X-Fi Support Syndicate & Owner's Clubhouse

[Apocalypsee]

Alright as I promised, here is my mod. Yeah looks crappy (don't laugh) as I don't have the right equipment to do so so I end up like so

Things I done is removed the front opamp and replaced with LME49720 (plus 20pF bypass on V+ and V-), replaced 13 capacitor, short the 4 decoupling caps, remove 2 capacitor near AUX_OUT and output the front channel to RCA out with separate grounding

Here's the capacitor value and its places:

C177 - 3900uF 6.3V
C107 - 1000uF 6.3V
C108 - 330uF 16V
C56 - 470uF 16V
C16 - 510uF 4V
C43 - 330uF 16V
C75 - 470uF 16V
C74 - 181uF 16V
C72 & C46 - 470uF 6.3V
C91 & C119 - 470uF 6.3V
C172 - 100uF 16V

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Grrr I thought id test the beta drivers out - not as bad as before this time they dont BSOD my machine - instead it just CTDT when im playing games - 0007 revert ftw! the last set of drivers that were hassle free for me

 

[imperialreign]

Ahhh man, that makes my decision a tough one. Get the Titanium for it's use of PCIe to give me more space around my gfx slots, or just get the Auzen card for it's superior hardware.

yeah, I'd say that'd be a touch choice - by specs and that review, the Titanium is coming in above the current Xonar cards in terms of of clarity and audio quality, and is also making use of a PCIEx1 slot as well - plus, the EMI shield looks like it's really been thought out and should be more effective than ASUS designs - which leaves only the Auzentech Prelude above the Titanium so far.

Although, Creative is pre-ordering the Titaniums for $150 - which is on par with the Xonar series . . . but, TBH, the new Xonars that we just saw a preview for the other day look like they might be a bit better than the Titanium - IMO, price will determine the best buy out of the two.

Still looking forward to more revies, though, especially from the better audio review sites (techreport. techgage, etc)

Grrr I thought id test the beta drivers out - not as bad as before this time they dont BSOD my machine - instead it just CTDT when im playing games - 0007 revert ftw! the last set of drivers that were hassle free for me

I just installed the beta last night, and no issues with it so far . . .

 

[C4nvas]

guys i need the Digital adapter (but i cna0t find in Portugal) to my Xtremegamer Fatal1ty so i can output

Digital sound to my Logitech Z5500... i don't understand why these cards don't come

with Coax Spif or optical... doesn't come sense have to buy more stuff to complete

the card

 

[imperialreign]

guys i need the Digital adapter (but i cna0t find in Portugal) to my Xtremegamer Fatal1ty so i can output

Digital sound to my Logitech Z5500... i don't understand why these cards don't come

with Coax Spif or optical... doesn't come sense have to buy more stuff to complete

the card

you could always get it off eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-30SB000200003-Soundblaster-Digital-I-O-Module_W0QQitemZ300208716834QQcmdZViewItem

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I just installed the beta last night, and no issues with it so far . . .

the thing is now that ive totally reinstalled XP & Rolled on with 0007 update (think it was the 'WEB UPDATE 4' pack)

im not having any problems at all - even the sound is balanced & CMSS is actually working instead of me needing to go into windows audio menu thing & set the volume for each individual speaker!!!

the revert has worked wonders for me so far - everythings perfect like it use to be - all i needed to do was to dial in my old settings & boom game on. no BSODs or CTDT

god knows what the problem is - sometimes my machine gets mighty f**ked off with somethings even if they were designed/written for it specifically.

I guess we will never know anyway, this machine is on its way out. got a Xonar in my sights or what ever the newest most hip graphics card is when it comes to laying Ol' growler to rest.....


::Edit::

I noticed i said graphics card what i meant was *Sound card

 

[imperialreign]

the thing is now that ive totally reinstalled XP & Rolled on with 0007 update (think it was the 'WEB UPDATE 4' pack)

im not having any problems at all - even the sound is balanced & CMSS is actually working instead of me needing to go into windows audio menu thing & set the volume for each individual speaker!!!

the revert has worked wonders for me so far - everythings perfect like it use to be - all i needed to do was to dial in my old settings & boom game on. no BSODs or CTDT

god knows what the problem is - sometimes my machine gets mighty f**ked off with somethings even if they were designed/written for it specifically.

