Static / Crackelin with X-fi Fatality and Winxp

[ty1er]

This has been pretty much since I purchased my X-fi. If I didn't need the 5.25" I/O bay I would have sold this card along time ago.

I'm hearing soft sounding static or crackelin. You can hear this when there is audio play or if there is nothing playing at all. The example I can give is that it sounds like when you are listening through headphones and start to bend and twist the input connection into the audio device.

The thing that drives me nuts is that it happening very spuratic. There is no rhyme or reason to when it occures. Sometimes it won't happent for weeks, then all of a sudden it will happen for a few days straight. I have checked all my cabling, and even swap the card into different PCI slots.

Is there a simple fix for this?

System Specs:
C2D E6700
MSI P6N SLI Platinum
Corsair XMS2 2048PC 6400
eVGA 8800GTS
WinXPsp3



-ty1er

 

[chizow]

What drivers are you using? Don't use the latest beta (Jun 02), use the WHQL ones before that (March or so).

Does it only occur while using headphones, or with speakers too? Try muting line in/Mic as there were some reports of noise and grounding problems with the Mic input. Also if its happening in a specific application, try changing audio devices back and forth (weird fix I know, but it works in LOTRO for sure).

Update to the latest BIOS for that board, I believe its 1.06. I had that board up until about 3 weeks ago. It worked great since November with the 4GB patch, but in Mass Effect I started getting crackling/hissing on elevator rides. It seemed to coincide with HDD/PCI bus activity, which is pretty well documented problem with the X-Fi and Nforce chipsets. But then I switched to a GTX 280 from my 8800GTX and the problem stopped completely. Very strange I know.

 

[ty1er]

Originally posted by: chizow
What drivers are you using? Don't use the latest beta (Jun 02), use the WHQL ones before that (March or so).

I can't what version drivers that I am currently running, but they are at least a year or two old. I'm gonna ghost my system this weekend, then I'll give those latest WHQLs a shot.

Does it only occur while using headphones, or with speakers too? Try muting line in/Mic as there were some reports of noise and grounding problems with the Mic input. Also if its happening in a specific application, try changing audio devices back and forth (weird fix I know, but it works in LOTRO for sure).

Next time it happens I'll have to try switching back the audio devices to see if the problem goes away. (good Idea.)

Update to the latest BIOS for that board, I believe its 1.06. I had that board up until about 3 weeks ago. It worked great since November with the 4GB patch, but in Mass Effect I started getting crackling/hissing on elevator rides. It seemed to coincide with HDD/PCI bus activity, which is pretty well documented problem with the X-Fi and Nforce chipsets. But then I switched to a GTX 280 from my 8800GTX and the problem stopped completely. Very strange I know.

Yep I'm using 1.06


Thanks for your help.