Audigy 2 ZS install guide.

[lidistick]

So you've got your new Audigy 2 ZS card and want to get cracking.
My install was painless so I thought I give you a heads-up on what to do first.

1) Go to My computer>Right click>Properties>Device Manager> uninstall the current sound card.
2) Shut Down> Remove old soundcard OR Restart and Disable onboard sound in bios.
3) While still in BIOS> I disabled one of my Serial ports (IRQ4).
4) I then Reassigned IRQ 4 to the Audigy 2 which sits in PCI slot 3.
OK you wanted a guide to doing it...
here's mine for my mobo (Abit NF7-S Rev 2)

Go to BIOS>Integrated Peripherals>Onboard Serial Port 1>3F8/IRQ4][Change to DISABLE]

now Exit to main Bios Menu and go to:
PnP/PCI Configurations

PIRQ_0 Use IRQ No: Auto - Multimedia Device {Change the Auto to 4}
PIRQ_1 Use IRQ No: Auto - Serial Bus Controller
PIRQ_2 Use IRQ No: Auto - RAID controller
PIRQ_3 Use IRQ No: Auto - Display Controller

Save and Exit.

5) Reboot> windows comes up with found 'New Multimedia device'
6) cancel the install screen and put in the Creative CD.
7)Go to custom install.
8)Make new folder C:\Creative

9)Install ONLY these components.

• EAX console
• Speaker Calibration
• Surround Mixer
• Speaker Settings
• Audio HQ
• DVD-A player
• THX setup
• Graphic EQ
• Windows Drivers

Total install size = 77MB.

10) I did not install the Mediasource player as I already use winamp 5.03.
Reboot.

I suggest you use the Speaker calibrator in the THX setup.
took me a while to get it right as I didn't have a SPL meter but after a playing with it for a while, it sounded very good.
As for the mis-wiring of speakers....... Creative got it wrong so don't bother with that. As long as you have eye-balled the connections and they look good ....

Total time to get me going = 30 mins. From power down and uninstalling the old card to getting up and running again .

hope this helps.
cheers.

Edit:
Requirements for downloading updated drivers.

Requirements
Microsoft® Windows XP SP1, Windows 2000 SP3, Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98 Second Edition.
For Audigy 2 series audio cards:
The updated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD driver available on the web (released on 19 November 2003).
For Audigy 2 ZS series audio cards:
The original EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD driver from the Installation and Applications CD; or
The updated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD driver available on the web (released on 19 November 2003).

Downloaded 2 sets of drivers :
1) SBA2 EAX4DRV 031031 - released 19th november 2003 13.6MB in size.
2) SBA2 WEBUP PCWDRV 1-84-40 - released 29th March 2004 6.4MB in size.

INstalled both sets of drivers.
no issues.
click and install.
was still surfing web at that point in time.
install complete.
Reboot.
Install 2nd driver.
Reboot.
Done
all happy now

[drewthomas14]

is every ~ the same for the audigy 2?

[lidistick]

pretty much the same

[IAmGhostDog]

Very nice my friend.
Very nice.
Gonna' stick it.
Could combo it with my troubleshooting guide.
Any updated drivers installed?
Procedure?

[lidistick]

yeah downloading the drivers now....
will post again when done
merge the 2 threads ya think?

[FailedCRC]

77mb!

creative are having a laugh.

[ozzy983]

Honestly, I think alot of the stuff that comes with the Creative Cards is bloated and really pointless.

Some argue that the Speaker Calibration and THX setup are really worthwild applications, but I feel they just add to the install, and that's about it.

The EQ is useless, IMO, since a lot of people like to boost the 10K+ frequencies, and it has none of them availible. And, Winamp and Foobar have far superior EQs.

EAX is alright, but I still think the EAX 4 drivers, even with patch, have a lot of bugs.

As far as that goes, the install portion of the guide is perfect.

Media Source is a real waste. Much better mp3/music players out there.

Later,
Oz

[Mjölnir]

Some people find the Creative apps really good. I find the speaker calibration to be fantastic (I only use the Mixer, Audio HQ and the actual drivers so I only get the functions I want). It's an almost seamless extension of Window's own audio settings. That's all it was meant to be. Many reputable 3rd party packages cannot offer this level of seamless integration.

If you want serious EQ stuff for this card, forget the Windows and usual Creative settings. You'd need to get into ASIO drivers (which incidentally, Creative are a market leader of) and some REAL playback/mixing software like Numark PCDJ or Native Instruments' TraktorDJ (same technology, different name). Winamp is pale in comparison.

The EAX drivers from the "AUD_EAX4DRV_031031" package were so well designed that they became recommended as a soft mod for Audigy 1 users among many gaming circles. A massive improvement and a real treat for any 3D-positioning freak. I believe this was the second update release of Audigy 2 EAX drivers after the first updated one had proven too buggy for even Audigy 2. Hence the time between their releases being only about a month. If you can fault those drivers, then it's most likely user error, corrupted drivers or faulty hardware

[steven975]

one more troubleshooting issue:

all motherboards are different in the way they route interrupts. every board has FOUR channels. they are hardwired. every slot and integrated peripheral is on one of these channels. ideally, the sound card should be in a PCI slot that shares a channel with nothing.

go into the motherboard manual and look for the IRQ routing table. every manual i have seen has one. basically it is a chart with the 4 channels and the slot(s) that are in them. the better manuals tell you which channel the integrated peripherals (nic, sound, raid) are in but most don't. usually, two slots share one of the channels, usually 1 and 5 or something. generally, these 2 slots are the only things in that channel. Putting the sound card in one of these and leaving the other empty is the BEST THING TO DO. Also, give the slot its own IRQ in the BIOS. After doing this, you should have NO PROBLEMS.

