Creative confirms X-Fi/nForce4 problem

Sierra_abx · 10-16-2005, 02:08 AM

From AMDZone:

"Due to a handful of problems the SoundBlaster X-Fi has been causing nForce4 based motherboard owners, Creative forum representative has anounced a solution."

Creative forum link

Protoplasm72 · 10-16-2005, 02:57 AM

Guess I'm lucky because I have NF4 board and an X-Fi XtremeMusic and haven't had any problems. It's kind of surprising since I've had ever other hardware problem you could imagine with my new system

Roch_abx · 10-16-2005, 06:11 AM

I worried about this a while ago before installing my X-fi card, luckily my model doesn't seem to be an issue, as a heads up to others, the DFI-SLI-D and fatality combination have been problem free for me since install.

ATINUT · 10-16-2005, 09:56 AM

I'm not surprised, this has been known for quite awhile and Creative Labs is finally doing something.

*polonyc2* · 10-16-2005, 10:58 AM

usually it takes Creative months if not longer to respond to a problem...least they responded with a fix pretty quick this time...good for them...guess they really want this new X-Fi series to take off

PCBruiser · 10-16-2005, 11:06 AM

FYI, I am running one with my A8V Via chipset board, and I have to admit that the X-Fi has the best sound I have ever heard from computer based hardware. For me, it is a major step up in sound quality from Creative, and even with the "bloatware" they provide. They no longer make you install everything - your install can be as small as the drivers or as large as you want with as many of the applications as you want. I just installed the drivers and control panels for my minimal install.

*polonyc2* · 10-16-2005, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCBruiser

For me, it is a major step up in sound quality from Creative, and even with the "bloatware" they provide. They no longer make you install everything - your install can be as small as the drivers or as large as you want with as many of the applications as you want. I just installed the drivers and control panels for my minimal install.

that's not new with the X-Fi series, Creative has always given you the option to install as much or as little of the bloatware as you see fit...the installation CD gives you a "Drivers Only", "Customize" and "Full Installation" option...with my Audigy Gamer edition I usually "Customize" to just install the drivers along with the Creative Surround Mixer

JoeBar · 10-16-2005, 11:51 AM

Creative does that with both Audigy 2 and 2zs.

FearFactory · 10-18-2005, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by polonyc2

that's not new with the X-Fi series, Creative has always given you the option to install as much or as little of the bloatware as you see fit...the installation CD gives you a "Drivers Only", "Customize" and "Full Installation" option...with my Audigy Gamer edition I usually "Customize" to just install the drivers along with the Creative Surround Mixer

The latest drivers (dated 2002

) for my old Live 1024 Player have that option too

Dan-Baer · 10-22-2005, 03:09 PM

I am not running an nForce chip set on this rig but I am thinking of building one. I find myself using headphones more and more for gaming so, based on the reviews, I was considering an XFI and a high end set of surround headphones. I may want to eventually use the xFI in the new rig.
My question is how do you know if you are getting the latest, correct xFI card? Is there a Rev number?
Has anyone else here used an xFI with surround headphones and if so do you have a recomendation?

MacGyverSG1 · 11-19-2005, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Protoplasm72

Guess I'm lucky because I have NF4 board and an X-Fi XtremeMusic and haven't had any problems. It's kind of surprising since I've had ever other hardware problem you could imagine with my new system

I would hope all newer shipments of XtremeMusic and Platinum cards have fixed firmware.

XenoS_abx · 11-19-2005, 08:32 AM

I wanted to see if the onboard sound would be good enough first when I built my new PC (in sig). Should have figured it wouldn't be. So I grabbed an X-Fi Platinum this week.

Battlefield 2 runs pretty bad cranked up with only 512MB of memory (should have my 2x1GB OCZ at the end of the month hopefully), but other than that the experience didn't show any problems outright. I had the sound set to X-Fi and quality to ultra IIRC.

