[Roller]

After reading several posts regarding people having issues when installing Creative USB devices, I've decided to write a guide explaining how to install Creative USB hardware properly, as per Creative's driver installation guidelines specified years ago.



First of all, these installation procedures refer to Creative USB driver installation on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.



Both Creative internal hardware (PCI/PCIe) and external hardware (USB/PCMCIA/ExpressCard) comes with a base driver package that includes drivers with extensions that connect to the software part of the package. The base driver package needs to be the first thing to be installed prior to any software or driver updates. If the user doesn't begin by installing the base driver package, certain features might be buggy or missing altogether. A couple examples of missing features are VoiceFX, Silencer and Mic Effects.



Creative driver updates work through an incremental system. So, when the base driver package is installed, a system restart is required (not optional), after which the next driver package version has to be installed on top of the base driver package. It should be noted that the base driver package is larger than follow-up updates since update packages don't come with the complete software package, being one of the reasons why the user can't install the latest driver package straight away.



After all available driver packages are installed on their correct release order, and with system restarts between each installation, it's time to install the latest software updates, such as ALchemy and OpenAL host. The reason software updates aren't installed prior to drivers being fully updated is because driver updates can rollback certain pieces of software, such as installing an older ALchemy version, which then leads to lower compatibility with games.



Some time ago I've gathered all relevant files for installing a wide range of Creative USB devices, support going as far back as the SB Live! 24-bit External, up to the regular SB X-Fi Go! and SB X-Fi Surround 5.1, with the combo package supporting all those devices, and having instructions set clearly as to avoid any installation mistakes.





Download link for the Creative USB driver package can be found here.



Supported devices:

- SB X-Fi Go! (SB1100) (USB)

- SB X-Fi Surround 5.1 (SB1090) (USB)

- SB X-Fi Notebook (SB0950) (ExpressCard)

- SB Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor (SB0471) (PCMCIA)

- SB Audigy 2 NX (SB0300) (USB)

- SB Digital Music SX (SB0560) (USB)

- SB X-Fi XA Karaoke (SB0910) (USB)

- SB Live! 24-bit External (SB0490) (USB)

- SB Digital Music LX (SB0271) (USB)

- SB MP3+ External (SB0270) (USB)



There are a few generic named Creative devices with alternate number references, such as the SB MP3+ External, which will be recognized simply as Creative Sound Blaster, but that doesn't mean installation wasn't successful.



Unsupported devices:

- SB X-Fi Go! Pro (SB1290) (USB)

- SB X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro (SB1095) (USB)

- SB X-Fi HD USB (SB1240) (USB)

- SB Recon3D USB (SB1300) (USB)


 


Driver package contents:

Drivers

- 3 WHQL drivers

- 1 beta driver



Tools

- OpenAL caps viewer

- OpenAL redist

- Creative ALchemy software

- Creative Volume Panel software

- RightMark Audio Analyzer

- RightMark 3DSound



Software excluded from this package:



- Creative WaveStudio

- Creative MediaSource

- Creative System Information

- Creative Karaoke Player

- Creative CD Burner Plugin for Creative MediaSource


 




For information regarding PC gaming audio, NamelessPFG has done a very good guide that has a lot of useful information and guides on how to configure hardware to perform optimally in games.

For information regarding headphones and gaming, Mad Lust Envy did a quite complete guide with information on several different headphones and headsets. Do keep in mind that thread refers to console gaming, which is why the Astro Mixamp is suggested, a device that isn't as useful on the PC nor recommended due to the lack of gaming audio support. The guide is to be used for general headphone recommendations only.



Useful links:

The Nameless Guide To PC Gaming Audio (with binaural headphone surround sound)

Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide

Ilya-S's stereo/binaural game video comparison


 


I hope this guide has been useful to fix any recurring issues with Creative USB devices, and please do post feedback in the event the thread isn't easy to read, with suggestions on how to improve readability.