|  | | The Creative X-Fi Scandal @ NGOHQ |
The media around the world already covered it and revealed all these issues many months ago. Creative even confirmed some of these issues. Today after many months, we did a little research to find out what has happened since then. We found out that only a few manufacturers have released BIOS updates to solve some of these issues. Creative has made a mysterious firmware upgrade that cannot be found on their website, and some users claimed it killed their card. According to users in their forums, most of the effected consumers are STILL having issues with the X-Fi series. Read Here | | 78 Comments | | | Well I make no bones about Creative and how I feel about them and their crappy drivers ... this is a disappointment for sure  | | | | After SB-Live Value,I stopped using them,no more problems. | | | | ngohq is now known as scandal-hq!  every week another scandal lol
gj for protecting people against companis like creative! | | | | All these companies you mentioned are having competition and they are supporting their products. ATi is releasing software update every month! You’re lucky if your card is working well but there are many users that experiencing issues. If this issue can be solved by BIOS update then Creative is capable to fix it with software. BIOS is a software after all.
Creative has confirmed these issues and they are not doing enough to fix it. Look at Realtek for example, they release update every 2-3 weeks and personally, I never had any issues with their ALC products. My advice for creative is to replace their entire software department! Look at your startup entries in the registry, Creative is taking a lot of ram from your computer. There are issues with other products as well but a critical issue (BSOD on startup) deserves top attention.
And about “this is a very cheap trick to get some traffic in”. NGOHQ is about helping you the consumers. That’s why we offer drivers and information. We’re trying to help and that article is about to get help these who are having issues. We are not forcing users to register or putting tons of annoying pop-ups. There are many websites with too much commercial B/S and sometimes to grab so patch you need to register or to download it on 10kb/s. We’re just trying to help and yes we have expenses too! Hosting server is not a cheap thing and this work requires a lot of time. I’m doing my job here almost for free! And trust me it’s not easy. It's not cheap to offer you guys the chance to download stuff without any limits on fast server! Every 2-3 days is about 600-800gb of bandwidth.
All we want is to see all these users who are having issues happy again and support for the customers. They pay good money for it and they deserve it! |
Last edited by Regeneration; May 2nd, 2006 at 06:23 PM..
| Quote | | | | | I also have a Creative X-Fi card ... with 0 problems
but ... it's true ... about their driver support, it's total crap, not only for sound cards | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by zme-ul I also have a Creative X-Fi card ... with 0 problems
but ... it's true ... about their driver support, it's total crap, not only for sound cards | Intel? | | | | That's why I never buy the "latest, greatest" hardware and games. I always wait to see what pans out and who updates what and what stuff seems to be crap. I've heard both positive and negative things about the X-Fi series but I won't buy one simply because of the high price. I grabbed an Audigy 2 ZS OEM and couldn't be happier. Since August of last year when I purchased the card Creative has released ONE driver update. One. That's pathetic. But hey... the card works very well and the audio quality is way over the onboard sound. Thanks for the heads-up, NGO. I won't buy an X-Fi anytime soon! | | | | Regen isn't the first one to point thi problem with nforce 4 chipsets
not to forget that, in the past, Live! had an issue with VIA's KT266 chipset
P.S.: Yes Regen, I'm an Intel user ... since my first PC i've never switched |
Last edited by zme-ul; May 2nd, 2006 at 07:21 PM..
Reason: bad grammar
| Quote | | | | | Well Reg for sure has got a point here. If I recall correctly there were also issues with Audigy 1 cards.
Creative SUCKS with software for Windows and their "Linux support" ( "driver is in ALSA , use it " lol ).
I use Audigy 2 for a few years now and I had 0 problems with it. New drivers ? Yeach this could be nice. Creative started to do packs like NVIDIA and ATI - one driver for Audigy1/2/X-Fi. | | | | Thankx to NGOHQ for bringing the plight and hardship that some consumers have experienced from using Creative's X-Fi cards such as me. I would testify to the fact that my X-Fi card has gone kaboom after a bios update and a driver update!! I experienced a ton of BSOD's and one of my PCI slots has gone dead due to the card!! I had major amounts of IRQ issues brought upon by the card!! I use a DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D and this card has major issues with NF4 Chipset!! The day my card died i went out and got me an Auzentech X-Plosion card and this card is phenomenal in every aspect and has better support than Creative!! I don't think i would ever buy a Creative product again!! Their lack of support and minimal driver updates and hoggin of computer resources is unacceptable and people should boycott the use of their products!! | | | | My Xfi troubles are detailed in my emails to Creative's Forum ...
They are about the Xfi card dropping the DIN digital 5.1 output jack without any notice! This means my expensive Creative Inspire 5700 Digital 5.1 Speakers were rendered useless or at least Stereo!! The Creative email support either lied or were ignorant and repeatedly assured me digital 5.1 surround sound would work. Their Forum was more honest! They admit there is no way to get the digital speakers working in 5.1 / 7.1 with the Xfi cards! Most Creative Speakers are now analogue! Or have analogue alternative connectors, unlike my Inspire 5700!! I notice Creative still do an Audigy 2 with the 5.1 digital out! The Audigy 4 has it removed however, like the Xfi series!
