X-FI: REALLY REALLY REALLY NEED HELP

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I've had an x-fi xtrememusic for almost 4 years now. It worked fine on my old s939 asus a8n32sli-deluxe, despite notorious incompatibilities w/ nforce 4 motherboards.
I've recently put together a new computer w/ an asus p5n-d an taken the plunge into core2.
But now, I can't use the x-fi: it crackles during music playback. But I really liked the quality, esp in fps games and when playing music. My onboard ac-883 is definitely not as good, and I can't change the bass and whatnot. My z-3200 logitech speakers are being deprived here!

Here are the cards installed in my system:
2x powercolor ati theatre 550 pro pci-e tv tuner
nvidia 7600gt gfx card
belkin 54g wireless card

I also have two sata hdds. There has been no correspondence to hdd activity and the crackling
I have a g5 usb mouse, and logitech media elite keyboard too. I also use a cruzor micro flash drive for readyboost on the front of the pc

What I've tried so far:
+loosening ram timings
+returning system clocks to stock settings
+checked irq: top pci slot shares irq w/ the gfx and 2 tv tuners, 2nd lower pci slot does not
+taken all cards out but gfx and x-fi
+tried gfx card in both pci-e x16 slots and x-fi in both pci slots
+adjusted pci latency of x-fi using a 'pci latency' tool
+tried a crap-ton of x-fi drivers, release + beta along with differing geforce and nforce drivers
+replaced nforce sata controller drivers with vista dual-ide pci controller drivers

Results thus far have been bleak. When I tried the system with just the x-fi and gfx card installed, and all onboard devices disabled in bios, the sound was clear when I played some mp3s on wmp. changing the volume and tracks didn't make it pop or crackle. But then, when i tried to use itunes, aac and mp3 files both crackled and popped. In other cases, when I tried playing mp3 files w/ wmp upon startup they worked fine, itunes too; but after some time (when everything initialized program-wise i'd assume) the problem came back. This led me to suspect a lack of ram might play a roll.

would upgrading my ram to 4gb from 1gb help? I can tell my system is deprived, but unsure if this could contribute to soundcard problems. What about spread spectrum frequencies? I can apply that in bios to the cpu, harddrive, and LDT.

I'm at my wits end here. I might get a pci-e x-fi card, but have no clue if the problems will be presented in that case. I've also thought about selling the xtrememusic card and putting up w/ onboard- but I haven't been able to test it in another computer yet. I do not want to sell it to someone if the problems are not contained to my system.

 

[Twsmit]

This might be too obvious but have you tried the latest beta drivers? If you're using older drivers that might be the problem.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

yeah- and previous beta drivers, and the beta geforce/nforce ones too. thanks for the reply

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

I'm rather disappointing by the lack of replies... when "i7 update!" garbage gets like umpteen replies.... oh well.

I've got something to add- I went out and bought a cheapo usb headset @ target today. It's the logitech 'stereo usb headset 250.' I've been under the impression that usb headsets circumvent any sound processing- after all, if you plug it into a usb port, how could it interact with onboard processing, or even say, an x-fi card?

Anyway, I plugged in the headphones, disabled onboard sound through vista, and go to play some random mp3 files to see if it works. I knew I was going to return the headphones when I saw under "default format" that they only playback 16bit streams- weak. But what was worse, and applicable to my x-fi issue is that the playback was riddled with static and popping- just like the x-fi. Is there some underlying issue here that could degrade playback of both a usb device and a pci x-fi unit?

 

[Denithor]

You're running Vista on 1GB? Right now, go buy some more RAM immediately, Vista runs like crap with <2GB.

That said, I doubt your system memory has anything to do with the 'extra' noises you're hearing. The first thing to make sure is that the XFi is in the lowest slot (furthest away from GPU). That will help to minimize interference from other components.

You may have to consider getting a non-Creative card, as their drivers for Vista are rather poor (look around the forums and you'll see many, many comments to this effect).

And it's probably time to upgrade that video card too, pick up a 9600GSO for $50AR and play your FPS games the way they were meant to be played.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

Thanks for the response! I'm a student w/ an uber busy schedule, but am gonna try and make time to setup an rma w/ crucial to dump my ddr1 for 4gb of ddr2. After my b-day I'll probably be getting a 9800gt or some such. In the new year I'm focusing on getting a new monitor to break away from my current 1280*1024 res.
The x-fi is unencouragable. Neither slot helps, nor does a differing arrangement of the gfx card w/ everything else removed. I'm going to find a friend w/ a desktop to test and see if the problem is isolated to my configuration, or, if the card is beat.

 

[footballrunner800]

take out the wireless card and check if it still crackles. Also, make sure the pci bus is fixed at 100 (not on auto).

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

My mobo doesn't offer pci clock changes- I assume it's locked @ 33mhz. Read above- nothing keeps the x-fi from crackling... wireless card or not... weak...
thanks for the reply-post!