[R4Z0R]

Does anyone still use a GTXP out there?

I'm struggling to make mine work in Vista RC2 x64 but i guess that won't happen anytime soon?
Does anyone know where to find drivers for it and whether or not unofficial drivers for it exist at all?

[Judas]

OK,

the likely answer is:

Your not going to be able to use any of the Hercules cards, Fortissimo 3, Digifire, Game Theater XP series of sound cards because Creative BOUGHT the creators of the chips hercules used. AKA, They made the drivers and therefore because creative is an ASS, decided to drop everything to do with the company.

So no drivers, aside from "trying" but unlikely being able to, use the XP drivers under x86 (windows 32bit) vista only. (i tried, they wouldn't work). Hercules hasn't ever had a x64 version of the drivers. So you and i are pretty much screwed there.

HOWEVER, i heard that Hercules WAS in the process of getting some drivers developed even in a basic support form, for Vista and Vista x64. But when you hear stuff like this from a friends friends friend who knows a guy which has a friend..... yeah it's kinda hopeful thinking.


Sorry, what motherboard do you have, Does it have Realteks HD audio?

[R4Z0R]

My mb does have Realtek HD Audio, it's an Asus A8R MVP32-Deluxe but the thing is the Realtek audio only works under vista at the moment (xp doesn't detect it even though it's enabled in the bios) .
So yes my audio works (or at least used to work) in vista but i don't get the RCA output that the GTXP has so i have to connect the speakers to the amp using optical (i can't be bothered to use 3.5mm jack to rca adapters).
Now i have another problem though, my vista doesn't want to boot since i did the latest bios update for the motherboard because the bios reset and doesn't detect my raid anymore so Vista can't boot from it. My XP can boot because it's on a normal IDE drive.
In addition when i try accessing the RAID setup it redirects me to the EFI (or whatever that is) OS selection.

Do you have any idea on how to get vista working again? (or get into the RAID menu)

[[hobo]eclipse]

Control F for my Promise onboards bios setup, dunno?

concerning the Vista x64 sound, i have a Fortissimo 7.1 here that ive never tried cause ive been on x64. o well i guess, i thought the sound sucked in the default vista ac 97 driver, so if you go to the site there are vista x64 drivers! sounds better now

[Judas]

Go back into your bios and then set the RAID mode to enable and then select the drives that WERE in raid to raid enabled under the raid mode.

From there you should be presented with an additional screen between the post and the pre OS launch.

I haven't a clue what the EFI is doing there though.

Use CTRL-H to get into the raid menu, and if your raid array is not shown, rebuild it if possible to keep the information from being destroyed.

Lastly, the HD Realtek audio within Vista thus far (last i had used vista), was good quality, but stereo sound only, Realtek has since made SEVERAL updates since.

I wasn't away of how your had your speakers/amp and other such hooked up, i can see why you like the hercules cards (i do as well, but poor us with x64 or vista soon apon us can't use the frigen awesome cards).

[R4Z0R]

The optical sound from the Realtek sounds cleaner and is a higher quality than the Hercules one but i still prefer analog outputs (don't know why lol).
I know about the CTRL+F, that's what i meant before, when that message comes up saying "press ctrl+f to access RAID BIOS" i press it and it just bumps me to the EFI while if i don't touch anything it does the same thing but just takes longer.
The strange thing though, is that windows still detects my drives as RAID 0 while boot-up doesn't.

[Judas]

odd

You sure you've got the right bios or something.. because to get into raid, i have to hit CRTL-H on my asus a8r32-mvp

The A8R32-MVP doesn't have Promise controller, it has a Silicon single SATA2 port (which i'd suggest disabling enless your using it)... And a ULi 4 Sata/Raid Port controller which is accessed by CTRL-H.

Using realtek's HD Analog connections is just as good. But you said you don't want to use analog splitters to do it.

[R4Z0R]

Vista boots properly now, the bios was being buggy and i had to reset all the RAID options, i was and still am using the ULi (btw the second SATA 2 controller has 2 ports, one on the inside the case and one eSATA on the back).
Kinda strange your RAID bios is accessed by CTRL-H and mine by CTRL-F, it's basically the same board, maybe they're just different revisions or something? (i know that doesn't make sense but what the hell)

[Judas]

Yeah that doesn't make sense at all.. wtf

Yeah i was reffering to the Silicon image sata port inside only.. i am aware of the esata as wel

Mine of the first revision... I'm not aware of any other revisions.

[Dragunov]

ok, back to Game Theater XP, I also use one

[Soulja]

Well here we are its 2007 and windows vista has rolled out into the shops. Drivers are being relesed for all sorts of hardware to support this new os, but one driver is still missing at least as i know. This driver that i and i think many people that still use this sound card is the only driver that doesnt let us fully migrate to the new release of windows. Well if you have any news on how to get it to work somehow or if you have any other news on when we can expect a driver release i would really appreciate it. Well i still have my hopes up that we will someday see a official driver from Hercules. And i dont want to sell it just yet, and if i would to sell it it wouldnt be worth it because i wouldnt get enough money from it to justify selling it. Well ill be probably moving to vista and im going to downgrade my sound to an onboard one and i will store my beloved Herculese Game Theater XP 7.1 that has been with me for the last 5 years somewhere safe, hoping that one day i will use it once more

[Dragunov]

Well, mine broke, so I bought a X-Fi Elite Pro (they release an official driver for Vista in March)

[Soulja]

Originally Posted by Dragunov

Well, mine broke, so I bought a X-Fi Elite Pro (they release an official driver for Vista in March)

Wait you are saying that they will actualy release a driver for Game theater for Vista or are you reffering to your X-Fi? And where did you read or heard this if i may ask? I just want to double check before i go and upgrade to vista in the near future

[Dragunov]

for the X-Fi, I don't know if they still gonna support the Game Theater XP, like u said, it's already 5 years old, so I don't know

A pity, but yeah, the crystal chip is no longer in use

[DudeBoyz]

Dude - that was one of the BEST SOUND SETUPS EVER!!!

I'm sorry it doesn't work with Vista.

I freakin' HATE creative.

Hey - I like that setup so much I'd go back to XP just to keep being able to use it if I was you!

Anyone ever want to get rid of one of them, lemme know - I'm sticking with XP as long as I can.

[Dragunov]

yeah, I know, but I use Vista, so I bought a complete new rig

My other GPU fan failed, lockups in XP, GTXP died,....

[DudeBoyz]

Bummer that it died.

If I was gonna get a new sound card, I think I'd get the Turtle Beach Montego DDL:

Turtle Beach - Montego DDL 7.1 Sound Card

Sweet.

Anything but creative, I guess.

[Soulja]

Finally my prayers have been answered I just casualy went to hercules site to see if there is any news. And what do you now i saw a driver update for my beloved Game theater xp 7.1 which works on win XP with sp 2 and on vista 32bit and was released on 22nd of march. I just couldnt belived my eyes a driver update that ive been waiting for almoast 4 years for win XP and now another bonus that it also works in vista. Im currently testing the new drivers in XP because i dont have vista. So maybe i will give vista another spin in the near future

[Soulja]

Well ive installed vista on my computer and my Game theater works like a charm;-) So i gues i wont be buying a new sound card well untill these one dies or new windows come out.