Windows 7 headache....

[CaptainHaplo]

I like 7 - really I do. But its beginning to irritate me over one issue.

The bugger is solid as all get out - except for an audio problem.

I run onboard sound - its a realtek HD Audio chip. Has run like a champ in xp and Vista. Runs solid on 7 for some things - but others it is as flaky as it comes.

DoW Soulstorm crashes within 2 minutes of gameplay.
Videos from the digital camera are hit and miss in causing crashes due to audio.

Of course I went and updated my drivers - even tried using base manufacturer drivers - still same issue every time. I know its audio because the audio stream hangs right before I BSOD.

Onboard audio is normally as solid (if less than stellar performing) as it comes. For 7 to struggle with a MB standard chipset - and its handling of errors - is disappointing.

Still its a solid os - but I am not happy with it at the moment.

[Arclight]

My onboard is solid with Win7, but X-fi is another matter. No crashes, but tearing, though it could also be due too crappy Creative 64bit drivers, or ****ty Alchemy, or a combination of the 3. Also my only major headache.

Seriously, audio is a mess since Vista.

[Task Force]

I hope all this stuff is fixed for the public release...

[Seth8530]

yea my x-fi is pretty much un functional with 7. not even detected

[Wolfehunter]

Actually I'm using both RC x64 and RTM x64.

My onboard sound card is a realtek High Definition chipset. I'm using native windows 7 driver and the realtek versions. This was my fall back since X-Fi didn't work in my rig before yesterday.

I've just restored my X-Fi extreme music card that came with my Dell XPS730 but BSOD when I had vista 32bit and 64bit.

Yesterday I tried someone's idea to get the X-Fi drivers to work and to my surprise it works no BSOD...

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/....aspx#19539547

Originally Posted by Tarssarb

I SOLVED IT

It has been 4 years of dealing with the dell oem version of the x-fi (though not sure that was cause of all my x-fi related bsod). Never could take up new driver updates (even dell's). Perhaps some random ones stuck once in a while.

HERE IS solution to X-FI driver blue screen of death, reinstall uninstall, no detection, no audio device, no switching in creative console launcher
You can use the latest driver from creative even on dell branded x-fi by
1) downloading the driver update package from creative
2) download and install peazip
3) extract the driver package into a directory (say on desktop)
4) go to control panel / system / device / sound / x-fi / driver
5) click uninstall driver
6) reboot
7) XP will try to autodetect driver, mine looks for the cd and some dll on that cd
8) ignore the pop up window, close it down
9) go to control panel / add hardware
10) click on multmedia device (or whatever autodetect calls it)
11) the first pass will be same as the bubble (step 7) click cancel to get to next mode of driver install
12) see compatible creative x-fi highlighted in a dialogue box, then click have disk
13) it should be looking for a .ini file now. Go to the extracted new driver install files you put on desktop
14) go to drivers / sbxf / wdw you will see an .ini (may be different than original one looking for), click that and install
15) it will then say it is looking for appsetup. This is first folder of your extracted files of the new driver
16) reboot and it works with drivers not from 2005 but from 2009!
16) dell: send me a new computer if I helped you out! You know i did, this x-fi fiasco has been royal PIA

Part 2: Where is the taskbar icon for the creative console launcher and volpanel after I did a complete reinstall with new drivers / applications?
1) download the console launcher 60.29
2) download and install peazip
3) extract the install package for the 60.29 version
4) volpanel is a folder than has a setup file that installs the missing icon and taskbar functions.

Note: I did a complete uninstall of the creative drivers and software followed by registry cleaners to remove all traces. Then I installed the creative driver package as they intended and it would not find the x-fi card. No errors, but no sound either. Uninstall and put in cd from dell, nothing. ETC, nothing worked. This is the classic issues of the x-fi in the forums. So I hope you find my approach useful!

Give it a try. It can't hurt.


I did it alittle different but it works.


goodluck,


WH

[Arclight]

Oh, for the love of...

Turns out my audio trouble was because of Dynamic Energy Saver, a tool that comes for DCS enabled motherboards from Gigabyte. It works by enabling only so many power-phases as necessary. Voltage and frequency are also throttled, but that happens without the tool as well, by EIST and C1E.

Not sure if the phase regulation or the software itself causes the issues, but I'm guessing the utility since I don't recall any issues running it in 32-bit OS.

And with that, all my Win7 headaches are gone.

Now if only they could make it a little more affordable... maybe I'll just get a version for 1 user.