cputnam

Has anyone tried the updated drivers for the SB AudioPCI from Creative Lab's Asia site? Any thoughts/problems, etc? My system has an onboard SB AudioPCI (chip 1371). ------------------ Gateway G6-400; Intel PIII 550mz; 256mb SDRAM, Matrox G400MAX, Toshiba 10x DVD-ROM; Onboard SB AudioPCI (Chip 1371); Espon Color 860; Epson Perfection 1200U

I'm consider switching to this card. Primary reason is that the drivers for my current card (Matrox G400) have problems with certain applications (same problems that occurred w/ Win98SE continue in Win2000). I use my system primarily for work (Word/WordPerfect, Excel, PhotoDraw, PaintShop Pro, Web design), and occasionally for games (usually D3D based games). Would appreciate thoughts/comments on this card and driver stability/problems, etc.

Yikes...I almost feel like I started a Mac vs. PC debate. O.K. First things first - System Info: Gateway G6-400 w/ upgraded Intel PIII 550, 128mb SDRAM, 13.1GB WD HD, Toshiba DVD-ROM, Internal 100mb Zip Drive, Epson Perfection 636 Scanner w/ Adaptec 2902 SCSI, Epson 860 Printer. Major software - WordPerfect 9, MS Office 2000 SBE, MS PhotoDraw2 2000, PaintShop Pro, symantec TalkWorks Pro 2, SoftQuad HoTMetaL Pro 6. My major concerns about the G400 - From a hardware standpoint, very solid. Output is very good, excellent color quality. Concerns: Problems I had w/ Win98SE included 1. major problems to TalkWorks Pro (certain fax cover sheets didn't work), 2. use of OpenGL screen savers would cause GPF's (tried under Win2000 and got one also), 3. Matrox insists on providing their monitorr settings, so you have a choice of only one refresh rate if you use their's (usually set to the monitor's max - can manually adjust, but no ability to choose from a drop down list) 4. I've had a long history of Matrox issuing drivers where one "bug" is fixed and 2 new ones are delivered w/ the update. I've tried Nvidia based cards. If I used my system predominantly to play games, that'd be my choice (course I'd stick w/ Win98SE too). Guess I'm just at a point of frustration w/ Matrox (love 'em and hate 'em). Tired of the same ol' driver related issues that nver get fixed.

Currently running a Matrox G400SH. Excellent image quality...but...Matrox doesn't always write the greatest drivers (application and system issues). I've read independent reviews that the image quality of Elsa's GeForce card is the best, along with excellent drivers. Would appreciate your thoughts/input as to this, along with thoughts on replacing G400 w/ this card.

There are many of us that have the CD from Win95/98/NT, but want to do a CLEAN install. i.e. reformat the hard disk and start from scratch. Can this be done by purchasing the Win2000 Upgrade, making the four boot disks and then reformatting and going on from there? i.e. Will some place in the install process, Win2000 look for the qualifying product and swap the CD's to qualify?