Sound Blaster X-Fi and Windows 7 64-bit

Anonymous
2009-10-23T03:31:55+00:00

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi on a Dell XPS 710.  Installed Windows 7 64-bit.  Everything went great.  Downloaded and installed the new drivers from Creative for this sound card and Windows 7/64.  It installs but I get a staticy echo sound to everything.  Is there a fix?  The drivers are dated 6/2009.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2009-10-29T22:07:34+00:00

: WORKAROUND:

I claim NO responsibility if you mess this up but you can use this as a temporary work around until it is resolved by creative labs without removing memory... physically.

First run MSCONFIG

select the boot tab

select advanced options

under max memory select 3990 (or any value under 4 GB is fine IE anything less than 1024 * 4)

This will reduce the amount of memory that the PC uses which will allow you to hear the audio.  There is also BETA testing of newer drivers from Creative (the most recent batch of BETAS did not resolve the issue) that I am a part of.  When there is a working beta I will respond so we can all utilize our 64x machines.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-06-01T18:38:38+00:00

    has anyone tried the beta drivers on the website with a 24 may 2011 may  drivers yet? I also did the rocket fish 5.1 card replacement and the asus xonar dg card both did not resolve the issue for me gratz those that it did. I ended up returning both cards.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-06-02T13:32:45+00:00

    There are at least 4 threads running on various forums concerning this problem. 2 onCL's own forums where it's getting a bit heated, one on the unofficial sevenforums.com and one"Sound disappears after restart" on this forum.

    No one is getting anywhere. CL just say "install the latest drivers" which may or may not fix the problem for a day or so, but it always comes back.

    Microsoft seem to have no way of contacting them other than to fork out £46 for the privilege of sending them an email - I don't think so! They should pay us for highlighting their bugs - presumably they checked out the CL drivers as they are "official".

    The core of the problem seems to be

    • An X-Fi series card
    • Windows 7 64-bit
    • Windows running from an SSD, not a mechanical drive.

    Does anyone have something different?

    Either

    • Creative's 64-bit drivers are faulty and they don't know how to fix them.
    • Microsoft's driver specification is faulty, but Asus Xonar cards don't seem to have the same problem
    • Microsoft's implementation of their sound-card interface is faulty, but again other cards don't appear to show this problem.

    One theory is that it is a timing problem. An SSD loads Windows so fast that the CL drivers don't have time to initialise properly.

    Come on Microsoft, read your forums and help us out.

    I suggest that after a year of this with no progress, we start writing to the computer press and see if they will investigate.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-06-03T11:06:52+00:00

    The modded drivers mentioned earlier in the thread work well and do not exhibit this behavior.

    I do not believe this to be Microsoft's problem.

    This appears most likely (to me) to be either a bug in Creative's OpenAL driver, or possibly a firmware issue between the card and some motherboards.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-06-03T11:08:07+00:00

    By the way, I do not have an SSD.  I have the problem and have only mechanical hard drives.

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