Windows Vista What U Hear - Not in "Disabled Devices" either!

[MetCat]

I've seen the "What U Hear"-question pop up everywhere when searching for an answer to my problem. The thing is that I don't have this function on my PC with Windows Vista 32-bit and it's not in the list of disabled devices either.

My sound card is Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic.

I've contacted Dell and Creative and both of them refer to each other when I ask what I should do. And, I've found nothing through Google about it.

I've read somewhere that maybe I should download the latest drivers and I have - with no luck. I looked for any kind of drivers that could help me here: </Title> <meta name="CREAF.dateCreated" content="9/20/2008 3:58:35 AM" /> <meta name="CREAF.renderNode" content="203.211.142.196" /> <meta name="CREAF.clientNode" content="204.13.168.28" /> <meta name="CREAF.lcsSetting" content="12_46_61" /> <meta na

Does anyone have any advice on what the problem can be? Maybe even how it could be solved?

I highly appreciate any replies!

 

[superbill]

Are the system requirements for this sound card not Windows XP?????????????

 

[MetCat]

Are the system requirements for this sound card not Windows XP?????????????

The minimum requirement is Windows XP. I got this card together with my brand new PC with Windows Vista through DELL.

Creative's own description of the card:
Link Removed - Invalid URL
Link Removed - Invalid URL

 

[kemical]

On the driver page you'll note that further down the page are more utilities for recording ect... Perhaps the utility will be contained in one of them.
Creatives products did not move over to vista very well at first and many lost original functionality. It's only quite recent that some of these functions have returned (free as well) in the driver support so it's always worth checking the latest release..

 

[superbill]

Ooops..... dozy me!!
Yes.....as Kemical says there was quite a stir caused by the poor support for Vista by Creative products.

 

[MetCat]

On the driver page you'll note that further down the page are more utilities for recording ect... Perhaps the utility will be contained in one of them.
Creatives products did not move over to vista very well at first and many lost original functionality. It's only quite recent that some of these functions have returned (free as well) in the driver support so it's always worth checking the latest release..

Ooops..... dozy me!!
Yes.....as Kemical says there was quite a stir caused by the poor support for Vista by Creative products.

Thank you for replying guys. Apparently it has nothing to do with the drivers but all to do with what superbill just said. I found my answer which was a link that a person at the SoundBlaster forums posted... a great dissapointment. All of you who are interested in this, read here:

Stereo Mix Record Functionality and Dell - Direct2Dell

This means that I don't have this function at all and since DELL did not inform me about this issue when I bought my brand new PC with Win Vista and paid much extra for the XtremeMusic sound card, I feel as though I've been tricked to buy this product without any kind of support from their side. The "What U Hear" function is very important to me and I need to use it everyday in my professional life. Creative has been supportive and really tried to help with no luck.

In summary - This was for sure my last DELL product.

 

[superbill]

Yes MetCat, I know how you feel. It's a disgrace that companies such as Dell can take your hard earned money and then fail to provide support for a program that they have used as a selling point for their product.
If you are really keen to use this sound card, is it not worthwhile getting a copy of XP (even demanding one from Dell) and doing a dual boot with Vista & XP

 

[MetCat]

/.../If you are really keen to use this sound card, is it not worthwhile getting a copy of XP (even demanding one from Dell) and doing a dual boot with Vista & XP

I will contact Dell about it, that's for sure. I will not let them get away with it this time I'm going to try to demand the upgraded Vista version or even back to XP.

 

[kemical]

Creative did indeed create a huge mess over it's driver support but it is slowly changing. This is due to users like 'Daniel' a guy who tweaked creatives drivers back into a usable state for vista and thus giving back funtionality.He posted these in several forums and recieved much praise for getting the hardware to work again. Eventually creative threatened him with legal action and he had to stop what he was doing with all links being removed. I just managed to get a set for my card before they were lost but this driver is only good for my card..
Creative now have started to make good with the driver support though and things are slowly getting better so if I were you I'd wait..If your driver isn't up to scratch yet, it could well be soon..
After reading the blog from Dell I didn't really see anything stating you have reduced functionality... If thats the card you have and as long as they haven't actually 'crippled' the card then you should be fine...As I said above though, check out the other bits of software on the download page.

 

[MetCat]

/.../This is due to users like 'Daniel' a guy who tweaked creatives drivers back into a usable state for vista and thus giving back funtionality.He posted these in several forums and recieved much praise for getting the hardware to work again./.../

So typical, remove the guy who get's stuff to work again! Although, I sense from your messages that you believe that the responsibility lies on Creative, right? I don't know myself, but from the Dell blog I understood it more being their fault: "Dell made decisions to remove stereo mix functionality at the hardware level based on Microsoft's initial Vista software requirements. Those requirements were later changed by Microsoft, but too late for Dell to add that functionality back at a hardware level in products nearing launch." The responsibility should be on Dell who didn't inform me about this when I bought my really expensive PC.

/.../Creative now have started to make good with the driver support though and things are slowly getting better so if I were you I'd wait..If your driver isn't up to scratch yet, it could well be soon..

That's also a possibility, to wait and hope. I have been doing that for a year already though and I must say I'm getting inpatient. That's also why I wrote here in my last desperate move to find out what's wrong. I've downloaded all possible drivers that I thought could help, but with no luck

/.../After reading the blog from Dell I didn't really see anything stating you have reduced functionality... /.../

"Those requirements were later changed by Microsoft, but too late for Dell to add that functionality back at a hardware level in products nearing launch. " Unfortunately, I apparently have that "product near launch"