SB XFi PCI, Sound pops/crackles w PAX 1.20

Hello,

I did not see in a search where there was a topic specific to this (and I may have just not searched well).

I have Windows 7 SP1, and a PCI XFi Sound Card (possibly the pro, but I don't think the versions matter as much).

After installing PAX MASTER PCI XFI ALL OS Driver Suite V1.10, the sound crackles and pops and eventually freezes up. Using another sound option (a USB headset) the sound still works, but this is not processed by the sound card.

Crackling sound occurs on system sounds, WinAmp, Media Player Classic, and website flash audio.

I have uninstalled drivers and installed Driver Suite V1.20. The problem is still there.

I was successfully using a previous version of PAX, but I cannot remember which it was.

 

Uninstall,then use driver cleaner which you can download off this site to remove remnants in your registry..

 

If you're referring to Driver Sweeper
http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

Then I will give that a whirl and post how it goes.

 

No luck.

Here's what I did:
1. Device Manager->Creative XFi->Properties->Driver Tab and uninstalled the driver. Did not reboot right away.
2. Ran Driver Sweeper 3.2.0, cleaning the Creative - Sound. Then I rebooted right away.
3. Upon reboot, Windows automatically began installing the driver. I cancelled this as best as I could.
4. Installed PAX Driver Suite 1.20. During the installation, it said it found the same copies of a lot of things (THX, Creative Console, etc.) I opted to have it uninstall it and install anew.
5. Rebooted the machine when PAX Driver Suite asked.
6. Tested it, get sound, but also pops and crackles.


I will try it again, uninstalling and cleaning, and also delete the directory where the Creative stuff is at (so that PAX doesn't think it is still installed).

 

fake modded inf drivers that cause give to original ones a try make your pc optimized and tuned up and see the difrence my friend

 

Try a diff slot.. Could be the motherboard and card don't agree.. It should work tho ,could be a ground problem..

 

Creative cards do this; my old ExtremeGamer did the same thing. Thats why I ditched Creative...

Try giving the Daniel_K pack a try and see if that helps.

 

DPC latency checker may help - might not be Creative's drivers causing the problems.
make sure all your drivers are up to date as well, not just the sound cards - all of them.
start with the obvious ones; graphics card and chipset, then try DriverZone.
a while back nvidia's nforce drivers were notorious for causing SCP (snap, crackle, pop) with a bunch of sound cards, not just Creative's.

personally i have my doubts regarding some of these driver packs tbh.
for example, the daniel k packs enable features that for one reason or another Creative felt were best left disabled - in my experience these re-enabled features were not reliable/caused problems of their own.

 

I get all sort of crack, pops and whatnot with 6GB of RAM, when I dropped to 4GB all those problem went away weirdly. You could try that

 

might because when using 4GB your motherboard's running two 2GB sticks interleaved, whereas with 6GB's (three 2GB sticks?) each stick's operating individually. wouldn't be surprised if the problem disappeared again with 8GB's.
might just be a bios setting.

 

OK,

DPC Latency Checker did not find anything when I ran it for a while.

I do need to clarify this, as I think I failed to make it clear:
The regular Creative drivers work...with very minimal "Rice Crispies". The PAX Drivers were giving me problems all of a sudden (they had worked fine before)

I'm just looking for more optimized drivers than the ones provided by Creative. It is worth noting that I get very limited pops with the regular Creative drivers, maybe the PAX are just pushing it a bit more and making it pop a lot more. The Creative drivers are not pop-free, but it is harder to notice. And the card doesn't lock up.

It may be the RAM, as just about all of this started when I went from 2GB to 6GB. I originally had 2 1GB sticks, and now I have 2x1GB and 2x2GB. So all RAM slots are filled.

 

I use Daniel K's drivers never had any issues with them.

 

You try xfi driver suite v1.25? Just make sure your graphics video sound is disable too.

 

Everyone going ignore you. ROBSCIX hopelly talked to you about stop putting down on my drivers sets.

 

i hate pax drivers

tryed em couple times in past and what they seemed to be was just modded infs; as adjusting certain sound levels couse major problems, some of em were fine if u didnt touch ANYTHING after they were installed

also removing em and cleaning was really pain in the :booty:

 

well you haven't try them this since then have you? If you need help You could pm me I could help you out you know. Thanks for feedback. Hey some sets work some do work others sets don't work like they should I'm trying iron out those things. There just there if people want extra stuff. They don't have used them you know. I'm just here help people get there creative cards installed that all. People don't have be harsh on them or dan k sets. I'm just doing this for fun and free. You don't see any other modder helping people out like this do you? I'm willing go extra mile help you on your pc if you need help installing creative drivers. Do you see that support from creative? no?

 

Try a different slot if you can sometimes it can be that simple...

 

The only thing "fake" is the advice you keep spewing out. You have no way of knowing what the actual cause is, it MAY be the modded drivers or it MAY be something else entirely. And just so you know (again) the latest PAX drivers have been FAR superior (and functional) than the official Creative drivers for my Titanium HD. Just because YOU may not like modded drivers doesn't mean they are bad.

 

:stewpid: anyway...

i'd be willing to bet that if you put either 2x1GB or 2x2GB sticks in your pc the SCP would clear up.
mixing up ram stick sizes (even brands) is generally not considered ideal.
try it out if you can be arsed - at least you will have narrowed it down a little.
if it turns out that mixed ram is the cause, the solution may be as simple as changing a few bios options.

 

I'm going to try that next. I'm also got a message directly from Rob McClelland, so I will be able to work with him as well. PAX is what I used prior to the Driver Suites, and I never had problems with it. Using the other drivers still produces problems, so I either have RAM issues, or some other configuration/driver remnants that are causing problems. There are only minimal SCP with the basic Creative drivers, but I'm looking to get PAX going again.

Again of note, my USB sound (Logitech G930 Headset) does not produce any problems. This does not run through the soundcard, but the fact that it works fine might shed some light on what is the problem (or eliminate some causes).

Also, I understand that people favor one set of drivers over another, and that there may be valid differences among the drivers. I have used PAX in the past and had no issues until now, and I'd simply like to go back to using what had worked for me before, rather than bailing on this driver set that has worked well for me, at the first sign of issues.