Problem on Z70V... Ideas?

I recently installed an audigy 2 zs. It is being read but it says the device cannot be started. I am not sure but I think the RICOH driver takes care of the PCMIA slot... are there any drivers I am missing??? I really have no clue why it wont start. I uninstalled, reinstalled, dled the new driver, tried that, and still didnt work.... ideas??? Below is the error message...




Thx!

 

hey scottschaffter you should read my thread about this soundcard in the hardware upgrades section.

I was asking if anyone had this soundcard for their Z70Va or anyone with that specific PCMCIA controller.

I guess you've answered my question. The RICOH controller in our laptops are on the blacklist of controllers on the sound blaster website. Seems the PCMCIA Audigy 2 ZS doesn't work with our controllers.

Crap, I thought someone would've come out with a fix by now, but I guess not. Too bad, I wanted one so bad.

Go to my thread and read it and read the review on the link provided as well.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Well that sux.... wtf... so does creative not have any response to this??? I mean wtf... u buy something like this and expect it to work... >_< would a driver update from RICOH solve it? Assuming there is one? >_<

Thx for the reply... any ideas how to get around this _)@!#( thing?

 

Supposedly it's a hardware issue, not software from what I've read.

You can try emailing soundblaster to see if there are any unposted updates.

 

yeah i emailed em already... the forums there are a joke... hopefully itll work... it was a gift and it would suck if it doesnt work and then i cant return the thing either... _!@)#( Thx for the ideas + heads up as to why the thing didnt work! at least u know 4 sure it wont work now

 

LOL

Yeah I guess I know for sure it won't work on my system now.

Too bad, so disappointing since I was about to purchase it.

Thank goodness for that review by Hexus, or I wouldn't have known, since other reviewers did not write anything about compatibility.

Still I'm considering getting one just to mess with PCI latencies and trying to get it to work. The reviewer at Hexus found a way to get it to work on his blacklisted PCMCIA controller, but of course it's not guaranteed to work.

Still, if I can get it to work, WOW, that'd be awesome. Before you give up try out what he did. Go to the thread about this product in the Hardwares Upgrade section and click on the link to the review about it that I posted.

He used a thirdparty PCI latency tool to change settings and got the two devices to communicate and work.

Keep us posted on Creative's reply to your problem.

Cheers,
Mike

 

That's weird. I got my Audigy 2 ZS Notebook to work on my new Z70VA yesterday. Installed without a problem; seemed to work for the little time I had it installed. Of course I bought it before I realised that I wouldn't be able to use the laptop speakers with it. DUH!!!

Did you try the latest RICOH drivers from the Asus website? When I was installing drivers yesterday, I used that one instead of the one that came on the driver cd. A lot of those drivers are outdated it seems.

 

Ditto
We sell these cards on a regular and many of them are used with the same ricoh chipset. I never really had any complains except once maybee a year ago which i belive was about the compatibility issue. The solution was a new driver as i recall.

 

OMG, please tell me you guys are serious, Eddy? are you serious? drak0n did you seriously get it to work?

Strange how you managed to get it to work on your Z70Va, but it doesn't let you use your speakers on your laptop, as I have read reviews on it and there is a set of options where you can set it to use your laptop speakers.

Go to my Thread in the hardare upgrades section, search Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and it should pop up. I have a link there to a review on this product, that was the most informative and shows you how to use your laptop speakers with the soundcard.

please, oh pretty please let me know if this is really true and it does work. I am about to go out and buy it now if you tell me it works as I am having troubles with my Audio DJ sound hardware on my unit.

This is really great news.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Does the card make it sound any different using the LAPTOP speaker? 0.o HELLO?

 

nope, it only affects the speakers you plug into the ZS card

 

Yes, Shampoo. The card works. You might need these 2 drivers to get it to work properly:

1. "ModUt_PCApp_LB_2_10_06.exe." You can get this from Creative's website. It allows auido playback through the laptop speakers.

2. "Ricoh card reader driver V 2.3." It's the latest one on Asus' website, dated at 06/07/2005. I would suggest you install this file before trying to install the ZS Notebook.

For some reason, the audio from the card is softer than the audio from the Realtek drivers, even when the speakers are turned all the way up. Not sure why this is.

