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View Full Version : Buying a sound card to get off onboard but a few questions...


davidcl
09-02-2007, 01:33 AM
I'm going to buy a sound card and stop using the on-board audio that comes with my mother board (MSI K9N Sli Platnium). The card I am looking at is a SIIG IC-510012 5.1 Channels 16-bit PCI Interface SoundWave 5.1 PCI Surround Sound Card . Two questions:

Seems that a lot of these cards do not have drivers for Vista. I do not have vista at the moment but I built my rig to eventually upgrade to vista. If there are no drivers from the manufacture does Microsoft provide adequate drivers for Vista? Note, that I'm still using XP at the moment.

I have front ports on my case (Antec 900) that plug into a HD Audio connector on the motherboard. If I get the sound card I'll have to disable the on-board audio. Will I loose the function of the front audio ports as I don't see the same port on the sound card (HD nor AC'97)?

Thank you.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4056/2927000204zd8.th.jpg (http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2927000204zd8.jpg)
Jamie Nixx
09-02-2007, 02:16 AM
The Vista drivers for components should be getting their act together soon so i wouldn't worry about drivers now.

And no you won't lose the use of the two ports at the front, i use a creative x-fi card in my rig and they still work fine.
davidcl
09-05-2007, 08:10 PM
And no you won't lose the use of the two ports at the front, i use a creative x-fi card in my rig and they still work fine.

Unfortunately I did lose the function of the front jack ports. :( After installing the sound card I disabled the integrated audio controller and removed the audio driver. Thinking if I enabled it again I would regain functionality, I re-enabled the audio controller but still no luck. If I re-installed the audio drivers as well would I regain the front ports? I assume so, however, would there then be conflicts in hardware/software with two sound devices and two drivers?

Also, there is an aux male connector on the sound card however it is only one row of pins. Could I connect the front ports female connector to these pins?

Please help. :eek:

Thanks. :D
Jamie Nixx
09-06-2007, 12:35 AM
That is pretty strange :confused:

You could try installing each set of drivers to check it, but there might be a clash of drivers.

And also you could connect the female to the pins to see if it works but i can't be sure. I'll have a look around see if i can dig anything up :)