I hate my X-Fi

J

Justintoxicated

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 10, 2002
Messages
14,519
So I keep getting lockup when playing HD content, the comptuer freezes followed by extreamly loud pops and hisses and stuttering random audio.

I tried to run windows driver verifier and often after sometime I get the poping and hissing audio but without the lockup using the verifier.

I have use driver cleaner and done various clean SB installs and I'm so pissed off at this point I'm not sure what to do.

I have the X-fi Extreme Gamer. It's the smaller version of it but I am not sure that really matters. I'm almost certain it is a driver problem and the drivers I find online are years old. I'm running windows XP.

Can someone please recommend me a sound card that will do EAX in games and hardware decoding for my media center? I have a fantastic onboard sound card (DFI Lanparty NF4 expert) it's 7.1 and all that but I believe it relies on software decoding. However I never have to flip it between a bunch of modes like the x-fi. Should I just use my onboard sound instead or is it really worth getting a new soundcard again! I was told by several people at work how terrible ALL onboard sound cards are, however I honestly can't tell much of a difference between the two SQ wise. Mayeb it's because I'm only using $200 Audio Technica headphones and not 1000 dollar phones, or that mostly I use logitec Z5500's because I can't fit huge audiophile speakers in my bedroom. If that is the case then I'd jsut assume sticking with onboard. I do notice that the onboard eats a bit of CPU though.
 
Are you by chance running an older BIOS on that LanParty? The X-Fis have been known to have conflicts with the nForce 4 boards. Creative blames NVIDIA, of course, while motherboard vendors have been issuing BIOS updates to help accommodate the X-Fis NVIDIA's been a bit more mum about the issue, while Creative insists that the boards are simply out of spec.

I have the same board and run an Elite Pro without issue, and ran an Audigy 2 ZS prior to that with no issue. That is, of course, until a Creative driver update hosed my Windows install and I promptly smashed it (the card), but nForce 4 wasn't to blame for that.

For your information, the only way to get EAX 3.0 or better (referred to as "Advanced HD") is to use a Creative card or an Auzentech Prelude, which uses the same exact chip and drivers. Many non-Creative cards will do EAX 1.0 or 2.0 passably, though.
 
I don't recall touching the bios as i don't have anny way to flash it even if i wanted to. (No Floppy Drive and No Floppys). I suppose I could try making a bootable thumb drive but I don't trust my OCZ thumb drive because it constantly gets data corruption as well. Maybe a bootabel CD rom would work, but I would like to backup my old bios before replacing.

However I had one of the more updated versions when I purchased the board 2 years ago.

I'll see what I can dig up I guess.
 
Justintoxicated said:
I don't recall touching the bios as i don't have anny way to flash it even if i wanted to. (No Floppy Drive and No Floppys). I suppose I could try making a bootable thumb drive but I don't trust my OCZ thumb drive because it constantly gets data corruption as well. Maybe a bootabel CD rom would work, but I would like to backup my old bios before replacing.

However I had one of the more updated versions when I purchased the board 2 years ago.

I'll see what I can dig up I guess.
Click to expand...

Try using WinFlash - you can update the BIOS in Windows, no floppy required.
 
When you mention HD content, are you talking about HDDVD/Blu Ray or just encoded video files?

You could be suffering from a codec issue.
 
+1 For updating the bios. It shall be possible to update the bios in windows.
 
Encoded stuff, however when the PC locks at other times it has the same freeze floowed by loud pops, wether in game or just browsing the net, and sometimes with just windows idle or running the driver verifier.exe... Ill look into that bios update tonight and keep everyone posted.

Thanks!
 
....did you update drivers? I found you links to newer stuff earlier. Pick up the latest beta from Creative if you're running XP, and pick up the latest Vista driver (I remember you said you were running something from 2006) if you have Vista.
 
Link please the creative site has nothing...
http://us.creative.com/support/down...=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=1&x=16&y=6

I see they now have beta drivers, but I don't want anymore instabilities.
"Known Issues:

Before installing this driver, close the Creative MediaSource Go! application on your desktop and restart your computer. (After you have installed this driver, you may manually launch the MediaSource Go! application from the Start menu)
When adjusting the master volume in any of the Mode Console, there is no sound output in the rear speakers. (Use the Microsoft Volume Control panel to adjust the master volume)"

WTF no sound from rear speakers if I adjust the volume?
 
Just try it. It's a minor bug -- make sure you close that one app, and make sure you use the Microsoft mixer (which you should be using already? Odd they mention this) to adjust volume. If it fixes the problems it's a small price to pay.
 
You're probably going to have to click "continue anyway". Such is the way of the world with betas.
 
windows verifier.exe is a program you can launch to verify stability drivers at startup, I'm not talking about verifying unsigned drivers. After launching driver verifier.exe from run select "next" then "Automaticaly select all drivers installed on this computer" and "finish". It will be activated when you restart. If you get bluescreens you will need to boot into safemode to fix the problem (disable the driver) or to turn of the verifier by reseting it.
 
Justintoxicated said:
windows verifier.exe is a program you can launch to verify stability drivers at startup, I'm not talking about verifying unsigned drivers. After launching driver verifier.exe from run select "next" then "Automaticaly select all drivers installed on this computer" and "finish". It will be activated when you restart. If you get bluescreens you will need to boot into safemode to fix the problem (disable the driver) or to turn of the verifier by reseting it.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Didn't know about this thing. Thanks for the info.
 
silent-circuit said:
Interesting. Didn't know about this thing. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

its a great tool to use if your getting bluescreens and you have already run prime 95 and memtest86.

I flashed to the newest bios last night (From 2006 as well). Going to keep the drivers installed already for now, if it crashes I will try the betass and keep my results posted. It does not crash everyday, but sometimes multiple times per day...So I'll let it run for a week or so.
 
I was getting popping on my X-Fi xtreme music card and there were many reports of issues. I attached a heatsink to the chip, because I heard it could over heat. I also moved the card into a different PCI slot as to avoid IRQ confilct with my videocard. THis was all on Nforce 2 though.

YIf your BIOS flash does not resolve your issues, you might try to just place the card in a lower PCI slot and/or make sure you have adequate cooling.
 
I have a tripple radiator with Panaflos right under the card so there should be plenty or air movement, not to mention I'm ducting the heat of the CPU, NB, and video card directly out the bottom of my case and constantly sucking cool air in. I think it should be fine in that department. I can try moving slots but I dont think that is the problem I'm having. The poping on this card isn't a pop every now and then its a sudden BAM! all kinds of annoying wierd noises jump up and turn down speakers before the entire house wakes up kind of noise...Like if you have a reciever turned way up and then you start plugging in audio cables, only much much worse. I would imagine it could easily blow my speakers.
 
My speakers did that before, though I eventually narrowed it down to my cell phone being near them...
 
You try chancing the pci lat to 64, When I had my XFI Extreme Music and my DFI motherboard years ago . I didnt really have problems, but I always kept it on pci lat 64 just in case. Also you can try another pci slot or maybe a bios update.
 
How do you change PCI latency in Vista? I've seen an XP utility for it, but not Vista.
 
I have an X-fi Xtremegamer. I have the BF2 artillery bug/issue. Latency did nothing to fix it.
 
I had the same issue, (DFI Lanparty NF4) and the problem was solved by getting arid of the NF4 chipset. on my new P35 I have no problems.
 
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