X-Fi Music problem.....

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13 Nov 2005
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Hi, since putting my X-Fi Music in this system I keep hearing a loud high pitched static noise while playing a games occationally. Usually doesnt last long but does scare the crap out of me....

The PCI freq reads as only 33 and i've tried using a different PCI slot... Why is it doing this? :(
 
It's a known problem with the XiFi range.

Basically there's issues with the PCI bus and the XiFi card gets starved. The result is the crackle.
 
NickK said:
It's a known problem with the XiFi range.

Basically there's issues with the PCI bus and the XiFi card gets starved. The result is the crackle.

Well that sucks, are creative gonna fix this ?

Any recommendations for a different soundcard that doesnt have this issue because knowing creative they probably will never get this fixed.. :mad:
 
Supposedly Creative released a driver that fixed it.. I've not had problems myself but I don't have any other PCI cards on the ol' PCI bus..
 
NickK said:
Supposedly Creative released a driver that fixed it.. I've not had problems myself but I don't have any other PCI cards on the ol' PCI bus..

Well I'm on the latest driver so its either not true or i've got a different issue.. :(
 
wel i also have had a odd issue my card used to appear as the SB X-Fi [8000] and now it comes up as SB X-Fi [A000] and doesnt allow me to switch the digital out to a mic input and thts if tht input works at all
 
Have you tried using a PCI Latency tool to change the value and see if that helps? Is the BIOS up-to-date?

Try also, I don't know if this will fix the problem, but change the PC to an ACPI PC via Device Manager. This fixed stuttering problems on the old nForce2 motherboards but I'm also sure it fixed problems on my old PC with my Audigy2 sound card.
 
Firegod said:
Have you tried using a PCI Latency tool to change the value and see if that helps? Is the BIOS up-to-date?

Try also, I don't know if this will fix the problem, but change the PC to an ACPI PC via Device Manager. This fixed stuttering problems on the old nForce2 motherboards but I'm also sure it fixed problems on my old PC with my Audigy2 sound card.

Yep, bios is uptodate, my not going to mess round with the PCI latency tool... It already is a ACPI PC, ACPI Multiprocessor.. I'll probably loose a core in windows if I changed it..
 
Shocky-FM said:
Yep, bios is uptodate, my not going to mess round with the PCI latency tool... It already is a ACPI PC, ACPI Multiprocessor.. I'll probably loose a core in windows if I changed it..


PCI latency is a deceptive term, it actually refers to the number of cycles a device has access to the pci bus for in one go. 8 cycles of every data burst is used up by error checking so a pci latency of 32 will only have 24 cycles of data transmission on the pci bus before the next device takes over. Since most X-fi problems are caused by buffer underruns, increasing the access time on the pci bus to 64 decreases the issues of static and pops that are associated with long delays in data transmission over the bus.

In short, test the soundcard with a PCI latency of 64 using the latency config tool, I haven't discovered any adverse affects so far using the same motherboard and its worth a shot since it seems to fix most problems.
 
M0T said:
PCI latency is a deceptive term, it actually refers to the number of cycles a device has access to the pci bus for in one go. 8 cycles of every data burst is used up by error checking so a pci latency of 32 will only have 24 cycles of data transmission on the pci bus before the next device takes over. Since most X-fi problems are caused by buffer underruns, increasing the access time on the pci bus to 64 decreases the issues of static and pops that are associated with long delays in data transmission over the bus.

In short, test the soundcard with a PCI latency of 64 using the latency config tool, I haven't discovered any adverse affects so far using the same motherboard and its worth a shot since it seems to fix most problems.

Hmm, ok i'll give it a try.. so just set the latency to 64.. I'm guessing i'll have to apply this everytime I startup..
 
Shocky-FM said:
Hmm, ok i'll give it a try.. so just set the latency to 64.. I'm guessing i'll have to apply this everytime I startup..

You can try values like 64, 128, 256, etc.

But the programme should put a startup entry on the PC so it's applied automatically everytime. :)

I'm sure the tool I used was from Guru3d.com, so try searching for it on that site.
 
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