Windows 7: Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum Champ1on Ed.

Hi there everyone,

So i have this big problem and i don't know how to fix it.
I just bought a Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum Champ1on Ed. it comes with the card and the front panel.

Now that i put it on my computer won't start at all.
I mean.. It starts but it won't boot, i cannot see anything on the screen, not even the initial brand logo.. I can hear the hard drive spinning in the same way as it was properly booting up but other than that it is just nothing more than a light on the front bezel, some HDD noises and it acts like it's dead.

I have a Dell Inspiron 545 with windows 7 x64 installed. I went on the Creative website to ddownload some fix for that card on Windows 7 but they will work (i'd hope so) once the card is already installed on the computer.

So.. Does anybody know how to cross this wall?
At least to have the computer to boot and then i'm gonna try to work my way around with the most up to dated drivers.

If anybody has some suggestions or knows how to fix this it would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

I have the older counterpart of that card (Audigy 2 ZS Platinum), so I can't be positive, but I seriously doubt that there is anything that you can do in terms of tweaking the OS to make it work, unless it can't load a driver for it, but if you can't even get into Safe Mode, I know of no way to do fix that. I have a tendendancy to think that either something is wrong with the way that you installed it, or the card is defective. If possible, move the card to a different PCIe slot and see if it will boot then. If not, I would be contacting someone about an RMA...either the vender or Creative. As a crosscheck, try installing it in a different computer if possible.

Double check that the card has been physically installed properly.

Also, double check you have connected the front panel headers correctly.

If that is all in order, try removing the card to see if the machine will POST properly again. If it does, then perhaps disable the onboard audio in BIOS before re-installing the card. While the card is removed, unistall any existing sound drivers in Windows for your current audio.

Thank you guys for both of the answers.

Yes i should be able to find another computer where to test the card, if it works on t another one or not.
I did check many times the connection of the card and.. Yes, i did notice (once i removed the card and rebooted without it) that i got no audio at all, the speaker symbol right next to the clock on the taskbar and the red X as "no device installed".

By the way, i'll try to re-check everything again, then on a different computer and i hope i can fix this someway, Thanx again for the answers!

Well, it looks like that the problem is a defective power cable, specifically the one that powers up the PCI card. I need to replace it and i just bought one off of ebay. The card itself wasn't powered on so it acted like this dead peripheral and it's giving problems to the system attempting to boot up. I should have fixed the issue thou.. I hope it's just that

Thank you so much for the support and suggestions!

Being that I'm using older hardware, as I said before, I would never have guessed that, because I didn't know that that sound card even had a separate power cable. I guess that is somewhat like modern graphic cards.

Sorry to hear it was broken, but fingers crossed that is the solution.

Good luck

As far as I know all X-Fi cards (not sure about the PCI-E versions, and not on the Xtreme Audio in any variant) have the power connector on the as shown here (use the same connector as a floppy drive),

Imageshack - xfiqf3.jpg

but is only required when using the front panel box. Also the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 card,

Newegg.com - ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Express x1 Interface Audio/Video Enhancement Combo Card - Sound Cards

is another and uses a 4 pin molex connector.

Maybe I'm cross eyed, but if you are referring to the connector within the red square, that appears to be a 7 pin connector incorporated in the main ribbon cable between the card and the front I/O panel. I suppose that since it does carry current, it could be called a power cable, but for me that terms means a cable between the power supply and component.

EDIT: I didn't pull a sound card to compare or use a magnifying glass on the picture, but that looks the same as I remember my Audigy 2 ZS Plat. having.

EDIT 2: Forget what I said, I went back and took another look and saw the connector on the side of the card. That red square threw me for a loop.

Sorry about that red square not my picture, just the first one I found with the power connector shown.