Windows 7 - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio: Speakers pop when I click some things

I put in a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio (PCIe), installed the latest driver from Creative, found here: Creative Worldwide Support (1.04.0000, released 30th June, 2009), and it seems that whenever I click things that make noise (a good example being the volume slider in the system tray), one of my speakers (which one being somewhat random) makes a fairly loud *popping* noise. It also does this when I press a button on the keyboard that makes noise (such as when I press the left arrow in the Find box in Chrome when it's empty).

Is anyone else having this issue? What could be the problem? Should I just buy a better card? (because according to a sticky in this section, this card isn't even a true X-Fi )

Does your motherboard have built-in sound?

In most cases, on-board sound is more than enough and sounds as good as a separate card.

Did you buy a separate card for a particular reason---possibly some features it has that on-board lacks?

Having said that, Creative Labs is not known for their driver support, so anything is possible.

I needed a decent sound card because my integrated audio doesn't support 5.1 speakers. (I'm using the integrated audio along side it though, I have my mic plugged into the front jack, which is connected to the integrated audio)

Bump... This question remains unanswered.


Some additional info:

The popping seems to stop after my PC has been on for a while. Because, just then, it had completely stopped (no popping at all).. then I restarted the PC to see if it would come back, and sure enough, it did.

First you should disable your motherboard's built-in sound card so that it should stop conflicting with the other sound card. Preferably you can do it by going to BIOS settings of motherboard or else you can also disable it by 'Device Manager'.

Now install the correct drivers for your sound blaster. You can also find the model on your sound card and then make a search on creative labs.

Is the driver mentioned in the first post not the correct driver?


Edit: I tried disabling the integrated audio in the BIOS, and it didn't help.

If you are confirmed that your sound blaster is 'Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express' then download drivers and apps here:

Creative Worldwide Support

I'll recommend you to unplug your sound blaster and look at the model first.

It's most definitely a SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express. When I put it in the PC and booted it up, Windows started trying to get drivers for a "Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio", and the card goes in the PCI express slot.

You are sure you speakers them selves have no issue? What about your creative sound settings. Sometimes those settings can introduce unwanted noise.

I really appreciate you guys offering assistance.


Though, I'm pretty sure it can't be the speakers, because it never did the popping noises with the previous sound card (it was really old and had other issues). Also, the popping stops after a while, and corresponds with clicking on things that make noise.

This would have to either be the sound card itself (hardware), or the drivers or some other software. I was really hoping that this would be a well known issue, and that maybe there'd be a fix. I've seen 1 other thread (mentioning pops corresponding with clicking), but it went unresolved...