X-Fi keeps disappearing

[idiotekniQues]

man this card is tickin me off, and i just sent off my audigy 2zs that i sold yesterday. now, since yesterday night, sometimes when i restart my pc the x-fi is found as a new pci device. i get no sound and i have to reinstall my drivers again.

this is getting ridiculous.

i used driver cleaner pro to clear the audigy drivers, but it wasnt the most current version of it.

any suggestions?

 

[idiotekniQues]

ahhh nm, i found a nice long thread over at creative and it is obvious that this problem has been gong on for over a year and they havent even tried to fix it.

 

[ribbon13]

Dude, Oxygen HD CMI8788 chipset all the way!

The HT OMEGA CLARO Plus is the best general sound card on the market IMHO.

 

[Auric]

Sounds like the OS is dynamically assigning diff'rent resources, perhaps due to some other device being intermittent? I suggest either assigning specific resources via BIOS/CMOS Setup else moving the card to a diff'rent slot.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Auric
Sounds like the OS is dynamically assigning diff'rent resources, perhaps due to some other device being intermittent? I suggest either assigning specific resources via BIOS/CMOS Setup else moving the card to a diff'rent slot.

yeah i tried all that. it is a creative issue.

i really cant wait for a solution for gamers. i mostly use the pc sound for gaming. music is a second priority. i dont watch movies on here yet.

what are the best non-creative solutions for gamers that are around 100 bucks?

 

[Auric]

Welp there isn't really anything comparable (able to produce the same content, let alone in hardware). If the Audigy worked then get one of those again. I wouldn't spend as much or more than their $40-60 on anything else since that would entail getting less for your money. I suppose a generic C-Media based card for half that could work for basic DirectSound3D. But you'd be giving up OpenAL and any effects (if software EAX2 is enabled then voices are dumbed down to 32).

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Auric
Welp there isn't really anything comparable (able to produce the same content, let alone in hardware). If the Audigy worked then get one of those again. I wouldn't spend as much or more than their $40-60 on anything else since that would entail getting less for your money. I suppose a generic C-Media based card for half that could work for basic DirectSound3D. But you'd be giving up OpenAL and any effects (if software EAX2 is enabled then voices are dumbed down to 32).

so best bet is to wait for non-creative open AL compatible cards to come out?

 

[Auric]

If any were forthcoming shouldn't they have been ready when Vista was released, if not within the previous few years since major OpenAL titles were available?

C-Media stated there would be no OpenAL driver for their hardware yet Auzentech promised to deliver. So far they have failed and I suspect it has just been weasel words to prop up sales of their overpriced cards. Now, with the purchase of Creative chips they have effectively conceded there is only one option for gaming.

On the other hand, I suppose Creative needs to increase market share but who knows perhaps it is part of a nefarious scheme to unload PCI specific parts before introducing PCIe exclusively themselves. :Q

 

[bwall04]

From what I've experienced it's a problem between some of the 965/975 chipsets and the X-Fi. My Gigabyte DS3 was doing this constantly and I also had some problems on the Intel BadAxe 1. No problems with the reference based 680i chipset boards, Intel BadAxe 2, or Asus P5B-Deluxe wifi. Note that the P5B uses the 965 chipset also but does not have the problem.

 

[idiotekniQues]

if you look at the threads on creative about this problem, it is not limited to one chipset or board manufacturer - the list of mobos that had this isssue is very lengthy and contain nVidia as well as intel chipsets.

creative seems to like it when we think it is another piece of hardware's fault, but then it gets shown that it is not so.

 

[chizow]

I had some problems with Creative drivers when I moved from my Audigy 2 to X-Fi. I think part of it is the entire X-Fi package not installing correctly because it tries to use some of the Audigy 2 dlls. Part of the problem with the X-Fi install is that you can't uninstall all of the old Audigy 2 drivers if you have the X-Fi in because its using some of them. Try uninstalling the X-Fi, then uninstalling all drivers. Reinstall the X-Fi and then reinstall the drivers. Overall I hate getting Creative drivers working, but I've yet to find a better sound solution so I guess I'm stuck with Creative products until something better comes out.