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Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
by Kurt "Froglips" Giesselman
COMBATSIM.COM European Bureau ChiefINSTALLATION
The installation was about as easy as they come. I scanned the documents and noted a plain white paper insert in the box (not part of the manual!) which says, “Important, late breaking news about your Santa Cruz 6 speaker Sound Card!” It goes on to caution the user to NOT allow Windows Plug and Play to install the card. The user must cancel the installation and then install the Santa Cruz drivers from the CD-ROM. There are no hints or explanations as to what horrors will be visited on those that do not follow these instructions either by illiteracy or just plain bad luck. I can only shudder to think of them. All kidding aside, late breaking news? This was just figured out as manufacturing was sealing up the boxes of a new card a year in development? Print the warning on florescent paper or something! In fairness to Turtle Beach, this is in the manual, too. I suspect several botched installations preceded the flyer being added to the box.
Fig.5 Easy installation
The software bundle includes a program called Sound Check. This is a neat piece of software that checks out your system to make debugging problems easier and provide early heart failure for seasoned reviewers. I ran Sound Check immediately after the installation (and reboot) was complete. My installation failed. Oh goody, I thought. I went to the manual for help (ha!). I went to the web site and found new beta drivers and a new version of Sound Check. I read the documentation for the new version (now in my cautious mode) and saw that I should rerun the test with my speakers unplugged. Seemed a bit strange but I followed directions and was rewarded with a pass in all categories.
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