X-Fi Crackles

daddyorchips · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:08

Having just set up a new PC below and at the same time moved from (supposedly naff) onboard sound to Creative's new baby, I'm experiencing annoying "crackles" (or pops) from certain sound effects in games. It only appears to be noticeable on high pitch sounds - like the noise that the lego coins make when collecting them in Lego Star Wars II - and it's really starting to grate. Lower frequency bassy effects or anything nearer the mid range don't appear to exhibit these crackles.

The odd part is that it doesn't effect music (in game) or playing off the desktop. Movies seem ok too. I've tested the card out using my speakers and some headphones and both exhibit this anomaly, and am using the latest drivers (currently mentioned on the front page).

Currently, master volume is set to 79% with wave volume at 66%.

System spec is below. I'm running the X-Fi in PCI slot 2 (one up from the bottom and fairly far away from my gfx card). Should I try moving the card further away by putting it in PCI slot 1? Have I got a duff card?

Help!

Quick Spec Overview-

Intel Conroe E6600 (o/c'ed to 3ghz)
2gb G.Skill HZ Ram (running at 1:1 666mhz 4-4-4-12, dual channel)
Creative X-Fi Extreme Music
ATI X1900XT-X PCI-E
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe
600W Seasonic PSU

Also, it may be worth noting that I've got my PCI frequency locked to 33.33mhz in the bios. I've tried setting this to Auto and it made no difference. Onboard sound is also disabled.

daddyorchips · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:16

So I should try completely removing the Creative drivers and reinstalling them? Might give swapping it to another PCI slot a go at the same time then!

daddyorchips · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:30

Seems that the issue arises when the X-Fi is combined with Nvidia nForce 4 motherboards... Since the P5W-DH is based on the Intel 975 chipset, surely this shouldn't be an issue? :confused:

daddyorchips · 21 Sep 2006 at 10:20

Looks like PCI Latency could be an issue. Does anybody know of any tools you can use to both monitor and alter it on the fly?

daddyorchips · 21 Sep 2006 at 22:52

mi9tchy said:
i've got nearly the same spec and have a problem with my x-fi it starts off when i've just installed it but after playing music or a game for 5mins it starts to crackle then the sound dissappears, if i reinstall the drivers its fine for the next 5-10mins then the same thing happens

Which PCI slots have you tested the X-Fi in?

daddyorchips · 22 Sep 2006 at 22:36

M0T said:
I seemed to get crackling as well but only on high frequencies. I have just changed the pci latency of the card to 64 and so far no more crackling.

The higher the number the more access time the card has on the pci bus, the default was 32.

That's interesting, mine has already defaulted to 64 (as set in the bios too). Will try out changing the values to 32 and above/below.

Cheers for your suggestion Psycho Sonny - will give it a shot!