Win7 X-fi problem

[Armadillo]

Got an odd problem with my X-fi xtrememusic on windows 7.

Basically at random sound will stop working. If you check playback devices in sound you can only see

SPDIF Out Creative SB X-fi
Internal AUX Jack Creative SB X-fi

The listing for "Speakers Creative SB X-fi" is gone.

The card still shows up in device manager.

To fix this is easy. Either open the creative control panel and click restore defaults or if this does not work, then simply uninstall from device manager, reboot, let it reinstall the card and it's fine. Speakers Creative X-fi will show up again and sound will work.

Problem is, this is only temporary. It will do it again and process needs repeating. Sometimes it's fine for weeks, other times I'm doing this weekly.

I have the latest drivers + the recognition fix thing that is on creatives site.

Any ideas

Thanks.

 

[Armadillo]

Have a look for the relevant 'PAX driver', they are third-party drivers as it were but a lot of the PC community recommend them. Similar to how my Asus soundcard works better with third-party drivers.

Thanks, I'll look into them.

I've had this problem before and i'm pretty sure I got round it by disabling then re-enabling it in device manager.

No change. Just makes it show the red X on the speaker symbol, then back to SPDIF when I enable it again.

Used to happen to me whenever I did anything new to the PC installation wise. It used to be a pain but I remember that re installing the driver that enables the device manager to recognize it solved it most of the time. Not the actual driver for the soundcard itself but the one you install before it, I'm not a %100 sure what its called unfortunately.

At the end of the day I just bought a ASUS D2X and never looked back as it was simply more hassle than it was worth unfortunately.

I have this installed, along with the drivers.

Product Identification Module Update
"This update resolves the hardware/device detection issue for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ and X-Fi Titanium series of audio devices in Microsoft® Windows® 7."

Uninstalling that and reinstalling it, does not solve it for me unfortunately .

Only thing that seems to sort it, is either uninstall the main drivers, then reinstall or uninstall from device manager, reboot and let it pick it up again. Both are the same thing I guess, just uninstalling from device manager is quicker, than uninstalling drivers and then reinstalling (one reboot vs two).

Restore defaults from creative control panel works 50/50, if I can open it, it will work. Half the time it will just say can't find supported hardware.

I used this card for ages on XP and for a long time on 7 as well with no problems. Although for the majority on the time on 7, I did have a different motherboard. Are the Creative win7 drivers just bad? And don't like certain combinations or just randomly go wrong?

I'll have to try those other drivers and if no fix, change card. Drives me mad having to constantly do it.

 

[Armadillo]

Back. Had the card out and in another Win7 machine. Same crap.

Speakers. Multiple tested on both machines.

Creative Gigaworks T20
Generic speakers
Koss ksc75 headphones
Sennheiser HD201

All connect via standard mini jack. Card is definitely seated properly.

The only way to restore sound is to reinstall drivers or restore defaults (if it lets you open creative control panel). Card never fails to show in device manager. Only the "Speakers" option under playback devices disappears.

No amount of unplugging or changing speakers/headphones will make it come back.

It never ever does it during pc usage. It will either be fine on bootup and fine for however long the pc is on or it won't be and needs the drivers to be reinstalled.

 

[Armadillo]

Changed drivers and it's done it again. I really can't be bothered with this anymore so, Which one of the Asus cards is equal to this card?

I'm just going to change it out and stick this into an XP machine.