Latest SoundMax driver for an A7V880

Anyone know what the latest SoundMax driver for the A7V880 is and where to
get it from? The Asus site seems to have been a bit out of date for other
drivers. I have found the latest updates for the Via Sata (ver 3.10) and
Marvell network (ver 7.21) but can't find the most recent update for the
SoundMax.

By the way I am only looking for the most basic Microsoft certified driver,
doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles.

Cheers,
Nick

In article , "NickC"
wrote:

Anyone know what the latest SoundMax driver for the A7V880 is and where to
get it from? The Asus site seems to have been a bit out of date for other
drivers. I have found the latest updates for the Via Sata (ver 3.10) and
Marvell network (ver 7.21) but can't find the most recent update for the
SoundMax.

By the way I am only looking for the most basic Microsoft certified driver,
doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles.

Cheers,
Nick

The one on the A7V880 download page is dated May of this year. Updates
don't occur that often, so May is pretty recent. Some motherboards have
one year old drivers.

AFAIK, the driver is designed for a particular chipset, so an Intel
SoundMax uses a separate package from a Via SoundMax package. Multiple
Analog Devices chips are covered, with respect to that chipset. Since
the 8237 Southbridge is used on multiple Asus VIA based boards, you could
look at the download page for K8V, A7V600, and any others that use
8237 or perhaps even 8235 (as core components of Via chips don't change
that much between the different versions).

If you can find another motherboard manufacturer that uses SoundMax,
then you could find your driver there. Intel, for example, uses SoundMax,
but their drivers would only support ICH Southbridge chips. I'm not
aware of any others using SoundMax, as Realtek codecs are a lot
cheaper.

HTH,
Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
...

The one on the A7V880 download page is dated May of this year. Updates
don't occur that often, so May is pretty recent. Some motherboards have
one year old drivers.

AFAIK, the driver is designed for a particular chipset, so an Intel
SoundMax uses a separate package from a Via SoundMax package. Multiple
Analog Devices chips are covered, with respect to that chipset. Since
the 8237 Southbridge is used on multiple Asus VIA based boards, you could
look at the download page for K8V, A7V600, and any others that use
8237 or perhaps even 8235 (as core components of Via chips don't change
that much between the different versions).

If you can find another motherboard manufacturer that uses SoundMax,
then you could find your driver there. Intel, for example, uses SoundMax,
but their drivers would only support ICH Southbridge chips. I'm not
aware of any others using SoundMax, as Realtek codecs are a lot
cheaper.


Actually that driver is not as it seems which is a bit devious of Asus. The
SoundMax 5.12.01.3663 is listed on the Asus site as May 2004 but it is
actually dated July 2003 internally and by SoundMax, looks like the May 2004
date is just when Asus put it on their Website.

Anyway I have gone with the SoundMax 5.12.01.3663 and the Marvell 6.31, both
from the Asus site. I did find later versions but they were not Micro$oft
certified so decided to go with these older but certified versions. However
I did go with the later Via raid 3.10E driver.

Nick

In article , "NickC"
wrote:

"Paul" wrote in message
...

The one on the A7V880 download page is dated May of this year. Updates
don't occur that often, so May is pretty recent. Some motherboards have
one year old drivers.

AFAIK, the driver is designed for a particular chipset, so an Intel
SoundMax uses a separate package from a Via SoundMax package. Multiple
Analog Devices chips are covered, with respect to that chipset. Since
the 8237 Southbridge is used on multiple Asus VIA based boards, you could
look at the download page for K8V, A7V600, and any others that use
8237 or perhaps even 8235 (as core components of Via chips don't change
that much between the different versions).

If you can find another motherboard manufacturer that uses SoundMax,
then you could find your driver there. Intel, for example, uses SoundMax,
but their drivers would only support ICH Southbridge chips. I'm not
aware of any others using SoundMax, as Realtek codecs are a lot
cheaper.


Actually that driver is not as it seems which is a bit devious of Asus. The
SoundMax 5.12.01.3663 is listed on the Asus site as May 2004 but it is
actually dated July 2003 internally and by SoundMax, looks like the May 2004
date is just when Asus put it on their Website.

Anyway I have gone with the SoundMax 5.12.01.3663 and the Marvell 6.31, both
from the Asus site. I did find later versions but they were not Micro$oft
certified so decided to go with these older but certified versions. However
I did go with the later Via raid 3.10E driver.

Nick

This page is the Analog Devices support page for Soundmax.

http://forms.analog.com/Form_Pages/s...chSupport.html

It will give you a few leads to follow up, if you think some other
vendor might have the drives. Forget Intel, as they would never
use a Via chipset, so they won't have 8235/8237 Southbridge based
drivers for Soundmax chips. MSI is listed as a Soundmax user, and
if MSI has some Via boards, maybe the drivers for them will work.

If you are still motivated to get the answer, send an email here,
as this is listed on the Soundmax FAQ page as the contact:

support@soundmax with a dot com on the end

Make sure the Subject: of your email is descriptive, so it
catches their eye (due to spam volume to that addr). Something like

Version number of latest VT8237/AD1888 driver ?

and in the body of the message, indicate the driver number
Asus is offering, and whether a later driver for that platform
is available. If the answer is positive, copy the message to
Asus tech support, and convince them to put the driver up on
your motherboard page. I don't know whether Asus has to pay
for this service or not - since Asus is still using ADI chips
on motherboards, there is a good chance they can get the driver
for you. ADI, by the nature of their support policy, will not
be emailing a 19MB driver to you :-)

HTH,
Paul

NickC wrote:

Anyone know what the latest SoundMax driver for the A7V880 is and where to
get it from? The Asus site seems to have been a bit out of date for other
drivers. I have found the latest updates for the Via Sata (ver 3.10) and
Marvell network (ver 7.21) but can't find the most recent update for the
SoundMax.

By the way I am only looking for the most basic Microsoft certified driver,
doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles.

Cheers,
Nick



ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/misc/...D1888_5150.zip
and enjoy

"Hulttio" wrote in message
...
NickC wrote:

Anyone know what the latest SoundMax driver for the A7V880 is and where
to
get it from? The Asus site seems to have been a bit out of date for
other
drivers. I have found the latest updates for the Via Sata (ver 3.10) and
Marvell network (ver 7.21) but can't find the most recent update for the
SoundMax.

By the way I am only looking for the most basic Microsoft certified
driver,
doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles.

Cheers,
Nick



ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/misc/...D1888_5150.zip
and enjoy

Yea thanks I tried that one but it does not appear to be Micro$oft certified
so decided to go with the older version.

"NickC" wrote in message
...
"Hulttio" wrote in message
...
NickC wrote:

Anyone know what the latest SoundMax driver for the A7V880 is and
where
to
get it from? The Asus site seems to have been a bit out of date for
other
drivers. I have found the latest updates for the Via Sata (ver 3.10)
and
Marvell network (ver 7.21) but can't find the most recent update for
the
SoundMax.

By the way I am only looking for the most basic Microsoft certified
driver,
doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles.

Cheers,
Nick



ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/misc/...D1888_5150.zip
and enjoy

Yea thanks I tried that one but it does not appear to be Micro$oft
certified
so decided to go with the older version.

Correction, that version is M$ certified, so am now using that. Looks like
I got the versions mixed-up somehow.

Nick