problem with stupid x-fi

requiem1

Hi all,

Just rebuilt my system and threw in more memory (now at 4GB). The thing thats getting to me is that the sound continually crackles and breaks down in everything from video to gaming. I have an x-fi xtrememusic and I've tried everything from rolling back to older drivers to reinstalling the card to turning off the memory remapping feature.

has anyone had this problem and if they have how did they fix it? I have vista 32bit by the way

Thanks in advance

Req:)

requiem1

okay getting the same issue with onboard sound! anyone got any ideas?? what other drivers could be throwing it off??

Blazer

i remember there was some problem with X-Fi and 4 gigs of ram in systems.
As far as I know Creative released a patch for this.
Did you download the latest x-fi driver?

game4it70

Try a set of headphones to rule out your speakers.If you still get the problem make sure the onboard sound is disabled in the bios and all drivers for it are deleted.

requiem1

thanks for the replies guys,

@Mat, yeah i've got the latest drivers but as I said the problem has occured with the on board sound as well but i'm curious as to whether its another driver offsetting everything?

@game4it70, I'll do that later to completely rule out the speakers but i'm pretty confident its a driver issue.
Initially I thought it was lag with the network but it happens with everything and in gaming it completely grinds the game to a halt making me believe its a driver issue.
Again, thanks guys and Mat if you could direct me towards the patch that'd be great:D

Blazer

I'm hearing that the creative patch didn't work for a lot of users.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=5573378

The link above one guy said to purge all drivers for x-fi and software and reinstall which resolved his issue.
Some people are affected by it, other's aren't (me one of the lucky ones).
Sorry I couldn't help more but a lot of ppl that were pissed off with this switched to an older sound card.
It's weird that your onboard sounds the same...you could try updating dx and see if that resolves anything.

KamiKazi

I had this issue with the same card and 2gb of ram.

It went away by itself so I'm afraid I'm not much help.

requiem1

was nearly considering uninstalling disply drivers etc but won't know till later, i think it could be dodgey d-link drivers i installed for a wireless card that never worked, could it potentially be anything to do with raid drivers or heat cause i have 2 raptor x's ripping away?

Blazer

Not a chance tbh...the crackling is a well known issue with Creative X-Fi and Vista+ 4GB rams..
You could try making do with 3GB...ur running 32bit anyway so you're not really going to lose anything.

requiem1

yeah thats true but i turned off the memory remapping in the bios and for some reason vista still sees 4gigs which is nearly driving me towards a fresh install cause its really starting to piss me off. Its not the speakers thank God but I'm also considering switching to vista 64 but will it happen with that as well??

Blazer

Fraid so...about 70% of people complaining about the crackling were on Vista 64bit.
However I'm running Vista 64bit and no problems with it.
Worth a try anyway for peace of mind.

requiem1

Okay now things are really getting to me cause I haven't a clue whats causing this problem.

I did a fresh install of vista 32bit, turned off memory remap feature so its not seeing the 4GB of ram only 3GB. The X-FI is still sitting in its slot but I didn't install the drivers and the onboard sound is crackling!!

I've got the latest nvidia drivers and Itunes installed and thats it, I noticed that vista has recognised the x-fi so I uninstalled it and still the stupid crackling.

Lads this is wrecking my head, I have 2 raptors side by side in raid and I'm thinking could they might be getting too hot, is that the problem? The system is not overclocked and watercooled so no heat issues on the CPU and GPU front. Does anyone have an idea what this might be??

Blazer

requiem1 wrote: »

Okay now things are really getting to me cause I haven't a clue whats causing this problem.

I did a fresh install of vista 32bit, turned off memory remap feature so its not seeing the 4GB of ram only 3GB. The X-FI is still sitting in its slot but I didn't install the drivers and the onboard sound is crackling!!

I've got the latest nvidia drivers and Itunes installed and thats it, I noticed that vista has recognised the x-fi so I uninstalled it and still the stupid crackling.

Lads this is wrecking my head, I have 2 raptors side by side in raid and I'm thinking could they might be getting too hot, is that the problem? The system is not overclocked and watercooled so no heat issues on the CPU and GPU front. Does anyone have an idea what this might be??

Turn off your onboard sound. You should not have it switched on when using teh X-Fi. And don't use vista drivers. Use the latest creative. Sounds like an IRQ conflict though.
Try removing the X-fi from pc and see if onboard crackles then.

requiem1

yeah i'm thinking its an IRQ conflict as well so tried to force a separate IRQ allocation for the x-fi and still no luck. I've disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS and i'm downloading the beta version of the drivers. I'm thinking I'll uninstall the current x-fi drivers and reseat the card then install the latest beta vesions. Then hopefully with some praying and a cup of tea it'll go away. thanks again mat i'll post up when i've done that

astrofool

If the X-Fi is not in the system at all, do you get pops and crackles using the on board card?

This will determine if it's the X-Fi with the problem, or something else.

requiem1

astrofool wrote: »

If the X-Fi is not in the system at all, do you get pops and crackles using the on board card?

This will determine if it's the X-Fi with the problem, or something else.

Yeah still happens which is leading me to believe that its something else cause I listened to the crackling issue people are having and mine is more of like when there are too many processes and the system slows down and the audio kinda staggers so I'm thinking it could be to do with the RAID.

