Creative Sound Card Problem Thread

[thunder2008]

LOL...nice touch Winrar...I don't know what I would do without your program btw...

 

[bloke]

winzip?

 

[thunder2008]

Hi Bloke

Yes...winzip

Just a homage

 

[winrar]

Thank a lot my friend, i just try help...enjoy it!!! Sorry about time, but im out for feel days!!! Best Regards!!!

 

[daisuke149]

hey all. new here did a search and this seems best place to post

did a fresh install of the RC earlier multiple times

with each isntall tried 3 different driver sets
1. beta drivers from creative for win 7.
2. Vista drivers from creative
3. Daniel K pack 1.1

All 3 gave the same issues. In all cases, my sound, after about 1 second of playing anything, cuts out. Only sound that remains is opening a folder etc. No mp3, video, game, flash works.

Info:

Windows 7 RC x64
Creative X-Fi Platinum
Asus p5n32 sli se deluxe
evga 8800gtx
4gb ddr2 800

Any ideas at all? Just want it to stop cutting out atm and then ill look into the crackling.

 

[dsopocy]

Continued nForce4-Related X-Fi Problems

hey all. new here did a search and this seems best place to post

did a fresh install of the RC earlier multiple times

with each isntall tried 3 different driver sets
1. beta drivers from creative for win 7.
2. Vista drivers from creative
3. Daniel K pack 1.1

All 3 gave the same issues. In all cases, my sound, after about 1 second of playing anything, cuts out. Only sound that remains is opening a folder etc. No mp3, video, game, flash works.

Info:

Windows 7 RC x64
Creative X-Fi Platinum
Asus p5n32 sli se deluxe
evga 8800gtx
4gb ddr2 800

Any ideas at all? Just want it to stop cutting out atm and then ill look into the crackling.

Welcome, Daisuke.

This is sad news indeed. I've been holding out hope that this problem would have been rectified in the 64-bit RC and a clean install would put this problem in our rear view mirror.

Unfortunately, your motherboard uses the NVIDIA nForce4 chipset. There are known, long-standing issues with PCI bus latencies that affect Creative X-Fi soundcards (see my post here). These issues have been somehow exacerbated in Windows 7, expecially when more than 2GB of system RAM is installed and available to the OS (see my post here).

I will test the RC tomorrow once I get an official download and I will post my results and any new workarounds I might discover here and on the Creative Labs forum.

Dale

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

 

[daisuke149]

Welcome, Daisuke.

This is sad news indeed. I've been holding out hope that this problem would have been rectified in the 64-bit RC and a clean install would put this problem in our rear view mirror.

Unfortunately, your motherboard uses the NVIDIA nForce4 chipset. There are known, long-standing issues with PCI bus latencies that affect Creative X-Fi soundcards (see my post here). These issues have been somehow exacerbated in Windows 7, expecially when more than 2GB of system RAM is installed and available to the OS (see my post here).

I will test the RC tomorrow once I get an official download and I will post my results and any new workarounds I might discover here and on the Creative Labs forum.

Dale

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

thanks for the response Dale. yeah it does seem unfortunate. Im also at a point where upgrading my motherboard, while nice, isnt feasable at this time. I was hoping that the issue was with Nvidia 8 series graphics cards instead, as I had a Radeon hd 4850 laying around.

Do you by chance know if this issue affects any other sound boards? I could perhaps revert back to my on board sound and just lay the platinum to rest somewhere.

The crackling/popping issue i had in vista, most people said were related to the graphics card and the nvidia drivers for it, not a specific motherboard chipset. Wondering if that was perhaps untrue, or speculation.

Again sorry for the questions being new, but heading to china in 4 days, finals next few days, im finding myself short in time to research this myself in depth.

 

[dsopocy]

thanks for the response Dale. yeah it does seem unfortunate. Im also at a point where upgrading my motherboard, while nice, isnt feasable at this time. I was hoping that the issue was with Nvidia 8 series graphics cards instead, as I had a Radeon hd 4850 laying around.

Do you by chance know if this issue affects any other sound boards? I could perhaps revert back to my on board sound and just lay the platinum to rest somewhere.

The crackling/popping issue i had in vista, most people said were related to the graphics card and the nvidia drivers for it, not a specific motherboard chipset. Wondering if that was perhaps untrue, or speculation.

Again sorry for the questions being new, but heading to china in 4 days, finals next few days, im finding myself short in time to research this myself in depth.

This problem definitely results from the combination of an nForce4 chipset on the motherboard and a Creative X-Fi sound card (while the problem can be manifested by graphics card bus requests, the graphics card/drivers are not the root cause). The technical explanation is contained in the white paper referenced in the posts linked in my response to your initial post. Your only known workarounds at present (unless and until someone finds another) are to change soundcards (onboard sound should also work) or limit your system RAM as described in my previously linked post, unless you are fortunate to have a BIOS that allows you to control bus settings.

Dale

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

 

[daisuke149]

ok. I used the msconfig setup to set RAM to 2gb.

and sound works Perfect. no crackling, no issues, full control etc.