I gave the PC I was originally using to the wife which had an Audigy 2 and that is what I'm used to, so I'm glad I decided to buy the X-Fi actually. I have to say I am quite impressed with it and my new Logitech Z-5500 speakers. FWIW, I installed everything from the CD and then updated via Creative's online auto update feature. Normally I would not do this but I figured since this install of XP is temporary more than likely, I might as well see what's worth installing and what's not.

Not entirely pleased with how much bloated junk goes into the startup menu, but I do like some of the software, particularly the home media center stuff. Wish the MediaSource player supported more formats though, like Vorbis and some of the popular lossless formats (WV, FLAC, and APE). I really like the idea of having three discreet audio modes since that was something I was always having to do manually with the Audigy 2. I also like the layout and design of the general software controls for the mixer, EAX/Crystalizer, EQ, and THX setup. Everything is up front and easy to get at. Normally I don't buy into the hype, but after playing around I have to say that the crystalizer and CMSS 3D upsampling work really well for stereo music.

**pointreyes** · 11-25-2005, 03:29 PM

Well, I'm picking up the X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card at Best Buy today - no not through the checkout line, I ordered online so I can go through the pickup line.

It's starting to look like it was a good thing I waited this long to upgrade to a nF4 board. Noticed a new bios that fixes some problems with PCI SCSI controllers. I'm a little nervous building this system because all 3 of the PCI slots will be populated.

Sure wish there was a PCIe sound card.

Dan-Baer · 11-25-2005, 05:07 PM

Pointreyes, I thought you were Intel all the way or are you getting an Intel ready NF4 board?
I am getting ready to plan my next rig. I am clearly considering an AMD NF4 solution. That is my main decision, after that the rest is easy. I had such a bad experience with AMD some years agp thjat I would not consider them for many years but I am considering them again.
What will be in the 3 PCI slots?

**pointreyes** · 11-25-2005, 05:28 PM

Me? Intel all the way?

I have always had at least one AMD or more rig in my hardware since the early days of board. After the CUSL2, I even switched to using AMDs. I was one of the first on this board to have the superhot XP2100 even.

The three slots are being used for:
LSI U320 SCSI controller (a 64-bit PCI-X controller that works in the 32-bit 33Mhz slots but needs that overhang past the slot and hence reduced greatly the boards I could consider).
Hauppauge PVR-150 TV-Tuner (no I cannot use an AIW video card-they are evil for a video encoding machine - I'm going to be using Avid 7 Pro on this system)
The new sound card.

I'm building a dual-core Opteron 175 system.

