Creative Labs Sound Card
Drivers Tutorial
The Creative Labs sound card drivers tutorial walks you through the simple steps of installing sound card drivers.
If you want your new sound card to work correctly, you need to install the drivers. The steps below are similar for all types of sound cards.
This is Part 3 of a 4 part tutorial series on sound cards.
Part 1 Sound Card Definition, answers the question: What is a sound card? And explains what today's audio cards can be used for.
Part 2 the How To Install A Sound Card tutorial, walks you through the steps of installing a physical audio card into your computer. This is a simple process that anyone is capable of doing.
Sound Card Not Working? Part 4 looks at what you can do to fix sound card problems.
Now that you have your new audio card successfully fitted into your computer, the next step is to install the device drivers.
For this purpose I am using Creative Labs sound card drivers as an example.
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The table of contents gives you the option to either read through the whole page, or hop to the feature of interest.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Download Sound Card Drivers
If you have bought a new sound card, the drivers are usually on the CD that come with the card. Simply insert the CD into your computers CD/DVD Drive and follow the on screen instructions.
If this is not the case, you can download free drivers from the manufacturers web site.
There are a couple of things you need to do first before you can download the correct drivers for your audio card:
- Identify the model of your sound card. If you do not know, you may need to open your computer and look on the sound card itself.
Note the make, model, serial number and/or model number. Part 2 shows you how to open your computer safely.
Alternatively a free PC audit tools such as the Belarc Advisor (Opens New Window) are worth trying first to see if they can identify your sound card without having to open your computer.
To find your sound card drivers in this example, go to the Creative Products web page (Opens New Window) and select the Sound Blaster products link. This shows you how to identify your card: - Once you know what sound card model you have, go to the Sound Blaster products page (Opens New Window) and left click your sound card model.
You will see the option to download the latest Creative Labs sound card drivers for your card: - Left click the download link for the latest drivers. Click Agree on the creative end-user software license agreement:
(Click Image To Enlarge)
(Click Image To Enlarge)
Most audio card manufacturers also offer supporting applications for your sound card, such as the Creative Labs media toolbox, which is an audio manipulation package.
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The driver package will download to your computer. Next we look at the audio card installation steps.
Return to the Table of Contents
Install Sound Card Drivers
Drivers, or device drivers, are a software program that enables your operating system to communicate with your computers internal hardware components, such as graphics cards and hard disk drives.
When you first switch on your computer, your operating system, for example Microsoft Windows 7, will detect the new sound card and will look to install the native Microsoft version of the driver.
A message similar to 'Detected High Definition Audio Device' will appear on your screen in this instance.
This is OK. However I've always found that installing the sound card drivers that are provided by the manufacturer are technically a much better option.
If you have the drivers on a CD that come with the sound card, simply put the CD into the CD/DVD drive.
If the driver installation process does not start automatically, go to your CD/DVD drive letter in Windows Explorer, and double left click the Setup.exe file.
However, if you do not have a CD, or you want to install the latest downloaded drivers as described above:
- Double left click the self-extracting file you have downloaded. The driver files will be extracted to a temporary location:
- Select your language (Shown below). Select Next then Yes to progress past the software license agreement
- After the read me file prompt and choosing to install to a specific directory, select the 'Typical Installation' option
- The drivers are installed once the status bar hits 100%. You maybe prompted to restart your computer. Do this until the drivers are installed
- Restart your computer after the status bar hits 100%. Have your speakers switched on and turned up. You should hear sound from your computer when it is restarted.
Note: Make sure your computers sound is not muted! I can't tell you how many times this has caught an unsuspecting home computer user out.
(Click Image To Enlarge)
(Click Image To Enlarge)
The installation process described above is specific to Creative Labs sound card drivers. However, the installation process is very similar whatever type of sound card you have.
If you require more direction on how to install Creative Labs sound card drivers, take a quick look at these Creative Labs Installation Instructions (Opens New Window).
Creative Labs Sound Card Drivers
Final Thoughts
One of the obvious problems you will have if your Creative Labs sound card drivers have failed to install correctly is nothing will be audible.
The fourth and final part of the sound card tutorial series will look at what you can do if you find your Sound Card Is Not Working.
Computer Support › Computer Repair Support › Sound Card Drivers
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