Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? - Page 2

**PanzerHans** · 01-25-2007, 03:11 PM

I found the culprit in my system. I might have been too harsh with my Xfi.

**Rock** · 01-25-2007, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PanzerHans

I found the culprit in my system. I might have been too harsh with my Xfi.

What was it then?

**WhiskeySix** · 01-25-2007, 03:19 PM

I've had this happen on both an Audigy 2 and Audigy 4... both times it was when I was over clocking the system. On Pentium 4's, the clock rates of the PCI-bus, CPU, and memory (RAM) are all derived from the Front Side Bus (FSB) clock rate. So to OC your processor, you have to increase the FSB. Unfortunately, this can also increases the PCI clock. Sound cards are super sensitive to the PCI clock rate and will crash if it's A) too high or B) not stable.

For the A problem, check your bios and see if there's a way to increase the divider (lower the rate) for your PCI bus. The default should be 66MHz, but it might be more stable lowering it to say 60MHz.

To help with B, check is if you have "Spread Spectrum" enabled. To reduce EMI, intel added this feature which basically causes that main clock rate to fluctuate ever so slightly ("clock jitter"). I believe this propagates through out that clock domain... which could cause the Sound Card's sensitive PLL to fail. Spread Spectrum should be able to be disabled via BIOS.

**PanzerHans** · 01-25-2007, 03:31 PM

It was the secondary soundblastercard. I had a recurring latency spike everdy 15 seconds. Once I removed the card the latency spikes were gone. Try disabling onboard audio of your motherboard has it and recheck with the latency tool.

**corporate** · 01-25-2007, 08:19 PM

I have an X-Fi card. I haven't had any problems. Here are my specs.

A8N32-SLI Deluxe
X-Fi
7900GS
2GB RAM
Athlon XP 4000+

B. Clawhammer · 01-25-2007, 10:16 PM

I've owned both the Gamer Platinum Z (or whatever it was) and now the X-FI platinum. Zero problems with the Gamer Platinum card, but the X-FI platinum did yield pops and crackles. In particular, for me, it was due to running SLI. I noticed if I disabled SLI, my sound works fine. Updating drivers didn't help, and changing pci slots didn't help. I read somewhere (Creative forums?) that it could be a problem of lack of power (SLI & the powerful soundcard), but I figured 600w should be plenty of juice.

However, everything seems to run fine now, even with SLI running. I gave up trying to troubleshoot this issue and just roll with it, and low and behold, no pops or crackling in any games or anything. I'm not sure why it decided to start working right, but that issue seems to have been fixed. Now, instead of popping and crackling, it seems that my mic port seems to have gone out. Weird...

Specs:

amd 4400+
asus a8n 32 sli delux
2gb kvr
2x 7800gt's
600w ultra psu

Snail88 · 01-25-2007, 11:13 PM

works fine here ever since i got it...wouldnt give it up for anything.

abit ksi sli mobo
4800+
2 gb ocz ram
watercooled 8800gtx

FriedFish · 01-26-2007, 02:50 AM

I've had no problems with my x-fi extreme music with the following setup:

AMD64 3200+
ECS motherboard with a SiS chipset
1 gb ram
7600GT AGP

I've never had any issues, bur I did disable and removed drivers for my onboard sound before I installed my x-fi.

01-25-2007, 03:11 PM	#16 (permalink)
PanzerHans Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: By the PC Age: 35 Posts: 2,262	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? I found the culprit in my system. I might have been too harsh with my Xfi. __________________ -- VI VI VI - the number of the beast

01-25-2007, 03:19 PM	#18 (permalink)
WhiskeySix Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Gillette Stadium, Section 309, Row 12, Seat 24 Age: 33 Posts: 8,526	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? I've had this happen on both an Audigy 2 and Audigy 4... both times it was when I was over clocking the system. On Pentium 4's, the clock rates of the PCI-bus, CPU, and memory (RAM) are all derived from the Front Side Bus (FSB) clock rate. So to OC your processor, you have to increase the FSB. Unfortunately, this can also increases the PCI clock. Sound cards are super sensitive to the PCI clock rate and will crash if it's A) too high or B) not stable. For the A problem, check your bios and see if there's a way to increase the divider (lower the rate) for your PCI bus. The default should be 66MHz, but it might be more stable lowering it to say 60MHz. To help with B, check is if you have "Spread Spectrum" enabled. To reduce EMI, intel added this feature which basically causes that main clock rate to fluctuate ever so slightly ("clock jitter"). I believe this propagates through out that clock domain... which could cause the Sound Card's sensitive PLL to fail. Spread Spectrum should be able to be disabled via BIOS. __________________ *PoE2 Version 2.5 Overview \| Get started with PoE2 (for free!)*

01-25-2007, 03:31 PM	#19 (permalink)
PanzerHans Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: By the PC Age: 35 Posts: 2,262	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? It was the secondary soundblastercard. I had a recurring latency spike everdy 15 seconds. Once I removed the card the latency spikes were gone. Try disabling onboard audio of your motherboard has it and recheck with the latency tool. __________________ -- VI VI VI - the number of the beast

01-25-2007, 08:19 PM	#20 (permalink)
corporate Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Knoxville, TN Age: 37 Posts: 398	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? I have an X-Fi card. I haven't had any problems. Here are my specs. A8N32-SLI Deluxe X-Fi 7900GS 2GB RAM Athlon XP 4000+

01-25-2007, 10:16 PM	#21 (permalink)
B. Clawhammer Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Central Valley, CA Age: 30 Posts: 1,839	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? I've owned both the Gamer Platinum Z (or whatever it was) and now the X-FI platinum. Zero problems with the Gamer Platinum card, but the X-FI platinum did yield pops and crackles. In particular, for me, it was due to running SLI. I noticed if I disabled SLI, my sound works fine. Updating drivers didn't help, and changing pci slots didn't help. I read somewhere (Creative forums?) that it could be a problem of lack of power (SLI & the powerful soundcard), but I figured 600w should be plenty of juice. However, everything seems to run fine now, even with SLI running. I gave up trying to troubleshoot this issue and just roll with it, and low and behold, no pops or crackling in any games or anything. I'm not sure why it decided to start working right, but that issue seems to have been fixed. Now, instead of popping and crackling, it seems that my mic port seems to have gone out. Weird... Specs: amd 4400+ asus a8n 32 sli delux 2gb kvr 2x 7800gt's 600w ultra psu __________________ \|TG-33rd\|Clawhammer [squadl] [sniper][unit] BF2 Rules & SOPs

01-26-2007, 02:50 AM	#23 (permalink)
FriedFish Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 928	Re: Soundblaster X-Fi a complete waste of $? I've had no problems with my x-fi extreme music with the following setup: AMD64 3200+ ECS motherboard with a SiS chipset 1 gb ram 7600GT AGP I've never had any issues, bur I did disable and removed drivers for my onboard sound before I installed my x-fi.

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