I guess we will never know anyway, this machine is on its way out. got a Xonar in my sights or what ever the newest most hip graphics card is when it comes to laying Ol' growler to rest.....

TBH - I've been starting to think a lot of the issues that have been cropping up over the last few months all revolve around the firmware update in the lastest alpha driver release . . . I've even had a few strange issues recently that I've just had to cope with - i.e. the volume control panel, the audio console, and windows sounds& audio control panel no longer seem to cooperate and work together. WIN control panel keeps turning down 3 or 4 channels and I have to manually reset those, and changes keep reverting at next bootup. the audio console and volume panel seem to work independant of each other now, and I have to turn both up to 100%, and then use the volume panel to further adjust the volume back down. it's a little aggrevating at times. I also can no longer access the volume control with my keyboard in some games . . . but not all

too bad I don't know of anyway to revert the firmware

 

[FreedomEclipse]

TBH - I've been starting to think a lot of the issues that have been cropping up over the last few months all revolve around the firmware update in the lastest alpha driver release . . . I've even had a few strange issues recently that I've just had to cope with - i.e. the volume control panel, the audio console, and windows sounds& audio control panel no longer seem to cooperate and work together. WIN control panel keeps turning down 3 or 4 channels and I have to manually reset those, and changes keep reverting at next bootup. the audio console and volume panel seem to work independant of each other now, and I have to turn both up to 100%, and then use the volume panel to further adjust the volume back down. it's a little aggrevating at times. I also can no longer access the volume control with my keyboard in some games . . . but not all

too bad I don't know of anyway to revert the firmware

I was having the same exact problem (plus the BSODs & CTDTs) what was Creative trying to achieve??? I thought Creative had just messed things up & the beta driver was to correct it but theres no real in depth info on what they 'really' have done - im sick of the volumes defaulting & having to set the volume of each speaker manully - & sometimes that even dont work. not to mention that it messed with the Creative Audio console a bit

web update pack 4 always worked for me anyway.

 

[imperialreign]

I was having the same exact problem (plus the BSODs & CTDTs) what was Creative trying to achieve??? I thought Creative had just messed things up & the beta driver was to correct it but theres no real in depth info on what they 'really' have done - im sick of the volumes defaulting & having to set the volume of each speaker manully - & sometimes that even dont work. not to mention that it messed with the Creative Audio console a bit

web update pack 4 always worked for me anyway.

I'm thinking of rolling back as well -

TBH, though, I can't recall if the issue with WIN control panel was always present or not; but I know for sure the issue between the Creative volume control and the audio console was never present before. The only reason I started noticing the WIN panel issue, was that I would have to go into that window and hit "reset defaults" before I could use the audio console correctly.


I'm considering a clean-sweep driver install. It'll take a hell-o-lot longer than a typical rollback, but it at least allows for the drivers to be installed to a clean state.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I'm thinking of rolling back as well -

TBH, though, I can't recall if the issue with WIN control panel was always present or not;

no its not always been present - even when i have Creatives own audio console up I always have the windows volume thing at the bottom of my bar. - I sometimes have nothing better to do then mess around with volume controls blasting out music & pretending im a DJ by 'scratching' the volume. - yeeeaaaah, fun times.

I wish Creative would actually give a shit. - back in 2001 - 2005 i use to think creative was the shit. now they are shit. the day i bought their Audigy ZS - i was so proud cuz i could play CoD-UO in 5.1

like most companies recently a lot of the successful ones seem to forget who actually made them successful in the first place. its more about money then customer satisfaction - or in creatives case their possibly just too lazy

 

[imperialreign]

I kinda agree - in all fairness, their hardware development is still great, but their PR departments aren't worth the toll-free phone call.

I remember a company that was very customer oriented, and this is going way back - back when Creative and all other audio cards were still on ISA standards. It wasn't until the Live! series that Creative started going downhill in these regards. It's sad, though, that such great and innovative (sometimes) hardware is wasted on a crap driver team that just keep phoning in driver releases.


anyhow, back OT, I'll roll some drivers back this week and see at what point the two volume control panels cooperate together . . . but, if it's due to the firmware update, there will be no way to fix it, and I'll be a little irritated . . .

