Interesting audio problem.

[Dopefish]

This is the card I have.

A problem has crept up on me with this card. I had not changed any drivers or modified any setting in my system. I normally shut my computer off at night. The following day I turned my PC on and went to play a game and noticed that my sound cut in/out quickly. While it cut in/out, the system would momentarily pause altogether.

If I switch to using my on-board audio, everything works perfectly. This way I narrowed it down to something related to the X-Fi card specifically.

I've tried these methods (and probably some that I forgot to mention):
* Re-seating the card
* Moving the slot the card is in
* Uninstalling and reinstalling the current drivers entirely
* Installing older versions of the driver
* Installing the latest beta version of the driver
* Tried modifying settings in the audio control panel
* Tried different modes in the audio control panel
* Probably other stuff


The problem I get happens not just in game, but out of game too. Just sitting here listening to music, the music will cut in/out.

I tried to record a small clip of the problem. I think the problem shows up in the audio recording, but it may just be more of the problem I'm having that I'm re-hearing.

http://imk.cx/temp/audioproblem.aac (715kb)

I'm having a really difficult time trying to narrow down what exactly the problem is and why it's happening. Anyone else experience anything like this and/or have a solution for it?

I think the card may have just went bad or defective.

[CoffeeShark]

yeah, sounds like the card shorted somewhere

[Craig]

never had any problems with my XFi other than the usual Vista woes. This sounds like you surely have something wrong on the hardware side of things. I'd call support and see about an RMA.

[Bojingles]

Your card sounds screwed Dope. That sound clip gave me a headache. I hope Creative will give you a new one under warranty

[panic!]

It's hard to tell because Creatives drivers are absolute garbage.

[Dopefish]

Yeah. I haven't entirely narrowed it down yet. I did a bunch of Google searches and found things that mention disabling all enhancements (what's the point of using the card then?), and I gave it a shot just to test it. It helped some, but I still had the same problem in the end. It's been over a year since I got the card, I don't know if they'll RMA it. I think it's just barely over a year since I bought it.

[K_Dog]

Worth a shot but I'd hurry

Quote:

a) The limited warranty for the Product extends for twelve (12) months from the date of your purchase (“Warranty Period”). The warranty period will be extended by each whole day that the Product is out of Your possession for repair under this warranty. You will not have to pay for any replacement parts during the Warranty Period.

[Dopefish]

No luck on that.

“It appears you're beyond the complementary telephone (60 days) and e-mail (1 year) support period.”

That's right. I can't even get e-mail support.

They offered me two possible solutions:

1) Pay over $26 per hour to talk for 30 minutes to a “tutor.” They made sure to point out that I should have my credit card ready, nothing else. They did not say to gather information on your card or anything. They only want money.

2) Buy a new card!



That's it...

So.. I'm running some additional tests. It might have been a Vista update or something else that messed it up. I'm installing XP to a separate harddrive right now and I'm going to test the card there. If the card works fine, then it's more than likely something related to Vista. Therefore, if the card is fine, and due to Creative's terrible support, I may decide to sell my X-Fi (if it works, of course) and get a different card, like the Xonar DX from Asus.

[Teck]

thats basically a fu*k off response...

[Tulkas]

Seems tech support is hit or miss these days. Some companies are getting real tight, or just don't plain offer any support after a small period.