 

do you know if it would work for the Z70V, driver : R/RL/5C476(II)?

Also where did you get the driver from creative? Is it just under their driver download section? Or was it a specific mod for RICOH? I updated to v. 2.3, i think i had it on that version anyway... but yeah it still states; "device cannot start" as posted origonally... Creative replied with a form letter saying they were working with RICOH + other companies to develop drivers... >_<

 

I got the Ricoh driver from Asus US website. It should work, because both the Z70V and the Z70VA have the same PCMCIA controller. As for the Creative driver, yes I got it from the driver download section.

 

hmm... yeah i got both from the same place... and the problem perstists.... ideas? maybe uninstalll both and reinstall the PCMCIA and then reinstall Audigy driver?? should work though... would order really matter??? Wtf... could u show me the link for the creative driver if that would be possible??? I think I got the same one but itd be nice 2 confirm... thx for the reply!

 

http://us.creative.com/support/down...33&OS=10&drivertype=3&Image4.x=24&Image4.y=16
It's #9 I really don't know if order really matters, but that's just the way I did it. Figured that since the card needs the pcmcia controller, better update it before trying to install the card. Anyway, good luck

 

coriolis I believe you are wrong there. It takes over your integrated sound and outputs everything through itself, but there is an option to run your Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and your Integrated Sound.

Why? I don't know, I just read a review, I don't have the product myself, YET.

I'm just waiting on people's responses to see if I will be able to get it to work and try it out.

drak0n, are you running it in Advanced Mode or Standard Mode? I ask this because as you already know, I hope, Advanced Mode runs the Audigy 2ZS Notebook with full features, meaning you can use ALL of its features. In the Standard Mode it does not allow for certain features like certain sound decoding like DTS Theatre.

If you have it running in Advanced Mode and are running it on a RICOH R5C476(II), then holy smokes I'm going out to get one tomorrow, or the day after since I have classes all day tomorrow.

Cheers,
Mike

edit:: Concerning the sound being softer drak0n, it's probably because the quality is better or certain decoders and equalizer settings need to be adjusted. Remember LOUDER doesn't mean better

edit2:: Here's a link to the Compatibility list on Creative's Sound Blaster website, not the www.creative.com, but www.soundblaster.com, as it is not listed at their home website. http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2zs_notebook/notebook.asp

 

shampoo--i am waiting to see if it works for you..you dont mind being the guinea pig..do you?

pb,out.

 

sweet drakon! no i hadnt dled that... i had dled the newer driver! hope this works! !@)(#* nope... well im going 2 uninstall them all and try it again with this mod thingi... !_)@# I dont understand how that app u mentioned woul make it work... i mean its not an update to take care of the incompatibility of the RICOH + other drivers... its just the app u use to switch from standard->advanced mode / vice versa... are u using it on standard? is it working like that? _)@!# arg

 

Hmmm, If thats true, then that'd be pretty awesome. Thought technically, it doesn't really seem possible...

@scott, I just noticed your cat avatar moves

 

what do u mean? what being true? yeah it moves... ... i was just thinking this morning... maybe its not a driver thing... maybe its a service? I may have disabled one that controls PCMCIA etc... or something along those lines, I had thought that initially and gone through them but I didnt think any of the ones I had disabled would cause the PCMCIA to stop functioning. The error message the device cannot start just sounds more like a service stopping it from starting rather than a driver issue where the device might not even be recognized or, as the review shapoo talked about, cuase some kind of wierd "clicking etc..." so... ideas that are not driver related? anyone know of the service that would kill a PCMCIA drive?? >_< Ill try the uninstall-reinstalll l8r today if i get a chance... but yeah like i said the error message doesnt seem to be the same as what the article described as a result of driver incompatibility... anyway if all fails ill call creative... i hate dealing with !_)@# corperations... Thx for the input guys!

 

@Shampoo: Yes, I am running in Advanced mode. That's what it says in the Feature Mode Selection Utility. And yes my card controller is the RICOH R/RL/5C476(II). That's what it says in Device Manager. I'll include a screen shot to show you. As for the sound being softer, I may need to adjust those, but since I'm also using the latest drivers for the card, they got rid of the CL Mixer and other things. I might try uninstalling these drivers, reinstall the ones that came on the cd in addition to Media Source, check to see if the sound is louder, and then reinstall the newer drivers and see if everything still works.

