Is it really an xtrememusic?

timmins · 9 Mar 2007 at 21:01

I bought the card in january, OEM from the bay, and have had trouble installing it.

I was using it at one stage, with bf2, and all the ultra high malarkey, so im sure it was done, but now it's being rubbish again after i reinstalled.

Before i couldnt even get the console to install, but now it has installed, it says my device is a SB X-Fi [B800]. Now i have an inkling that's actually the X-fi audio card, but when i point my eyes at the soundcard, it really is the xtrememusic, and it has the heatsink which means it wasn't built in the 1800's right?

I was just wondering what everyone else got in their console if they have the xtrememusic, cuz should i be seeing [SB0460]? The card has brought a lot of trouble already, BSODs etc, and it is running with nforce4 in the DFI infinity, but i only bought the board at the start of the year, so thought there should be a fix built in by then?

Anyway sorry for another x-fi thread, but any elightenment would be awesome.

silversurfer · 9 Mar 2007 at 22:37

BA00 with no heatsink on mine. Remove all the drivers and reinstall them all. BF2 needs it to be in games mode to work.

Which drivers are using, I heard problems with nforce maybe ? My chipset is nvidia as well mind

Firegod · 10 Mar 2007 at 10:39

Mines [BC00]. No heatsink on my Xtreme Music version either, I bought it pretty much on the release day.

I'm running mine in a DFI Lanparty board (nVidia). Is the BIOS up-to-date on the board? Which PCI slot is the card in?

Ak!ta · 10 Mar 2007 at 10:50

I have the same card X-Fi Etreme music (OEM) on the DFI Infinity Mobo and it works fine, however i have flashed the Mobo's bios to the new version (available from DFI Website).
The only thing i am having trouble with is getting my mic to work - i have tried everything with no luck, so i may end up just getting a USB mic :mad:

Mole · 10 Mar 2007 at 10:54

The number in the brackets is not, as far as I was aware, a model number. I always thought that it is the address the card is using (in case you have more than one X-Fi you can identify them). If my memory serves, I've moved my card to another PCI slot and got a different address in the brackets.

As for the heatsink - there was some information about this on the Creative website. The early ones were made using a different fabrication method (I can't remember whether it is a smaller die size or some other difference). This meant that the early ones use less power and dissipate less heat. They had trouble producing enough of these chips to satisfy demand (or so they say, it could just be that they moved to a cheaper fabrication). The later ones need a heatsink as a result (and draw slightly more power). They are otherwise identical.

I would be inclined to think that if your card says it is the Music, then that's what it is. The rest, unfortunately, is probably software or hardware conflicts.

Have you tried moving that card to another slot or at least checking that it isn't sharing an IRQ with something more important (like your graphics card)?

Hope this helps,

Martin

Firegod · 10 Mar 2007 at 19:48

Ah cheers Mole, I never knew it wasn't a model number. Thanks for clearing that up.

timmins · 11 Mar 2007 at 19:32

Awesome so at least i'm working with the right card.

So i rebooted windows, i do it a lot which sucks, and the installation went smoothly. All was happy. I could actually load the console (which with previous installations wasn't possible.) I could actually go into gaming mode with hitting a bsod (happened last time).

But i was loading up Battlefield to see if it detected it, and during the intro, boom, and my sounds gone. I had been playing music in 24bit in winamp just before, so card was working. Anyone know what the problem is now?

In the IRQ it's 19, and is currently in my first pci slot. I'll reboot my comp, and maybe fiddle with the pci slots AGAIN and let you know how it goes. But it has lived in each slot for a while. The ****.

So tempted just to sell and cut my losses.

timmins · 11 Mar 2007 at 22:00

Little update, the card appeared to be working fine, but about 15 mins into a game of battlefield, it bumped, the sound went, then about 5 seconds later a lovely screen, the colour blue came up, but wasn't there long enough for me to see it.

Brilliant.