I also have the popping sound problem. I have added my 3 cents worth to the 161+ posts on the problem on Creative's forums.creative.com
SO the XFi has the popping problem & the dropped 5.1 digital output and of course there is to be no support for Linux. Creative obviously view their customers with contempt!
I am finished with buying from Creative. I have had their products since the 8 bit Sound Blaster and also had several nvidia video cards from Creative and the Inspire Speakers.
Their EAX still does not work 100%. You STILL cannot get VOIP working with EAX in games like UT2004, Battlefield 2 & Half Live2 and other Source engine games!! EAX is now in iteration 5 I think! Their driver updates seldom help and do NOTHING to cure this problem!
The company's solution to faults is “Tough Luck! We found no problems but buy the next hardware and maybe the fault will be gone!”
Well I for one will NOT be buying anymore!! Sixteen times bitten!! etc etc
Hardware
MSI i875P Neo-FISR pcb2 (MS-6758) P4 3.2GHz HT 1Mb F2 cache 800MHz FSB
Gigabyte 3D Cooler Ultra PCU31-VH 2004 GT Edition.
Corsair TwinX 2048-3200C2PT DDR400 SDRAM (2.3.3.6)
AMI BIOS 3.6 PAT, MAT: Turbo, DOT: Colonel
XFX Geforce 6800GT 256Mb GDDR3
IIyama 22inch Monitor HA202DT
Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card
Speed-Link Medusa 5.1 Headphones SL-8790
Zalman Theatre 6 ZM-RS6F 5.1 Headphones
3x Maxtor 120Gb HD Diamond Max Plus 9
1x S-ATA & 2xATA133. all HDs fan cooled
in alloy caddies S-ATA in Cooler Master CoolDrive 6
LG HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-4166B & Panasonic [Matshita] DVD ROM SR-8587
10 Bay Tower. 3 fan 520watt Hiper 520T PSU
|
Last edited by hetzer; May 2nd, 2006 at 08:42 PM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead It is surely above standards like pop up windows and such you have mentioned.
But this does not make it journalism.
Article we discuss here is based on disinformation. Let me present you just a few points you may want to consider:
1) How come Creative has no competition and then you mention Realtec and how "cool" they are.  There is plenty of other manufacturers, but they lack technology Creative offers and this is the reason why people buy X-Fi and not something else; speaking for myself here at least... This is indeed a very good sound card and this article attempts to bad-mouth it. I do not think it is fair and that's why I am here.
2) Statistics - as shown with a list of other google matches.
Btw.: 11,200 matches for <Realtec Issues> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...es&btnG=Search
Oh, I am sure they are great, but why then there are som many people having problems?
Or perhaps there are always people having issues? With anything? Do you listen to them when they moan and complain? Do you want to be like them? Or perhaps you know you stuff, your PC, your graphics, sound and mobo?
3) Releasing updates every 3 weeks does not quite mean good support or quality. I judge good support by quality of updates and lenght of support. Also by speed of mail responses I am getting and their quality...The fact that a company releases 5 updates a month can suggest project coordination and/or testing problems. It is not necesarilly good thing.
4) Most people buy ready-made PC. Then they decide to upgrade a component. If they have never opened PC before 1 out of 10 of them will seek asistance on forums or else in a transparent manner. That's just one of the reasons why many people post about "AMD issues", "Geforce issues" "ATI issues" "Intel Issues" and "Creative or Realtec" or Whatever issues.
This is simply put attention seekeing for your PC problems, problems that result from an inefficiency withing your system, inefficiency that you are not able to pin down on your own. So you seek assistance on forums. And that's OK. I helped a number of people on forums. Sound is more abstract then vision so people get confused.
But blaming hardware, "crappy drivers" and so on in an online article does not help anyone.
It is simply put: lame.
Just my $0.02 | There is no disinformation in that article. You didn't even provide a counterpoint to any of your "opinions". We also didn't mention the Google search to prove how bad it was, instead of listing all the problems people can read about them on their own.
If you don't think its 'fair' then think about this. How long did they last in the Video card business? They can't handle competition. They need their own corner or they lose the fight. | | | | This article isn't based on personal opinion, or Fanboy-ism. This company has consistently ignored its customers, and the amount of hardware/software issues are well above the norm.
For example, back when I worked for DELL, we disabled Full-Duplex Mode on all Sound Blaster cards because the problems it caused outweighed the functionality it added. DELL backed them up by telling customers the cards didn't support Full-Duplex mode. This is but one example out of many. For those few that have no problems with their cards, Kudos. Just remember you are in the minority, not the majority. | | | | Creative isn't the only computer hardware manufacturer who releases hardware without propper support for their clients...
I have an steering wheel from Trust model FF380, now known as GM-3500R (a very very good wheel for the money spent on it), and the driver support, the lack of it, makes me mad; look at the date ... a year passed since the last driver was released http://www.trust.com/service/downloa...rid=1000002134
another example ... Leadtek's Winfast DVR2000; drivers for Windows XP-64bit - none
last driver update ... 6 months ago ... http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/suppor...inFast+DV2000+
let's take a look to the other side ... the product
item in discution: PowerColor's Theater 550 PRO tv tunner
- after 1 day of use, the components (tuner, chipset, on board memory) are so hot that your skin from the finger may fry if you touch them; discussed this with propper channels in my contry ... they say I'm mad
should I continue ... NO!
