Odd Problem: Overclock 5970, lose x-fi sound

T

tigger1612

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
Messages
217
Hi Guys,

Interesting problem I have. I'm a desktop engineer by trade and I'm stumped. I've been able to run 1000/1050 on my ati 5970 for a while now under water with great temps and no issues. Now about 2 days ago, whenever I go into a game at ANY overclocked settings, my x-fi card will just cut out after about a minute or two sometimes even less. The only way to get the sound back is to reboot. But the same thing happens repeatedly. The only time I can keep sound is to run at default clocks. The game won't crash at all I just lose sound all together. I've even reformatted and that did nothing. Only thing I can think of is that my overclocking has caused the life of my 5970 to start down the quick road to death :) or maybe some sort of power issue is at play here. I'm going to try using the onboard sound next but just curious if anyone has heard of this before.
 
I know this won't be the most helpful to hear but I hate X-Fi foreasons just like this.

I've had similar X-Fi related problems with any machine I have ever installed an X-Fi into from random static at very loud noise levels occuring every hour or so after whch the sound is dead till a reboot(this issue has been coming back and forth with driver releases known as the 'Time Bomb' issue), to having the X-Fi sounds just not working on bootup at random requiring a restart, to firing of of my own guns being normal volume level and suddenly creating static/hissing/popping noises or irregularly loud volumes from the firing of my own gun compared to any previous or afterword shots. Almost like my character changed from shooting near his hip to lifting the gun to besides his ear and shot.

In short, its probably going to be an X-Fi hardware or driver related issue that more than likely will never be solved by Creative and occur randomly or with irregularity. There's I suppose a small chance its related to your PCI-E bus and you could try the standard bios updates for your motherboard, new chipset drivers, etc.
 
Try disabling the HDMI Audio components of your 5970 in Device Manager, see if that helps.

But you might be stuck using the 5970 at stock frequencies. I've had problems with the X-Fi and CPU / GPU overclocks, from losing sound to losing drivers completely. I just run my stuff at stock now; no real difference in gameplay experience for me, just lower benchmark numbers, and on the plus side my system runs really cool at stock.
 
I stopped using my XFI card for not doing what it is meant to do as well. I have gone back to using on board for the first time in years. I have to say for everyday gaming there is not alot to notice with one exception NO PROBLEMS :D.

It could be a weird problem with the 5970 doing something with the PCI E lanes as it will be using more resources when over clocked. Check to see if there is any bios updates for your MB.
 
Maybe its a power issue? It may or may not have anything to do with the PSU, but the video card does draw power from the 2 power plugs as well as through the PCIe bus (approx 75 watts worth).

1. What PSU do you have? Its not listed in your sig
2. Maybe your motherboard isn't powering the PCIe bus correctly? Check to see if there is a bios update for it. If your motherboard has any extra aux power connectors (usually near the PCIe slots), plug them in also.
3. Disable HDMI audio on the video card, it could be a driver conflict.
 
My X-fi would lose sound at stock or overclocked. I ended up ripping it out of my system and (literally) throwing it in the trash. Try testing your onboard sound, I guarantee you it won't chip, crackle, or stop working.
 
That's exactly what I did the other day. I just changed to the onboard for the Rampage II Extreme which is that SoundMAX SupremeFi whatever and it works like a champ. Not a single crash, hitch, or otherwise since. I'll chalk it up to the X-fi being garbage. Framerates have taken pretty much no hit so its a win all around. Thankfully, I lose nothing as far as gaming is concerned since most games make no use of the acceleration anyway.
 
At this point Creative Labs sound cards are more trouble than they are worth. Unless you need recording capabilities that are beyond what the onboard audio can do (which isn't hard to do BTW) I'd just stick with the onboard audio. The driver's Creative is putting out now are just shit. Then again they've pretty much been shit since the early Windows XP days.
 
