Budley007
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 29, 2004
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Well, I thought I was going to have to bite the bullet and buy a dedicated PC for my Aardvark card. Anybody that has messed with the drivers for these cards knows they're flaky at best in Windows XP. The system in general seems fine with the Aardvark as a primary sound card, but I always had several applications that ran like crap, (ie. lockup, drag, hiccup...). If I removed the drivers and just used the onboard Soundstorm2 for general audio purposes, the application problems went away. I was resigned to having to go through a Aardvark driver installation any time I wanted to do any sampling or recording, but do a system restore after I was through to use the computer for other stuff. Disabling the soundcard and Aardvark services was even more of a pain. So much for the smooth work flow.
Anyway, I saw a thread somewhere mentioning Windows XP using different "hardware profiles" for notebook docking stations and such. I noticed that "Aardvark Services" has a little window under properties asking you what hardware profile you wanted them to be "enabled" under. So I decided I'd try and make 2 profiles, one for my Aarvark setup and another for general purpose computing.
I installed the aardvark drivers and rebooted. Then I went to the "Hardware Profile" and made a copy of the default profile and called it "Aardvark" and set it to be presented as an option when I boot up. I also selected "Default" to do the same and to start after 30 seconds if I don't make a selection. I went into "Services" and told "Aardvark Services" to only enable under the "Aardvark" profile. I disabled the onboard SoundStorm2 via the "Device Manager" and rebooted. Sure enough, I had 2 choices show up right before the Windows logo that said "Default" and "Aardvark". I hit Default and let the computer boot. I went to services and checked on the "Aardvark Services" which hadn't been started as I had hoped. I then reenabled the onboard SoundStorm2 and disabled the Aardvark soundcard.
I now have 2 hardware profiles that work flawlessly. Default computing works perfect now with no glitches whatsoever. The Aardvark profile allows Sonar and Gigastudios to run on a "clean" system without so much as a hiccup.
I feel like a complete idiot for not trying this earlier, but a whole lot better about not having to buy another PC.
The reason I brought it up here is to let you folks know that multiple sound cards that don't like each other might perform better with a similar setup. I Hope someone finds this helpful. Please accept my apologies if this is "old news" to this forum. I just hadn't seen it explained in great detail before except for notebooks.
Anyway, I saw a thread somewhere mentioning Windows XP using different "hardware profiles" for notebook docking stations and such. I noticed that "Aardvark Services" has a little window under properties asking you what hardware profile you wanted them to be "enabled" under. So I decided I'd try and make 2 profiles, one for my Aarvark setup and another for general purpose computing.
I installed the aardvark drivers and rebooted. Then I went to the "Hardware Profile" and made a copy of the default profile and called it "Aardvark" and set it to be presented as an option when I boot up. I also selected "Default" to do the same and to start after 30 seconds if I don't make a selection. I went into "Services" and told "Aardvark Services" to only enable under the "Aardvark" profile. I disabled the onboard SoundStorm2 via the "Device Manager" and rebooted. Sure enough, I had 2 choices show up right before the Windows logo that said "Default" and "Aardvark". I hit Default and let the computer boot. I went to services and checked on the "Aardvark Services" which hadn't been started as I had hoped. I then reenabled the onboard SoundStorm2 and disabled the Aardvark soundcard.
I now have 2 hardware profiles that work flawlessly. Default computing works perfect now with no glitches whatsoever. The Aardvark profile allows Sonar and Gigastudios to run on a "clean" system without so much as a hiccup.
I feel like a complete idiot for not trying this earlier, but a whole lot better about not having to buy another PC.
The reason I brought it up here is to let you folks know that multiple sound cards that don't like each other might perform better with a similar setup. I Hope someone finds this helpful. Please accept my apologies if this is "old news" to this forum. I just hadn't seen it explained in great detail before except for notebooks.