They ALL deserve a HellFire missile up their pants! |
Last edited by zme-ul; May 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 PM..
Reason: added some things
| Quote | | | | | Another X-Fi user with 0 problems and only good things to say.
I have the 64mb Fatal1ty version. | | | | I also another X-FI user who doesnt have any of those problems, yes I on a DFI LPUT NF4 SLi-D motherboard. You cant only point the finger at just once company thats bias.
I think its some kind of setting in the bios that making the problem happen on the Asus nf4 sli. Because I know other people with NF3 and NF4 chipset motheboards who do not have those problems.
But you need to do some research before saying that all NF3 and NF4 motherboards has problems with the soundcard because they dont , and not every one has the problems.
usually the pci lacteny to 64 usually fixes it,and then they could have tried putting a HS on the sound chip on the card if they knew how to. If i remember right heat could be doing it for those that has the problem.
But as I said I not having any of those problems, and no hardware is perfect because what i getting from you is that your trying to say other companies dont have problems with there hardware and there perfect when there isnt.
Realtek,intel,amd,ati,nvidia, and so forth hardware also can have problems , also i rather have a driver update that takes a while to comeout then one every week. | | | | Eraserhead you already sad 2 or 3 times some thing that make me angry ( i dont wanna take part in rest of this discussion coz i dont have enought info to do so)
Puting it short you sayng that if someone have problems with they hardware , is becouse they lame and cant take care of they PC , and that causes the issues. ??
nCaine
"And I do think having problems with X-Fi is lame.
Just think: 90% people had encountered difficulties with regular mice due to dust and debris which might have been easily removed. Most people would not know how to do that. That's what I call lame."
"Or perhaps there are always people having issues? With anything? Do you listen to them when they moan and complain? Do you want to be like them? Or perhaps you know you stuff, your PC, your graphics, sound and mobo?"
"Most people buy ready-made PC. Then they decide to upgrade a component. If they have never opened PC before 1 out of 10 of them will seek asistance on forums or else in a transparent manner. That's just one of the reasons why many people post about "AMD issues", "Geforce issues" "ATI issues" "Intel Issues" and "Creative or Realtec" or Whatever issues. "
Your words
PS. Dont know why you so anger mate , you act lil like this was uber personal case for you. |
Last edited by nCaine; May 2nd, 2006 at 11:23 PM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead What really makes me "angry" is that ngohq goes for worst tabloid type of fairy-tale-journalism and I used to rely on news from this source. This is very dissapointing. | Tell it to these guys here. | | | | This is creative own forums. It smells fishy to me.
One 100 pages long thread does not mean those guys know what they are talking about.
I met some of them on other forums.
They would never follow any troubleshooting. They just want yelling at you. Sissy attention seeking n00bs most of them.
This is not well researched material. You saw one panicky thread and this made the whole story. This is not professional. Oh well. Not my problem, really, I guess.. |
Last edited by Eraserhead; May 3rd, 2006 at 12:19 AM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Regeneration | I saw a lot of solutions in that thread.......and I saw even more people post in the thread without reading what was posted before them.
I bet that I can go to any forum for computer hardware and find a 100 page thread like that.
Oh well - only good can come out of this imo....it just seems that it's Creative bashing or a call to boycott.
Maybe you should've listed the common problems that those people were having? Like what hardware seems to not be compatible..... |
Last edited by LegionarivsXIII; May 3rd, 2006 at 12:33 AM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote:
This wont WILL NOT solve the problem
But go go into your creative console launcher
and put the VOLUME to 50% , im starting to see
that this Card suffers exactly as the soundstorm.
Just put it to 50% volume and turn up the volume
manually by your speaker control or headphone control
its not a total fix but it helps alot
| quoted from the same link Regen posted from the Creative's forum | | | | What really gripes me is the lack of Linux support.
I bought the X-Fi XMusic in December last year and up to now it is still sitting in its box because Creative failed to create the drivers!
The webcam and speaker system I am about to buy this month will not have their logo. | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Radon What really gripes me is the lack of Linux support.
I bought the X-Fi XMusic in December last year and up to now it is still sitting in its box because Creative failed to create the drivers!
The webcam and speaker system I am about to buy this month will not have their logo. | I read somewhere in that Creative thread posted that somebody has it running on Linux. | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead Yes, I have X-Fi and I have no problems with it. Most people that have X-Fi in their sig on any forums will tell you they also do not have problems. They know how to use PC, what happens to resources when you add a new graphics, sound card etc.
People who are not familar with PC will always run into troubles with them and they will seek advice on forums. This is natural but leaves gazillions of "I have issue with" type of threads.
