Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Problem.

[Dave]

Hi all,

About two weeks ago my Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic running under
Vista Ultimate for almost 12 months suddenly started to make strange noises
and appears to get "stuck" when playing World of Warcraft. It is possible
that this is happening with other applications too, but I haven't noticed
it. I tried installing a couple of different Vista drivers for the card,
(which was using an XP driver) but unfortunately now the driver either does
not work, or I get an error message telling me that the device can't start.
I now have no sound at all. It is a Dell PC. I phoned Dell today only to be
told to format the hard drive & install the original operating system
(Windows XP Media Center). That seems a little radical, especially since the
card has been working under Vista for so long. Video card model number is
SB0460, if this helps.

Does anyone have a Vista driver for this card or know how I can rectify the
problem. It is very annoying.

Thanks in advance, Dave.

 

[Dominic Payer]

See http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board?board.id=Vista and you
will see that many are having problems with X-Fi Creative drivers.

Uninstall all Creative applications in Uninstall or change a progam. Then in
Device Manager Uninstall the X-Fi device and tick the option to remove the
drivers. Reboot, as you will be required to do, then close all applications,
including any in the system tray, especially antivirus and install the
driver of your choice.

I found the 2.15.0002 the most stable,but it took some work to get it
properly established, usually I had to uninstall it (not deleting the
drivers) and then re-install it after each boot. Once established I used
Sleep to preserve the driver state.

Currently, I am using the latest 2.15.0004 which loads correctly but often
becomes unusable. Deleting the device when it has become unusable and then
rebooting and letting the driver be installed creates a stable system for
me.