ABIT I90HD and Creative XFI crackling and popping?

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eu_phorix

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
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Is anyone else using this motherboard with a Creative XFI card? Are you getting any crackling or popping? (I get it even with just the CMSS-3D helicopter sound test, or when starting windows. Have been trying changes to overclock/stock clock, memory timings, latest creative drivers, etc...can't get it to go away.

I'm using this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

I've seen all the issues with the XFI and popping/crackling on other forums, but want to see if anyone has an XFI on this board and not having issues (maybe still something specific to my setup?)

Wondering if I should ship it back for a non-Creative product. (Only reason I bought creative was for the EAX stuff in games, but it's not worth this popping stuff)
 
Meh :mad:

I'm just gonna send it back...after 3 hours of playing with everything I could think of, and reading all the bad news about this exact issue, it's not worth the hassle. (I'll just stick with the onboard realtek sound until something decent for gamers sound card comes out).

Just for information...the best place I could pick up this issue was during my Supreme Commander Performance tests, just about 1 minute in, where the screen moves out over the water...it would make horrible stuttering and popping noises:

supcom_perftest.jpg
 
I have had the infamous X-Fi Sap Crackle Pop issue on several different systems that I own.

One thing that I found which helped was using PCI Latency tool to set latency for the X-Fi to 64 or 32. (I believe the Abit board has a BIOS option for PCI Latency setting which was 64 for default)

I always noticed the problem during arial strikes in BF2142, swicthing to an X-Fi fatality with X-ram also helped significantly.

I have been impressed with the bluegears b-enspirer audio card which uses a C-Media chipset and does DDL encoding. I lose the EAX effects but I do get positional audio in BF2142 and never any Snap Crackle Pop!

Azuntech has an X-Fi / C-Media Hybrid (Azuntech Prelude) audio card coming out in June that is being discussed in teh audio forum - sounds very promissing!
 
dworley said:
I have had the infamous X-Fi Sap Crackle Pop issue on several different systems that I own.

One thing that I found which helped was using PCI Latency tool to set latency for the X-Fi to 64 or 32. (I believe the Abit board has a BIOS option for PCI Latency setting which was 64 for default)

I always noticed the problem during arial strikes in BF2142, swicthing to an X-Fi fatality with X-ram also helped significantly.

I have been impressed with the bluegears b-enspirer audio card which uses a C-Media chipset and does DDL encoding. I lose the EAX effects but I do get positional audio in BF2142 and never any Snap Crackle Pop!

Azuntech has an X-Fi / C-Media Hybrid (Azuntech Prelude) audio card coming out in June that is being discussed in teh audio forum - sounds very promissing!
Click to expand...


Heya Dworley...yeah tried playing with the latency...I went up to 128..down to 32..then back to default 64. The popping was better/worse at different times with no rhyme or reason..but seemed most pervasive when there was load on the system.

I'll have to check out that thread..I've got an Azuntech board in my media PC running 5.1 analog and really like it. However, looks like I'm looking for a new mATX board at the moment, so we'll see what turns up ;)
 
im getting the same problem in 2142 when there is a orbital strike,crackles really loud.
 
There's been alot of reported problems like this from what I hear. Supposedly the problem is with Creative's card and not the mobo or game choice. I got the X-Fi XtremeMusic on a P5W-DH and no problems so far. From what I hear you either get a card that has the problem or you dont. Some games tend to have the problem more than others as well from what I hear. Basically if you have a card that gives you the popping and crackling noise you got three options:

1)Do nothing and live with it (this is a sucky solution)
2)Exchange the card for another (This has worked for some but not for others)
3)Go with a different sound card solution (Turtle Beach has a good product and you could go with the older Creative sound card like the Audigy2)


I read recently one solution was to completely delete the Creative files and use a cleaning program (I forget which program the person used but something like Driver Cleaner will probably do the job) and made sure all files were completely erased. Then download the latest Creative drivers from their website, install them and that fixed the problem. I guess the trick was using the program that completely erased every Creative legacy file and then getting the latest updated drivers from Creative.
 
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