X-Fi and BF2. A match made in Hell.

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spaceman

[H]F Junkie
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Jan 7, 2005
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Well my case temps are only 25-30 C so I guess it's ok. I have a 1900XT with an Accelero X2 blowing hot air in the case. My only real issue is the damn X-FI seems to overheat with BF2. That or it's just EA and Creative getting together to piss me off yet again. I placed a pci exhaust fan below the X-Fi but it still has issues with BF2 so that I have to enable software sound!

It's weird b/c when enabling X-Fi in BF2 I lose sounds entirely. I reverted back to the earliest driver revision from Creative. Not the one they launched with the second set. Maybe it's just 1.3 FTW? Dunno just curious b/c software sound is ok and every other game works fine.
 
Actually i think it is just you. I have the XFI fataility and many other also have XFI and I have never heard of an XFI not working with BF2. Format... Reinstall....
 
dborden said:
Actually i think it is just you. I have the XFI fataility and many other also have XFI and I have never heard of an XFI not working with BF2. Format... Reinstall....
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What planet are you from? Try the latest Creative drivers and tell me you don't have issues? I can't even join a server with those and yes that's a known problem. Google X-Fi problems with BF2 there's hundreds of matches.
 
Which motherboard are you using? I've heard of issues in the past with certain chipsets + XFI cards.

I'm using a Via KT800 chipset on mine and haven't had any issues in BF2 with the 1.3 patch and running on hardware/ultra high sound.
 
I had that same problem, I fixed it by switching the Creative Mode to GAMING then launching BF2. Now it works.
 
I have to agree as well with the no prob crowd. I have an Xi-fi and BF2 seems to run fine on Ultra high, but I think it has messed with my ability to use my mic in UT2K4. Now the drivers for the "special" sounds in UT2K4, sound incredible, but render any in-game conversation moot. I just don't get it. You'd think that creative would be a little more worried now that these duo core procs can most likely assume the job of the sound card. As far as your issue, I know that some Xi-fi cards were recalled due to a faulty chip, I believe, and that may be your issue. Contact creative and give them HELL!
 
There is a known issue with X-fi cards on nforce 4 motherboards. Creative are claiming that nvidia needs to release a new bios to fix the problems.
 
I am soo glad I never bought the nforce MB. After they dropped the Soundstorm I couldn't see any reason to pay some of prices they want. :eek: Going with a "budget" MB was the best choice I ever made since I did buy the X-fi I've never had any problems other than Creative's bloatware.
 
Well with the XFi the amount of bloat has gone down. I did my install from the web download which just gives you the control panel. Then I installed the THX app from the cd to get the bass redirection option (why they moved it from the control panel is beyond me).

No bloat.. all good.
 
BLUEFISH44 said:
There is a known issue with X-fi cards on nforce 4 motherboards. Creative are claiming that nvidia needs to release a new bios to fix the problems.
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Sure :rolleyes:

Frequent this forum http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board?board.id=soundblaster

You'll find them closing threads and posting the "discovery about nForce4", but look through the threads and you'll find ATI, VIA and ULI chipset users also encountering the SCP problem (Snap, crackle pop, it's not just your breakfast ceral but also your new sound card).

I think it's easy for them to blame the majority of issues on nVIDIA, but notice how not only the X-Fi has the issue? It's the Audigy and Live! series as well.

Don't know why so many find the onboard sound solutions from RealTek work flawlessly, perhaps Creative should hire some of their engineers.

I've an MSI K8N Platinum/SLI motherboard that has their onboard Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE chipset. Strange how with my nForce4 board there is not SCP problem.

I think their explaination is a bucha hoooweee.
 
dcam25 said:
I am soo glad I never bought the nforce MB. After they dropped the Soundstorm I couldn't see any reason to pay some of prices they want. :eek: Going with a "budget" MB was the best choice I ever made since I did buy the X-fi I've never had any problems other than Creative's bloatware.
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If you'll check out creative's forum that I linked above, you'll find that it was more of a matter of luck than necessarily the chipset you purchased. There are many that don't have an nVIDIA chipset of "any kind" in their computer and have the SCP problem.
 
I can't even enable X-Fi sound on BF2, and I have an XtremeMusic. WTF YO?
 
HighTest said:
Sure :rolleyes:

Frequent this forum http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board?board.id=soundblaster

You'll find them closing threads and posting the "discovery about nForce4", but look through the threads and you'll find ATI, VIA and ULI chipset users also encountering the SCP problem (Snap, crackle pop, it's not just your breakfast ceral but also your new sound card).

I think it's easy for them to blame the majority of issues on nVIDIA, but notice how not only the X-Fi has the issue? It's the Audigy and Live! series as well.

Don't know why so many find the onboard sound solutions from RealTek work flawlessly, perhaps Creative should hire some of their engineers.

I've an MSI K8N Platinum/SLI motherboard that has their onboard Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE chipset. Strange how with my nForce4 board there is not SCP problem.

