Creative XFi Xtreme Gamer - xtreme pants more like!

[Noto]

Now i am going to try to stay calm... I consider myself an Xtreme Gamer.
Now correct me if i am wrong but its fairly safe to assume a large number of xtreme gamers use 4 gb of ram in there systems or plan to in the near future. And to get all 4gb of ram used in windows you have to use a 64bit Operating System. So that is what I have done.

Q6600 @ 3.2ghz - No voltage change (lapped The Ultra-120 Extreme)
Abit IP35 Pro
4gb Gskill ram
HD2900XT
Windows Vista 64
sound b_ _ _ _ _ _ (insert your own letters) X-FI Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Retail.

Fortunately I dont run Crossfire or SLI as there are wide reports of crackling when gaming with SLI and 4gb of ram. But what i do get is HUGE amount of noise when i speak on my mic using Ventrillo, Teamspeak 1/2 any mic application. I also occasionally get an Apache helicopter in my room when i speak. the sound is so loud it makes 24 of my friends throw off their headsets (i play WoW and raid in a high end guild with 25 ppl most nights). I then have to disable and re-enable the soundcard. (this is at least 8-20 times in a 3 hour period) I now no longer speak on the mic.

Now i have tried everything under the sun. Changed the SC to all other PCI slots. Disabled all other sound devices. Tried all drivers. Phoned creative numerous times over four months with nothing to show. Installed different versions of Ventrillo and changed codecs on ventrillo and teamspeak servers.

And ofc I resorted to forums, and on the OFFICIAL creative forums is a guy from Azuntech. A very nice chap who writes drivers. He is single handedly trying to save creative's ass and the gaming community that have problems. Azuntech use some of creative's chips but add their own high quality parts to their cards. So this chap is modifying Azuntech drivers for creative sound cards. Unfortunately the fix rate is hit and miss but some people have reported success.


This i find is totally unacceptable for a company as large as creative. Going by their record they will not release another driver update possibly for 12 months. So I have now no choice but to bin my £60 XFi XTREME PANTS sound card and get another one just so i can talk on skype out, ventrillo and teamspeak... What a joke.

I will NEVER EVER buy creative again. Stay well clear if your using 4gb of ram

Noto

 

[Noto]

Sorry but thats what you've found.

Have you full uninstalled all drivers before installing new ones? Used driver cleaner?

And used the latest ones from Creative?

As I've had no problems with mine yet.

Also tried a differant headset?

Brand new build so there were no drivers to clean and it started straight away, used official drivers from CD and off the internet, Then tried the modified Azuntech drivers for creative soundcard. I have 3 headsets, steelpad 5H, sennheiser HD497, plantronics . and also 3 mics, bog standard desktop mic and other 2 attached to steelpad and plantronics.

Tried putting the Soundcard in every other PCI slot incase there is an IRQ conflict, tried a different brand of ram but still 4gb. (I am not willing to downgrade to 2gb - ps mic works fine with 2gb of ram)

My main problem is getting the mic to work. without noise in the background or the apache helicopter showing up every so often.

 

[Noto]

Sorry if it's already been said, but have you tried different codecs within ventrilo and teamspeak?
Record yourself through windows sound recorder, if you sound OK there then its vent/teamspeak.

ya its contained in the orig post "Installed different versions of Ventrillo and changed codecs on ventrillo and teamspeak servers." My friend has his own vent server, we even moved vent servers to holland to see if it was server based.

I tried the sound recorder, nice idea but all i hear is the hissing noise which is about the same volume as i speak.

Reviewed by: Carl

About time, I have replaced my X-Fi, and can finally have both optical and headphones plugged in to the back of my PC out of sight, instead of having to use the creative drive bay add in. There is now no hissing when in desktop from my speakers, music and movie playback are improved. Check out auzentech's site to see the improvements that will shortly be available with new drivers.


Reviewed by: Michael

Installed mine today to replace a faulty x-fi music which I,ve been using for over a year.The sounds are more clear & the bass is a touch better.The build quality makes the ordinary x-fi's look silly too.

From 1 of the azuntech's review :/ at least im not alone

 

[Noto]

Another problem. On the official Creative site when going for drivers or customer support. There is no Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1

I see:

X-FI Fatal1ty
X-FI Elite Pro
X-FI Exreme Music
X-FI Platinum

So which dang drivers do i go for?

So i goto Customer Support to email them which drivers i should download: I try to select my product and I only have 5 options:

X-FI Fatal1ty
X-FI Elite Pro
X-FI Exreme Music
X-FI Platinum
X-FI Exreme Audio


MY Xtreme Gamer isnt the fatal1ty brand one so i have no idea what to choose now to re-download my drivers.

 

[Noto]

Never managed to get the mic working with my xtreme gamer. The front ports give terrible interference and I can’t get it to work with the rear mic port (the piece of **** flexijack thing). Currently got sound coming out of my Xtreme Gamer and the mic connected using the onboard sound, screwed solution but at least I can use my mic.

yes using onboard for mic too :/ which is a joke really.

 

[Noto]

my sound works fine... i can hear the game properly, but any voice comms using a mic, Skype Ventrillo Teamspeak 1 and 2. Any mic related program / game then it goes belly up. and its fine with 3gb or 2gb ram.

i've resorted to using the Mic Input on my onboard soundcard Which i didnt want to because i prefer to disable the on board soundcard

 

[Noto]

did i not read somewhere in these forums that you could use the auzentech driver software with the creative cards.

Yes, below is a link to creative forums and the Windows Vista section. There is a guy called Daniel_K. Whom i think works for azuntech at least he knows his way around their drivers.

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board?board.id=Vista


His latest drivers include:

X-Fi drivers to correct issues with 4Gb RAM based on Prelude's latest drivers (09/27/07)

New Audigy driver: 4Gb RAM, EQ, Stereo Surround, Louder volume, Audio Center (10/21)

X-Fi driver v2.14.0001.36 based on Dell WHQL driver (supposed to fix 4Gb RAM issues) Also strange why only OEM users are getting updates..

Its really embaracing for Creative imo. Creative release a new driver on Oct 1st but 6.1 surround sound doesnt work. Daniel_K got it working in less than 3 weeks in his own time.. Creative must hire like a part-time one handed hamster to write their drivers or something