BUT. i need another way to fix this. 2gb ram isnt enough. I tend to always multitask, while playing my game, WoW. and its considerably slower with 2gb memory.

I need to check if my bios allows adjusting the settings in depth and see how that goes.

 

[LePoilu]

This problem definitely results from the combination of an nForce4 chipset on the motherboard and a Creative X-Fi sound card

Unfortunatly.. not only

Audigy + Intel chipset (EP45) for me and I have the same issue.

Hope that RC will fix the problem (D/L in progress )

 

[SirCag]

Still have problems with my xtreme gamer card.
I installed Windows 7 RC 64 Bit, dont have crackling and stuff..but as soon as i try to open new tab in firefox, or click on link, sometimes even scrool my sound get killed
it does not happen when i surf in IE (but i havent been using IE much, just tried to open and close tabs and scrool the page), but there i get crackling during loading of page.
My system is same as before:
Intel Bad Axe 2
2GB RAM
Windows 7 RC build 7100 64bit
Creative xtreme gamer sound card
etc..

 

[Archer1978]

Have you guys tried Youp Pax Drviers????

You can get them in the forum of driverheaven.net

 

[LePoilu]

At this time it seem's that my problem is gone with the RC.

Using WinUpdate Driver for my audigy platinium there's no more cracking & Cie after few listening minutes. Hope it's definitly gone.

 

[bloke]

i done a fresh install of the rc1 x64 ultimate, used compatibility mode for EVERY program i installed (except any games) vista sp1 and ticked the run as admin box, then right clicked the install.exe for the drivers and chose run as admin as well. i checked to make sure i had the latest drivers of everything and all my issues are gone, 5.1 and in 7.1 modes. i am using 24 bit 48000 in the audio setup in windows and in the asus control panel as some games like CODWaW have an issue with any bitrate higher than that.

all my specs are as is when i installed. so it seems the issue is purely creative, maybe try what i did with compatibility mode?

 

[Faxe]

I switched to the Ultimate 64 Bit Release Candidate, I used the Win 7 Build 7000 32 Bit before but all of my problems seems to be fixed. I use a Audigy 2 ZS, Windows managed the card really fine, no problems with stuttering sounds or something liked that. Now I installed Audigy_SupportPack_2_18_0001_W7 and it blows away, no problems with the sound, the equalizer and eax works well and everything fine, I will test later in the evening, have to go to work. Good luck everyone.

 

[wrathloki]

Well I had popping, crackling and background noise on build 7000 64 bit with my X-Fi Titanium and I'm glad to say that with the new install of RC1 64 bit using the Win7 beta drivers from creative I have no popping or crackling and absolutely 0 background noise at 100% volume.

Windows 7 RC1 x64
Creative X-Fi Titanium
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Motherboard
4 Gigabytes Corsair XMS2 800mhz ram
Stock Overclock Zotac 8800gt
1TB Western Digital 32 Meg Cache HDD

 

[wrathloki]

i done a fresh install of the rc1 x64 ultimate, used compatibility mode for EVERY program i installed (except any games) vista sp1 and ticked the run as admin box, then right clicked the install.exe for the drivers and chose run as admin as well. i checked to make sure i had the latest drivers of everything and all my issues are gone, 5.1 and in 7.1 modes. i am using 24 bit 48000 in the audio setup in windows and in the asus control panel as some games like CODWaW have an issue with any bitrate higher than that.

all my specs are as is when i installed. so it seems the issue is purely creative, maybe try what i did with compatibility mode?

You'll probably actually be fine without running everything in compatibility mode.

 

[wrathloki]

Still have problems with my xtreme gamer card.
I installed Windows 7 RC 64 Bit, dont have crackling and stuff..but as soon as i try to open new tab in firefox, or click on link, sometimes even scrool my sound get killed
it does not happen when i surf in IE (but i havent been using IE much, just tried to open and close tabs and scrool the page), but there i get crackling during loading of page.
My system is same as before:
Intel Bad Axe 2
2GB RAM
Windows 7 RC build 7100 64bit
Creative xtreme gamer sound card
etc..

Are you using the win7 beta drivers from creative, did you disable onboard audio, and did you uninstall the basic windows sound drivers from your card before installing the new drivers? I did those 3 things and I'm using RC1 and it's working just fine.

 

[XGUNTHERC]

I didn't do ANY of the 3 things the guy above mentioned. I simply installed Win 7.. and when I got to the sound part. I got on Creatives site. found the drivers for my X-Fi XtremeGamer, they are the 2.18.0013 and they installed with no problems, I didn't need compatibility mode or anything. they worked perfect.

Try taking your X-Fi Card out. Restarting the computer without it.. then power it down again. Reinstall the CARD, and then boot. try the creative driver again and see what happens.

I also heard someone was using the XP 64bit driver with there Xfi and it worked. try that after if you'd like.

 

[SirCag]

i think i fixed my problem..finaly
i installed new graphic drivers from XFX since and afther that sound stoped only once (when UAC asked if i want to install something and darkened whole screen)