@scottschaffter: I really don't know why it's not working for you, bro. All I was telling you was what drivers/apps I used. You can try the new Audigy driver for the card to see if it helps: http://us.creative.com/support/down...33&OS=10&drivertype=1&Image4.x=23&Image4.y=16
Btw, do you have SP2 installed and updated? You can always reinstall Windows as a last resort. It might help

@coriolis: I don't how or why it's working, but it is. In fact, I'm listening to some Asian Dub Foundation through the 4 speakers as I type this.

Here's the screen shot: [img=http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/4990/screen7as.th.jpg]

 

well i guess it should work on a reinstall of the drivers... and yeah why not ill update windows aswell... haha.... good 2 c it could work though... that gives me hope! thx

Hmm... dont know if it would make any difference but did u install the driver from the CD first? and it worked? or did u just install the drivers online? or did you install the drivers from the CD and then the app that u mentioned earlier? What order? im going 2 try and do exactly what u did and hope it works... haha... thx drakon

on a side note creative replied with another form letter... with no solution... i love it... >_<

 

Scott, initially I installed the drivers from the cd first. It had included the Feature Mode Utility, but it didn't work with the speakers, even though the option was checked. I then unistalled those and got the latest ones from the creative website. When I installed them, I realised that it didn't have the utility, so I went back, found the updated utility and installed it. Good luck

 

so urs "started" right from the start? I mean u never had the issue of it giving the same error... because initially i had the updated RICOH drivers, and then installed the drivers on the cd... and nothing.. i mean at least at that point it should still at least be "started"....

Again does anyone know if there would be a service that could be causing this problem??? Ill check again more thoughly when I get time... but Im thinking more and more its not a driver prob...

Drakon thx for the sequence... ill uninstall and try it again that way... but something tells me it still wont work...

 

Yep, mine started from the jump. The only error I encountered was when I was using the Mode Selection Utility. I was trying the test, but it gave me an error. Like I said earlier, if push comes to shove, you can always reformat and do a fresh install of Windows

 

hmm... yeah i think ill avoid the fresh install... i dont feel like going through all the changes I have up 2 now again... >_< ill try the drivers again... cheers

 

I just typed a message asking if you were in advanced mode and running the same controller and I just read your above post. DUH Shampoo, DUH.

haha,

GREAT I'm going to go get one right away~!

Cheers,
Mike

Edit:: pbcustom, I will be your guinea pig. Man I'm excited. If this works I'll be so happy. It would also piss me off if it works on drak0n's system by fluke somehow and it doesn't on mine. Rawr. Also did you guys check your soundcard's revision number? I read that soundblaster immediately released a revision after some problems were reported. They lengthened the card's length. Rev' numbers please and thanks~!

 

well mine doesnt work as yet so dont get ur hopes up... but maybe its some issue that i am doing wrong who knows... or maybe drakon was lucky, creative still seems to think the driver is incompatible.. but who knows...

 

scottschaffter, check to see which revision you have, maybe you have an older one and he has a newer one?

Like I said there were different revisions and Creative came out with another revision after reports of incompatibliity.

I think I'll wait for him and you to reply with your revision numbers to see which one I should look for. I'm also gonna wait to see if you can get it to work.

Cheers,
Mike

 

not sure on revision number... my model # is SB0530 if thats what u mean... my serial # is M1SB0530473006952X hope that helps... i assume its a fairly new one... *hope*

 

Yeah I'd email Creative about the different revisions they have of the Audigy 2ZS Notebook.

I'm going to ask them.

Edit:: just sent an email to them on their Contact Us link. Let's see what they say about revisions and compability.

 

My model # SB0530. S/N is MASB0530538002459E. Hope that's what you wanted, Shampoo.

 

Its that A! haha if only mine was an MASB no a )!(@# M1 hahaha

 

Still didn't get it to work, huh Scott? When did you buy the card?

 

AH HA~! I thought something was up. Maybe you're right about the S/N number missing the A. Could be different revisions right there.

You guys wanna measure the length of your cards?

