Sound Problem with new install Win 7 64 bit

kirkm · 19 Jun 2013

Hi,

My Soundcard will not properly in Win 7 64 bit. Although I (think) I have the right drivers and device manager says All OK the sound is crackly and very distorted.

Soundcard is a Soundblaster X-Fi SB0730. It works perfectly in Win XP and I also Win 7 32 bit (which I installed temporarily for a sound test). The motherboard is Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3.

All the Win 7 Updates have been installed.

The drivers I have tried are
SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0015
SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_18_0015A

Results were identical for both, except the 'A' one flashed up this message twice
Loading of MUI Resource failed
The application will exit.

I have tried both with and without compatible mode ticked in the driver setup, but unsure if this sets the mode for the driver, or just the install program. I can find no way to set that mode for the driver. A Google search brought up something saying compatible mode is needed.

Creative won't help as it is OEM product, and Microsoft said they'd get back to me but haven't for over two weeks.

Thanks for any help.

fireberd · 19 Jun 2013

Soundblaster did not (officially) support some of the Xfi cards for newer Operating Systems. We ran across when Win 7 came out on the Dell forums.

Your motherboard has RealTek audio and you would be better off using that as it is Win 7 compatible and Gigabyte has a Win 7 driver for it. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=2607#dl

Newer on-board (e.g. your Realtek) sound systems in many cases are as good as older SoundBlasters. I have a recording studio and use high end audio equipment for that, but for my PC Audio I use the RealTek on my Gigabyte motherboard, and on the ASUS motherboard in a backup system. I had an Xfi (high end model) installed on my recording studio system but for PC audio playback it didn't really improve the sound so I removed it and saved the space and power that it took.

Windows XP compatibility and compatibility for newer systems can be an issue, as XP handles some audio functions differently and the reason XP drivers will not work.

kirkm · 19 Jun 2013

Thanks for the reply fireberd. I did try the Realtek sound and I'm a bit surprised at your comments and I want to do recording work and much prefer the Creative products. The Realtek interface is a bit like a Superman comic and lacks the functionality of the SB mixer. But that's just personal preference... I did buy a SB5.1vx (SB 1070) and can use that as a last resort but it also lacks some features of the SB0730. But the really puzzling thing is, this works in my sons computer (64 bit Win 7) with no problems and I tested it there before buying my Win7 OS. LOL that really worked, didn't it !

fireberd · 19 Jun 2013

If you are going to do any serious recording work, get a separate "recording" interface unit. A 2 channel USB connected recording interface unit, such as the Focusrite Sarlett 2i2 is one example (it even comes with a recording program).

As I mentioned any recording studio recording work is done with my recording interface units and not the PC sound cards (I have a Roland Octa-Capture and an MAudio Fastrack Ultra 8R). One issue, among many, with PC sound cards (regardless of brand) is latency. PC sound cards, including the SoundBlasters, are notorious for latency problems.

I don't know what your specific mothetroard has, but many newer motherboards that have PCI slots are not true PCI bus slots but just bridged slots from the PCIe bus. I see a lot of issues and comments on the recording forums of users trying to use PCI recording equipment with newer boards with the bridged PCI slots. My Gigabyte Z77X UD5H motherboard is a prime example - it has a PCI slot but it is the bridged from the PCIe bus type, not a real PCI slot.