Creative X-Fi Elite Pro driver - major problems

[greenman]

I've got Windows XP SP3, not Vista, yet the Creative X-Fi Elite Pro driver just crashes my system.

I can only install the driver in safe mode (else my computer shuts off after a blue screen), when I restart and boot in normal mode, Windows freezes at it's loading screen. If I disable the hardware, everything works fine. If I enable it through windows, windows freezes when attempting to enable the hardware.

Instead of a freeze, I sometimes get the bsod with the error of STOP 0x0000007E.

I've tried:
- Different PCI port
- Driver on CD (for windows xp)
- Driver from Creative's website, also for XP
- Reinstalling it a couple hundred times
- Windows install the driver instead of Creative software
- Disabled onboard audio codec & uninstalled Realtek audio codecs
- Every possible google result

I've tried everything I could think of - any other ideas?

I'm left with hating Creative and thinking it might even be the hardware. Anyone have any similar problems?

 

[Alai]

Sounds like a hardware problem. Can you test it on a second computer and see if it has problems as well?

 

[greenman]

Good idea, I was about to when I just got a random breakthrough; No more bsod or freezes, but under "Sound and Audio Devices" Properties Volume tab, everything is greyed out. What does this mean?

Here is what I see now: http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7319/creativell3.jpg
(I have Windows XP, don't be confused with my slim Vista theme)

Under the Audio tab, playback, recording and midi are all set to the SB X-Fi.
But I can't get a sound out of it. Everything is connected correctly, I've checked many times. I'm only using 2 speakers, tried all ports, everything is still greyed out.

Installed the CD driver instead and now under the "volume" tab it says "No Audio Device" and the card is completely invisible, like so: http://www.pchell.com/images/noaudiodevice.jpg

 

[Brutus75]

Uninstall Drivers -> Safe Mode -> Driver Sweeper -> Install Driver from your sound card's CD (90% cases this is the best one for Creative)

If this doesn't work, try an OS reinstall or check the sound card in another system with different set of drivers.

 

[greenman]

Thanks. Well, now I'm back to just seeing this: http://www.pchell.com/images/noaudiodevice.jpg

I might as well reformat.. Never again will I buy from Creative.

 

[Brutus75]

X-FI sound cards are known for causing problems with certain mainboards. Do you have the latest BIOS from Gigabyte (F11 or the F13b)? I have the same mainboard as you (updated with bios F11) and I don't have problems with my X-FI Fatal1ty Platinum Champion. Give it a try!

 

[Jodiuh]

7e's usually ram IIRC. Have you perhaps ran a prime95 blend or memtest? I wonder if it's the XRAM, lol.

 

[greenman]

BIOS is F11.
Ran prime95 sometime back, everything was fine. Haven't tried with the card installed.

Argh.. Power goes through, lights are lit, driver is installed, but nobody's home.
It really seems to be the driver right about now. Whenever I install it, I hear a soft short turn-on noise from my speakers and the EAX and CMSS-3D lights light up. So it looks to be working, just that the driver doesn't work with XP or something..

 

[greenman]

Reformated, sound works.

..And my computer is faster than ever, yay.

 

[greenman]

..and, I'm back to the problem again, suddenly. :'(

It was working up until a few days ago. I restarted normally and XP froze during the loading screen. Now I'm back to where I started.

During installation of the driver, Windows freezes.
Once I install the driver (through safe mode), Windows freezes during loading screen.
If I disable the device through Safe Mode, Windows boots up fine, when I enable it, Windows freezes.

The sound card installs under the name "Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM)".
I don't beleive this is the normal hardware device title for the X-Fi Elite Pro, is it?

Sometimes when I reseat the card, Windows starts up fine, but that is only because the device status says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)".
At one time, after a reseat, it made loud computer noises, as if it were a mobo speaker with too much electricity going through it. (unless the noise was coming from the mobo.) I was alarmed and expected smoke, but after reboot it just did the same Windows loading screen freeze. I can confirm that the device does work, and it is getting the power. (PCI port works also.) However there seems to be a conflict of some sort.

I reformatted the HDD again, hoping the problem would go away like it did last time. But this time I installed a 64-bit Windows 7 RC build 7100. The problem did not go away. I could try XP again, but it would just be a matter of time before I come back to the issue once more.

I updated BIOS to F13b, it isn't changing a thing.
Tried latest driver which supports Win7, tried Vista driver, tried XP driver, and did turn off onboard audio codec.

I'm guessing something is wrong with my Motherboard. A few months back, my LAN stopped working. I thought it got fried from a storm or something. But it suddenly works now with Windows 7! At this point I could just point at the mobo and call it a fraud, but the odd thing is that I had it RMA'd a short time before I got the sound card. (Turns out my power supply was the one that needed to be RMA'd. It was just a bad power supply.) They tested the mobo and sent it back claiming it worked 100%. So, I doubt the mobo.


Something else to note: Before the sound card stopped working, at 2 seperate times, while listening to music and while watching video, out of nowhere the sound stopped. It was replaced with soft quite noise. Thought it was the player or youtube, but it wouldn't go away until I shut down Windows. Windows then booted up fine and sound worked fine. However, for both times, I believe the computer may have been on for 1-13 days. Maybe the sound card got tired or something.


Any ideas?