Riviera sound card, impossible to install...?

[Kyle_K_ski]

I am at my wits' END on trying to get Turtle Beach's Riviera sound card to work with my system.

First, I ordered from here:

My link

Notice that it says Model TBS-1127 and it shows that the card comes in a colored box?

Well, that's not what I got in the mail today. The receipt states that it's Item # TBS-3429, and it came in a white box.

I honestly don't know if the contents are the same or not. But whatever it is, it came with "Riviera" stamped on it so I tried installing it, to no avail.

Here's what I did.

I uninstalled Creative's drivers for my old Sound Blaster Audigy 2. I then ran CCleaner to destroy any registry gunk that was left behind. I shutdown the system, removed the old card, and slid in the Riviera, which was no easy feat. There was only one of the PCI slots that I could slide it into due to how the bumps on the motherboard were situated. It's setup top-to-bottom as described below:

Radeon PowerColor x1950 AGP graphics card

Empty 5V PCI slot due to it being blocked by the thick AGP graphics card above

Ethernet card

Turtle Beach's Riviera sound card Model TBS-3429

Last card (It has a port, but can't tell if it's for a monitor or joystick or mouse. It does have 2 firewire ports)

The reason why I spell out the above is due to Turtle Beach's assertions that the positioning of the sound card is important; they were very adamant about it NOT being the card immediately next to the AGP slot, nor should it be the very last card. As one can see, I was VERY fortunate that the only slot I could get a snug fit in just happened to be in the "perfect" spot sequence-wise.

I started up my system, and following the directions in the thin manual, I canceled Windows' offer to use its interface to install it. I ran the installation directly from the CD per the instructions.

The drivers installed, and within a few seconds of the installation concluding, a palm tree icon appeared in the lower right corner of my monitor. When I clicked on it, it informed me that it could not locate a suitable device.

I rebooted. The palm tree told me the very same thing.

How is it possible for Windows to know that a new multimedia device was installed, and yet Turtle Beach's drivers thinks that it's missing? I've spent an ENORMOUS amount of time at Turtle Beach's support page, not having ANY luck with finding an answer that works. I've even gone into my BIOS to turn off the "PC Sound" so that the driver will be later recognized. No luck.

The directions are LOUSY. I'm guessing as to what steps I need to take first, so who knows whether or not I used the correct means but it failed due to being in the incorrect sequence of actions.

Any detailed help on this would be HUGELY appreciated, as I'm ready to rip that card out and send it soaring into a snow bank.

At this point, I would GLADLY download and install an alternate driver that would get the card to work, but I have no idea which driver would be the best in regards to my situation. I've already tried one alternate, and it too can't locate the card in the tower, which Windows knows is there. ARGH!!!!

Edited December 30, 2010 by Kyle_K_ski

[Kyle_K_ski]

After reinstalling Turtle Beach's drivers from its CD once more (it's dated to 2009, with the latest official online version being from 2010, but the 2010 version won't complete its installation--it "hangs" with its progress bar, and when "Exit" is pressed to quit the install, I'm immediately greeted with a message saying that it was successfully installed, when, upon reboot, it's determined that it's not even on the computer), I shut the computer down and rearranged the PCI cards in the hopes that putting it into a new slot will cause it to be finally recognized.

The new top-to-bottom arrangement is like this:

Radeon PowerColor x1950 Pro AGP graphics card (I can't put this thing anywhere other than the top slot)

Empty slot due to the size of the graphics card above

Another empty slot due to not needing the Ethernet card anymore

The "mysterious" card with the unidentifiable monitor/joystick/mouse port and the 2 firewire ports

Turtle Beach's Riviera sound card (the last available PCI slot, furthest from the Motherboard)

Now, I didn't want to have the sound card at the very bottom, but I wanted to test it in a NEW location, and it had to be there to complete the power circuit, or otherwise the computer would not turn on.

When I started the computer back up, Windows did NOT do its usual routine of requesting the location of the drivers to a newly installed device.

But my hopes that the moving of the card to a new location would lead to its recognition were shot down when I went to Turtle Beach's palm tree icon, clicked Control Panel, and was told once more that it could not detect a Turtle Beach device, and that I should insert one.

If I had a hammer...

Edited December 30, 2010 by Kyle_K_ski

[Kyle_K_ski]

Just sent a help request through Turtle Beach's Support page. I hope that I get a speedy reply with a remedy that works.

