Windows 7: Yet Another X-Fi install problem in Windows 7 64bit

Put simply, I have no sound.

Here’s my hardware:

Intel Core2 duo
Asus P5E Motherboard
4GB DDR2 1066 RAM
Gigabyte HD 6950 Video Card
Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series PCIe
1TB Samsung SATA2 HDD
Logitech G15 Keyboard
Logitech mx1000 mouse
(only mention the latter three only to be thorough)

OS is Windows 7 64bit – freshly installed and fully updated


All motherboard, graphics card, and Logitech drivers are fully updated*. This includes all current chipset drivers for the MB. I have yet to flash any bios up to current, as I am waiting to do that as a last resort – it makes me nervous.

Here’s the simple stuff. The motherboard does come with “onboard” sound of a fashion. It is in the form of a PCIe card, which I do not have. Never the less, I have tried my little driver dance, described below, with the “onboard” sound both enabled and disabled. I have also tried both of the PCIe slots on my board with the same results. The SB speaker output is set to be my default device, the front/rear fader is in the center and the manual volume knob is set to a bit over half. I have tested the speakers (creative 5.1 system, had it for years) by plugging each of the jacks into my phone while playing an MP3, speaker connections are solid. The card lights up and is listed in the device manager as functioning properly (under the name “HD Sound Device” and then as “Creative SB X-Fi” with drivers installed). There are no IRQ conflicts.


*Here’s what I have tried driver wise for the soundcard, roughly in order. Downloaded and installed just the current driver from the creative website (Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Driver 2.17.0008 ). Speakers “pop” upon booting, as if initializing but generate no sound. It’s almost as if the speakers are functioning but the volume is turned all the way down in the sounds control panel. Uninstalled that driver and, via the device manager, the SB card. Rebooted and used the software disk that came with the card (the box has the yellow sticker that says Windows 7 compatible). After using the automatic update utility to update everything, I ran Creative Diagnostics. It fails for the following tests: DirectSound Tests, SPDIF and Speakers. During the speaker portion of the test the message reads “Playback of wave files failed”. I have disabled the only non creative item in my sound control panel, it is the HDMI sound output for my video card. The speaker icon in my taskbar has a red X on it with the float over message reading “No audio device is installed”. Any attempt to configure the speakers results in a similar error. Next, removed all the creative software and drivers. Ran a disk cleaner. Rebooting along the way as needed. Installed PID_W7PCAPP_US_2_11_01 from the creative website (supposed to help with this issue). Reboot. Nada. Installed everything from the install disk again and updated. Same result. Rinse and repeat, this time using the Daniel K drivers. Same result. Repeated again, with the PAX drivers…no dice.

Im running out of ideas.

Some oddities worth noting include:

-On a couple of the above mentioned attempts the creative software failed acknowledge the card. Telling me that there is no supported device installed – in spite of the fact that windows lists it correctly in the device manager.

-After updating all the software via the creative updater (this is on my most recent attempt) the updater itself vanished off my system.

-If I open the volume panel (VolPanlu) I see a grayed out volume knob set to 0 with no way to change it.

-DxDiag doesn’t like the card either. It opens with “Error: Problem getting extra sound info” but does in fact list both the speakers (Creative SB X-Fi) and the SPDIF Out (Creative SB X-Fi)

-When I plug in headphones to the front panel the speakers cut out like they are supposed to and, here’s the weirdest thing of all…when I plug in a microphone to the front panel mic jack and speak, I can hear my voice through the speakers!!! Come on!!!

-Freshly discovered that the creative midi player plays midi sounds just fine!!! All speakers come through crisp and clear.


Been messing with this for days and am running out of ideas. I have read up on the issue in many many many forums and cant seem to get any traction on this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



--
~Tony.

What I always done with my older X-Fi, was this:

-Disable Onboard sound and boot into windows.

-Download and install the Product Identification Module Update


Download the latest driver, but do not install just yet.


-From the disc, Install the Volume panel, and THX Console only.
-Reboot.
-Install the latest driver you downloaded earlier.


This was how I handled My Xtreme Gamer and had no issue.

Also, isnt the Sound card a PCI Express x1 card?
If so, double check that its in either the Blue x16 slot on your board, or one of the small x1 White slots.
it will not work in the long white slots, if this is the board Im thinking it is.

Thanks for the prompt reply Wishmaster. Unfortunately, I have tried that....twice. Once normally and once in vista 64bit compatibility mode. Both times however, I did install the entire software suite from the cd. Do you think that could be jamming me up?

I just realized something ....
I did use compatability mode. I opened the disk and set the setup.exe to run as Admin and Compatability mode windows Vista.
Then did the same for the setup exe in the VolPanel folder & THX Console panel.

Then, I installed those from the disk.


Sorry, its been awhile since I had that card and installed the drivers for it

if that doesnt help, Im honestly not sure what else to suggest.
I was actually quite luck with mine it seems.
Beyond setting its setup files to run as admin, and Compatability Vista, I didnt have any issues getting it working What issues I did have that, along with my previous post was how i got it woking.

The only other thing I might suggest is try hooking up just the Sound card for now. Leave that front panel disconnected, and possibly deal with after you get the base card working.

Thanks Wish, as soon as I get home I'm going to implement the the Wishmaster installation process and do what you did to the letter. Hell, at this point Im willing to try anything.

Thanks again.

Sorry I counld't be of more help.

Have you tried danielk's "support pack"? It appears to be just a repackaging of the Creative drivers and applications.

SB X-Fi series Support Pack 2.5 (10/25/2011)

I used it when I had trouble with the Sound Blaster control panel not recognizing my X-Fi Titanium as installed, even though I'd installed the product ID patch.

Why this would work while the Creative autoupdate failed, I can't guess.

Whats up guys !! I just had a similar issue with my x-fi titanium fatal1ty champion as well... Im running win 7 pro x64 and was using asus m5a99x evo to begin with... did first install ok and i/o panel was working just fine until i started updating windows and the sound card as well...

then in turned to real hell !!! Front panel stopped working.. led was steady on for cmss 3d as well as crystaliser even though they were turned off in console launcher and also all volume/gain control was not working as well... so i started looking around and did clean uninstall and re-install then update : MEGA FAIL !!! still as bad as I wrote before...

so i thought it was my mobo so i changed it (for the back up one im using now since my asus crashed bad after 3 months and had to get it replaced so I needed another board so got the giga while waiting) to my giga ga-990fx-ud3 and re-built my system... no need to tell that i had to re-install everything from scratch and it did as i thought !!! It was working great on cd install !! Thought then it was ok to stard updating windows as well as SB to new driver version 6.x dated on the 7/7/2010 !!!! MEGA FAIL AGAIN !!! Front i/o stopped working even though the plugs were (headphone, rca and mic works freaking great)

So as a final fix I tried to repair from program install and didn't fix the i/o issue so I tried something funky instead : went to device manager and rolled back driver to version dated to 13/07/2009 and BAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It freakin fixed the problem !!!!

So the conclusion is : DO NOT INSTALL THE NEW DRIVER !! Its messing up with the I/O panel somehow on Win 7 pro x64 !!! Try it out and post back if it does work

Alternatively do a search for PAX drivers - they're modded drivers for x-fi based cards.

Good to hear you got it working though.