I think their explaination is a bucha hoooweee.
Click to expand...

I wasn't beating on the nvidea chipset, for the most part its the best chipset for gamers. Its just what i've been hearing, and one of the statements was from creative themselves. As for the realtek, the onboard sound on the Abit AV8 is crap, when i enable hardware sound in BF2 i hear everything in the level like it was all going on in my helmet.
 
kelim said:
I can't even enable X-Fi sound on BF2, and I have an XtremeMusic. WTF YO?
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A friend of mine ran into this. i think he had to re-patch his BF2 to get it to realize he had an XFI. That's more of an bf2 issue than creative though.


Re: Popping and such.. I found that when I disabled my onboard sound when I had an A2, the popping went away. I still had it disabled when I switched to the XFI so it may be the same deal.
 
My Fatal1ty has worked great with BF2 since the day I installed it (~5 months ago). However, I have never been able to play BF2 (throughout all the BF2 patches and Creative driver updates) in Ultra Quality Mode. The audible popping and reproduceable problems would never go away.

I will mention that playing with an X-Fi on High Quality setting and in Gaming Mode does sound much better than my Audigy 2ZS ever did, and at that quality setting I don't have any audio anomalies.

EDIT: BF2 is the only game that I have played with my X-Fi that gives me any problems. All other games have played flawlessly.
 
There is a driver-specific install issue with BF2 and the X-FI.

BF2 installs its own version of OpenAL, one that is not compatible with the X-FI. Simply backing up the appropriate files before installing BF2 and putting them back in place afterwards clears up that issue. Just google bf2 openal x-fi and you'll find directions.

It won't do anything for the SCP bs, which is clearly creative's fault.
 
spaceman, i'm guessing you have not yet fixed the problem. i suggest you try what BMWlover said. switch to "gaming" mode in your Creative panel then, go to bf2 audio section and switch it to X-fi and then hit "apply". if this does not fix it, then definitely something else is wrong. maybe it's the heat from the graphics card that you mentioned, them x1900's run very hot, and which your aftermarket cooler is directing that hot air to your sound card, maybe...
 
ive had 0 problems with my x-fi music and bf2..

the 1 issue i ran into was leaving the audio mode of the x-fi in entertainment instead of game mode, this caused bf2 to render in software, and i couldnt figure it out untill i realized i had left the audio mode to enterttainment

also i installed the latest openal drivers. and i have 0 probelms...no SCP or anything. good gaming goodness....

now as for bf2 bugs...reg tags, yea thats another story
 
dborden said:
Actually i think it is just you. I have the XFI fataility and many other also have XFI and I have never heard of an XFI not working with BF2. Format... Reinstall....
Click to expand...

I bought my X-FI to solve my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS issues with BF2.
 
I have x-fi xtreme music I can't enable full hardware acceleration. I also can't get eax to work in games even if I select game mode. WTF! :(

I tried fear combat can't get eax HD its gray out.

The only thing was cool about it is that if you have headphones you can get multi channels playing with 2 stereo, but if you got 4 speakers it won't play properly in its own channel you get all channels in each speaker.

I think one time I did see the eax enabled but I think I was installing very old x-fi drivers like revision 1. I used the original drivers, 2.7.0.4, 2.9.0.1 eax no luck.

anyone fixed it?
 
Mega2 said:
I have x-fi xtreme music I can't enable full hard ware acceleration. I also can't get eax to work in games even if I select game mode. WTF! :(

I tried fear combat can't get eax HD its gray out.

The only thing was cool about it is that if you have headphones you can get multi channels playing with 2 stereo, but if you got 4 speakers it won't play properly in its own channel you get all channels in each speaker.

I think one time I did see the eax enabled but I think I was installing very old x-fi drivers like revision 1. I used the original drivers, 2.7.0.4, 2.9.0.1 eax no luck.

anyone fixed it?
Click to expand...

I have often had issues like that. I blame it on Creative Labs sucktastic drivers. I just wish that audio card manufacturers were more like video card makers when it came to drivers and updating them regularly.
 
Dan_D said:
I just wish that audio card manufacturers were more like video card makers when it came to drivers and updating them regularly.
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Creative is the posterchild for why you don't want a single company to completely dominate a market.
 
They (CL) have really monopolized the PC gaming audio market. There really isn't much to say since so many games are using EAX. Even if a solid audio solution popped up on the market and some how eliminated the use of CL audio cards, the EAX dominance would force competition to pay licensing fees to CL. I'm making myself distraught just thinking about this...
 
Or the new company would be sued by Creative until they ran out of money.
Man do I miss the days of Aureal. Nobody since then has tried to give Creative a good challenge in my opinion.
I'm guessing the next runner up nvidia stopped the pursuit after the MCP-T due to licensing fees or pressure from creative. No other excuse that I read at the time was very clear.
 
Google X-Fi problems with BF2 there's hundreds of matches.
Click to expand...

well I googled "snowball in hell" and here's what I got

Code: 
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,770,000 for snowball in hell

so just because its found in google doesnt necessarily mean it's true.