[zeealice]

if you ask me i think you may have put it into a 3.3v slot

try play some music see if the computer just beeps at you when WMP opens or if it actually plays. or in worse case scenario the PC BSODs you (then it will be lack of power if you are using a 3.3v)

if only i had a lo pro AGP card for you...

[Kyle_K_ski]

Thank you for your input zeealice.

I looked very carefully at my PCI slots. All of them are 5V. In terms of the slot's configuration, the receptacle channels look like -------------- ---- . A better illustration of what I'm talking about can be found here: graphic of PCI slot types & photos of my setup

What's a real mystery to me is that Windows is no longer hounding me to have it install a new multimedia device. It stopped asking me this once I installed Turtle Beach's drivers from the CD that came with the Riviera sound card. I've uninstalled the CD's drivers and I've also tried the latest official one from 2010, but the 2010 version will not FINISH installing itself on my system. The progress bar reaches max, and then hangs there. After 45 min., I exit the progress-window, to see a message waiting for me underneath telling me that the latest drivers were installed, but when I reboot my PC, the drivers are NOT there.

The CD's drivers, which are from 2009, will fully install, but it cannot locate the device, and then requests me to physically install it.

I can't make sense of how, after the CD's 2009's drivers are installed, Windows "finds" the sound card, yet Turtle Beach's own program can't tell that it's there as well.

This is VERY frustrating to me. The HOURS that I've put into addressing this are incredible. On my last count, I have 11 hours put into this thing.

Take deep breaths. I've yet to get even a confirmation email from Turtle Beach, but I'm hoping that they'll respond soon.

Happy New Year all.

[wombat50]

I've even gone into my BIOS to turn off the "PC Sound" so that the driver will be later recognized. No luck.

Is this the same thing as disabling onboard sound in the BIOS?

You have had a real time of it with sound cards. Hope you can get this resolved.

[Kyle_K_ski]

As near as I can tell, all that happens when I disable "PC Sound" is that it turns a little "beep" like sound effect off when the computer is first turned on, or when the power cable is reattached at the backside of the tower.

I think that the goal of turning off the sound in the BIOS is to disable onboard sound, whatever that is. I'm guessing that it's a mini-sound card dedicated to the tower, that acts independently of any other, more muscular sound card that's installed along with it.

About a third of the advice that I've read on other forums regarding this matter is that the onboard sound should be shutoff in the BIOS before the new card is physically installed. For my BIOS, the only "sound" entry that I have found is the PC Sound one. I doubt that it does much of anything other than disable that tiny little beep sound effect. I'm surmising that Dell didn't install anything beefier than that because I chose the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 option.

Ah, but who knows?

If there is another "sound" entry that needs to be disabled in the BIOS, I have no idea where it would be.

You read some of the feedback from those that purchased their Riviera through Amazon.com, and I'm not the only one who has had issues with installing it and getting it to work. From my hopping about on those other forums, there are quite a few Turtle Beach customers who never so much as got a standard "we received your email" statement from the firm, and I've yet to receive one myself. So I have some reservations in regards to that. Hopefully, I'll be happily proven wrong.

Here's to a happy new year, with me being proven wrong. That will certainly make my wife happy!

;-D

Safe travels to any of you out there!

[zeealice]

sorry if i'm barking up the wrong tree here but there should be jumper on the motherboard to disable the onboard sound, not sure where i dont have a massive database of motherboards and jumpers and whatnot, and if it doesnt have a jumper anywhere it should be smart enough to disable itself.

[KRP 56]

Sounds like a royal nightmare your having. Guess you should have stuck with Creative. Can't remember anyone every having issues like that with their cards. You may not have any onboard sound built in with your PC so disabling PC sound won't change anything. I've got 1 PC that does't have any onboard sound and one that does. I'll look and see what my bios shows when I get home from work.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Folks, thank you for the advice, ideas being tossed out, and digging around in your PCs on my behalf.

What a great community!

[wombat50]

Kyle,

Have you gone to XP Control Panel and checked Sound and Audio Devices properties? Specifically the audio tab where you can assign the new card as default device if not so already? Might find some clues under the Hardware tab as well.

Highlight an entry from the list and click on either Properties or Troubleshoot.

Anyways those two tabs and the other three might lend a clue.

Have you been in device manager to see if you have any yellow question marks which usually means a problem of some sort.

XP Control panel>double click System then from the new window select Hardware tab and click on Device Manager button. Open the tree for Sound, video and game controllers.

