SB Titanium will not work under Win7

I've posted elsewhere here about my Win7 upgrade. I run a Dell XPS 420. Upgraded to Win7 x64 Ultimate (no regrets overall - love it!). But my SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Audio would no longer record "What U Hear." Creative admitted that X-Fi Audio cards will not record What U Hear under Win7. They suggested I get a Titanium, which I did. Just installed it.

I used the newest drivers and software from the Creative site. They tell you to first run the Product ID tool to ensure the PC will recognize the SB card.

No go. The PID utility gives an error -- tells me I'm not running Win7! (My Win7 is legal tender...)

It won't take the new Win7 drivers, either. It makes like they installed just fine and tells me to reboot... but checking Device Driver, there's no SB. Doing Run/msinfo32 shows NO SoundBlaster as well.

I'm really fed up with Creative. Has anyone solved this? Anyone running a SB Titanium (I have the vanilla unit, not Fatality - model SB0880) under Win7 x64 successfully? If yes, how did you install it? Hardware first, then software or vice versa or what?

Thanks for ANY insight/advice!

TheHeadhunter said:

They tell you to first run the Product ID tool to ensure the PC will recognize the SB card.

What Product ID tool? Can you post an image?

I'm running the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional without issue under W7 x64.

Try this - Install everything from the CD first, then use the Creative Auto Update panel to update all the software you chose to install.



I had "weird" issues installing the software myself untill I installed from the CD first.

Let me know how it goes.

So you violated the instructions about Win7 from Creative and ran the CD... I love it. Thanks for this obvious suggestion. I hadn't tried that! Will report back. I don't imagine there's much difference between Titanium "Vanilla" and Fatality... I'll be back here soon... Thanks again! You've given me some hope...

PS - To answer your question about the PID: Apparently many Win7 users encounter an error when trying to install the X-Fi drivers. It says there's no qualified product installed so drivers won't install. Creative issued a fix named PID_W7PCAPP_US_2_11_01.exe - "Device Detection" or "Product Identification" utility. You're supposed to run it if the driver installer doesn't recognize the card. When I tried to run it it told me I didn't have Win7 installed... go figure... I just ran the X-Fi CD... time to reboot and see what happens. I'll take your suggestion and use the Auto Update Panel... tho' I've read elsewhere that THAT doesn't always work, either!

Well, no dice. I installed what was on the X-Fi CD ROM. Checked Device Manager -- no SB listed. Just the generic "Hi-Def Audio Device" and the MSFT drivers. Then I ran the Auto Update from the panel... and it tells me "Creative Software AutoUpdate was unable to detect any Creative products attached to your computer."

I tried running the PID utility again -- it won't run. Doesn't acknowledge that Win7 is here.

Go figure. I know the board is seated properly and that it works -- I've got my speakers plugged into it and the built-in MSFT drivers give me rudimentary sound. WinAmp plays tunes, though it's clear it's not going through a sound card. Something's wrong.

Thanks anyway! Not sure what I'm gonna do next. I've got a support e-mail in to Creative. If they screw me around I'm just gonna send the card back and try another brand... I keep reading about Asus Xonar. Ever hear of it?

Please list your system specs.

Also, does your MB have on-board sound? Did you disable it?

PS....

TheHeadhunter said:

So you violated the instructions about Win7 from Creative and ran the CD... I love it.

I didn't realize this was a violation. Must have missed that when I signed my contract with Creative

Let me know about my questions.

Dell XPS 420 (about a year old), Win7 x64
Intel Core2 Duo E8500 3Ghz
8GB RAM (upgraded from 3GB after I installed Win7)
GeForce 6800 video card
Audio was X-Fi Xtreme Audio - worked fine under Win7 except What U Hear (couldn't record)
Not sure what else you need

I disabled onboard audio when I couldn't get the Titanium to work

TheHeadhunter said:

I disabled onboard audio when I couldn't get the Titanium to work

This should have been done before installing the Titanium. Try installing the software again. Use the Product ID tool then go from there.

Let me know.

Uninstall all the software and then reboot. Make sure the bios is set to what you have and want to run! Then download and reinstall the software. Once you reboot everything should work as described!
Right now you sound like what you have a problem with is the MB does not know what to use first. So it defaults to the MB and disregards the added card. Today's video cards gave much more audio added and conflict with settings unless you tell it what to do.

@Techymike: How do I uninstall the main drivers which installed themselves via a Creative .exe file (XFTI_PCDRV_LB_2_17_0007.exe)? Can't disable or uninstall them in Device Manager because the SB doesn't show up there. Where are they?

Re: setting BIOS to what I have and want to run, the only options in Setup are on, off, auto for onboard sound. While I had my X-Fi Xtreme Audio card working, it was set to Auto. I set it to off yesterday, then turned it back on so I could work. What do you suggest?

Thanks!