X-FI drivers possibly causing explorer.exe crash?  

Another Creative soundcard and Windows 7 user and no issues. And I would echo what stormy13 said, have you looked at any of the links provided here?

stormy13 said:

Viralmind said:

hmm guess windows doesnt like creative.

More like it doesn't like something in your setup. I have the same Xtreme Music and have never seen the issue you are getting.

Did you try any of the suggestions on the two links I posted?

Also,

now firefox wont open in regular mode. only in safe mode...and i even reinstalled it.
but that's not the issue i'm concerned with at the moment.

Have you fixed that it is it still ongoing? If still ongoing it could suggest that there are other things causing the problem(s).

ok the safe mode problem is fixed. i dont know what happened but after i used FF safe mode and went back to the original, it worked.

i have not tried that other suggestion by the post from Xian or whatever.

i will tomorrow i just have been busy with work.

i don't understand while your Xtreme music is working...

clean install of win7, mobo drivers, video drivers, and creative drivers from the site.

that's it....probably the same thing you did....but that .cpl file still messes with me.

alright i tried renaming the CTMLFX32.dll to CTMLFX32.old

now opening the control panel will not crash explorer and control panel is usable.

BUT! no songs will play and it tells me to check my audio device

I know one reason I don't have a problem with that file, I don't have it. I have the 64 bit version of it.

Anyway this is from the extracted driver package that I have installed (has both the 32 and 64 bit versions),

CTMLFx32.zip

Try it as a replacement for yours which is causing the problem.

that is true since i have the 32-bit version. i will try that and let you know.
thanks for being so helpful!

***PROBLEM FIXED***

something is weird.
i didn't even use that .zip file you gave me. (i DID download it, though.)

before i even tried it, i renamed the CTMFLX32.old back to a .dll file and tried the control panel and music.

now the control panel does not close the windows explorer AND i can listen to music.
it works completely.

i wonder how and why it worked?
that .dll file must be really buggy.

edit: problem NOT fixed....after i rebooted, that ctmlfx32.dll caused problems again, but sound works.

i guess it just needed a reboot to make a difference from .old to .dll

im going to try that zip file now