Have you tried letting WindowsXP install drivers for the sound card rather then using the Turtle Beach drivers?

I have a sound card in my XP computer. I disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS and that is reflected in Device Manager with a red X by the Realtek AC'97 Audio. Like KRP56 said it is possible you don't have onboard sound. I guess the only way to know if you do or don't is looking at any documentation that came with the computer or getting the make and model off your motherboard and googling it online for specs.

Cheers

[Kyle_K_ski]

Good questions, Wombat. When I check the Sounds and Audio Devices, I'm informed that there's "No audio device." When I look up the Audio tab, there aren't any matching device types regardless of the function listed. Their entry-windows are all ghosted out, and completely inaccessible.

When I clicked on the Hardware tab, no sound card of any type is listed. What's strange about this is if I used a third-party driver, just like Turtle Beach's official one, it could not find a device, BUT what would be different from the results I got with TB's driver is that the sound card would be listed with a yellow ?, but again, this would only show up if the third party driver was used (which would disappear after reboot). Clicking on said ? would say that I needed to install the device. Which, paradoxically, was already physically installed.

Trying to get Windows to install Turtle Beach's driver has proved impossible. I've tried it from the CD (directories are visible, but not the all-important .exe), and I've tried it from the 2010-downloaded version, and it too, is invisible to Windows.

Tomorrow, I'll crack open the tower to see what I can find about the motherboard's model. We've moved a lot since we got this computer, and I'd be hard-pressed to find where the original Dell documentation is now. It's in a box, but oh, which one?

With my luck, that box will be as invisible as Turtle Beach's drivers.

[zeealice]

sorry if it has already been suggested, but have you tried a directX diagnostic?

start>run>type dxdiag

and look on sound see if direct X picks up anything

[wombat50]

Did a little more reading and found this.

Riviera - FAQs

INSTALLATION Troubleshooting

The following applies to WinXP:

It seems that if you try to install a Riviera and you get the (blue and white)

screen where Windows asks you whether you want to let Windows Update locate a

driver and install it, or if you want to tell Windows where the driver is

(on a disk or whatever), then you can be sure that your Riviera won't install

correctly. (This means that Windows was unable to identify the C-Media

CMI-8728, most likely because of a resource conflict.)

If, on the other hand, Found New Hardware appears as a taskbar alert and

eventually changes to show that the CMI-8738 device has been successfully

installed, then most likely the installation will go fine. (You may be

prompted to reboot the system to initialize the newly installed driver.)

After the CMI-8738 driver is successfully installed, just install our Riviera

driver right over top of the C-Media driver and all should be well.

Kyle wrote:

I started up my system, and following the directions in the thin manual, I canceled Windows' offer to use its interface to install it. I ran the installation directly from the CD per the instructions.

Does this sounds like the scenario in the first paragraph above? If so it sounds like a resource conflict.

Which leads to:

Last card (It has a port, but can't tell if it's for a monitor or joystick or mouse. It does have 2 firewire ports)

I'm wondering about this card. If it is not being used try taking it out as it may be causing an IRQ conflict? Curious as to what kind of card it is. Possibly a fire wire card?

Anyways if this applies and you take the unknown card out follow the install instructions in the second paragraph of the FAQ.

[zeealice]

if it has a joystick port then that just leads me to the sneaky suspicion its a sound card because a majority of sound cards carry the joystick port for some odd reason i cant remember, either way that it most likely the source of conflict.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Folks,

I am happy to report that a kind gentleman from Turtle Beach's support department contacted me yesterday. He's been to this thread, and asked me to send to him some DxDiag reports. This I did.

I had some strangeness occur to me yesterday as well. I'm going to post what I sent in my reply to the technician, to see what you think.

Late last night, there was a turn of events in the Riviera's favor. For the first time ever, I had a major struggle with uninstalling Creative's product. To make an arduous and long story short, the driver kept reinstalling itself without my prompting (and after I had "uninstalled" it through Windows' Add or Remove Program utility), and the usually super reliable CCleaner didn't help me in addressing this matter! Please note, this was NOT an issue when I first uninstalled Creative's driver just before I installed the Riviera. It only came into light after I reinstalled the Sound Blaster Audigy 2.

