New X-Fi Win 7 Beta Drivers

Sailindawg said:

Ought to work fine. I'm using an XtremeMusic that's a couple of years old now. My card works fine with these drivers. It's some of the newer lower end cards that don't so so well at the moment.

Click to expand...

Tanks!!!!

New X-Fi Drivers Do Not Solve Problems with All System Configurations

I'm currently using these beta Creative X-Fi drivers (v2.18.0008 released 1/28/2009). I previously tried the default Win 7 as well as the modded Creative drivers posted in these forums - all exhibit the same problem.

Note to all who read this thread. The default Win 7 and beta Win 7 Creative drivers work fine for many Creative sound card model / motherboard / RAM combinations, but do NOT work for ALL combinations - at least in 64 bit Win 7. What we know so far is that there is a known issue with PCI bus latency where nVidia nForce4 motherboards are being used with Creative cards. There also appears to be a bug in the new driver that mishandles memory management when your system has >3GB RAM. In my case, with my system combination, the only workaround that has had any success has been to use MSCONFIG to limit my RAM to 2GB. Not great for system performance (although performance is surprisingly still more than adequate for non-RAM intensive multi-tasking with Outlook, IE, and Office), but at least I have acceptable sound quality so I can listen to Pandora while I work.

See my original post (#17) on p.2 of this thread and the subsequent discussion that ended up in a different Win 7 Forum thread here for more details on symptoms, root causes, and failed attempts (to date) at resolution of X-Fi crackling, popping, and sound cut-out.

Dale

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I just noticed on creatives website that they now have windows 7 drivers for X-fi Titanium and Titanium fatality, so for those of you who were left out in the beta drivers in the OP, check out creatives site and look at the beta drivers for your card.

Hey all,

Just installed Seven Beta 1...working great...installed creative xfi beta drivers for my xtreme audio...its working excellent...but just wondering why does it show a red x over the sound icon in the right bottom task bar? Its working fine but it just annoys me to see the X I guess I am OCD =). Any ideas?

THANKS,

::rayman::

Speaker Icon

rayman121985 said:

Hey all,

Just installed Seven Beta 1...working great...installed creative xfi beta drivers for my xtreme audio...its working excellent...but just wondering why does it show a red x over the sound icon in the right bottom task bar? Its working fine but it just annoys me to see the X I guess I am OCD =). Any ideas?

THANKS,

::rayman::

Click to expand...

Check Manage audio devices under Hardware and Sound...Sound in Control and see if anything appears to be amiss re enabled devices. One possibility could be confusion between onboard sound and your xtreme audio. Have you disabled onboard sound?

Dale

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Please click on icon above and add to my reputation if you have found my posts to be helpful.

Wierd the reg edit fixed it...the one you apply for the gadgets disappearing after you turn the uac off...so after I applied the reg fix my gadgets are back and my sound doesn't have an x over it anymore! AWESOME! THANKS!

::rayman::

Just the drivers?/temp location of install files?

I run the new (2_18) driver install and it tells me that I don't have the
correct OS, and to upgrade to XP. WTF!
This is the CORRECT install file (SBXF_W7DRVBETA_US_2_18_0008.exe)

Anyone got a clue why this would happen or what the install file may be reading?
Anyone know where creative unpacks their drivers during the install?

Thanks
Will

willr666 said:

I run the new (2_18) driver install and it tells me that I don't have the
correct OS, and to upgrade to XP. WTF!
This is the CORRECT install file (SBXF_W7DRVBETA_US_2_18_0008.exe)

Anyone got a clue why this would happen or what the install file may be reading?
Anyone know where creative unpacks their drivers during the install?

Thanks
Will

Click to expand...

What version OS are you running and what are your system specs (specifically which model sound card)? (Filling out System Specs in your profile helps us help you.)

Sure;

Running EVGA x58 MB
6G OCZ RAM
x-fi fatality gamer card (pci)
zalman 750 ps
Win 7 build 7K
ATI 4830 Graphics card
samsung burner (SATA)
J. Skil SSD (128G) OS
V-Raptor 150G internal disk

Thanks
Will

willr666 said:

Sure;

Running EVGA x58 MB
6G OCZ RAM
x-fi fatality gamer card (pci)
zalman 750 ps
Win 7 build 7K
ATI 4830 Graphics card
samsung burner (SATA)
J. Skil SSD (128G) OS
V-Raptor 150G internal disk

Thanks
Will

Click to expand...

Are you first saving the beta driver to disk and then running the executable?

Are all of your other device drivers properly installed per Device Manager?

Yes, I DLed the drivers to HD and tried to execute from there.
All of the other devices are good (at least according to device mgr)
The onboard sound is turned off in the bios.

Thanks
Will

willr666 said:

Yes, I DLed the drivers to HD and tried to execute from there.
All of the other devices are good (at least according to device mgr)
The onboard sound is turned off in the bios.

Thanks
Will

Click to expand...

Curious.

Try uninstalling the current sound driver from Device Manager (Win 7 will immediately locate and reinstall the driver outside the installation program). Then, right click on the driver installation exe and select Troubleshoot Compatibility before rerunning the installation exe.

Crackling and Popping Problem MAY Be Solved

I just finished an upgrade install of the 64-bit Build 7068 leaked yesterday and the crackling and popping has disappeared under non-gaming use. I'm using my full 6GB RAM for the first time with Windows 7 without triggering this problem.



Dale

P.S.
Please click on icon above and add to my reputation if you have found my posts to be helpful.

Crackling and Popping Problem MAY Be Solved (Well, not solved, but much improved)

dsopocy said:

I just finished an upgrade install of the 64-bit Build 7068 leaked yesterday and the crackling and popping has disappeared under non-gaming use. I'm using my full 6GB RAM for the first time with Windows 7 without triggering this problem.



Dale

Click to expand...

I spoke a tad too soon. After living with 64-bit Build 7068 and playing streaming music from Pandora all day, I can say the problem has certainly been addressed, but is not 100% fixed.

I had no sound issues when Build 7068 started for the first time. When the screen saver was triggered, I lost sound which did not return when I logged back in or even resorted to the "Change Sampling Rate" trick. After a cold boot, I heard some crackling and popping on startup system sounds, but once the system was fully loaded, system sounds and music playback were fine with no crackling and popping. I still lose sound after the screen saver is triggered, but simply toggling sampling rates restores sound for the rest of the session. I'm hoping these eccentricities are due to the fact I performed an upgrade install of Build 7068 and they'll disappear entirely with a clean install or future builds. In any case, MAJOR PROGRESS!!!



Dale

P.S.
Please click on icon above and add to my reputation if you have found my posts to be helpful.