Nick writes:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:26:08 -0700 (PDT), in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "William
R. Walsh" wrote:

Do you think the creative drivers would actually work?

Of course I do. The only difference that card is likely to have from a
retail version--and this is speculative--is a special front panel
audio connector. (I say "speculative" because I haven't seen any
really new Dell products with upgraded sound cards, so I don't know
how they are doing it today.)

That's not a safe assumption about OEM versions of Creative sound cards. I
ran into this several years ago: I tried to use Creative's drivers with one
of their cards that came with my computer, and they didn't work.

I don't remember the specific problem, but when I Googled and also checked a
relevant newsgroup, it turned out that other people had the exact same
problem. Using the latest drivers from the computer manufacturer worked,
but using ones from Creative didn't.


Dell has No drivers for this card on their website for Win 7.
And apparently no plans to add any.

I got lucky with the creative drivers.

This wasn't just a one-time problem: I've seen this exact same problem
mentioned other times since then. Apparently the OEM versions of Creative's
card have enough differences that Creative's drivers won't always work with
them.

You may also find that you get some added features that Dell didn't
wish to enable or support with your card.

This is quite common with video card drivers. I've never had problems using
the manufacturer's drivers with the video card that came with a computer,
and they often have configuration options and other features that are
missing from the drivers supplied by the computer manufacturer.

But OEM versions of Creative sound cards seem to be a different story.


--
Andrew Hall
(Now reading Usenet in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell...)