Darkman wrote:

speaking of the game presets though , are there any that work with Win2K? , Ive been trying to use the legacy game presets that came with the Win98 installation , but they can't be imported into Win2K (the drivers seem to demand .aup files, as opposed to .sea files) have any ever been made? or is there some way to convert them?

The following excerpt is from the Live!Ware for Windows 2000 readme file. I'm not sure how helpful this is, especially if you aren't even presented with an option for importing .ea2 files with a later Live!Ware release. In that case, manually recreating a few of the presets shouldn't be too troublesome, since it sounds like you have access to the settings from your other system.

1. INSTALLATION NOTES
------------------
Installing the Live!Ware for Windows 2000 software will remove
all your existing Environmental Audio (EA) and Super-Environment
presets from your computer. If you want to keep your existing
EA presets, please refer to the instructions below.
(Please note that Super-Environment presets are not supported
in this Live!Ware).

If you want to keep your existing:

EA presets
----------
1) Click Start -> Programs -> Creative -> Sound Blaster Live!
-> AudioHQ.
2) In the AudioHQ window, click the Environmental Audio icon
to start the EA applet.
3) In the Environment box, select the EA preset that you want
to export, and then click the Export button.
4) Save the preset in a temporary folder on your Desktop.
5) Repeat Step 3 to Step 4 until all presets you want are
saved.
6) Install Live!Ware for Windows 2000.
7) Import the saved presets (.eap, .ea2) using the EA applet.

(Please note that the presets that you import will only be
imported to the speaker setting that you have exported from).

yes they play fine, obviously using the normal Windows Media player 9 , and like I said they play flawlessly in software mode.

it is indeed an AGP card, Ive not been able to find any drivers beyond the latest bios, the install CD doesn't have much (an IDE drive, and thats about it) , and I can't find anything online..

is there a bios option that could cause this?

from what Ive experienced so far, the Live can be pretty flaky in Win2K in general , in fact, if I decide to turn this into a Win2k only machine, I might just put in the spare Audigy2ZS I have lying around , maybe not era correct , but I reckon I would gain in terms of stability and audio quality.

the other option I have is the Hercules Game Theater XP , but it gave me a bunch of issues back when I tried it (games taking 10 minutes to load for instance)

Darkman wrote:

it is indeed an AGP card, Ive not been able to find any drivers beyond the latest bios, the install CD doesn't have much (an IDE drive, and thats about it) , and I can't find anything online..

I don't think you mentioned what motherboard it is. If it's that obscure, maybe it's just not a very good motherboard..?

is there a bios option that could cause this?

Usually there's at least a setting for the AGP Aperture Size.

its an Abit BX6 1.0 , so its a 440BX board an I think it was quite reputable back in the day, it lacks a few of the features that the 2.0 has, but overall its a very solid board.

I might actually try setting the AGP Aperture size higher or lower, I think I have it set at 64Mb , so maybe its too high for a Rage Pro (keep in mind I was using this board with a Voodoo 5500 beforehand)

edit: well I tried and sadly it didn't do much.

well , thats not entirely true , setting the aperture size to 16Mb for instance fixed the issue of the music stopping after the intro , but the movies were laggier, it also caused a few other issues such as Quake 2 crashing, so I set it back to 64Mb.

a little update: I managed to get a 12Mb Voodoo2 (Guillemot Maxi Gamer) , and as expected, all of the problems disappeared , the sound worked properly, the grid pattern was gone, and the FMVs played smoothly..

this also fixed another game, Nuclear Strike, which would not work even on a Voodoo3 or Voodoo5 (the game basically would start, and after the first FMV, would have no textures) , it works fine on the Voodoo2, as does GTA and Fatal Racing.

the ATI is of course still useful as a 2D card, and for any games that use it specifically like Tomb Raider (and I have to say I prefer the ATI version of TR over the 3DFX one)