Now I must make sure to get the same model as drak0n.

scott you could probably return it for another one of drak0n's S/N number.

Cheers,
Mike

 

yeah i hope its not really the A as a problem... i have a friend here who has a z70va so ill try it on his and see wtf is up... neway ill keep ya posted if it gets working... btw i reinstalled / uninstalled drivers again... nothing... called creative they told me to reinstall / uninstall.... and then boot up w/o any other services / apps booting up 2 check for software conflict... nothing... O_O

@ Drakon... i didnt actually buy it, it was a gift from my bro, i recieved it about a week ago... so i assume its the updated version... i assume the model # not serial # would determine length etc...

 

scott, not necessarily true. Just because your brother picked one up for you last week doesn't mean it's a newer one. It could be an older revision just sitting in the storage room of a computer shop.

I'd check in with creative about the model numbers.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Mike, mine is 11 cm long I just noticed that there are some cracks in the casing. Will see about getting it replaced.

 

mike, yeah true but its still a lot more likely to be a newer one... when did u get urz drakon?

 

I bought mine on the 28th of Feb, scott.

 

If you get it replaced make sure it's the same revision or you're going to be really teed off.

My OSAP student loan is coming out soon so I will buy one with that

Cheers,
Mike

 

Hmmm, doesn't each card have a different S/N? Exactly which part of the s/n tells you which revision it is?

Oh Scott, try installing the lastest drivers for the Realtek Audio chip. It might help

 

hey thats an idea... link? im lazy

btw do u mean from the asus / realtek site? Im pretty sure i have the newest for asus but not from realtek... though i would assume they r the same... cuz on the realtek site (got over lazyness....) they ask for model #.... any1 know the model # of the card?

do u have V5.10.0.5123 as listed on the asus site as blank but then next to has an audio pic?... i love their driver details... i assume you prolly do considering they havent updated the drivers since '05... so...

 

scott you lazy bum, and yeah gimme the link for that too, while you're at it for scott. hahaha

Man I'm itching to go get one of these. Just need money

 

I finally got a reply from Creative and I hate the way these guys respond to emails. The part where this guy says whatever RUMOURS I have heard about it working, blah blah, I didn't say I heard rumours or read something on a forum, but rather saw PROOF from a forum member. Here it is, enjoy.

Dear Michael,

Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support.

It is my understanding that you are interested in the Sound Blaster
Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and have heard rumors that it now works with the
Ricoh PCMCIA controller.

To our knowledge, none of the incompatible PCMCIA controller vendors or
Creative has released a driver update to make the card work properly.
We did release a new driver update recently, but unfortunately it did
not combat any PCMCIA compatibility issues.

If the member of notebookreview.com was able to resolve this issue, he
should be able to pass along this useful information to other customers
and it should work as well. As you indicated, you could not duplicate
his results. Unfortunately if there is a resolution, we have not gotten
any notice of it.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please feel free to respond
accordingly.

For faster service please reply with previous correspondence when
replying to this email.

Best Regards,

James (15353)
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas


Now I'm doubtful as to getting one to work. Will try anyways.

 

bastards... i hate corperations

 

I just emailed James back and kinda told a white lie.

Said that many of us here are notebook reviewers and would take his email very seriously, etc, etc, empty threats, well not really threats, but just trying to make it seem like I am a person of power here.

Hope mods or site admin doesn't get angry with me

Just said all the folk on this site will be very upset with his response and that they should investigate drak0n's results and try to figure it out.

The bastardo said if someone got it working just follow what they did and it might work. WTF is that?!?!?!?!? Such a lazy response. "Oh just do what he did and maybe you will get it working but it is out of our hands."

Jeeeeeeeeeeez.

Anyhoo' yeah I think I'm still going to give it a try because if one person can get it to work, then ALL of us can. It's hardware and software, which we can duplicate results.

 

LOL. Those reps are funny. I was reading the soundblaster.com forums the other nite and I think I rememebered seeing a few members mentioned that they were using a black listed pcmcia controller and it worked for them. Seems to be a hit and miss when it comes to the black listed controllers. If you decide to get one, Mike, let us know the outcome

 

Will do. I'm going to try to get one with a similar S/N to yours.



Wish me luck.