 

[DaMulta]

Still no Xmod on the front of this thread

 

[DaMulta]

Alright as I promised, here is my mod. Yeah looks crappy (don't laugh) as I don't have the right equipment to do so so I end up like so

Things I done is removed the front opamp and replaced with LME49720 (plus 20pF bypass on V+ and V-), replaced 13 capacitor, short the 4 decoupling caps, remove 2 capacitor near AUX_OUT and output the front channel to RCA out with separate grounding

Here's the capacitor value and its places:

C177 - 3900uF 6.3V
C107 - 1000uF 6.3V
C108 - 330uF 16V
C56 - 470uF 16V
C16 - 510uF 4V
C43 - 330uF 16V
C75 - 470uF 16V
C74 - 181uF 16V
C72 & C46 - 470uF 6.3V
C91 & C119 - 470uF 6.3V
C172 - 100uF 16V

Did it help?

 

[imperialreign]

Still no Xmod on the front of this thread

I'm still meaning to do so - I've just been lazy and forgetful

 

[FreedomEclipse]

anyhow, back OT, I'll roll some drivers back this week and see at what point the two volume control panels cooperate together . . . but, if it's due to the firmware update, there will be no way to fix it, and I'll be a little irritated . . .

I done this a 2 days ago - clean install of XP & web pack 4 drivers (before they messed it up) its fine - everything is back in Sync, even the windows & creative control panels

 

[imperialreign]

I done this a 2 days ago - clean install of XP & web pack 4 drivers (before they messed it up) its fine - everything is back in Sync, even the windows & creative control panels

good to hear - perhaps then I'll try a clean install with the newest driver set first, it's possible the update doesn't install properly over the old driver set.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

keep me updated then but I wouldn't hold my hopes up too high as i think its more of a situation where thats the way creative wanted it to be so thats how it is despite how you installed it. god knows who gave the programmers the idea for these last 2 sets of drivers - its like the blind leading the blind

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Look at my post here-

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=832271&postcount=125

 

[C4nvas]

you could always get it off eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-30SB000200003-Soundblaster-Digital-I-O-Module_W0QQitemZ300208716834QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the help!

one more thing Dolby Digital at 96KHz/24bits exists?

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Yes,its selectable on the x-fi.

 

[C4nvas]

Yes,its selectable on the x-fi.

some people say that Dolby Digital at 96KHz/24bits doesn't exist because

it's trough Spdif and this cable cannot push all that.

we know that Dolby analog 24/96KHz exists about some years now, but digital it's

44KHz/16Bit loosy!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

anyone know if the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 2.18.0000 beta is any good for XP?? I dare not try it in case it f**ks everything up again

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I'm using it on vista and its fine,if that helps.

 

[Bluesman]

anyone know if the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 2.18.0000 beta is any good for XP?? I dare not try it in case it f**ks everything up again

According to these posters, it looks like it can be bad. http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&thread.id=124966

I just bought my card and will be installing from the CD today. UPS is scheduled to arrive this afternoon, so I don't know the driver versions yet. I am concerned about firmware upgrades from the Beta and in the prior release. However, if I have noise issues, and cannot fix them with Spread Spectrum in the Bios or other tricks, I am going to have to take a chance. I also have 4 gig of RAM which can be an issue with earlier releases but again it appears to be a mixed bag according to forum posts.

I am thinking of uninstalling my video card drivers and then installing the X-Fi first. Maybe this will allocate more PCI bandwidth to the soundcard. I am guessing here but I have seen in postings that folks who reinstall XP have good luck with noise abatement. Maybe that is due to the system allocating more PCI bandwidth to the soundcard. Who knows??

 

[FreedomEclipse]

apparently 'mystery firmware' f**ks things up - nuff said - thanks for the post bluesman. now i know all creative's driver programming team need to be lined up in front of a firing squad & shot.

this set of drivers is as bugged out as the last 2

I think their making a mistake somewhere - a conflict between the XP & vista perhaps??? IDK but thats what im assuming since all drivers for each O/S are included in the same installation package.

however if this were to be the case, it wouldn't surprise me - creative are doing nothing out of the norm.