I ended up coming upon this online article which gave advice on "really" uninstalling Creative's work:

http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/how-to-fully-uninstall-creative-vista-drivers-solve-install-problems/

Please note that I did not use the referred to commercial driver-removing program that was recommended in the article, especially since the author indicated that Creative had made some substantial changes to its own uninstall procedures/routine. I ran Creative's Setup.exe, selected "Uninstall" with destroy/remove all files associated with Creative, and ran it. Afterward, I rebooted, and ran CCleaner, which didn't find any registry remnants. When I checked Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, no audio driver was found. At that point, I shutdown, reinstalled the Riviera, and, to my VERY happy surprise, the driver-installation process took an extra step I had never seen before, and then I finally had sound!

That said, there is still an issue: even though the Riviera Control Panel is set to 5.1 surround sound, only the 2 right and 2 left speakers are producing sounds during the test. I have maxed out the volume setting for the central speaker, which produced no improvements. I haven't yet made any adjustments to the subwoofer, which is also not producing any sounds during the testing.

I have checked all of the physical connections between the sound card, the subwoofer, and my speakers. Everything is in as tight as it can be.

Ever since the Riviera has been installed Found New Hardware Wizard still wants to install a multimedia device even though the Riviera is mostly working.

I mention it in case it might help diagnose why the 5.1 surround sound isn't working.

Feel free to post your suspicions here. I can't tell you how happy I am that the tech reached me!

[wombat50]

Glad your making some headway Kyle. Keep us updated.

[Kyle_K_ski]

I finally made some SERIOUS headway in getting the Riviera to "work."

It's not perfect, but I'm willing to live with it if...

...I can determine that it is handling EAX sound properties properly.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of EAX is that its primary purposes is to alter sound effects to create a more natural experience. For example, let's say that I'm in a courtyard, and my avatar throws a stone. When it lands, there's no echo. However, there is a nearby church that has its main doors open, and I toss the stone just inside its entrance. The stone produces an echo that's quite weak due to where I'm at, which is still in the courtyard. I then move into the church, and I knock over a wrought iron candelabra, and when it hits the cobblestone floor, it produces a powerful echo that reverberates throughout the main chamber.

It's EAX that makes the subtleties of echoes possible, right?

Without EAX, if I threw that stone in the church's main chamber I'd hear it land, but there would be no echo.

Again, correct me if I'm in error.

Now, Ghost Recon supports EAX sound, which I have enabled. I started up a firefight mission on the Island map. I made a quick rush to the cave and tunnels, and let loose with gunfire. The rounds ricochet with an echo. That means that EAX is being processed properly by the Riviera sound card, right?

I had a host of issues to iron out with the Riviera, and I think that two programs finally did the trick for me. One, I installed Driver Sweeper, which is a driver-remover program that specializes in removing certain programs, such as Creative's work. I ran it several times after I "uninstalled" the driver for my old Sound Blaster Audigy 2, and it rooted out 20+ Creative files, and this was AFTER I ran CCleaner several times, which said that everything was working properly. Now, even thought Driver Sweeper rounded up a bunch of Creative's remnants, it could not remove one more Creative driver. No matter what, it would detect it, but couldn't remove it.

I then installed/ran Advanced SystemCare, and it dug up 961 registry errors (remember, this is after I got the "all clear" from CCleaner!). I had it fix the issues. My computer starts up 4 minutes faster than it used to now.

I then tried Riviera's latest driver from 2010, and it worked. Surround sound with the 5.1 speakers was FINALLY working now, although the interface supplied by the newest driver is extremely sparse, and doesn't even come with a sound test. Coupled with how there are complaints that the Riviera does NOT process EAX like it claims, and I'm still a nervous man about this product. Thus, my nervousness that it's handling EAX properly.

I'm pretty sure that the echoes on the Island map are something that one can only hear when EAX is active, so it's vital that I get some confirmation on that, or, it would be greatly appreciated if someone here would direct me to a certain map that's loaded with EAX-only effects for me to walk through to see if I can hear key indicators that the Riviera is fully doing the job that it claims to.

There's still some gremlin-noises coming through my speakers, but they are far less frequent than with Sound Blaster, only occur when the system is "idling" (that is, I haven't yet heard them during a game, or a film). The noises made are also not pain-inducing.

Windows for some strange reason keeps "not detecting" the sound card, and wants to install it every time I start the computer up.

But I'm willing to live with the above as long as EAX is working properly.

Let me know if you think it is.

[wombat50]

The computer I use now has onboard sound. But the old one has a sound card and I could tell a noticeable difference having EAX on/off by going to the underground car park on the Embassy map.

