Creative X-Fi problem - hissing and crackling with GPU activity

J

John

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2004
Messages
371
I've got a problem with my Creative X-Fi sound card that's driving me insane. I have no idea where to go from here and I can't find any other people with a similar problem, so I thought it was time to make a post. Here's what I'm using right now.

Asus P5K-E/WiFi
Intel E8500
nVidia 8800 GTX
X-Fi Elite Pro
Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 XMS2 Dominator Memory
Tagan 530W PSU (A Corsair 750W TX should be arriving tomorrow)
A single 70GB WD Raptor (I have a 4 disk RAID array that I don't have plugged in, since I doubt my 530W PSU would cope.)

The problem is that whenever I do anything that uses the GPU, I get hissing and crackling. It seems that the more GPU intensive an application is the more hissing and crackling I get - even when no sound should be audible. (For example, doing this in Vista = a tiny amount of popping. Playing Mass Effect = non stop hissing.) The odd thing is that this problem only started once I upgraded my motherboard and CPU. Before this I used the X-Fi and 8800 GTX in an Asus P5B Deluxe with an Intel E6600 with no problems whatsoever - it worked perfectly.

So, I presumed that the P5K-E was faulty. I ordered and installed a Gigabyte PA-EP45-DSR3, and found I had exactly the same problem. I've tried moving the card to different slots, installing different drivers, updating the BIOS of each motherboard, nothing has made any difference. Does anyone have any ideas on what the cause of the problem could be?
 
Have you tried fiddling with the volume level inside windows? You want the volumes under windows reasonably high, some argue for or against setting everything to 100, but I would say around 70-90 at least.


What your describing sounds like background EM noise that your card is picking up. If your volume levels are low in windows, then the EM noise is loud relative to the sound signal. In this case, your amp then takes this and amplifies both, giving you this noise.


If this doesn't work, then it may be something else, and/or you just have a bad card. Or perhaps the EM noise from your setup is abnormally high.
 
Unfortunately not, this is way beyond background EM noise - it makes the card completely unusable. (I.e. you hear the crackling and static noise louder than the actual audio.)

I've considered the bad card theory, but there some problems with that -
1. Both cards worked perfectly together in the P5B Deluxe
2. I've tested the X-Fi in another machine, works fine
3. The graphics card works fine with or without the X-Fi

I was thinking maybe the PSU had something to do with it. Has anyone heard of an underpowered PSU causing this sort of problem?
 
Back when I had X-Fi XtremeMusic, there was a lot of talk about X-Fi crackling problems with certain chipsets (mostly nVidia chipsets though). If I remember right, one explanation was that on certain chipsets and mobos PCI bus transfer requests made by the X-Fi card are deferred too long which leads to audible crackling.

It's just a wild guess, but that might be the case here too, since all those tested motherboard have different chipsets (i965P, iP35 and iP45). You might also want to try another PCI slot, if there's one available.

Googled this while writing, and came up with a page that has some explanations for those crackling issue:
http://xfi.blogspot.com/2006/06/soundblaster-x-fi-crackling-and.html
 
mlaine said:
Back when I had X-Fi XtremeMusic, there was a lot of talk about X-Fi crackling problems with certain chipsets (mostly nVidia chipsets though). If I remember right, one explanation was that on certain chipsets and mobos PCI bus transfer requests made by the X-Fi card are deferred too long which leads to audible crackling.

It's just a wild guess, but that might be the case here too, since all those tested motherboard have different chipsets (i965P, iP35 and iP45). You might also want to try another PCI slot, if there's one available.

Googled this while writing, and came up with a page that has some explanations for those crackling issue:
http://xfi.blogspot.com/2006/06/soundblaster-x-fi-crackling-and.html
Click to expand...

No luck there, I checked all the potential problems in that list and none of them apply. I've also tried numerous card configurations with no improvement.
 
pay the extra penny and get some real speakers. i use my comp's 30inch monitor for everything so the speakers are required for me
 
It turned out to be a PSU problem. Replaced the PSU, and the crackling/hissing disappeared.
 
John said:
It turned out to be a PSU problem. Replaced the PSU, and the crackling/hissing disappeared.
Click to expand...

That's the first soundcard problem related to PSU I have heard so far. Does that X-Fi model have separate power input on the card? If not, maybe the newer mobos are no longer supplying some (legacy) power lines to expansion slots that are still required by your sound card.

Anyway, thanks for the info, definitely have to keep this in mind as one possible solution.
 
mlaine said:
That's the first soundcard problem related to PSU I have heard so far. Does that X-Fi model have separate power input on the card? If not, maybe the newer mobos are no longer supplying some (legacy) power lines to expansion slots that are still required by your sound card.

Anyway, thanks for the info, definitely have to keep this in mind as one possible solution.
Click to expand...

Yes, it uses an floppy power connector on the board.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top