Steelseries + Win7 = Poor support

Lelisevis · Dec 9, 2009, 10:12 PM

Just picked up the awesome steelseries 5HV2 headset. Works amazing on the xbox360 and really brings forza3 to life, though the 2 hours of buzzing afterwards was a warning about listening to games too loud.

The headset was wrongly priced in PCWorld and I picked it up for £30 which is less than half what it should have been, the guy on the till noticed immediately and said he wouldnt mention it until i'd left

.

So....on to my problem, the headset plays fine through my desktop soundcard and through my xbox audio out both in stereo and not the claimed 7.1 virtual surround, but I have a problem when it comes to my Win7 media PC that I have plugged into my downstairs tv. The PC is based around a ASUS AT3N7A-I NVIDIA ION motherboard which does have a basic onboard soundchip but the Steelseries 5HV2 headset comes with a USB 7.1 soundcard, I thought i'd give this a try but on visiting the Steelseries site I see that they have next to no support for windows7. I thought maybe the vista drivers would work but nope, first they recognise an incompatible OS and if you manage to work around that you get a never ending looping install bar before the system hangs.

Nothing I have tried so far has worked including compatibility and forced driver installs. Frankly i'm stunned that a company with a rep like Steelseries has such poor driver support, i'd be interested in a response if anyone has an insider contact in the company but in the meantime i'd be interested in a possible solution. I have got as far as a Generic C-media driver which the steelseries seem to be based on but again that hangs or crashes.

Over to you DH experts

BlueMak · Dec 14, 2009, 12:16 PM

Did you try to email them? It's unfair to claim poor support from the company if you haven't contacted them.

mkk · Dec 14, 2009, 06:18 PM

downloads - SteelSeries
Windows 7 drivers up now at least.

Quote:

Does your software support windows 7?
The following products already support Windows 7:

SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse
SteelSeries Ikari Optical & Laser
SteelSeries Xai
SteelSeries Kinzu
SteelSeries 5Hv2
SteelSeries Siberias
SteelSeries USB Soundcard

We hope to have support for all of our products including the Z Engine very shortly.

arquliz · Dec 14, 2009, 06:37 PM

The portable soundcard is not that good, and nearly all motherboards has a better soundcard then the portable soundcard from steelseries.
Your motherboard contains a VIA VT 1708s 8-Channel High-Definition Audio CODEC (ASUSTeK Computer Inc.) which means it does support 7.1 surround sound, you just have to enable it.
I have got one of those usb soundcard from steelseries myself and i prefer the soundcard on which is in my motherboard, even then soundcard in my 8 year old computer. I would be very suprised if the steelseries one is better. The soundcard is made for people who dont play on the same computer all the time and just want to be sure to get the same quality always (http://www.steelseries.com/us/resell...oundcard_white) says so on the button of the page

Edit:

Here's some information about the soundcard in your motherboard: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/au...hannel/vt1708/.

Lelisevis · Dec 17, 2009, 11:42 AM

Thanks for taking the time all. It is appreciated.

I did try to email them BluMak, it must have got lost in the ether because I have not received a reply.

That post has been up forever mkk and the usb soundcard definitely doesnt work.

And to arquliz I'm really not expecting much from the USB soundcard it's just that I have 2 pc's and 2 laptops so it's more a case of an easy plug and play solution. I have used the headset with all of my home pc's and even with 7.1 enabled it still only plays stereo, i'm guessing the custom driver has some sort of magical doohickery that creates a virtual surround.*

* Just tried it on an older vista laptop and the driver definitely does something as it's noticeably different.

Once again thanks all. +rep round

Dec 9, 2009, 10:12 PM	#1
Lelisevis Howlin at the moon Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 1,663 Rep Power: 0	Steelseries + Win7 = Poor support Just picked up the awesome steelseries 5HV2 headset. Works amazing on the xbox360 and really brings forza3 to life, though the 2 hours of buzzing afterwards was a warning about listening to games too loud. The headset was wrongly priced in PCWorld and I picked it up for £30 which is less than half what it should have been, the guy on the till noticed immediately and said he wouldnt mention it until i'd left. So....on to my problem, the headset plays fine through my desktop soundcard and through my xbox audio out both in stereo and not the claimed 7.1 virtual surround, but I have a problem when it comes to my Win7 media PC that I have plugged into my downstairs tv. The PC is based around a ASUS AT3N7A-I NVIDIA ION motherboard which does have a basic onboard soundchip but the Steelseries 5HV2 headset comes with a USB 7.1 soundcard, I thought i'd give this a try but on visiting the Steelseries site I see that they have next to no support for windows7. I thought maybe the vista drivers would work but nope, first they recognise an incompatible OS and if you manage to work around that you get a never ending looping install bar before the system hangs. Nothing I have tried so far has worked including compatibility and forced driver installs. Frankly i'm stunned that a company with a rep like Steelseries has such poor driver support, i'd be interested in a response if anyone has an insider contact in the company but in the meantime i'd be interested in a possible solution. I have got as far as a Generic C-media driver which the steelseries seem to be based on but again that hangs or crashes. Over to you DH experts

Dec 14, 2009, 12:16 PM	#2
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,481 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Re: Steelseries + Win7 = Poor support Did you try to email them? It's unfair to claim poor support from the company if you haven't contacted them. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Dec 14, 2009, 06:37 PM	#4
arquliz HardwareHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 67 Rep Power: 21 System Specs	Re: Steelseries + Win7 = Poor support The portable soundcard is not that good, and nearly all motherboards has a better soundcard then the portable soundcard from steelseries. Your motherboard contains a VIA VT 1708s 8-Channel High-Definition Audio CODEC (ASUSTeK Computer Inc.) which means it does support 7.1 surround sound, you just have to enable it. I have got one of those usb soundcard from steelseries myself and i prefer the soundcard on which is in my motherboard, even then soundcard in my 8 year old computer. I would be very suprised if the steelseries one is better. The soundcard is made for people who dont play on the same computer all the time and just want to be sure to get the same quality always (http://www.steelseries.com/us/resell...oundcard_white) says so on the button of the page Edit: Here's some information about the soundcard in your motherboard: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/au...hannel/vt1708/. Last edited by arquliz; Dec 14, 2009 at 06:43 PM. Reason: more information added

Dec 17, 2009, 11:42 AM	Thread Starter #5
Lelisevis Howlin at the moon Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 1,663 Rep Power: 0	Re: Steelseries + Win7 = Poor support Thanks for taking the time all. It is appreciated. I did try to email them BluMak, it must have got lost in the ether because I have not received a reply. That post has been up forever mkk and the usb soundcard definitely doesnt work. And to arquliz I'm really not expecting much from the USB soundcard it's just that I have 2 pc's and 2 laptops so it's more a case of an easy plug and play solution. I have used the headset with all of my home pc's and even with 7.1 enabled it still only plays stereo, i'm guessing the custom driver has some sort of magical doohickery that creates a virtual surround.* * Just tried it on an older vista laptop and the driver definitely does something as it's noticeably different. Once again thanks all. +rep round