[zeealice]

yes EAX is working, but EAX these days especially for the older versions on [GR] is standard on most integrated chipsets even my laptop has it. if you can try and enable it on GRAW if you have it that is and see if any echoes occur in the tunnels, when you are leading the tanks through them.

[Kyle_K_ski]

Need help...AGAIN!

Please read my email to Turtle Beach and see if any kind of remedy crosses your vast minds...

> As of today, I'm completely convinced that there is something physically

> wrong with the Riviera card.

>

> I have tolerated the inadequacies of this product for months now. Even

> with the best installation method used (where I installed, then

> uninstalled the recommended C-Media Electronics driver, and then

> installed Turtle Beach's official Riviera driver, I still had static and

> other noises if I elevated the volume to 40% or higher, and this was

> even after making a score of adjustments to the PCI latency as well.

> The pops/cracks were less audible through the headphones, so that's what

> I've been exclusively using.

>

> And then this morning, inexplicably, a high and loud pitch was being

> emitted from the right front speaker. I plugged back in the headphones,

> and that was producing the high pitch as well. Whenever a sound source,

> such as a video was played, or a mission started up in Ghost Recon, the

> high pitch would be heard, along with a ton of static. Other sounds,

> whether listened to over the headphones or the 5.1 speaker system, could

> not be heard at all.

>

> Today, I have once again uninstalled, and reinstalled every

> recommendation that was spelled out in the previous emails. I've

> triple-checked the driver's removal by using Advanced SystemCare, Driver

> Sweeper and the official CleanPCI.exe. Even after super scrubbing for

> driver remnants, I still had the speakers producing pops and crackles,

> although softer in sound, and the only other advantage at that point was

> that the high pitched and loud squeals had stopped--when I tried playing

> videos/ games, there would be no sounds. But the said squeal would

> return as soon as either the C-Media Electronics or Turtle Beach's

> drivers were installed.

>

> Now, I'm at the point where there are no media sounds discernable at any

> volume, I only hear the ruckus of the snaps, crackles and pops, and with

> the added "bonus" of a loud ear piercing squeal.

>

> What options are left to me at this point? I have spent many, MANY

> hours just struggling with removing/installing the drivers, and there's

> virtually nothing in it for me and my family other than a

> headache-inducing pitch to be heard for it.

>

> Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter,

>

> Kyle

> Mar. 23, 2011

Then I received an email from Turtle Beach, the kind technician that I was working with is forwarding it on to their Refunds Dept., and that I should be hearing from them soon. That still leaves me a problem, so I've posted my response to the technician's last reply below. If you can think of anything that could help me, let me know...

I'm hoping that you can assist me with one more thing. These speakers of mine should not be producing any noise at this point. I have uninstalled the drivers, and ran several Registry scans, and they're not picking anything up. Yet, every time I have ever installed/uninstalled a sound card, once the driver's removed, the speakers lose all ability to produce noise. But mine still are, which leads me to believe that for some reason, parts of the driver are still on my system.

Whatever ends up happening in regards to a return/refund/getting a new card, if I can't get the remnants of the old driver off of my system, that's likely to cause me more issues.

Again, I've run Turtle Beach's official uninstaller, with no success in getting rid of the static. Any advice?

[Kyle_K_ski]

One more question.

And yes it's pretty desperate, as it would require a TON of hours to do, but....

Over the 8 years that I've owned this system, I've had to reinstall the OS on it three times. If my memory serves me correctly, Dell's instructions when doing this were to install the soundcard's driver immediately after the OS was installed. One technician was quite adamant about this, although he never specified why. For over 5 years that SoundBlaster Audigy 2 served me quite well, before it began to decline.

Do you think that taking this drastic step is highly probable to finally fix my problems with the Riviera, or...?

[ROCO*AFZ*]

For the static, enable spread spectrum in your bios under the pci devices. That was a old fix for some of the xfi's and static issues. Also i didn't note what ram you have but if you have 4gb enable memory remap. Some sound cards do not like using memory addresses above 2gb. Big issue with xfi's @ least. Got a clanmate that gets static on his board if he has 4gb in but @ 2gb he is fine and his 590i chipset asus doesn't have memory remap so he can't fix it. See if it resolves your issue. Reloading will resolve it only if the issue is from leftover, corrupted or incorrect drivers. It may be the issue but you can't really tell without trying it.