UT3/BioShock won't launch after audio card install...

[Thraxen]

I have a 64-bit Vista Q6600 based PC and UT3/BioShock had been running fine up until I installed a Soundblaster X-Fi sound card (switched over from using the on-board audio). Now when I try to launch the game I get the initial pop-up but then nothing else. That screen just stays there and all 4 cores on the Q6600 churn away at roughly 50% each for UT3 and 25% for BioShock. I can leave the system like that for as long as I want and nothing else ever happens. I eventually just have to force the games to quit.

I did disable the on-board audio in the BIOS and even tried completely reinstalling UT3, but neither helped. Both games will launch just fine if I go into the Device Manager and disbale the X-Fi sound card. This issue doesn't affect all my games though as Crysis and Mythos both run perfectly fine.

Also, I did do a search on the Creative forums and found that people were having problems with UT3 crashing while playing unless they disabled OpenAL in the game, but that does me no good as I can't even launch the game.

Any ideas?

 

[UTFan81]

do you have the openAL driver installed?

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: UTFan81
do you have the openAL driver installed?

Is that a separate install? I would have figured that would have been included with the audio card software or the games themselves. If not, then maybe that's the problem. I'll try it out tonight.

 

[Narse]

In the creative console launcher make sure you are in Game Mode, if you are in any other mode than game mode the Open AL extensions are not loaded and the game will freeze

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

there may be some beta drivers for the X Fi - on my last install, which was not even a day ago, i was using the beta drivers and had no issues. the only thing is that, they don't include teh console launcher - boo on that, but give the beta drivers a try (on Creatives site)

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
there may be some beta drivers for the X Fi - on my last install, which was not even a day ago, i was using the beta drivers and had no issues. the only thing is that, they don't include teh console launcher - boo on that, but give the beta drivers a try (on Creatives site)

Well, I just checked and there are no beta drivers for 64-bit Vista. And, yes, I still haven't solved this problem. In fact, I've also discovered that STALKER won't launch either. I did find that I can launch the games if I disable the sound card in the device manager... but, of course, there's no sound. So to summarize:

Works: Audio while at the desktop (including media players), Mythos, and Crysis

Fails to even launch: UT3, BioShock, and STALKER

I find it a bit funny that the only two games I have that work are a beta game and the most system taxing game.

 

[postmortemIA]

which x-fi did you get? ifyou got x-fi xtreme audio, that is not a real x-fi, has no x-fi chip, just the name. to isntall the latest drivers, use the creative software autoupdate tool.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
which x-fi did you get? ifyou got x-fi xtreme audio, that is not a real x-fi, has no x-fi chip, just the name. to isntall the latest drivers, use the creative software autoupdate tool.

I bought one of the true X-Fis... I have the XtremeGamer Fatal1ty card.

[edit] I tried the software auto update tool and it said that Vista was not supported... LOL.

 

[Narse]

Do you try my suggestion?

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: Narse
Do you try my suggestion?

Yup. It actually defaulted to Game Mode when I installed the drivers. I also tried launching the games from Entertainment and Audio Creation modes too just to see. Nothing has worked. I've posted on the Creative forums and contacted their tech support and so far no one has a solution. Creative tech support finally had me run their system information tool and send the them the resulting text file. I guess they're going to look over the specs and settings to see if they can find anything.

 

[postmortemIA]

you must have some really old driver cd, my xfi works well on vista x64 and autoupdater tool has brought drivers to latest..

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
you must have some really old driver cd, my xfi works well on vista x64 and autoupdater tool has brought drivers to latest..

See.. but I never even used the CD... I never do because the included software is almost always old for any PC device. I went and got the latest Vista 64-bit drivers from the Creative site. I also don't see this updater tool you are talking about. I assume you are using one installed locally on your PC? They have one on their web site, but it told me Vista wasn't supported.

[edit] Here's another bit of information... I'm not sure if this means anything, but I when in the console there is a setting called X-Fi CMSS-3D. If I enable that, click the "Virtual" button, and then click the "Test" button the console locks up. No idea why or if the two issues are even tied together.

 

[postmortemIA]

I think you should have used driver CD, it comes with few nice apps, one is autoupdater tool.

I use autoupdater that comes on driver CD. It surely supports vista.

your shortcut might end up being long ride.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Thraxen

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
you must have some really old driver cd, my xfi works well on vista x64 and autoupdater tool has brought drivers to latest..

See.. but I never even used the CD... I never do because the included software is almost always old for any PC device. I went and got the latest Vista 64-bit drivers from the Creative site. I also don't see this updater tool you are talking about. I assume you are using one installed locally on your PC? They have one on their web site, but it told me Vista wasn't supported.

[edit] Here's another bit of information... I'm not sure if this means anything, but I when in the console there is a setting called X-Fi CMSS-3D. If I enable that, click the "Virtual" button, and then click the "Test" button the console locks up. No idea why or if the two issues are even tied together.

If you're locking up on speaker tests something isn't right. You installed the audio console from the website as well right?

For games failing to start up, try re-enabling the onboard and then see if the games launch. Try with both the X-Fi and onboard set to default individually in Vista sound properties. Once in the game see if you can change the default sound output and set it to the X-Fi, then save changes and exit the game. You can also go digging around in .ini and config files to see if any of the games are set to onboard default. With some games, if you change or remove an expected device from the last saved config that can cause the game to lock up.