I daresay most PC problems are not fault of PC but its user, same goes to car accidents and marriages. I see nothing special about X-Fi that could shake this rule of statistics. That's it. If anyone prefers to believe fairy tales this is your choice. | So you again say that people who have issues with X-Fi card are lame noobs who just gona run in issues with everythiung , so why bother. Hmmmm thats lame mate.
You repeat your self in almos every post , i dont get it. | | | | I think the issue here is that people are trying to legitimize paying 200$ for a sound card. My sound came with my motherboard and I don't have any problems. All of you that said you haven't had any problems are still a minority as far as this thread shows.
{BORG}You are being assimilated{BORG} | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by beepers101 In my opinion anytime you see a website like this one that "encourages" the use of OPTIMIZED drivers and then has the audacity to attack a soundcard company with false accusations of producing flawed products and then has no basis at all in factual evidence,doesnt deserve to be viewed in ANY medium as holding any credentials.
The matter is simply this.ANYONE that has issues with Xi-Fi is either running an ancient machine that cant handle the bandwidth or has improperly configured thier systems.Once people learn to READ and do proper research in this matter and discover that you don't just run a computer out of the box without doing so,the bitching about crappy drivers and crappy products will continue to be a highly laughable matter to those of us that know what we're doing.
There are so many many combinations of hardware out there for people to choose from and make educational decisions when building a system.The most common response I hear whenever asking the simple question trying to solve a hardware issue that someone is having after asking them if thier system has been configured properly is a blank stare.CONFIGURED?....whats that? they say.
I just have to shake my head and laugh. | Wow......... Your wisdom is mind-numbing.
Did you read anything in this thread?
An aweful lot of people today who registered today are posting in this thread. Makes you wonder...................................... | | | | NOTE: All of you 'fans' of Creative Labs are missing the entire point of the article. If our article makes a difference it will only benefit consumers. If you don't want regular driver updates and fixes for issues then by all means keep criticizing us. Our main purpose is to keep consumers informed. If you don't like that then go somewhere else.
By the way, whether it is a coincidence or not, CL are releasing a new driver update this week. Enjoy.  | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead
Let me explain:
If I get hardware I want to get it from reliable source and Creative is one - despite all the anti-Creative hype this article is trying to create. As simple as that. | Well then you explain to me why "Creative" stopped support for Audigy 1 ... 6 months after the last drivers were released. I know who you are Eraserhead or at least your old avatar on Driverheaven if thats who you are. I remember members there having to slipstream Audigy2 drivers just to keep their Audigy 1's up to date
We post inaccurate articles ??
OK brother here is what you do. You post your review on this with benchmarks and results proving this info isn't true or shut the hell up. NGOHQ is about information to help our members not being biased about a certain manufacturer or driver.
We bow to no one on NGOHQ we are here for our members !! | | | | I tried to respond but your site timed out. No time other than to say.
Creative Labs sucks, everyone knows it but nobody does anything about it. Really glad to see this news because more people should be demonstrating against Creative Labs piss poor support. Take a look at their forums, it says right up front, don't expect Creative Labs support, this is for end users.. Something in that context. It's a 100% depiction of Creative Labs support. Figure it out yourself and F off. | | | | I also having Creative X-Fi soundcard, no problem so far on both my old system (NF3 ultra) and current system (NF4 Ultra). I only experienced mixed sound in rear speaker but after the Nov patch it was solved and never gave me problem till now. I use only official driver and did not try any beta driver spread in webs.
Indeed i agreed that the updating frequency is reaaaally disappointing, and the software bundle is #$*&xx. However it was NOT like that 10 years ago, where i started with SB16, then upgrade to AWE32 (woohoo card at that time ^^), AWE64, SB Live. I skipped Audigy and switched to Turtle Beach for 3 years and now come back to Creative... I still kept all those old cards in closet lol... | | | | NF4 ultra with x-fi... problems... yes... bug... yes... the first time it was with the mobo until an BIOS update after a few months which i heard ABIT was working "closely" with creative which doesnt helps much and so ABIT merly do their part and solve the BIOS problem with following few updates... it did solve on bios but was not not totally. Until now theres still some bug etc etc ... cracking sound? yes but rarely, once started i have to reboot.... happens like playing quicktime audio and start a heavy usage games if the cracking starts it will be there...
Another part... was at Creative warehouse sales in my country... they have their problem on their own side which they were stuck at Game mode and could never switch back to Entertainment mode... i though i was so noob so i asked one of their staff what happen... they told me they have a problem reinstall would NOT help 
2 days later i go back it was then ok guess they reformat it? ...PS: this was just 2 or 3 months ago which they should have their "lastest" update on it |
Last edited by Yunzong; May 3rd, 2006 at 09:27 AM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by PCer Now I know why, you need traffic! The whole forum is so so quiet.... Cheap shot really. | Then why did you take the time to register and post??? LOL | | | | I agree with these problems, I have X-Fi Extreme Music, and I am having rough time with popping and other annoying sounds. They make me so mad especially when I turn on the music high volume levels, Think about it you are listening your music and popp some annoying sound also It's loud same as music. I am scary to put my speakers at high volume because of these annoying sounds. Whenever I am listening music It happens to me, That was my first audio card that I purchased from creative, (I wasnt use extension music card be4 I prefer to use mobo's) but however like 2 days ago I shut all of the background programs using by X-Fi that I know,(there is no icons about x-fi even sound controller at taskbar) after I shut these programs I didnt notice any ignoring sounds ( my computer always on I just shut down it when I really need 2) I hope It will be fine otherwise I think I will send my card to creative to get an another one hopefully I also agree with their driver support since I have the card (3 Months already past) I never noticed any driver upgrades. I always upgrading my drivers like every month I am checking for new drivers. I hope creative will generate some patch ot driver for these problems. After read all of the comments here and issues about nvdia4 chipset I am scaring to use X-fi with my up coming A8N-SLI mobo. For guys who are saying no problems with their X-Fi card, I will just say. You are the lucky one trust me. And I dont think whoever post this topic looking for hit, because its a TRUE issue that more people having it.. |
Last edited by FRP; May 3rd, 2006 at 07:04 AM..
