Win7 X-fi problem

Armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillo

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29 Feb 2004
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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.
 
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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.
 
I've had this problem before and i'm pretty sure I got round it by disabling then re-enabling it in device manager.
 
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.
 
spacedskunk said:
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.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look into them.

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

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

Infam0us said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
I have used the PAX Drivers, but they never helped me one bit. Certainly made me feel better for using it, but like you, I could go for a time with zero issues and then it would start.

Right now, Im having a headache with the headphone socket on the live drive not playing anything ( It knows its there however because it mutes the sound to the m,ain speakers as needed )

I gave up in the end and I am using my Maudio Firewire for now while I debate my audio future.

Anyway, creative have an update and the update is a Windows 8 compatible one... You could try that? - Although is that the one that also causes other issues for me?
 
Armadillo said:
Got an odd problem with my X-fi xtrememusic on windows 7.

Basically at random sound will stop working.
Click to expand...
I presume you are on the Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit 2.18.0015? ( SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_18_0015A.exe), well this is the most recent driver for the X-Fi ExtremeMusic sound card on the official Creative Worldwide Support. What speaker system are you connecting to and by what cables?, is the card seated properly? sometimes depending if you move your case around the card can come loose and just needs pusing back into place, it happened to me once or twice but i have had really good experience with the X-Fi ExtremeMusic sound card and Creative drivers, their ASIO drivers and the X-Fi is superb for midi music production, have you tried another 32-bit PCI slot?. Also quite possible the sound card is on its way out?.
Armadillo said:
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 :(.
Click to expand...
Yeah the PID APP was simply because the Creative software auto updater was not recognised with hardware upon detection, it isn't that important and is not absolutely a needed installation but it was handy for those that didn't want to manually seek out drivers and software updates, that PID APP just scans your Creative hardware and offers a direct automatic download of drivers and other stuff directly from a Creative server.
 
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.
 
i've had that happen before, but the only 'cure' i found was rebooting. it's been ages since it happened last (2-3 months) and that was what i tried. at no point though did i ever open the case up to check the card out or even consider reinstalling. after rebooting it just 'worked'

sorry for not being able to offer any real help

(that's with win7 & Xfi extrememusic)
 
It was one of my biggest bug bears with Windows 7 - at least once a month it would forget everything bar the spdif output on my XiFi - nothing stops it from happening - the PAX drivers are worth using because they seem to last longer between reinstalls but the main thing is they're one combined .exe so you can reinstate everything in one go - one reason I'm pleased I swapped to Windows 8 - not happened once since I swapped (however, Windows 8 does have the problem with it forgetting your speaker settings if you don't use XiFi mode but since I used it anyway wasn't really a problem for me).


DinAlt
 
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.
 
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These are my drivers that Ive been using for years without any problems........

image2sz.jpg
 
I use Pax drivers with my xtrememusic, never had any issues, always had issues with the creative ones for some reason, like the balance used to shift to the left and volume sliders would reset etc
 
I eventually gave up and threw my Fatality Platinum PCI job into another PC, where it has been sat giving me ZERO grief since that day.

I replaced it with a Xonar and guess what? The Xonar also gives me similar headaches.

Im now back on creative and this time the ZXR and so far, so good.
 
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