X-Fi + BF2=Freezing

I

Intel_Inside

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
222
I got my X-Fi Xtrememusic a few days ago. I installed it and it worked wonderfully. Yesterday, my computer started freezing. I would play Battlefield 2 for about 20 minutes and it seemed fine, then all of a sudden it would just freeze and the sound would stop working. It would totally lock up and I would have to reboot. That's one problem. The other is when I reboot it, there's no sound! The only way to get sound again is to reinstall it. Today when it froze, I rebooted and the sound was working. Any other games I haven't had problems with, they all perform and sound great. It's too bad that BF2 keeps crashing being it's my favorite game. Creative or EA or both need to make a patch or something.

This basically summarizes my post on Creatives forums, which no one has responded to yet, because they know it's true. http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=41534 :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
This is exactly why I havent gone to an X-fi. The problems with BF2 are very well documented all over the internet.
 
I was using the soundcard that came with my AW8-MAX, it's a daughtercard. It worked fine with BF2, it just didn't sound as good. I don't know how a company can promise something, then totally fucking flip it around. Oh yes, the X-Fi makes BF2 run SO much faster....right.
 
Is yours on the "ultra" setting? if so.. bump it down one notch.
 
Yeah, I do run everything at their max settings. I will turn it down to 'high' after school tomorrow and see if that helps. I've heard something about the X-Fi's overheating?
 
Put audio quality on High like you said magnetik, and it played a game of Strike at Karkand just fine. I ended up with a score of 126 :D
 
yeah.. I went through the same thing.. I usually crank everything too.. :p
 
Oh yeah, go into the creative forums (forgot where) but the X-fi is incompatible with certain motherboards. Problem is fixed by calling creative and getting an rma. Send in the card and they patch it with a new bios (yes, yes, there's a whole rant in the creative forums about not being able to do it yourself) or updating your motherboard with the newest bios. This problem does not affect the X-Fi cards with 64M of ram. The problem mainly had to do with the soundcard showing double entries in the hardware list or not showing up at all. This may be related.
 
Well, it works fine with any other game, and now fine with BF2 as well, so I'm not concerned unless it stops again :D
 
TheJackal said:
sucks that you can't play it on ultra setting though.
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Ultra is geared more towards the cards with 64MB of RAM on board.
 
oh, so that would be the xfi gamer edition or something? hehe never knew the difference between the music version and the others, only the music seemed like one for a good price.
 
FiZ said:
Ultra is geared more towards the cards with 64MB of RAM on board.
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No it's not. Ultra = 128 voices and ALL X-Fi cards support that many=P

Donnie27
 
TheJackal said:
sucks that you can't play it on ultra setting though.
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I have no problem with the Ultra Setting on my X-Fi Xtreme Music. I have an A8N SLI and ran this card on an IC7-G before that. Now other problems with BF2 can be traced to folks trying to;
run CMSS with 5.1 speakers. Meant only for Headphones.
Crystalizer enabled, it's not needed.
Not in Game Mode.
Sync with Windows that only supports 64 voices, that doesn't work when the card is doing 128 and etc..
Old drivers still not un-installed.
Old BIOSs, I'm using 1013.004 on a A8N that works perfectly with the Ultra setting and running Windows 2K Pro. BF2 shouldn't be running on this system according to the forms I've seen. I might not upgrade to WinXP.

So of course I see it as a user problem.

I mean come on, folks complainning about Sound Card firmware? Let's see, I had a 40 speed CD-RW that I flashed to 52X, 3 different Video cards that I flashed and opened pipes on, used Audigy 4 drivers on the A2 ZS, copied HDD files and Flashed a Pioneer DVD and turned it into a Compaq. This way I could install these Drives in a DIY system and use the Compaq restore disk for this person who still wanted to use their crap-o-la! These are light mods or hacks. So tell me, still wonder why Creative tries to keep this crap out of these folks hands?

Donnie27
 
Donnie27 said:
No it's not. Ultra = 128 voices and ALL X-Fi cards support that many=P

Donnie27
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This pains me to say it, but Donnie is right...

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/battlefield2/

What Ultra does in BF2 said:
The Ultra-high quality audio mode is only available when a Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card is detected. In other audio quality modes, the number of simultaneous 3D sounds has to be limited to 64 - without Xtreme Fidelity audio acceleration, more 3D sounds typically means more CPU usage ! which means lower frame-rates! Because X-Fi is a true audio accelerator though, the developers at Digital Illusions were confident that it could handle all the sounds they could throw at it - up to 128 in fact!
Click to expand...

What X-RAM does in BF2 said:
Higher-spec X-Fi sound cards (including X-Fi Elite Pro and X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition) feature 64Mb of "X-RAM" - fast SDRAM reserved for storing audio data. Battlefield 2 detects the presence of X-RAM, and automatically moves a large number of audio samples from the system RAM to the sound card. This enhances performance by taking the strain away from your computer's PCI bus and system memory.
Click to expand...
 
