Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

[Buzzkill]

Hello; I have a GA-EX58-UD5 that works flawlessly and am using the Realtek audio drivers. I am interested in using the Creative X-Fi drivers but note that the are limited to a 30 trial license. I have a couple of questions.

1. What has been your experience with the Creative Drivers/Utilities on this board? Are they better then the REaltek utilities? Any installation issues? I've had a Fatal1ty card in my other PC and liked the features and capabilities offered by Creative software/drivers.

2. If I want to keep the X-fi drivers/utilities, how much is it to convert the trial to a permanent license? I can't find anything about this.

Thanks all!

[f_donald]

Re: Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

I purchased the drivers with little thought and ended up requesting and receiving a refund. Relative to the purchase/refund, I phoned the number on the sales receipt but they were unaware that they sold this software and had no access to sales information when given the order number. I actually had to email the purchase receipt to SoundBlaster as proof of purchase in order to get my refund.

In terms of the software, the drivers disabled may native features of the Realtek audio driver that were not replaced by the SoundBlaster drivers, and spanned the ability to configure features across too many applications. I am assuming part of my experience was the software a bug or malfunction, as I could only select two channel speakers (e.g., all 5.1 features were unavailable).

No support was available from SoundBlaster as they were also unaware that they even provided this OEM solutions (i.e., again, the same number on the sales receipt), and gigabyte support suggested removal of the software. The software would not uninstall properly so I recovered from a drive image and moved on with Realtek drivers.

You could always image, try the drivers and recover from the image if you have a bad experience. I would personally recommend staying away from this software.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

So I take it this is a bust and is useless?

I hate trials, and would expect it to cost alot anyway, but seems to me if it causes issues then it isn't even worth a trial

[Buzzkill]

Re: Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

This is great info and I appreciate the feedback! You may want to pin this given that a lot of people might be tempted to use the Creative trial drivers. I'll stick with the Realtek.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

Ya, I thought about trying them out as well.... But the RealTek is fine, and Dolby is nice as well if your board supports it

[SpeedEuphoria]

Re: Creative X-Fi 30 Day Trial license and EX58-UD5

Last I knew it was $30 for the full version. I have not tried it and not sure i will since things are working fine for me.

Also it says for the UD3P boards that its for 32bit Vista only but others have said that it worked on 64 bit Vista also