Windows 7 and Creative X-Fi

[knarkas]

In the Sound properties dialog, under the Communications tab set it to "Do nothing." See if the problem returns.

Excellent advice! I will try it and see how it goes.

[Denis W. Veteran]

I noticed that every now and then, the sound would chip a slight bit. It's not frequent, but I can't recall sound chipping ever occuring on Vista with Auzentech's drivers.

[shakey_snake]

We all just have to wait till Creative get off their ass and make drivers, they made drivers for Windows Vista Beta so why are they so slow this time unless Windows 7 have changed the Audio layer again and the way it works.

I don't think the audio layer changed much if at all, creative just sucks at writing drivers.

[happymonkey]

I have an Creative X-Fi Elite Pro and am using Windows 7 32-bit (build 7000). Works perfectly!

Just install from the Vista Install CD (full installation) and update using AutoUpdate* program (after first reboot).

Even the original Vista drivers (from CD) work better in Windows 7 than with Vista!!!

btw, the latest drivers (v2.18.0008) are great in both Windows Vista and Windows 7...

* Needs to be run in Vista compatibility mode.

Edited January 17, 2009 by happymonkey

[Unimatrix Xero]

happy monkey

this method wont work for those of us with nforce 4 mobos as its more of a complicated problem, head on over to the create forums to check it out

[Guest xiphi]

After installing the X-Fi drivers from the CD and then doing an update. The drivers failed to detect any output other than SPDIF, and the Creative apps failed to recognize my card. If any output was detected, the crackling would be unbearable. Using Driver Sweeper, Autoruns, CCleaner, and a few manual deletions of some folders, I managed to get my X-Fi Titanium fully working with daniel_k's Windows 7 drivers.

My motherboard is an MSI Neo4 K8N Platinum (nForce 4 Ultra), for those who want to know.

[SidVicious]

The real problem is if you have a X-Fi + 4 GB or more of RAM + nForce4 based mobo.

Then all you will get is crackling sounds

[Erland]

I'm going to look into the possibility of extracting a basic sound driver from the Azuntech Prelude X-Fi drivers later on this evening. I'm not really that stoked at the possibility of needing to upgrade my motherboard just to get my soundcard working for Windows 7 if we're to take daniel_k's words as absolute.

[Fonze]

The real problem is if you have a X-Fi + 4 GB or more of RAM + nForce4 based mobo.

Then all you will get is crackling sounds

I have this issue with Vista x64 as well. It seems to work ok sometimes, but most of the time you're stuck with the crackling. My on-board audio works, but it is pretty mediocre. Are there any known fixes for this?

[SidVicious]

I have this issue with Vista x64 as well. It seems to work ok sometimes, but most of the time you're stuck with the crackling. My on-board audio works, but it is pretty mediocre. Are there any known fixes for this?

Nope.

Creative and the mobo manufacturers are too lazy to fix this issue.

[RageOfFury]

Here are some ways to possibly fix the crackling/popping issues:

* Move the sound card to another PCI expansion slot and reinstall the sound card's drivers

* Replace native disk controller drivers with generic Windows ones

* Update the motherboard's BIOS to the latest version (including "beta" versions)

* Set the PCI Latency to 96 or greater

* Use the X-Fi card only in "Audio Creation Mode" with "Bit-matched playback" option on

* Overclock the PCI bus to 40 MHz instead of 33 MHz

* Replace all of the capacitors on the card (At the expense of warranty)

* Deactivate X-Fi "Crystalizer"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster...ing_and_Popping

Also, the nForce 4 chipset was badly designed from the get go. More info:

The nForce4 chipset has also been blamed for issues with PCI cards, relating to Nvidia's implementation of the PCI bus. RME Audio, a maker of professional audio equipment, has stated that the latency of the PCI bus is unreliable and that the chipset's PCI Express interface can "hog" system data transfer resources when intense video card usage is occurring. This has the effect of causing audible pops and clicks with PCI sound cards.[7] Gamers have noticed this effect, especially with Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound cards. Compatibility issues between these sound cards and nForce4 motherboards have been ongoing, even following driver updates.[8] Latency issues are more readily apparent with sound cards than other addon cards because of the direct user feedback the audio problems bring forward.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nforce_4#Flaws

[revparadigm]

For X-Fi Xtreme audio PCI [the fake X-Fi card...lol] I have found a way for full functionality in Windows 7. This works with 7077 build, as I am running it now.

Download the windows 7 beta drivers listed on Creative's site, but do not install yet.

Now download this modded install setup here [but again wait on the install].

http://rapidshare.de/files/40641765/Audigy...ta_4_2.rar.html

Use Winrar to extract both setups into separate folders. Then simply take drivers folder from the Creative beta setup and replace the one from the Audigy_to_X-Fi_Extreme_Audio_1_04_0079_XP_Vista_4_2 setup. Then run the setup from the Audigy_to_X-Fi_Extreme_Audio_1_04_0079_XP_Vista_4_2 under Vista compatibility [not even sure if you need to do that, I just did to make sure no issues arose upon installation].

The Creative console launcher will not be in the start up by default, but you'll still have full functionality of all the features [EQ, surround and such]. Works for me without a single issue and seems to even sound better than in XP.

[DerAusgewanderte]

I got the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (pcie) and it works like a charm with the drivers from the creative site that were released in Jan09. I have 5.1 with no other issues

SBXF_W7DRVBETA_US_2_18_0008.exe

The Vista drivers only gave me 2.1

[Master Shake]

I got the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (pcie) and it works like a charm with the drivers from the creative site that were released in Jan09. I have 5.1 with no other issues

SBXF_W7DRVBETA_US_2_18_0008.exe

The Vista drivers only gave me 2.1

Are you running the 32 or 64 bit windows 7? I found the beta driver but I'm not sure if it will work with the 64 bit version. I can't try it yet because my card is in the mail.

[JJ_]

I have the X-Fi Xtreme Audio card, it worked fine with XP SP3 but now I get loads of crackling on Windows 7 with the 'new' Creative Windows 7 drivers. This company is truly a joke, will be the last ever sound card I buy from them.