The worst thing you can do is put the sound card in the slot that shares an IRQ channel with the AGP. Most boards this is slot 4 (it is almost never slot 1, that is an "urban legend"). consult the chart in the manual for details. Usually, this channel is INT_A or INT_0, depending on the nomenclature in the manual.

[Mjölnir]

one more troubleshooting issue:

all motherboards are different in the way they route interrupts. every board has FOUR channels. they are hardwired. every slot and integrated peripheral is on one of these channels. ideally, the sound card should be in a PCI slot that shares a channel with nothing.

go into the motherboard manual and look for the IRQ routing table. every manual i have seen has one. basically it is a chart with the 4 channels and the slot(s) that are in them. the better manuals tell you which channel the integrated peripherals (nic, sound, raid) are in but most don't. usually, two slots share one of the channels, usually 1 and 5 or something. generally, these 2 slots are the only things in that channel. Putting the sound card in one of these and leaving the other empty is the BEST THING TO DO. Also, give the slot its own IRQ in the BIOS. After doing this, you should have NO PROBLEMS.

The worst thing you can do is put the sound card in the slot that shares an IRQ channel with the AGP. Most boards this is slot 4 (it is almost never slot 1, that is an "urban legend"). consult the chart in the manual for details. Usually, this channel is INT_A or INT_0, depending on the nomenclature in the manual.

Well written! This is so true. Let me add a bit to that.

The reason that soundcards in particular should use what is probably the only non-shared PCI slot is that soundcards can be required to have Direct Memory Access and consequently require a Direct Memory Address Channel. This is not so important these days, since most cards no longer require DMA channels, but it has been a rule-of-thumb since the DOS days. About the only other cards you may use that will want DMA channels are HDD controllers.

The next best option is to choose the slot that shares with the onboard sound controller - which you should disable if you are using a PCI soundcard anyway. Whichever other PCI slot shares with the PCI slot that you use for the soundcard, you should avoid using.

Added integrated devices on the mobo, such as Onboard Sound, RAID controllers, USB controllers, FireWire (1394) controllers, etc will also be shared using the four PCI INTerrupts and are often not listed as being shared that way. If your board has many of these deivces, it may help to disable the ones you don't use.

If you use Win2K or later and enable APIC in the BIOS, PnP should be smart enough to assign the IRQ's well, provided that you have placed your PCI cards in the slots that have the least amount of shared devices. in my experience, motherboards with 5 PCI slots have the AGP port sharing with PCI#1 and PCI#5. It really depends on your system.

Many mobo manuals don't have this PCI INTerrupt chart, so you might be left to contact the manufacturer's tech support crew about it. Some of these charts are better than others by including the other onboard devices that share with PCI slots. The bottom line is that you should treat each board differently.

Lidistick has chosen (as Steven has suggested) another equally efficient method, which is best suited to a limited amount of devices. This involves disabling APIC, PnP OS, and any onboard devices/ports that he doesn't use. By doing this, he can control which of the 16 available Interrupt ReQuests (IRQ's) are allocated to which hardware. Correct me if I am wrong.

In addition, this hardware configuration should ideally be done before installing Win2K/XP, and it should be a permanent arrangement. The following article gives a brief explanation of why this is so:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252420

A listing of the "real" IRQ reservations

Never trust that a computer shop will set up the computer properly in this way! They rarely do.

[lidistick]

Steven975, ygpm

Great info guys.. keep it coming

[technopro]

Great guide! If I could add my 2 cents, I would include the exact steps to assigning an IRQ for the Audigy 2 Zs. Most people can figure out how to disable a serial port, but the assignment of a discreet IRQ will be beyond some peoples expertise. You might also include the instructions to do the same thing if the card has already been installed, if it differs from doing it when fist installing the card. Some people might want to go in and assign an IRQ without having to go thru the un-install/re-install bit.

Thanks

[lidistick]

Great guide! If I could add my 2 cents, I would include the exact steps to assigning an IRQ for the Audigy 2 Zs. Most people can figure out how to disable a serial port, but the assignment of a discreet IRQ will be beyond some peoples expertise. You might also include the instructions to do the same thing if the card has already been installed, if it differs from doing it when fist installing the card. Some people might want to go in and assign an IRQ without having to go thru the un-install/re-install bit.

Thanks

I thought about that but it differs from motherboard to motherboard!
so what I do for my Abit.. would be different from an MSI board!!

better if you're not sure, to post in the appropriate mobo section
Cheers.

[technopro]

Maybe a dumb question, but why does one really need assign a discreet IRQ anyway....conflicts between devices???

[lidistick]

yeah.. the audigy doesn't share well.