| Quote | | | | | | | | | Thats strange. I have exactly the same setup, A8N SLI and Xfi muzic extreme. Tested with Tomb Raider Legend, Oblivion and multiple songs, crystal clear and no problem at all but i never overclocking my system. I think the problem might be cause by overclocking.
No driver update doesn't mean its no good, if it aren't broken why fix it? In fact, if too frequent the updates i would be more worry than none update, that means they are using us a guinea pig. | | | | So many register here just to reply this? lol good since its so popular but not many ppl post... like me :P
By any chance any of u is from creative? | | | | The next one to flame here will get banned without warning. Keep up with a respected discussion. | | | | | | * Popping and crackling noises.
* Incompatibilities with nForce3/4 based motherboards.
* Blue screen of death.
* Hard lockups and strange behavior.
I have had all of these issues at one point or another (often a combination of those) since I've been using their card.
I've been trying to get a fix on this for quite some time ! | | | | Try checking your PSU, see that it can still perform up to standard. Then try checking to see is there any BIOS update. A loose connection may also lead to "poping and cracking". Hope this help. | | | | this article is as good as it gets, i love soundblaster card and the technology they put in it, but personaly i am very disappointed everytime i go to their website and look for driver updates, common guys for those of u that think that this article is just b/s, how can u prove not even one driver update in six months, i honestly would say that i have problems with x-fi, might not be all the time but i do, sometimes when i boot into windows i get no audio, that is right no audio, now how would u explain that, i will restart and it will come back, it is pathetic to have a company that leaves their users hanging out there hoping for a driver update, i wish sometimes that i could use another card, and sometimes i seriously think about getting a nice card from this one company at newegg, about hundered 20 dollars and had some nice reviews, but i am stuck with x-fi, may be creative needs to respect their customers and start writing some code to fix these issues, need for speed underground will freeze on my computer sometimes when i enable eax, and on some of my games i start getting sound problems with eax, now how am i suppose to use a kick ass technology when it wont even work right, i am not saying that it is in every game, but it does happen in some of the games i play. | | | | @Nitink, how many processes are running in the background when you start a game that causes problems? Perhaps disable all non-system processes and see if that helps. Then you will know for sure what is the bottleneck. The fact your soundcard produces audible artifacts does not necesarilly mean it is a driver problem. It could be anything ranging from poor cabling to PCI controller not in position to manage over intense bus traffic. It could be a sound card, too, but the fact majority of people have no problems or at least say so proves otherwise.…
Once again:
What about this 88% giving X-Fi "excellent" and "good" rating? http://www.newegg.com/product/custr...N82E16829102188
Is 88% called a minority? | | | | It's easy to blame someone ... verry hard to wok things out on their own | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Radon What really gripes me is the lack of Linux support.
| http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...ve_Labs#matrix http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc...1.1.1.1#matrix
It's just like I said : Creative Labs dropped all the work to people in ALSA Group. But they don't wan't to give them X-Fie SDK because I guess that "this is a new product and driver knowledge could be used in competition" .
But there are a LOT OF very smart people in Linux enviroment and I'm sure that somewhere,somehow they found a soultion to make X-Fi work in Linux. You'll have to search for it. | | | | Alsa rocks, thanks for the links, Mate |
Last edited by Eraserhead; May 3rd, 2006 at 02:49 PM..
| Quote | | | | | It seems that their driver is taking 18MB of RAM. | | | | Eraserhead, I think you're blind to the truth and you crossed the red lines with your latest flaming. If you hate this website, you can always leave! no one is forcing you to stay. posting your private PMs with other members and trying to starting wars with members will not be tolerated! these "abusive" posts has been removed. |
Last edited by Regeneration; May 3rd, 2006 at 05:04 PM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by zme-ul Regen isn't the first one to point thi problem with nforce 4 chipsets
not to forget that, in the past, Live! had an issue with VIA's KT266 chipset
P.S.: Yes Regen, I'm an Intel user ... since my first PC i've never switched |
it was actually the KT133 chipset wit the Via686b south bridge that had the issue with live! cards.
it was solved through a chipset driver update, and onlyt occured on windows 9x. (xp has no such problems) | | | | OK, STOP BITCHING NOW K
CREATIVES DRIVERS ARE SUCKY.
