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Old March 24th 04, 03:41 AM
AW
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Default OEM SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, no CD IN, two optical drives

I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER
LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the
card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. I found this
unusual, as all the other connectors were present (CD SPDIF, TAD, AUX), and
I had never encountered a Live! model that lacked this particular connector
before. At first I thought that maybe it had somehow been broken off, but
that didn't seem likely and it didn't look like it either. I chalked it up
to the card being an OEM version. Perhaps the DE in the title stands for
Digital Edition, and so there is no input for analog CD audio??

In any case, I am wondering about connecting the card to my optical drives
(one DVD/CDRW combo, one CD-ROM) so that both of them can send an audio
signal to the soundblaster. The card itself came with no cables, but one of
my drives included a 4-pin MPC-to-MPC cable for analog audio. When I
assembled my computer, I connected this cable to my DVD drive and to the AUX
slot on the soundcard (since it seemed like the only choice I had), and
decided I could accept my CD-ROM being a "silent" drive. However, I haven't
tested to see if this works as it was brought to my attention that you can
potentially damage your soundcard with an incorrect cable configuration (is
this true?). Since then, I have also purchased a 2-pin digital MPC-to-MPC
cable. If I connect my DVD drive to my soundcard using the 2-pin cable and
the CD SPDIF connector, and attach my CD-ROM using the 4-pin cable and the
AUX connector, will I be able to play audio CDs in either drive and hear the
sound through my speakers? Is it ok to use the AUX connector to input from a
CD drive?

Thank you to any who can help me out with this. It is difficult to find info
on this card, or to get adequate tech support.


Al