Sound Blaster X-Fi and Windows 7 64-bit

Issue with Creative Lab Sounder Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Model SB0460 and Windows 7.

This issue has consumed me over the last fortnight. I have a Dell XPS 700, Core (2) 2.4Ghz CPU with 2GB of RAM with M/S XP OS that I bought a few years ago. Since it is a scalable mini-tower, I thought to upgrade it to a 64-bit O/S and add another 2GB RAM. This is where my troubles started. As I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate, my sound card started to give muffled sound with screeches. I downloaded latest drivers supporting Windows 7 from Creative Labs support website but nothing worked.

The Dell Bill of Material (BOM) called out this card to be SB0467 but the actual hardware has a label saying it is Creative Lab Model SB0460. SB0460 per Creative Lab’s website is an X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card. As nothing worked (or made sense) I contacted Dell. After paying for the support service fee, calling them and spending numerous hours on the phone with the “not so technical” staff (in India) and eventually buying the Warranty (sucker me), Dell representative told me to reinstall my O/S from scratch so there is no drivers mismatch or conflict. I obliged and started on another witch hunt. Today, finally, Dell Technical staff told me that this card is NOT compatible with Windows 7 and I should go ahead and buy a new sound card that is compatible with Windows 7. Representative from Creative Labs simply directed me to the following URL (http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=71490) and did not even mention that this as a know issue.

I should also let everyone know that during many tries one time when I uninstalled the Sound Blaster device under the Device Manager and installed CL driver dated 6/3/2009 version 6.0.1.1373, the speakers worked perfectly until I rebooted the computer. Obviously, that indicated the card is either having a BIOS issue or some other process is trying to access it (memory space or process). Instead of giving up, I did a lot of Google searches pertaining to this matter. I followed the advice for installing the unsupported driver mentioned here (http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-X-Fi-Series-AuzenUAA-Pack-1-0-09-30-2009/td-p/538552

) and after few tries of installing previous drivers and installing this one…bingo. The sound card seems to work a o.k.

Thank you very much 1Stonewall01 for providing this driver and sorry Mayur Kirti the driver you mentioned does not work.

This issue was driving me crazy. I can sleep well tonight.J

Hi all,

I have been tracking this thread for some time as it is one of the most progressive at solving this problem with X-Fi Xtream cards. I have the Tinny sound followed bt crackling issue.  My set up is.

Dell XPS 8100 2.8GHz i7

8Gb RAM

Windows 7 64 bit

Creative Technology SB X-Fi Xtream Audio PCI Express.

This is the exact system that Dell shipped to me last March. Is your X-Fi Xtream Music card a PCI Express based card. If so how can they say it is not compatible under paid support. They ship my system as a set build. I have posted on the Dell Community desktop/audio forum and got a rough welcome for being anti Dell. This is only my sixth Dell after all.

All this driver mess is becoming a serious embarrassment for all the companies involved. I am getting the feeling they are hoping that we all write off what we have spent on these cards and quietly just go away.

I am paranoid about using this third party driver as I am still under warranty and something has to give on all this soon. How much money has been spent and time wasted trying to solve a problem that these  technical support teams are supposed to be doing.

1Stonewall01, Thank you much. I was contemplating going back to the ole 32 bit XP OS but this seem to be working.

I upgraded my Windows 32 bit Vista computer to Windows 7 64bit several months ago. The only changes I made to the computer at the time was to upgrade the memory from 4 gigs to 8 gigs. I have a Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card & an X-Fi I/O Drive in the computer connected to 2 standard low cost speakers. This seup worked fine with 32 bit Vista.

I started getting the static sound from the start. If I rebooted the computer, the sound would be fine for a while & then the static would start again. I upgraded drivers, changed the memory settings, changed speakers to Bose Companion 2's & disabled everything in the Creative Control Panel. None of that made any difference. I finally went back to using the on board sound card, but I really missed the front panel headphone jack & volume control.

This week I decided try to get the Creative card to work again. I updated all of the Creative software & drivers. I still had the static but not all of time after it once started. It would come & go. I decided to go to the Creative Control Panel & just start changing settings to see if static would go away. If the static did not go away after changing a setting, I changed the setting back to its old setting before changing another setting. None of the changes helped.

Since I had 2.1 speakers I did not even consider changing the speaker setting from the 2/2.1. As a last ditch effort, I changed that setting to 5.1 & the static went away & the sound quality vastly improved. I then tried the 7.1 setting & the sound quality got even better. 

I have been playing audio through the Creative card for over an hour & a half, with not a hint of static & the best sound quality I have ever gotten on a computer. 

I have also tried changing all settings in the Creative Control Panel with no return of the static.

I do not know why changing the speaker setting worked, but it did.