10-16-2005, 02:08 AM	#1
Sierra_abx Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 13,880	Creative confirms X-Fi/nForce4 problem From AMDZone: "Due to a handful of problems the SoundBlaster X-Fi has been causing nForce4 based motherboard owners, Creative forum representative has anounced a solution." Creative forum link
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10-16-2005, 02:57 AM	#2
Protoplasm72 Mmmm..... Folding@Home Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 3,298	Guess I'm lucky because I have NF4 board and an X-Fi XtremeMusic and haven't had any problems. It's kind of surprising since I've had ever other hardware problem you could imagine with my new system __________________ proto My Folding Details "Friends, Family, Religion... These are the three demons you must slay in order to succeed in business" C.M. Burns
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10-16-2005, 06:11 AM	#3
Roch_abx Registered Abuser Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Ricmond, Surrey, UK Posts: 491	I worried about this a while ago before installing my X-fi card, luckily my model doesn't seem to be an issue, as a heads up to others, the DFI-SLI-D and fatality combination have been problem free for me since install. __________________ E6600, EVGA 680, 2GB G.Skill 6400 HZ, XFX 8800GTX, X-fi, Raptor, OP750w, A-16, Petra Tech DDC-2 Ultra, PA120.2, NEC20WGX2.
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10-16-2005, 09:56 AM	#4
ATINUT Just Plain Crazy! Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 3,278	I'm not surprised, this has been known for quite awhile and Creative Labs is finally doing something. __________________ Intel D975XBX2 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 8GB's of Mushkin HP2 6400 memory(DDR2 800) two Sapphire GDDR4 Radeon 3870 videocards HT Omega Claro(Cmedia 8788HD chip) 120GB&200GB&320GB Western Digital harddrives LG DVDROM & LG DVDBURNER HP Deskjet 920C Logitech X-540 speakers Viewsonic VG2030wm 20inch Widescreen LCD Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit with Service Pack 1 Who'se the fool that approved the design for this place. - The Dwarf, Sacred Underworld.
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10-16-2005, 10:58 AM	#5
polonyc2 Helter Skelter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: New York City Posts: 7,454	usually it takes Creative months if not longer to respond to a problem...least they responded with a fix pretty quick this time...good for them...guess they really want this new X-Fi series to take off __________________ ASUS Maximus Formula (X38) *** EVGA 8800GT Superclocked 512MB Intel E8400 * Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro G.Skill 4 GB (2 X 2 GB) DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 * Western Digital RE2 500 GB WD5001ABYS Lian Li PC-A70B (black) * Corsair HX620 AuzenTech Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 * Creative Inspire P5800 5.1 speakers Lite-On DVD-RW w/LightScribe LH-20A1L-06 * Sony GDM-F520 21' CRT monitor (19.8' viewable) Vista Business 64-bit w/SP1 * standard 3.5" floppy drive Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 *** Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500 (Black)
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10-16-2005, 11:06 AM	#6
PCBruiser Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 13,497	FYI, I am running one with my A8V Via chipset board, and I have to admit that the X-Fi has the best sound I have ever heard from computer based hardware. For me, it is a major step up in sound quality from Creative, and even with the "bloatware" they provide. They no longer make you install everything - your install can be as small as the drivers or as large as you want with as many of the applications as you want. I just installed the drivers and control panels for my minimal install. Last edited by PCBruiser : 10-16-2005 at 11:15 AM.
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10-16-2005, 11:51 AM	#8
JoeBar Bite me if u can... Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Athens Posts: 5,889	Creative does that with both Audigy 2 and 2zs. __________________ Asus P5WDG2 Premium rev. 1.02G Intel Pentium D 920 SL94S Malay @ 4.31GHz cooled by Thermaltake Big Water 745 GeCube Radeon X1900XT combined with LG 1980Q (8ms) 19' TFT monitor 2 x 1GB Transcend DDR2-533 @ 770mhz 2 x 36.7GB Western Digital Raptors Raid 0 \| 300GB Western Digital Caviar SE SATA Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtrememusic combined with Cambridge Soundworks Megaworks 550 THX Asus E616P3 DVD \| Asus 1608-P DVD-RW Thermaltake Kandalf black super tower with 4 x 120mm and 2 x 90mm blue led fans \| Chieftec 550W Triple 12V rails - 120mm fan
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10-22-2005, 03:09 PM	#10
Dan-Baer Ancient Teckie Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: California Posts: 731	How do we know? I am not running an nForce chip set on this rig but I am thinking of building one. I find myself using headphones more and more for gaming so, based on the reviews, I was considering an XFI and a high end set of surround headphones. I may want to eventually use the xFI in the new rig. My question is how do you know if you are getting the latest, correct xFI card? Is there a Rev number? Has anyone else here used an xFI with surround headphones and if so do you have a recomendation? __________________ New Rig; Asus Commando, QX6700 @ 2.93, 4 Gb Corsair (PC2-8500 Dominator), Zalman 7500, BFG 1 KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 (OS and Apps) 2 Raptors in non raid for files and client data. WD 7500AAKS for main storage, X-Fi Fatal1ty, Normal optical drives Etc. 2 Ea Samsung 24" 244t's Thanks to everyone here for all the help