The only changes I've made to this system are more and different memory and the RAID and everything else is the same. Could the raid drivers be having issues loading the data and causing it to slow down? they're two raptors so I didn't think it'd be a problem

astrofool

What are the specs of the rest of the system?

PogMoThoin

Ita a well known issue, look, I had the same crackling and popping issues with Xp on my old mobo but not with this Asus. Its usually blamed on the crappy drivers Creative make, I'm running a beta Creative driver here and am afraid to change it as it works well where I had loads of problems with their official driver.

requiem1

astrofool wrote: »

What are the specs of the rest of the system?

The mobo is a P5B deluxe, 4GB PC2-8500 OCZ Reaper, 640MB 8800gts, E6600, 2Xraptors 150GB in Raid

I'm thinking of uninstalling the raid and loading vista 32bit onto one drive and then if that fixes the issue then its all good.

@Pog: dude I know its an issue that's what I thought it was initially but the onboard sound is making the same sound as the x-fi even when the x-fi is uninstalled.
Also I've been listening to the crackling popping issue that people are having but my problem sounds more like when the network or something slows down and the song or video lags for about 3 seconds and then its back to normal for around a minute.

I was reading last night that the intel RAID controller has issues with throughtput on raptors in RAID and that people have experienced similar things with their sound and video, anybody else have a similar setup??

game4it70

I have the same mobo with Wifi.I did use an xfi gamer for a while and had issues with vista and battlefield 2,I was getting slow downs in game and with music.I presumed it was the xfi card but now your problem has got me thinking.
I only have a standard setup with my drives and i did do a re-install of vista 32bit that didnt fix the prob.
I know this is not much help to you but have you tried the latest chipset drivers for the board and latest bios?

NOGMaxpower

requiem1 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just rebuilt my system and threw in more memory (now at 4GB). The thing thats getting to me is that the sound continually crackles and breaks down in everything from video to gaming. I have an x-fi xtrememusic and I've tried everything from rolling back to older drivers to reinstalling the card to turning off the memory remapping feature.

has anyone had this problem and if they have how did they fix it? I have vista 32bit by the way

Thanks in advance

Req:)

Hey dude,

I had the exact same problem with my RIG same OS and XFI. If you get these issues in 2142 (sorry didn't read the rest of thread). You're up sh*t creek you'll have to use 3g according to their support forums.

I got around this by doing the following:

1: Make sure no other PCI cards are next to the XFI card (interference can happen).

2: Install the latest Service Pack for vista SP1

3: Install the latest BIOS for your mobo

4: Install the latest drivers for you sound, video and network

Please note VIP:

Since your Vista is only 32bit the system will only ever use a max of 3gig in your PC. Regardless of what SP1 tells you your system will only ever use a max of 3 gig. This is a limitation of the 32bit Kernel. If you want o use the full 4 gig you need vista 64bit.

So what im getting at is, take 1 gig stick out fo your PC leaving 3 as your rig will only ever use 3 and 4 gig is messing your sound up.

Simple solution.

NOGMaxpower

BTW what headphones are you using?

If they're Speedlink Medusa's its your headphones they are notorious for that issue.

astrofool

The OP's problem is occurring when the X-FI is not attached in any way.

Have you installed the latest Intel Motherboard drivers, and updated windows fully?

Have you tested with other speakers?

Have you disconnected ALL un-needed peripherals?

Have you any codec packs installed?

When you have the X-FI in, was the on board sound fully disabled?

Are you using the latest drivers for the on board sound?

Have you updated to the latest bios for your board? (available here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5B%20Deluxe)

requiem1

The OP's problem is occurring when the X-FI is not attached in any way.

Have you installed the latest Intel Motherboard drivers, and updated windows fully?

Yeah the latest RAID drivers and windows is completely update

Have you tested with other speakers?

Yeah a set of Harmon Kardons

Have you disconnected ALL un-needed peripherals?

All thats connected is keyboard, mouse and wireless usb adapter

Have you any codec packs installed?

No none installed

When you have the X-FI in, was the on board sound fully disabled?

Yeah onboard sound was disabled

Are you using the latest drivers for the on board sound?

Yeah

Have you updated to the latest bios for your board? (available here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5B%20Deluxe)

Yeah but I'm going to flash it again tonight and see what the deal is

Thanks for all the help lads I'm really confused as to whats going on but i'll flash the bios tonight along with installing older RAID drivers to see whats going on

astrofool

If the wireless usb adaptor is disconnected do you get the same problem, some of these have awful drivers.

requiem1

astrofool wrote: »

If the wireless usb adaptor is disconnected do you get the same problem, some of these have awful drivers.

hmmmmm...I'll check that tonight and see, I never got around to flashing the bios last night mainly due to work and the game but i'll post up later about it when I do that

IamMetaldave

I have this very problem, the way I get round it is to open the sound properties, go to the levels tab mute everything accept the top one. Sorry for being vague, but I'm not at my home PC.

requiem1

astrofool wrote: »

If the wireless usb adaptor is disconnected do you get the same problem, some of these have awful drivers.

Dude I owe you a serious pint, I took out the usb adapter and uninstalled the drivers and sound went back to normal, it must have been some sort of conflict with the drivers but i'm gonna try the latest ones and if not the adapter's going back to where it came from. Its always the simplest of things:rolleyes:

Lads thanks a million for helping me out on this one I really appreciate it and hopefully I'll be able to give you a hand in the future. Hopefully I won't have to revisit this thread again:D