WHY AM I PIPING IN!!!
BECOZ, i have a SB 128/vibra in my other machine, and i need to use windows drivers to run Fifa 2004, using the creative drivers I GET NO SOUND AT ALL.
sure, one game you say.
BUT IF THE WINDOWS DRIVERS WORK, WHY DON'T THE 'NEWER' Creative Drivers.
also, i've been through about 20 computers, each having problems with crackling sound. etc.
Firstly.
CREATIVE CARDS SUFFER FROM BEING SYSTEM HOGS.
THEY HOG THE PCI BUS LATENCY, HENCE THEY NEED TO BE LOCKED, AT 32
They also have issues with certain memory controllers, on nforce 4 mainboards.
they also suffer when they are sharing an IRQ with another device.
There is so many issues with these things its not funny.
god i wish Yamaha still made OPL3-SAX boards 
the only reason i don't complain is becoz my SB-LIVE 5.1 is a sweet little card. and it sounds as good as any other card when its tweaked right.
and i'd dare say its the speakers that matter.. not the sound card.
....this coming from a guy who has Sound Storm on his mobo | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Regeneration It seems that their driver is taking 18MB of RAM. | Mate, Disable CTHELPER.exe
remove it from startup.
all it does is synchronise the windows sound settings with the CCP (creative CP)
it can actually cause problems when certain games/apps forces the windows sound settings back to stereo or quad speakers.
(if i start starlancer, it forces my windows sound settings back to stereo settings, and with cthelper running it forces my entire sound system back to 2 speaker mode. but starlancer supports EAX 5.1 so the only way to use that is to disable cthelper.) | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead @Nitink, how many processes are running in the background when you start a game that causes problems? Perhaps disable all non-system processes and see if that helps. Then you will know for sure what is the bottleneck. The fact your soundcard produces audible artifacts does not necesarilly mean it is a driver problem. It could be anything ranging from poor cabling to PCI controller not in position to manage over intense bus traffic. It could be a sound card, too, but the fact majority of people have no problems or at least say so proves otherwise.…
Once again:
What about this 88% giving X-Fi "excellent" and "good" rating? http://www.newegg.com/product/custr...N82E16829102188
Is 88% called a minority? | it could also be due to the incompatible timing io that creative cards tend to have built into the firmware of the cards.
most of the time a chipset driver can fix it. (worked with the sblive+via686b bug)
other times its due to sharing an IRQ with an aggressive device (the only devices that are ok to share with video or sound cards is usb as they aren't agressive devices)
and even more other times, the sound chip just isn't compatible with the memory controller on the main board.. which is a problem since the nf4 memory controller is on the CPU.... might mean something there....
but more often the not, its just that the drivers are conflicting with other drivers in your system.
edit
to regen
sorry for the quad post boss. | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Eraserhead | Of course most of the posts on Newegg are positive, you can't post if your fucking machine won't boot!!!
Although technically, you cant BOOT if you don't POST. ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
|
Last edited by RingWraith; May 3rd, 2006 at 08:02 PM..
| Quote | | | | | | | | | must've been that paper bag full of dogshit that i placed on thier doorstep and lit on fire.... | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by RingWraith |
SO WHEN I GET NEW DRIVER FOR MY LIVE VALUE , BUHAHAHHAHAHAA joking
I geting HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold Sound Card very soon (actulay its already my , just need to come to me) come babe come | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by elBoomerang it's seems all people with different opinions were banned, in the end, so now we can have real conversation about how X-Plosion cool is. Great stuff boys  | I never in this thread or any other sad that Creative sux or some, if you read my post you see , and i dont know what you problem with HDA card , i just sad that i geting it mate , i curently own SB live value and was happy about it until i get 5.1 speakers whits this card culd handle , thats it. Anyway dint expect anything more of ya. | | | | I must admit that i have been pretty dissapointed with creatives driver suppport in the past(live-audigy series).. but after getting my hands on the X-fi i am recommeding this card to all my friends.
I have one of the first nforce3 boards and as many others here i have had 0 problems, noone what so ever.
Yes the driver from the CD is bloated
but if you uninstall your old driver bloated CD driver and install this one: http://uk.europe.creative.com/suppor...ame=Windows+XP
And the goto the start menu -> run -> msconfig -> startup, and then disable
CTHELPER.EXE
CTXFIHLP.EXE
CTXFIREG.EXE
this only installs the driver and the simple control panel, but you can do everything you could with the original driver. And remember folk keep the settings of the driver neutral and mute any ports your not using!
And for good sake people, remember to install your motherboard driver, and dont use the one that came on the CD.. download the newest one. | | | | I am using an X-Fi Extreme Music on a Asus A8N SLI Premium without popping/crackling issues (started with Bios 1007, now using 1011.6 beta, both work). Maybe I am fortunate to have one of the newer builds with a heatsink on the chip.
Still I am waiting eagerly for a new driver, since the current one has some issues regarding performance and stability in ASIO application. Especially performance/latency leaves something to be desired, as it drops considerably when CPU load raises above 50%. And it's no good idea to switch sample-rates in bit-matched ASIO mode, because that can lead to drastic instabilities with alot of crackling and may end in a BSOD in the 20x HAL driver, at least with Ableton Live (does not seem to happen with Cubase SX3).
