X-Fi Popping & Crackling finally gone after 18 months

0blivious

Joy! My X-Fi finally performs like it should have from day one, and I think I have my defective video card to thank for it.

My issues were mainly in entertainment mode, with horrible, loud non-stop crackles and pops; it basically sounded like

. The occasional screech of death was always nice too. All I could use was game mode for the past year and a half.

My 7900gt 256mb had to be RMA'd last week, and in return I got back a 7950gt 512mb, which is basically the updated (more reliable) version of my previous card. Just for sh!ts and giggles, I thought I'd try Ent. mode again now that I had slightly different hardware. To my utter shock and amazement, it worked.

Apparently my X-Fi and my 7900gt just couldn't play nice. I haven't yet looked any deeper to see why this made it work; Honestly, I've already spent all the inclination I once had to figure this issue out. I'm just giddy that it's working. I've been blasting music all night and it sounds spectacular.

I did notice though that if I un-muted Line 2/Mic 2, I would get some static, though nothing like I did before. Muting it again completely removes it. Keep in mind though that this was not my problem before, I wish it had been that simple.

Read my old thread linked below to see all the bizarre things I tried in the past to make this damn soundcard work!
Who else has X-Fi crackling, hissing, popping or screeching?

Just thought I'd give a heads up as to a possible cause/solution to this issue that many others have also experienced.

BuildeR2 · 08-03-2007, 06:23 | posts: 1,642 | Location: Austin TX

Awesome!!! I've never had any trouble with my Audigy 2ZS but I'm especially excited for you to have it working nicely! There is a satisfying feeling to having things working properly. Blast that music man.....

Solinari · 08-03-2007, 21:08 | posts: 3,181 | Location: UK

I have heard about this crackling thing on nForce 4 motherboards, before i clicked the thread i knew you were going to have an nForce 4 motherboard.

From Wikipedia.......

Quote:

...This has the effect of causing audible pops and clicks with PCI sound cards. Gamers have noticed this effect, especially with Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound cards. Compatibility issues between these sound cards and nForce4 motherboards have been ongoing, even following driver updates.[12] Latency issues are more readily apparent with sound cards than other addon cards because of the direct user feedback the audio problems bring forward.......

UnclePappi · 08-03-2007, 21:28 | posts: 5,075 | Location: Toledo, Oh

Ahh yes, my old nforce 4 occasionally gave me the screech of death too. Only while playing Guild wars I'm afraid. No hissing, crackling, or popping though. Just that beautiful harp-like angelic screech of death. One minute you're like a deer frolicking in the woods and the next !!BAM!! your head gets blown off to pieces.

0blivious · 08-04-2007, 01:19 | posts: 848 | Location: Steilacoom, WA USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnclePappi

Ahh yes, my old nforce 4 occasionally gave me the screech of death too.... One minute you're like a deer frolicking in the woods and the next !!BAM!! your head gets blown off to pieces.

Indeed. What was worse for me is that it would do it when my pc was just sitting there basically idle or web surfing. It was so incredibly deafeningly loud on my 7.1 speakers that I lilterally had to plug both my ears with one arm (not easy) while reaching for the speaker shut-off/volume dial with the other. I can't believe it never blew up my speakers and my ears didn't start bleeding.

Seriously, I'm not exaggerating at all, it was that LOUD!

Thankfully the last 8 months or so were free from the screeching incidents. It's possible a newer driver fixed that particular issue, but I wouldn't want to give any credit to Creative and their notoriously bad driver/customer support.