Whenever I choose the option for Hardware Audio, And choose the X-Fi, it crashes out BF2. So it's obviously a no go for me. I am running the X-Fi Platinum series.

It's annoying, because the only reason I bought the X-Fi was because I wanted to play BF2 in it's best mode.
 
ShepsCrook said:
Whenever I choose the option for Hardware Audio, And choose the X-Fi, it crashes out BF2. So it's obviously a no go for me. I am running the X-Fi Platinum series.

It's annoying, because the only reason I bought the X-Fi was because I wanted to play BF2 in it's best mode.
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I have a similar problem with my Audigy 2 plat. If I set it to hardware it will work fine for an hour or two then crash with a black screen and loud annoying screaching in my ears.

Now if I change it to software, no issues at all.
 
I set it to software, to see if it would make a difference, and it crashed faster than when I have the X-Fi enabled. This time it froze and the game sounds looped, then it restarted my computer by itself :confused:
 
Take a screenshot of the BF2 audio set up so we can see what options you have checked.
 
Wes, I realize its a stupid question but yopu are switching to Game Mode before you launch the game? I was having exact same issue with D3 when I first got my fatality then suddenly dawned on me to switch and no more crashes. Unfortunatly is about only suggestion I have because Im not interested in War Games as a rule so havent wasted money on that game.
 
WesM63 said:
I have a similar problem with my Audigy 2 plat. If I set it to hardware it will work fine for an hour or two then crash with a black screen and loud annoying screaching in my ears.

Now if I change it to software, no issues at all.
Click to expand...

To use the Hardware setting with that card, you might need the EAX OpenAL patch at Creative's site. Also, avoid using more than one tone setting. Use either the EQ or the Bass and Treble, never use both. Feedback can kill or damage your card.

Donnie27
 
Donnie27 said:
To use the Hardware setting with that card, you might need the EAX OpenAL patch at Creative's site. Also, avoid using more than one tone setting. Use either the EQ or the Bass and Treble, never use both. Feedback can kill or damage your card.

Donnie27
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Yeah he's right, I believe you need the latest drivers for both Audigy 2 and X-Fi for BF2 to function properly (definitely for Audigy 2).
 
Moofasa~ said:
Yeah he's right, I believe you need the latest drivers for both Audigy 2 and X-Fi for BF2 to function properly (definitely for Audigy 2).
Click to expand...

There are also problems with Sync with Windows and Mic setup or sensing. I know one guy had to turn off VOIP support. I'll also add that Call Of Duty 2's sounds are almost as good, if not better. The effects seem overdone in some places in BF2.

Donnie27
 
Well, I'm selling the X-Fi on Ebay, I don't need it, motherboard audio sounds fine. It might not be the soundcard after all though. I went to see how hot my RAM was, and it was almost too hot to touch. Lowered voltage a little, but I already took out X-Fi and it's boxed up. Maybe when I build a new computer I'll invest in a new X-Fi.
 
Intel_Inside said:
Well, I'm selling the X-Fi on Ebay, I don't need it, motherboard audio sounds fine. It might not be the soundcard after all though. I went to see how hot my RAM was, and it was almost too hot to touch. Lowered voltage a little, but I already took out X-Fi and it's boxed up. Maybe when I build a new computer I'll invest in a new X-Fi.
Click to expand...

If you had gotten it to work, you'd not feel the same way about what the onboard stuff sounds like. I upgraded from an Audigy 2 ZS and feel I made a good choice. I've owed or tested most of the old and current cards, the X-Fi is the best Gerneral purpose sound card on the market IMHO. Kills the others for games and hangs tough performing the other tasks.

Donnie27
 
Well, after a complete system format, reinstallation of Windows and all needed drivers. I was able to get the SB X-Fi working. It sounds absolutely outstanding now. Must have been a driver or windows problem. I needed to reformat anyway since I was replacing the mobo, and video card.

I was replacing my SB Audigy 2 Platinum with the X-Fi Platinum and I can tell a huge difference between quality now. X-Fi is hands down, the winner!
 
I have to agree these cards sound great. Mine is the Fatal1ty version.

Not to get off topic, but does anyone with a X-Fi card have a passive heatsink on it?

With these talks of overheaing maybe Creative decided to put these heatsinks on the X-Fi cards to help with this heat issue.
 
No neither. They found a way to increase yeild but new process chips get a tad hotter that the origonals.
 
@donnie,
I'm using the latest drivers from Creatives site, the Beta ones from september i think.

@bratboy,
Not sure what you mean. Are you refering to the Audigy console?
 
not sure what post your refeering to. Will assume was my last one.

Anyway CL found a way to speed up production of x-fi chips but the newer method means new chips may run hotter than the origonal X-fi chips did. Im assuming both are equal, at least according to CL & CL has said nothing about any actual change to chips instructions or anything so same chip just manufatured differently.
 
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