One of my Windows 10 boxes has an old noname soundcard based on the CMedia CMI8738SX which only has Windows 7 driver. When I allowed Windows 10 to auto-upgrade the preceding Windows 7 installation, somehow it kept on working. However, at some point recently the Windows installation became borked to the point that it no longer updated - and no amount of repairing would fix it. There was nothing left but to re-install Windows from scratch (upgrade and repair installs both failed). Fortunately, everything of import is kept on my Nextcloud server so I can resync my data afterwards quite easily.
However, I could not persuade the C-Media card to work nicely with Windows 10 (it being 64-bit didn't help). I cast around and found that I had a SoundBlaster Live 5.1 PCI card sat in one of my Linux boxes, mainly because it worked with the 3.3V PCI slot in an H8DCL motherboard. However, having worked out previously that C-Media chipsets support 3.3V PCI, and can be converted merely by filing a suitable notch in the PCI connector, I duly did a swap with the Linux box (Linux supports old CMedia chipsets just fine).
The SoundBlaster is such a standard that surely Windows 10 will support it...? Nope. A visit to the Creative site confirms that there is only a W7 driver. Do I sense a conspiracy to sell new kit when the old stuff works fine? Anyway, a search online turns up the KX Project and, more importantly, their GitHub site which ensure things will hang around a bit. Under Windows 10 64-bit the driver installs fine. Ignore the bit about using KXMixer since it does not work, but the W10 mixer seems to work OK for me.
Unfortunately, they are no longer accepting donations - but a big thank you from me.
No comments:
Post a Comment