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11-19-2005, 08:32 AM	#12
XenoS_abx Alien Invader Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 1,300	I wanted to see if the onboard sound would be good enough first when I built my new PC (in sig). Should have figured it wouldn't be. So I grabbed an X-Fi Platinum this week. Battlefield 2 runs pretty bad cranked up with only 512MB of memory (should have my 2x1GB OCZ at the end of the month hopefully), but other than that the experience didn't show any problems outright. I had the sound set to X-Fi and quality to ultra IIRC. I gave the PC I was originally using to the wife which had an Audigy 2 and that is what I'm used to, so I'm glad I decided to buy the X-Fi actually. I have to say I am quite impressed with it and my new Logitech Z-5500 speakers. FWIW, I installed everything from the CD and then updated via Creative's online auto update feature. Normally I would not do this but I figured since this install of XP is temporary more than likely, I might as well see what's worth installing and what's not. Not entirely pleased with how much bloated junk goes into the startup menu, but I do like some of the software, particularly the home media center stuff. Wish the MediaSource player supported more formats though, like Vorbis and some of the popular lossless formats (WV, FLAC, and APE). I really like the idea of having three discreet audio modes since that was something I was always having to do manually with the Audigy 2. I also like the layout and design of the general software controls for the mixer, EAX/Crystalizer, EQ, and THX setup. Everything is up front and easy to get at. Normally I don't buy into the hype, but after playing around I have to say that the crystalizer and CMSS 3D upsampling work really well for stereo music. __________________ My Rig: DFI LANparty NF4 SLI-DR + Evercool VC-RE (NF4LD406 BIOS) \| AMD64 X2 4400+ @ 2.5 GHz \| Thermalright SI-120 + Aerocool Xtreme Turbine \| Mushkin Redline 2GB DDR500 3-3-2-8 @ 500 MHz \| eVGA 7950 GX2 (500/1200) \| Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD \| Two 74GB Western Digital Raptors (00FLC0) \| Two 300GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10's \| LG GSA-4167B DL DVD/R/RW \| Creative X-Fi Platinum \| Logitech Z-5500 Speakers \| Aerocool ZeroDBA 620W PSU \| Cooler Master Stacker 830 Case \| Sunbeam Rheobus \| Logitech G15 Keyboard \| Logitech MX-1000 Mouse \| D-Link DGL-4300 Router \| Belkin Universal UPS 800VA
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11-25-2005, 03:29 PM	#13
pointreyes The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march. Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 18,159	Well, I'm picking up the X-Fi XtremeMusic Sound Card at Best Buy today - no not through the checkout line, I ordered online so I can go through the pickup line. It's starting to look like it was a good thing I waited this long to upgrade to a nF4 board. Noticed a new bios that fixes some problems with PCI SCSI controllers. I'm a little nervous building this system because all 3 of the PCI slots will be populated. Sure wish there was a PCIe sound card. __________________
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11-25-2005, 05:07 PM	#14
Dan-Baer Ancient Teckie Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: California Posts: 731	Pointreyes, I thought you were Intel all the way or are you getting an Intel ready NF4 board? I am getting ready to plan my next rig. I am clearly considering an AMD NF4 solution. That is my main decision, after that the rest is easy. I had such a bad experience with AMD some years agp thjat I would not consider them for many years but I am considering them again. What will be in the 3 PCI slots? __________________ New Rig; Asus Commando, QX6700 @ 2.93, 4 Gb Corsair (PC2-8500 Dominator), Zalman 7500, BFG 1 KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 (OS and Apps) 2 Raptors in non raid for files and client data. WD 7500AAKS for main storage, X-Fi Fatal1ty, Normal optical drives Etc. 2 Ea Samsung 24" 244t's Thanks to everyone here for all the help
(Offline)

11-25-2005, 05:28 PM	#15
pointreyes The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march. Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 18,159	Me? Intel all the way? I have always had at least one AMD or more rig in my hardware since the early days of board. After the CUSL2, I even switched to using AMDs. I was one of the first on this board to have the superhot XP2100 even. The three slots are being used for: LSI U320 SCSI controller (a 64-bit PCI-X controller that works in the 32-bit 33Mhz slots but needs that overhang past the slot and hence reduced greatly the boards I could consider). Hauppauge PVR-150 TV-Tuner (no I cannot use an AIW video card-they are evil for a video encoding machine - I'm going to be using Avid 7 Pro on this system) The new sound card. I'm building a dual-core Opteron 175 system. __________________
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