I have owned BF2 and an X-Fi since launch and have no issues with the hardware or the game through any of the patches.
 
I've used my X-Fi with an nforce2 and an nforce3 board and BF2 hasn't give me any problems yet. I use the latest updates as they come out.
 
lgestle said:
Or the new company would be sued by Creative until they ran out of money.
Man do I miss the days of Aureal. Nobody since then has tried to give Creative a good challenge in my opinion.
I'm guessing the next runner up nvidia stopped the pursuit after the MCP-T due to licensing fees or pressure from creative. No other excuse that I read at the time was very clear.
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I agree we definitely need the competition but, like many others here, my Fatality has given me no problems at all in BF2. I say those with problems should consider RMA or read the suggestions about ensuring their memory and PCI settings are correct.
 
Don't get me wrong I also have a X-FI and so far so good for the last 6+ months with no issue. However, I wish there was more competition as well to pressure for better products as well as support. Having gaming sound cards reach 150+ with no other options is pretty rediculous. Your options now are hardware accelerated for gaming (creative) vs software (all others) and creative knows that.
Same thing would occur in CPU (AMD/Intel) and GPU's (Nvidia/ATI) if either market only had one option.
Some day....
 
Mega2 said:
I have x-fi xtreme music I can't enable full hardware acceleration. I also can't get eax to work in games even if I select game mode. WTF! :(

I tried fear combat can't get eax HD its gray out.

The only thing was cool about it is that if you have headphones you can get multi channels playing with 2 stereo, but if you got 4 speakers it won't play properly in its own channel you get all channels in each speaker.

I think one time I did see the eax enabled but I think I was installing very old x-fi drivers like revision 1. I used the original drivers, 2.7.0.4, 2.9.0.1 eax no luck.

anyone fixed it?
Click to expand...

I found what was causing the basic hardware acceleration and the no eax in games. It was my logitech 5000 pro built in microphone. Had to disable it in the device manager. Took me many hours of sleepless nights.

Also how come you don't get mic in mixer in game mod?
 
Trust me, the X-Fi has serious problems. It's not the fault of the end-users. There's no magical setting that thousands and thousands of people have mysteriously forgotten to turn on. And it's not a flaw in just some of the cards. I've read of people RMAing their cards several times and experiencing the same problems. The design is flawed. If yours works for you then consider yourself a lucky bastard. Those of us that are experiencing these problems would rather not hear any voodoo 'change your settings' suggestions. They just add to our frustration.
If anyone can solve these problems, it's Creative. They just don't want to step up to the plate.

Sorry for being cranky, I just hate this card so much.
 
just found this

We have observed through direct observation of the PCI bus on the nVidia nForce 4 motherboards that when the crackle symptoms are occuring, the Soundblaster X-Fi card PCI bus master memory requests for audio data are being held off (not serviced) for very long intervals.

We have observed peak holdoffs of up to 2 milliseconds in some cases. This is unusual chipset behavior that is beyond the ability of a hardware audio accelerator to compensate for in its internal buffering. The SoundBlaster X-Fi tolerance for these PCI holdoffs is approximately 120 microseconds peak holdoff, with a 1 microsecond average holdoff.

These design tolerances are based on observation of real PCI bus behavior on leading motherboards over a period of many motherboard hardware generations.

The nForce 4 motherboard is the first motherboard on which these extremely long PCI service holdoffs have been observed by Creative, where another PCI device in the system was not causing the holdoff.
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sounds like creative has done some research...interesting.
 
jester1176 said:
well I googled "snowball in hell" and here's what I got

Code: 
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,770,000 for snowball in hell

so just because its found in google doesnt necessarily mean it's true.

I have owned BF2 and an X-Fi since launch and have no issues with the hardware or the game through any of the patches.
Click to expand...


Good for you Jester. Just ignore the other posters b/c obviously Creative and EA are faultless as always. If you need help getting your head out of your ass google vaseline ^^ jk bro.

I DISabled EAX

enabled X-Fi and set setting to high. So far the issue hasn't resurfaced...so far
 
SPOKE TOO SOON. lol same old issues. guess I have to run it in software mode. oh well every other game works fine.
 
I have never had an issue with my XFI Fatal1ty FPS, No clicking or popping or anything, BF2 works great with it, there was one time though that my sound disabled itself in BF2 but thats because I did not have it on GAME MODE and it was set to entertainment. If its not set to game mode it just won't work in most games, IE Quake 4, Doom 3, BF2, Farcry etc etc. But once setting it to game mode it works fine.
 
Make sure your X-Fi is in Game Mode...I couldn't get the X-Fi to work in BF2 then I checked this setting and felt stupid.
 
FFS guys I have it in game mode of course. It's not the popping issue it's a gradual loss of all sounds in game. The gunfire comes and goes then goes the vehicle sound does the same. it's weird.
 
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