Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › driver support question
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

driver support question

post #1 of 8
11/19/09 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
if i get a internal sound card now and lets say later Microsoft comes out with a new OS and the company that made my sound card decides to not release new drivers, then will my sound card be screwed? an expensive paperweight? has anyone ever had this problem with older sound cards and windows? what about linux?
Reply
post #2 of 8
11/19/09 at 4:49pm
buying from major companies avoids this problem altogether...buying gear w/ proprietary drivers from a small startup company is always a bet indeed.
Reply
post #3 of 8
11/19/09 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
a pci wireless card and a scanner stopped working when i upgraded to windows vista and 7 because of lack of driver support

the companies were d-link and HP

is it any different for the Creative or Asus sound cards?
Reply
post #4 of 8
11/19/09 at 5:13pm
there's a huge community for third party Creative drivers, like the PAX drivers and so...they'll never give up on ya: creative pax - Google Search

Asus is too new in the audio business to make any judgment, but they support XP atm.

I personally like to run generic drivers, like on my Prodigy HD2...generic drivers are never given up upon, and you're not dependent on the manufacturer for updates(much like ATi/nvidia drivers )
Reply
post #5 of 8
11/19/09 at 7:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by expxe View Post
if i get a internal sound card now and lets say later Microsoft comes out with a new OS and the company that made my sound card decides to not release new drivers, then will my sound card be screwed? an expensive paperweight? has anyone ever had this problem with older sound cards and windows? what about linux?
Aslong as your not buying some weird card that nobody has ever heard of chances are you will be ok.
Reply
post #6 of 8
11/19/09 at 7:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by leeperry View Post
there's a huge community for third party Creative drivers, like the PAX drivers and so...they'll never give up on ya: creative pax - Google Search

Asus is too new in the audio business to make any judgment, but they support XP atm.

I personally like to run generic drivers, like on my Prodigy HD2...generic drivers are never given up upon, and you're not dependent on the manufacturer for updates(much like ATi/nvidia drivers )
The PAX group modifies drivers. They do not write the driver code themselves. If for some reason the main companies driver become outdated so does the modified PaX drivers.
Reply
post #7 of 8
11/19/09 at 7:09pm
If it works with Windows 7, I wouldn't sweat it. The next Windows is probably 3 years away, and even then you might not switch to it immediately. Some people are still using XP, after all.
Reply
post #8 of 8
11/19/09 at 7:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by expxe View Post
a pci wireless card and a scanner stopped working when i upgraded to windows vista and 7 because of lack of driver support

the companies were d-link and HP

is it any different for the Creative or Asus sound cards?
If there's drivers for Vista there's usually a way to make them work. I installed a webcam in compatibility mode, because the installer didn't want to run on 7. Haven't had a single issue yet using it.

As for your question:

If drivers aren't made and there's no community to work on them then you're pretty much toast. However, big brands shouldn't be an issue. I imagine support from Creative, Asus, and Auzentech will continue for quite some time (especially Creative).

Of course there's some companies (like M-Audio) that have left people out to dry.

If you want to avoid this entirely buy an external DAC. If it's decent quality and supports a generic USB driver odds are it will work no matter what. You could also use a digital out off your motherboard if it supports it and feed that into a DAC too.

From there you would need a headphone amp unless the DAC already has one.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Computer Audio
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Computer Audio › driver support question