Here's my problem: I have a X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, which has worked wonderfully for about a year. Recently, the sound just went out, after a reboot, and windows failed to recognize any sound device. All windows would want to do is install a "multimedia audio controller" driver, and then fail at that. Creative's drivers give an error stating that no compatible hardware was found on the system. I've tried every PCI slot, to no avail. I've tried cleaning the hell out of it, looking for loose caps, burned PCB, anything. I found nothing. Windows Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64 both fail to recognize the device beyond a generic multimedia controller. I am only able to get audio out of the HDMI on my 3870 x2 at the moment, and stereo is killing me. I need my 7.1! :bang: Is there anyone out there who knows whether or not I somehow killed this card, or is there anyone who can point me in the right direction for troubleshooting this card back from the brink of doom? I would be forever grateful for any help on the matter.
I had the exact same thing happen to my Xtreme Gamer back in December. I had a loud pop come through my speakers and then no sound. My card died on the spot after nearly 3 years of service and I had to switch to onboard. If you are using HDMI though.. that does carry 7.1 channels so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to use it, unless your speakers have no hookup for it then you're outta luck. But if your speakers do have a hookup for HDMI, you should be able to use that for your surround because it does carry all the channels. You could revert to onboard for now because nearly all motherboards have been carrying 7.1 for a few years, it won't be as good as a dedicated card but you'd at least get surround sound.
If he's using 7.1, he's using an analog setup, so I'd guess he's not using a reciever (meaning HDMI is useless to him). Sounds like the card died. Best bet would be to replace with a more reliable vendor.
You don't know how I fell your loss :cry::cry: onboard audio can't be compare with X-Fi capabilities. Actually I had the same problem some very few days ago . My MB died on me so I had to buy a second hand Asus P5N-D, which at the moment was the only solution available. My X-Fi Platinum had worked flawlessly for about 3 years, and when I did the change it stopped working, only to be reconized as "multimedia controller". I have tried all I know without success, but in this forum http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=111552 I saw some new ideas... i'll give it a shot and will come back to tell the results.
Well... dang. I am thinking it's dead... Which sucks, because it was a pretty solid card. My HDMI output is from my x2, and that goes to a HDTV with simply stereo speakers. I am going to have to enable my "Real-tek On-board 8-channel" if i wish to use my Creative 7.1 speakers (analogue). Which is undesirable, I don't really like Real-Tek's Software, Creative's Audio Console is much more useful. Well, I suppose I'll send this card to the giant, anti-static bag in the sky... But, gamer2k, what more reliable sound card vendor would you suggest? You have an ASUS? Do you like their sound cards? I've had great experience with their company regarding MBs, but never bought a sound card from them. Any other Vendor suggestions? Thanks you all for the input.
Unless it says Multimedia Controller in Device manager, it will never find it to install drivers. Go to safe mode, delete whatever is there, run drivers sweeper too and then boot back into Windows normal. Should then be cleanly detected as a Multimedia Controller, cancel driver install and install new drivers. If that doesn't work then perhaps you fried the card. My gamer fatal1ty is still going strong years later.
Thanks for the advice. But I have tried that myself umpteen times with no luck. When I cancel windows driver install, and install Creative drivers, an error stating that no compatible hardware was found pops up. I think it's dead.
Auzentech makes cards based off the X-fi chipset, all without the driver issues that plauges Creative. The Prelude is around as capable (if not more so) as the Fatality, and the Forte beats even the Titanium head to head. While ASUS doesn't have true EAX compatability, they instead convert the EAX calls to something their card can understand. While not 100% accurate, it supports more games in Vista then Alchemy does for Creative. Their cards tend to lean more toward HTPC users, but are still no slouch in gaming. Most of their newer cards favor a digital setup though (and thus lacking 7.1 3.5mm ports), but the D2/D2X competes against the same market segment the Fatality/Prelude does for Creative and Auzentech. To me, its a choice between the Prelude and the D2/D2X (D2=PCI, D2X=PCI-E (needs floppy connector though...). Otherwise, they are the same exact card, so you can sub reviews between the two cards). Both should be an upgrade over the ExtremeGamer you had in any case.
Heres a few reviews between the two cards; I made sure to pick the same site for both. Do take note: The D2 does support EAX5 via GSDX now, although it isn't perfect (the reviews are a bit out of date on that point). ASUS Xonar D2: http://techgage.com/article/asus_xonar_d2_sound_card/ http://www.*********.com/reviews/1173/asus_xonar_d2_ultra_fidelity_sound_card/index.html Auzentech X-fi Prelude: http://techgage.com/article/auzentech_x-fi_prelude/ http://www.*********.com/reviews/1412/auzentech_x_fi_prelude_7_1_sound_card/index.html EDIT Anyone mind telling me why 'tweak-town' (minus hyphen) get *'d out?
Thanks, those look good! Gives me a good idea of where to start looking for my next card. My Creative 7.1 speakers use three analogue 3.5mm jacks to connect to a sound card. I think it's... Green = front speakers, Grey = side/back speakers, Orange = center/sub. Or something like that. Will a new card support this? The ones I've looked at either seem to have too few jacks, or too many.
Xonar HDAV Deluxe is another card from asus Which has the dauther card included. Which has the plugs you looking for. Tho the Dauther card will be sold seperated in the future for cards like the non Deluxe HDAV and Essensce ST. Auzentech Forte as the plugs thru a adaptor which plugs thru the card. Gamerk2 lets just say some one did some wrong and got there site blacklisted on here.
