Windows 7 - Creative SB x fi xtreme audio delay problem!

I didn't know new Dell's still had the option for a SoundBlaster sound card? I thought they did away with that model sound card. What model do you have? (I do a lot of support on the Dell community users forum). The older Dell's that did have the Xfi Xtreme Audio option had a lot of problems and possibly one reason Dell discontinued using them - most users were removing the Xfi sound card and going back to the Integrated (on the motherboard) audio because of all the problems. I only see one model that has the Xfi Titanium sound card (an XPS 8300 top end model).

You would have been better starting a new thread than trying to revive an old thread. I only looked at this because I had originally responded to it.

But as I previously mentioned, Latency is something those of us with recording studios fight all the time. By the time you hear the music or whatever playing and play along there is a time lapse on recording. I have latency down to an acceptable amount in my studio, but I also have a way of syncing something if it is off slightly in my recording program (Sonar).

Hey Rath,
Bad news for you, this card is only playing music and not recording, that's what I've found out anyway.......Creative support is dump, those guys are simply as stupid as hell, they don't even know what is wrong with this sound card...and told me to buy a higher range card because they don't know what the problem actually is DAMN U CREATIVE . Anywho,Do not even bother to try to update your drivers, reset bios or any other tweaks you might want to try, just dump it or sell it to someone who doesn't need sound card for recording, and get yorself an E-MU External card( It's the PRO range of creative), they run sweet ,but are a little more expensive. Also a friend of mine did buy a Asus Xonar card, its sound quality is simply great and clear.

I am sorry I couldn't help more on this one....
P.S creative sound cards are great, but from what I've learned check and cross check any new device you are buying or you might find yourself staying up late trying to figure out why it is not working properly.

Cheers,
Brian.

Hey fireberd, Brian114 -

Thank you both for the quick replies! I just bought my Dell XPS 8300 at the beginning of October and I thought the Xfi Xtreme card was an upgrade. i didn't do enough research on the card before i dove in and bought the thing. Grrr, I could kick myself. But it seems strange that the soundcard is, like, almost there, if you know what i mean. When i record from my guitar or digital keyboard using the input jack the latency is just slightly off but enough to be annoying -it seems like it should be a simple fix, like adjusting a setting or something like that. But going into BIOS and messing around with that stuff gives this here newbie the willies!

Anyhow, thanks again for the responses. At least i have something to go on now as i thought i was the only one having an issue like this. I'd rather not buy another soundcard but if i must, i must. The music live!

Thanks, thanks - Rath

Hey Brian114,

I'm having exact same problem about the delay/latency issue in Windows 6 64 bit. What do you think about the Creative E-Mu 1212M PCIe card? There is a new Windows 7 64bit driver for the card in July 2011, so that's pretty new. I'm thinking about buy this card to replace this crappy SB X-fi Xtreme Audio.

Also, do you know if the card has the connector to hook up to the front SB panel?

Thanks in advance.

If you want to record a guitar or similar by an off-board Audio I/O with a Hi-Z pre amp. I think you can get reasonably priced stuff from someone like Focusrite or similar with just two channels which will blow any Creative stuff out of the water.

If your sound card isn't designed to record from a guitar's impedance you might damage it, or very least any high volume 'or clipping' will cause latency and sound issues in itself.

Hey Cub2000,

This card is simply great (I have the same one), Crystal clear sound quality, almost nil latency( I've recently learned that 0 latency does not exist, and this even for the most expensive card you might get), this card is fine for guitar players and should be working well on budget PC. On the other hand to get some really serious sound recording/editing you better get some extra ram, and it shall work just fine.
Also, very important, this product comes in Dual cards, there's the PCIe card and the daughter card, so make sure you have 2 free slots in your PC,
One last point that is certainly not to be forgotten, do not, and by do not I mean DO NOT absobloodilylutely allow windows to update your drivers, cancel the installation as soon as it launches, do it manually and use the installation CD.
Focusrite looks some kind of too 'advance' for me, and believe me I am used to do some really crazy stuffs recording and editing, I don't know maybe that's just me....
Anywho, hope that helped....

Cheers,
Brian.

I had a similar issue and this fixed it for me. I hope it works for people who are having the same kind of problem.

I found the solution off of the following link:
Connie's Ramblings » Blog Archive » Fix: Windows 7 Latency Problem with Line-In