CTHELPER lead to serious reboot/shutdown problems for alot of users including me (takes ages to shutdown). But since I don't need automatic headphone detection I removed all Creative startup items and everything runs smooth now.
Many people rightfully bicker about the need to manually switch between modes with neither profile support nor command-line options for automation. Fortunately a user has coded a working tool that will allow exactly that, automatic switching via profiles and command-line options. It's also a resource friendly way to open the mixer (console launcher) or audio console via double click and allows to quickly switch modes manually or open mixer/console/thx settings via quick righ-button menu. You can find it here: http://www.freewebs.com/spectra9/xfmc.html |
Last edited by tm101; May 4th, 2006 at 10:05 AM..
| Quote | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by elBoomerang it's seems all people with different opinions were banned, in the end, so now we can have real conversation about how X-Plosion cool is. Great stuff boys | Well Bro all peeps with flaming and immature posts were banned we always have freedom of opinion on NGOHQ
Eraserhead .. or is that Needledick .. or from the avatar Zarth___. hmmm
Bro on X-Plosion I will be receiving this card shortly as a gift from NGOHQ .I lost respect for Creative shortly after my singer dug out serious cash for the Aug1 and Livedrive ... money well wasted. I will never purchase another Creative product and I say this as a Musician and recording artist ... great reviews HUH ?? |
Last edited by Mac Daddy; May 4th, 2006 at 04:04 AM..
| Quote | | | | | I suffered from bsod and horrible slwodowns on 2 completely different pcs. After very bad support actions by creative, I refunded myself and removed all creative products from our store. | | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by tm101 I am using an X-Fi Extreme Music on a Asus A8N SLI Premium without popping/crackling issues (started with Bios 1007, now using 1011.6 beta, both work). Maybe I am fortunate to have one of the newer builds with a heatsink on the chip.
Still I am waiting eagerly for a new driver, since the current one has some issues regarding performance and stability in ASIO application. Especially performance/latency leaves something to be desired, as it drops considerably when CPU load raises above 50%. And it's no good idea to switch sample-rates in bit-matched ASIO mode, because that can lead to drastic instabilities with alot of crackling and may end in a BSOD in the 20x HAL driver, at least with Ableton Live (does not seem to happen with Cubase SX3).
CTHELPER lead to serious reboot/shutdown problems for alot of users including me (takes ages to shutdown). But since I don't need automatic headphone detection I removed all Creative startup items and everything runs smooth now.
Many people rightfully bicker about the need to manually switch between modes with neither profile support nor command-line options for automation. Fortunately a user has coded a working tool that will allow exactly that, automatic switching via profiles and command-line options. It's also a resource friendly way to open the mixer (console launcher) or audio console via double click and allows to quickly switch modes manually or open mixer/console/thx settings via quick righ-button menu. You can find it here: http://www.freewebs.com/spectra9/xfmc.html |
lol that jet detection / cthelper thing has nothing to do with headphone detection. LOL
its all bs,
all it does is synchonise the windows and creative cp sound settings.
which as i said leads to issues with games | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by Mac Daddy Well Bro all peeps with flaming and immature posts were banned we always have freedom of opinion on NGOHQ
Eraserhead .. or is that Needledick .. or from the avatar Zarth___. hmmm
Bro on X-Plosion I will be receiving this card shortly as a gift from NGOHQ .I lost respect for Creative shortly after my singer dug out serious cash for the Aug1 and Livedrive ... money well wasted. I will never purchase another Creative product and I say this as a Musician and recording artist ... great reviews HUH ?? |
well.. audigy 1 is sure known for issues....
i hope that guy with the nf3 board doesn't have the 200gb and is using a 6800 card.... | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by squall_leonhart69r lol that jet detection / cthelper thing has nothing to do with headphone detection. LOL
its all bs,
all it does is synchonise the windows and creative cp sound settings.
which as i said leads to issues with games | Are you laughing at me? Or are you laughing with me?
Whatever, I also don't need speaker synchronisation, since I always use 5.1 settings for Windows and stereo/headphones for Creative with CMSS-3D enabled for virtual surround. | | | | i dont know why people are flaming here. Rege is smart guy who deals with hardware for many years and i bet he have tons of hardware to test it on because he also write reviews. all these noobs who come here and flames need to stfu bcuz they are just bots and noobs! | | | | You guys dare to say the “bias” word? Many websites reviewed X-Fi in the early days when the amount of the issues was higher, no one said anything about it but they knew about these issues. They said nothing because they are afraid not to receive review samples in the future. That’s bias! Want to see another type of bias? All these AnandTech fan boys who come here just to flame and use that Creative excuse for it, that’s bias. Suddenly everyone became audio processor engineers and ignores all these similar posts on CL forums. Just a reminder, we have here tons of hardware to test stuff so I suggest to all these professors out there that flame us to sit in quiet in their room.