Ahh...I see... The ones I listed I know support the 3.5mm (The forte has a DVI-like 7.1 connector). I didn't list the HDAV, as that's a bit overkill for his needs, and I wouldn't recommend it for a gaming system...I forget to mention the ASUS Xonar DX, which also supports 3.5mm; think of it as a slightly dumbed down D2/D2X, but almost $100 cheaper. (Seriously, how the hell has the D2 kept its $179 price point all this time? The cards good, but not THAT much better then a Forte...) Having extra jacks is OK; most 7.1 systems have the side/back as seperate jacks though, so that *might* be a potential issue (can someone clarifiy that a bit?), and on jack (pink) is for microphone input and doesn't concern you. Having unused jacks is OK, as the card will send the inputs to the jacks you are plugged into. The two bigger jacks are typically for Digital input/output, which you won't be using in most cases.
First off I don't believe you cleaned it off well enough. I've seen lots of cards go bad and had the experience myself of having my Creative card go once. to have the card fry in your pc without touching, be very interesting to know how it only affected your sound card and nothing else. I know what things look like when a Creative card goes(device mgr wise). The fact the system discovers it as a Multimedia Audio Controller tells me the card is fine. Drivers get messed up and depending on what you do to get rid of them, they will still be there. By default the sound card should reside (until drivers are installed) as a Multimedia Audio Controller. The fact it is constantly discovered is also a bit of a clue that the card is in fact not dead or it wouldn't show up at all or your pc would crash out or you'd get a lot more errors than you are. What seems to be your problem is you haven't cleaned your system of drivers properly or at all and because of that the system is stupidly trying to install anything and everything on your PC. Here's what I suggest. device manager in normal boot, remove the multimedia audio controller. (select delete drivers if there is a checkbox or option). Don't refresh or scan for new hardware. remove ALL creative software from Programs Add Remove, this includes OpenAL immediately boot into safe mode, let the system detect and install whatever, who cares. When it appears to be done, then go into device manager and remove the sound card and always make sure to delete driver files. (don't refresh or scan) check add/remove again and make sure that all Creative stuff is removed now run driver sweeper (download from this site) and select Creative. Click Analyse and it should come up with a bunch of stuff. It will present you with a whole bunch of stuff. Make sure to checkmark all of them and delete. Do this a few times. If it errors, it's likely the program files\installshield which driver sweeper believes still exists but doesn't. May be some other things that don't exist that driver sweeper lists. Regardless, work to make sure you have removed everything. (check the driver sweeper forum as well, I have listed things that driver sweeper doesn't remove (but will in future)). After the above, reboot into safe mode and install your drivers. The odds of your sound card dying, having sat in your pc for as long as it has and the fact you never touched it tells me there is nothing wrong with the card except that your system is flooded with drivers. The fact is, is it is constantly discovered which tells me there is nothing wrong with it. Having it show Multimedia Audio Controller is actually correct. This is how the system initially discovers it. If it says Unknown device or something then it's not really discovered at all. Your info is conflicting however. First it's showing as a Multimedia Audio Controller and then Generic? And Vista 64 and Win 7 64, clearly you have both systems clogged with drivers. Wont surprise me if you get like an Auzentech and your drivers wont install. In my case on several occasions my sound system got seriously messed up too, however these days I do a lot of testing for sound drivers for people. And even with a clean install completely, I've seen safe mode install a full suite of creative drivers. Yes, even when cleaned. you have to keep cleaning until nothing can be installed for it. In Vista and Win 7 that means constantly let it do it's work and device manager remove device drivers. Anyhow this all I can tell ya. Up to you to put in the sincere effort and imo, reading your original post and those that follow, you seem diligently interested in just getting another card anyhow and writing off this card regardless.
My X-Fi Extreme Music also gets undetected once in a while w/o me touching it.. There are times that i need to reseat it over 50 times to have it detected again, i usually press F8 and watch the device list after post if i see the multimedia audio controller listed then im good to go, if not reboot/reseat.
This makes me believe you haven't had a lot of X-Fis die on you. I've got 3 and 1 has died (2 Xtreme Musics and an HP OEM). It baffled the crap out of me, I tried the dead card on a clean XP system then in my Ubuntu server, it doesn't matter. This was despite the fact that the card was detected and installed successfully. Just because the device can be installed doesn't mean it's fully functioning. This was despite the fact that the card was detected and installed successfully. The device drivers only interface with the X-Fi sound processor, after that there's a lot of on-card devices that can fail and not register with the system. Same thing. Seems like a waste of time as it should simply work and removing / reinstalling the drivers isn't going to achieve much. Sort of like a broken record (no offence, just a little repetitive). Assumption is the mother of all f ups. You also have to weigh up factors like cost to effort to gain ratios, in which case getting a new card may be a good idea any way as sound cards have improved since the release of ASUS' Xonar DX series and the XFi Prelude in terms of both compatibility and performance. Don't get me wrong though, I love my X-Fi(s), especially with the new ALSA beta driver (unstable build), I can have S/PDIF out with my X-Fi under ubuntu and it's fantastic .
Thanks, Flukester and Laykun, for your input. I will try a few of these things and get back with results if I have any luck. Fingers crossed. c1:
