X-FI music driving me insane

Steeps · 13 Apr 2008 at 15:45

2 xfi xtrememusic cards later and still having problems, first didn't want to play ball at all making a mess of 2 systems trying to get drivers etc working, in the end I formatted one and tried again on a fresh install with no luck. After a few reinstalls though I managed to get the second card working without it BSODing on the install.

Now comes the fun. Moving to tri-monitor I now have added a PCI graphics card to the system which the XFi is rejecting. I've tried having them in different pci slots, moving them around but it's still the same. Scrolling things on the other screens causes noise and the DVI on screen 3 keeps flickering due to signal loss, not sure if it is getting the necessary power from the pci bus but again it seems to be sound related.

I can put up with the flicker and the noise to an extent, but it's causing stuttering in programs, I've also developed jumpy sound and squeal of death locking the pc.

I'm annoyed, I've spent cash on 2 cards to see if its my system that can't take it or duff cards. As they both act differently and like a kid on work experience it's not really an experience I want to go through again.

Am I going to have to lose my pci card to keep the stability, or is the xfi music going to have to go. Urgh all I want is a stable PC!

hohum · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:15

I'd be tempted to just get rid of the XFI personally, don't think they're really worth the effort anymore. Just my opinion though.

Steeps · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:27

It's a shame because now I actually have some speakers worth putting quality sound through and I can't get it to work without lockups. (And it did sound better

)

RobH · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:32

Yeah the X-Fi is not a reliable piece of hardware. I installed Vista x64 last night and it didn't even notice that the X-Fi was plugged in. I removed it, booted, shutdown, reinserted and it seemed to find it. Driver seemed to work okay except but the mic is a bit dodgy and I can hear myself on my speakers and I can't find any way to mute the channel that is causing that problem. I don't dare hookup the IO drive and try and install that software, I'm just happy that it works and that I didn't shell out over £90 to buy this card brand new. It's a complete mess and I wouldn't recommend buying an X-Fi card.

hohum · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:42

Steeps said:
It's a shame because now I actually have some speakers worth putting quality sound through and I can't get it to work without lockups. (And it did sound better )

Perhaps consider looking at another card such as the Xonar (which I'm considering myself at the moment).

Steeps · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:57

At ~£25 a pop I thought the xfi would be great SH, but now paying £50 for them the last thing I really want to be doing is forking out another £100 for a soundcard. Tempted to scrap the triplescreen project and go back to dual pc's. It looks fancy but not very productive. Might try using it in a different pc with no xfi.

Final8y · 13 Apr 2008 at 17:22

RobH said:
Yeah the X-Fi is not a reliable piece of hardware. I installed Vista x64 last night and it didn't even notice that the X-Fi was plugged in. I removed it, booted, shutdown, reinserted and it seemed to find it. Driver seemed to work okay except but the mic is a bit dodgy and I can hear myself on my speakers and I can't find any way to mute the channel that is causing that problem. I don't dare hookup the IO drive and try and install that software, I'm just happy that it works and that I didn't shell out over £90 to buy this card brand new. It's a complete mess and I wouldn't recommend buying an X-Fi card.

By default the mic will be set To What U Hear & on top of that the mic will be set to 40% playback through speakers, so all that can be put right in the Control launcher mixer.

RobH · 13 Apr 2008 at 18:14

Final8y said:
By default the mic will be set To What U Hear & on top of that the mic will be set to 40% playback through speakers, so all that can be put right in the Control launcher mixer.

Thanks, didn't have Creative Console Launcher installed, all seems to be working now.

Schizo · 13 Apr 2008 at 18:21

RobH said:
Yeah the X-Fi is not a reliable piece of hardware. I installed Vista x64 last night and it didn't even notice that the X-Fi was plugged in. I removed it, booted, shutdown, reinserted and it seemed to find it. Driver seemed to work okay except but the mic is a bit dodgy and I can hear myself on my speakers and I can't find any way to mute the channel that is causing that problem. I don't dare hookup the IO drive and try and install that software, I'm just happy that it works and that I didn't shell out over £90 to buy this card brand new. It's a complete mess and I wouldn't recommend buying an X-Fi card.

look for daniel k drivers,he was the man who made drivers for vista and they do work.
worth a try imho.