8RDA3+ and nForce audio drivers

[Kabumm]

Why won't the nVidia audio drivers install on my board? I tried installing the audio driver seperately, along with the unified driver (5.10 and 4.27) and via device manager. It's always the same: Driver won't detect my AC97. When I start the nvmixer it even gives an error message like "no nForce hardware detected". But the changelog says "Added support for Realtek ALC655 codecs". How can that be? The Relatek driver works, but I wanna try the nVidia drivers, cause I have some difficulties with ASIO applications and Winamp.
Any Ideas?

[Áedán]

The nForce audio drivers are only for motherboards with the nVidia APU, which is contained in the MCP-T southbridge. The motherboard you have uses the MCP southbridge, which does not have the nVidia APU, but uses a straight AC97 interface instead.

Hence, when you try to install the nForce audio drivers, they tell you that they can't find the nVidia APU! The Realtek drivers you have are the correct ones for the board.

Just to clear up the confusion about the ALC655 support part; On a board with the MCP-T the nVidia APU does all the processing, and then streams it's output to a CODEC. One of the supported CODECs is the ALC655. However, the nVidia APU is totally different to AC97.

[EPoX Tech]

If the Audio Codec Vendor ID and Sub-Vendor ID are set in BIOS for NVidia, the NVidia driver will load, but if not used with MCP-T, it is better to use Realtek driver since the audio quality is better and less latent.

Okay - so it doesn't look NVidia, but does sound better.

Also ASIO and AC'97 (not NV APU) really isn't going to happen.

[aJ\/Tg]

REALTEK ALC655 - AC'97 Audio CODECs, Latest version A.3.65

REALTEK Download Link:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True


Maybe this REALTEK LAN driver and info is useful to:

REALTEK LAN RTL8139(A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series
Windows XP (Submission ID: 897570) Version 6.18

REALTEK Download Link:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True


REALTEK LAN RTL8201BL(RTL8201x does NOT require any driver to operate!)

Note: The Ethernet hardware consists of two parts: a PHY chip, and a MAC chip. It's the MAC chip that requires the drivers. RTL8201x is a PHY only chip which does NOT need any driver at all. If you have RTL8201x in your computer system, there must be another MAC chip in the system too. Most likely, the MAC chip is embedded in the chipset. Please contact the board or computer provider to find out which MAC chip is in your system and how to get the drivers for it.

�

[Repo Man]

How good is the 8RDA3+ sound? I'm using my three year old Philips Acoustic Edge soundcard, with Yamaha TSS-1 speakers. I'm pretty happy with it, but I can't help but be a little curious about the onboard sound that I've never tried.

[Áedán]

The Acoustic Edge is actually a pretty darn nifty soundcard. It's a shame it didn't get a bit more support from Philips' driver team though. The Acoustic Edge has one or two (QSound related mostly) features that the AC97 on the 8RDA3+ can't come close to.

[EPoX Tech]

Hence me falling in love with the Aurilium for my my mobile usage - QSound Features are fantastic indeed - but driver support as you state is almost as bad as Creative's.

[Repo Man]

Ok guys, thank you for saving me the trouble of connecting the onboard sound. I suspected that my Philips card was as least equal to, if not superior, to the onboard sound.

I agree, their driver support for their soundcards has been poor. Fortunately I haven't had any issues running it with the last available drivers.

I was looking for an update for a Rhythmic Edge that I installed in a friends computer years ago, and I couldn't find any drivers for it, or any of their soundcards on Philips' official site last September. I found some privately hosted XP beta drivers on 3Dsoundsurge.com. Sadly, those didn't solve the gameport issues I was having, so I ended up pulling the card, and enabling the onboard sound on their machine.

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by aJ\/Tg

REALTEK ALC655 - AC'97 Audio CODECs, Latest version A.3.65

REALTEK Download Link:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True


Maybe this REALTEK LAN driver and info is useful to:

REALTEK LAN RTL8139(A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series
Windows XP (Submission ID: 897570) Version 6.18

REALTEK Download Link:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True


REALTEK LAN RTL8201BL(RTL8201x does NOT require any driver to operate!)

Note: The Ethernet hardware consists of two parts: a PHY chip, and a MAC chip. It's the MAC chip that requires the drivers. RTL8201x is a PHY only chip which does NOT need any driver at all. If you have RTL8201x in your computer system, there must be another MAC chip in the system too. Most likely, the MAC chip is embedded in the chipset. Please contact the board or computer provider to find out which MAC chip is in your system and how to get the drivers for it.

�

Very nice supportive posting!!

[Kabumm]

Thanks for your help. So I'm gonna give the new Realtek drivers a try right now.

Originally Posted by EPoX Tech

If the Audio Codec Vendor ID and Sub-Vendor ID are set in BIOS for NVidia, the NVidia driver will load, but if not used with MCP-T, it is better to use Realtek driver since the audio quality is better and less latent.

Okay - so it doesn't look NVidia, but does sound better.

Also ASIO and AC'97 (not NV APU) really isn't going to happen.

While searching for a solution to my problem, I also found out that the New.Generation.Order Crew is working on modified nVidia drivers, which will install on all nForce2 boards with ALCxxx codec. Do you think there is any chance that nForce2 optimized drivers would solve my problems (crackling with Winamp under high CPU-/IDE-load, crashes of ASIO sytem when working with Logic)? Or should I just buy a new soundcard? I don't need a very low latency, cause I'm not recording but only working with software instruments and FX. I just wanna get rid of those crashes...