Dan_D said:
At this point Creative Labs sound cards are more trouble than they are worth. Unless you need recording capabilities that are beyond what the onboard audio can do (which isn't hard to do BTW) I'd just stick with the onboard audio. The driver's Creative is putting out now are just shit. Then again they've pretty much been shit since the early Windows XP days.
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I had to put one in my PC to do Dolby Live encoding for surround in games (since the on-board card wouldn't). It works okay, but the driver definitely has issues. If I try to switch to ASIO mode with Dolby Live turned on, the system hangs. I always thought Vista / 7 has architectural improvements to prevent hardware from causing system-level failures, but Creative seems to go out of their way to get around this. Not the biggest deal in the world, but from what I understand a lot of people are having much worse problems with the X-Fi cards (never mind Linux support which was promised but never delivered)

Actually using an external sound card right now and the X-Fi is just sitting in my case with its stupid Fatal1ty light shining. Oh well.
 
I can't recall what issue I had, but the drivers from Creative's site worked better for me than the drivers available via Windows Update.
 
The heyday of soundcards is over I think. I know some people claim they can immediately notice a sound quality difference between an X-fi and Realtek audio, but I can't hear it for myself. I run through Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers, and I noticed the jump from a Live! to an Audigy.

I built my current rig in 2007 and made the mistake of buying an X-fi and trying to use it with 64 bit Vista; the drivers were terrible, and so was Creative's support. So I did to me what seemed unthinkable at the time, and tried my motherboards onboard sound. I will never look back to Creative again.
 
In games that actually support EAX and can use Creative's Alchemy solution now, I do notice a difference. However that difference isn't worth the bullshit I've got to put up with to keep a Creative Labs card working in my system.
 
Dan_D said:
In games that actually support EAX and can use Creative's Alchemy solution now, I do notice a difference. However that difference isn't worth the bullshit I've got to put up with to keep a Creative Labs card working in my system.
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+1, in my old system I had an Audigy that insisted on BSOD'ing once a week with the latest drivers.
 
I'm using digital out to a receiver that is about 10 years old, sounds great, no problems, don't need to upgrade it with my pc! I recommend it to everyone! :p
 
Get an Asus Xonar DX. It's about the same price, puts out good sound, and doesn't have any of the driver crapshoot those titanium x-fi's have.
 
What you described is the very reason I have my X-fi Titanium collecting dust in my closet.
 
As a current X-Fi owner only because my system is an older junker with an onboard realtek that is absolute garbage I have some suggestions.

Go to Creative's site and download the driver only package for your model card. Then if you play games download Creative's Alchemy software and only Creative's Alchemy software. Don't let their software install any of the other garbage. I went years without issue and then I accidentally installed their update manager which decided to update everything into my system.

I'm looking to buy a Rampage board that has a good quality onboard audio chip. If I ever need a standalone audio card again its going to be an Asus Xonar.
 
KublaKhan said:
+1, in my old system I had an Audigy that insisted on BSOD'ing once a week with the latest drivers.
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I had been using an Audigy 2 ZS in my HTPC and had more sound output out of the left rear channel than the right. I checked and checked and the settings in software and on the receiver were fine. Whenever a really loud sound would come out of it, the circuit protection in the receiver would trip all the damned time. I'd have to pause the movie and shut off the receiver, then turn it back on. The front left speaker also worked only intermittently and finally not at all. And on a few occasions I'd get the left speakers sounds coming out of the right front speaker as well. The center channel volume was screwed up as well. No matter what I did I never could get the audio working right on a consistent basis with the damn thing. It also took me five tries with drivers to get the damned thing working right. Finally I gave up and yanked that stupid card out of the system. I went back to using the onboard audio with an optical cable and so far its been excellent. I had some trouble using this same receiver on my DP35P motherboard and its onboard audio with Vista. Now I'm using the DX48BT2 and Windows 7 and I couldn't be happier.
 
fishrule said:
The heyday of soundcards is over I think. I know some people claim they can immediately notice a sound quality difference between an X-fi and Realtek audio, but I can't hear it for myself. I run through Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers, and I noticed the jump from a Live! to an Audigy.I
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Sorry mate but you cant really judge a sound card with those speakers. Yes there IS a difference although it depends on the user if it is worth it for not.
I cannot use integrated ones for sure.
As for the drivers, normal issues here and there but nothing like the horror stories I read here for me and I have had creative cards since the beginning and also some non creative ones too.
 
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