These issues are ALREADY BEEN CONFIRMED! Our point here is the LACK of SUPPORT from Creative. If everything is working for you then it’s great but it’s not APPLYING TO OTHER PEOPLE AS WELL.
Another thing is “Eraserhead”. You think he got banned because of his argument? Think again. Mr. Eraserhead got banned because his latest reply (which got deleted due violation of the rules) you can’t come here AND FLAME MEMBERS AND STAFF MEMBERS like ITS YOUR WEBSITE. Try to do it in other forums as well and you will see the same results. There’s a WAY to discuss things here and that’s not by INSULTS. | | | | Forget about all these issues for a moment. Lets look at the company's practices regarding consumer value.
ALL of the Sound Blaster chips used the same audio processor, the EMU10K1 chip. Only difference was the software that came with each card. Yet they found a way to charge more for each new release.
The Audigy chips also use the same audio chip, the : EMU10K1. Albeit maybe slightly altered, but still the same chip technology, and these cards cost up to 200$ MORE than the Sound Blaster cards even though both lines were pretty much the same as far as hardware goes.
Only now, with the X-Fi do they actually utilise NEW technology. Thats assuming of course that it isn't just a revamped overclocked EMU10K1 based card.
For 12 years they coasted on the same technology charging more and more for each iteration. If you don't believe this just do some research or compare the chips from a Sound Blaster card and an Audigy card! They didn't even bother changing the labels on the chips!
They did this because they could. We are very fortunate that other companies don't follow these practices. Otherwise we would all be running shrunk overclocked 486 CPU tech with original Geforce GPU cards that are overclocked and shrunk. Oh and we would still be using T&L because they disabled it on the first couple releases of the GPU and now its a "new" tech!
Some food for thought. | | | | An intellegent article should bring about intelligent debate. Eraserhead I don't know what was posted in regards to the rules broken that got you banned because I don't like your attitude anyway.
Good riddance to childish attitudes and immature and unresearched posts
We have a lot of smart people here and opinions are our own but acting like a 2 year old isn't Eraserhead ... sorry dude !!
Let the debate continue | | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by RingWraith Forget about all these issues for a moment. Lets look at the company's practices regarding consumer value.
ALL of the Sound Blaster chips used the same audio processor, the EMU10K1 chip. Only difference was the software that came with each card. Yet they found a way to charge more for each new release.
The Audigy chips also use the same audio chip, the : EMU10K1. Albeit maybe slightly altered, but still the same chip technology, and these cards cost up to 200$ MORE than the Sound Blaster cards even though both lines were pretty much the same as far as hardware goes.
Only now, with the X-Fi do they actually utilise NEW technology. Thats assuming of course that it isn't just a revamped overclocked EMU10K1 based card.
For 12 years they coasted on the same technology charging more and more for each iteration. If you don't believe this just do some research or compare the chips from a Sound Blaster card and an Audigy card! They didn't even bother changing the labels on the chips!
They did this because they could. We are very fortunate that other companies don't follow these practices. Otherwise we would all be running shrunk overclocked 486 CPU tech with original Geforce GPU cards that are overclocked and shrunk. Oh and we would still be using T&L because they disabled it on the first couple releases of the GPU and now its a "new" tech!
Some food for thought. | Live - EMU10k1
Audigy - EMU10k1
Audigy 2 - Emu10k2
Audigy 4 - more advanced and faster 10k2 chip (possible 10k3?)
BTW
the EMU10k is the EAX processor.
the SB live 24bit doesn't have the EMU10k chip and uses the CPU to accelerate EAX | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by squall_leonhart69r Live - EMU10k1
Audigy - EMU10k1
Audigy 2 - Emu10k2
Audigy 4 - more advanced and faster 10k2 chip (possible 10k3?)
BTW
the EMU10k is the EAX processor.
the SB live 24bit doesn't have the EMU10k chip and uses the CPU to accelerate EAX | You can add a '2' or '3' to the end of it but at the end of the day they all have the same transistor count | | | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by squall_leonhart69r
the SB live 24bit doesn't have the EMU10k chip and uses the CPU to accelerate EAX
| You're right. Also some Audigy 1 cards didn't do EAX in hardware ( I asked Creative Labs European Support for this and they confirmed it ). | | | | man i was sorry when i bought a audigy LS i've should have picked the M-Audio Revolution.
had a X-fi in my comp within 10 minutes it was out.
from that day i will boycott all creative producs. (anyone know a good soundcard that doesnt conflict with BF2 in hardware mode ?) | | | | Quote: |
Originally Posted by screenager man i was sorry when i bought a audigy LS i've should have picked the M-Audio Revolution.
had a X-fi in my comp within 10 minutes it was out.
from that day i will boycott all creative producs. (anyone know a good soundcard that doesnt conflict with BF2 in hardware mode ?) | M-Audio makes good stuff and as Ncaine and I have found our so does AuzenTech
Creative sucks | | | | I have an intel system so can't comment on the nVidia issue with X-Fi popping. I have the "popping" problem and through trial and error have discovered it's related to an ATI driver. The later ATI drivers install a High Definition Audio Driver - ATI AA01. You can find it in the Device Manager. Disable it and the problem goes away. | |
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