Consider which other devices you may wish to connect to the soundcard e.g. a mini disc player, microphone, etc.
3. Consider whether you need a full or half-duplex card. Full-duplex cards can record and play back sounds, while half-duplex cards can do one or the other, but not at the same time.
4. If you have onboard sound on your current computer, don't forget to disable that before you go installing this card or for that matter, any sound card.
Hopefully, if you do choose this card, it will work as seamlessly as it did for my daughter. Maybe she'll turn into a computer geek yet.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An endless headache!, June 16, 2003
By A Customer
This card has been nothing but an endless headache for me. I've had more problems than I can name with this card. First, the card's quality isn't very good at all. Second, the card has a bad hiss in the rear signal (it's not my speakers, I checked). Third, the card has useless onboard stuff that cause MORE headaches. The mixer they give you is completely useless. It has no equalizer or anthing of the sort. It simply affects volume levels. The "diagnostics agent" is annoying and useless and occasionally starts up with my computer on startup (randomly) and starts checking stuff. All programs and utilities are annoying and useless overall. Fourth, the drivers are bad. I have a brand new computer with XP on it and it doesn't work well. I'm a good computer user and can't figure this update thing out yet. For some reason, the updated drivers won't install because the program claims my drivers don't exist, which they do. This card has caused me MANY other problems, including severe distortion problems, but they just don't come to mind right now.Bottom line: Save your money and get one of the following: --Augidy 2
--Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
--M-audio Revolution
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29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Reminds me of old vinyl, needles, and dust, February 18, 2002
The sounds are great between snaps, crackles, and pops. Since Creative Audio hasn't ever replied to my request for a solution, I went online and "searched" under "Soundblaster," "live," and "crackle." You'll be surprised at the number of hits you have to choose from and explanations ranging from "PCI bus noise" to "busy CPU." Creative Audio said they were working on it (June 2001). They still must be. Avoid this board, especially with XP or 2000. If you don't believe me, do the search on google.com yourself for the "crackle" problem. Otherwise, expect to get the old vinyl record sound, both on PCs and Macs, and on CDs, DVDs, and games.
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