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General discussion

Replacing old sound card

Feb 4, 2010 9:10AM PST

Hi, I upgraded to windows 7 from XP. I'm using an older machine. Gateway 700x, pentium 4, 2GHz, 512RAM & 32bit operating system. The sound card is not compatible with win7. It's Creative Sound Blaster live! series (wdm) Do you have any suggestions for a sound card that would be compatible with win7 and fit directly into the motherboard I'm using.
Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Which one?
Feb 4, 2010 9:15AM PST

"The latest download(s) available for Live! 24-bit is listed below.

View: Driver | Application | All
Change configuration or use Autoupdate
Driver
Creative Sound Blaster audio driver 1.04.0090
Filesize : 44.15 MB Download
Show Details
Release date : 2 Jul 09
This download is a driver providing Microsoft

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Replacign/upgrading sound card
Feb 4, 2010 10:07AM PST

I downloaded the mentioned driver based info I found online. When I ran the installer, it stopped with a pop up message stating there is no supported hardware found..and would quit. I clicked ok and the program shutdown. So I figure I need to just go ahead and replace/upgrade the sound card. If you have suggestions on possible replacement cards that would be awesome ( one that will work with win7). The model number of the Sound Blaster Live card I have is CT4870, not sure if that help any. Thanks for responding.
Cheers

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That nailed it down.
Feb 4, 2010 12:18PM PST
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Had similar Problem
Feb 5, 2010 3:29AM PST

When I put 7 in my machine same thing I lost my sound card . I was able to replace it with the cheapest Sabrent card I could find .. under 20 bucks and it worked fine . My rule of thumb , before you buy a card make sure you check their site to see if Seven Drivers are available

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Got some sound!!
Feb 5, 2010 12:43PM PST

Problem solved. I went out to BestBuy and picked up a sound for $30.00. Rocket Fish 5.1 PCI sound card. (Coolest thing is it has an optical out).I installed the drivers from the CD in the package and it works fine. I really appreciate all the suggestions. Next target is the Graphics card.
Thanks again all.

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replacing hardware
Feb 6, 2010 4:23AM PST
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Replacing old sound card
Feb 9, 2010 11:21PM PST

Sradlein,

The best resource to verify compatibility for both hardware and software is available at the Microsoft Windows 7 Compatibility Center located at the following link: http://bit.ly/1gW6Ns

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team