Upgraded to Win 7 and Creative audio console stopped working

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maemae

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Dec 15, 2009
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Gateway FX 6801

Upgraded from Vista 64 to Win7 64 and the Creative audio console stopped working. I get a message saying that a compatible device is not detected.

Installed the latest Realtek HD audio drivers, and the problem still persists.

Any ideas?
 
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If the motherboard has onboard sound, make sure its disabled from the bios.

When you turn the computer On, hold down the DEL key on the keybord, this will allow you to enter the bios setup. from there double if its disabled. Look in your manual, for further instructions.

If problem persists, follow the instructions here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/2237-63-windows-sound-problem

If problem persists, try to download the following drivers.
............................................................................

http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster&subCatID=208&subCatName=X-Fi&prodID=15853&prodName=X-Fi+XtremeGamer&bTopTwenty=1&VARSET=prodfaq

(Remember you have Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card)
 
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thanks for the responses.

I guess I'm confused. According to the specs my PC has a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card, however it seems that it actually has an onboard card (when I check the driver details, it shows Realtek HD 888S).

Having said that, when I disabled the onboard sound from the bios as suggested , there is no sound device present, and therefore the driver fro, Creative wouldn't install (error: no supported device could be found).

The only choice I had was to enable the onboard sound again.

What's weird is that the PC came with Vista 64, with the Realtek drivers installed and the Creative console fully functional.

what else could be happening?


 
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Realtek HD Audio ALC888 is a chip build in to the motherboard, hence called on board sound. Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer is a card, is placed in one of the pci slot. if you dont disable the onboard sound, it will not work, you will have conflicts.

Try these steps written earlier.

Disable the onboard from the bios.

If problem persists, disconnect the power cable, open up your case and take the sound card out. (touch some piece of metal before, before touching components).

Put the power cable back on. Turn the system on.

Download Driver Sweeper and install it http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ . Once installed, run it and remove all creative drivers.

Switch off your system, disconnect the power cable and put the sound card back in to a different PCI slot, not the same one that was in.

Put the power cable back on. Connect your speaker cable to the green socket. Turn the system on.

See if windows detect the sound card, check if it’s installed correctly from Device Manager (control panel).

Any sound?

If not then Run Windows update, select check for updates , then click on Optional updates are avialable. Is there creative sound card on list, if yes tick it and click OK? This might take several minutes, once installed restart your system.

Any sound?

If not then go to creative website and download windows 7 drivers
http://support.creative.com/Products/Products.aspx?catid=1

Do restart your system.


Any sound?
 
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ok. I did more research and it seems the general specs in the Gateway site did not apply to my computer.

My PC is a FX 6801-09h, which does not have a creative labs card, it comes with an onboard sound card (Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel surround sound support), and that's why I don't get any sound/nor device detected when I disabled it from the bios.

this would make sense, since before upgrading to W7 everything was working and I never touched the bios (the onboard sound card wouldn't change from disabled to enabled because of the OS upgrade, right?)

now, taking into account that there was never a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer card, how can the creative audio console work with the Realtek onboard chip? it worked flawlessly for 2 or 3 months until the OS upgrade took place, so there must be another driver that is missing.

I tried all the drivers from the Creative site and the error message I get is: no supported device detected.
either I am really slow to figure things out or there is something else going on...

 
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I have the same computer, did the same windows 7 upgrade, and ironically have the same problem as you. Creative was the driver software on my Vista 64bit setup but now after the upgrade to Windows 7, the creative software is gone. I'm downloading the recent Creative drivers for 64 bit Windows 7 as I type and will try it soon and see what happens. All I know is the sound isn't half as good as it was with Vista and the Creative drivers. My computer is mainly used for recording and I have a MOTU 24 channel interface connected to it. I only used the internal sound card for some playbacks and DVD stuff but I was very disappointed when the audio changed after the upgrade. My MOTU sound interface was not affected. ;-)

glen
 
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I have the same computer, did the same windows 7 upgrade, and ironically have the same problem as you. Creative was the driver software on my Vista 64bit setup but now after the upgrade to Windows 7, the creative software is gone. I'm downloading the recent Creative drivers for 64 bit Windows 7 as I type and will try it soon and see what happens. All I know is the sound isn't half as good as it was with Vista and the Creative drivers. My computer is mainly used for recording and I have a MOTU 24 channel interface connected to it. I only used the internal sound card for some playbacks and DVD stuff but I was very disappointed when the audio changed after the upgrade. My MOTU sound interface was not affected. ;-)

glen
Click to expand...

any luck with the drivers?

I tried re-installing the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB (using the original Gateway recovery disks I created). I even tried installing the soft in Vista SP2 compatibility mode (since the drivers and apps came with the original computer), but still the problem persists.

really frustrated and running out of ideas...
 
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No luck with the Creative Drivers. It won't let me install the updated drivers at all. It doesn't seem to recognized the sound card as a Creative one. That ticks me off. I buy this computer with the Creative software because I use it for recording purposes but now after less than a month of use and an upgrade to Windows 7, the onboard sound card is useless to me. What a scam.

I did venture to the Gateway website and noticed that there is a BIOS update for my computer which is the Gateway FX6801 model. The BIOS is dated 23/12/2009. I downloaded it but have never done a BIOS update before so I'm chicken |O|. I am wondering if this update works, will the latest Creative X-Fi drivers then install. I must say this is annoying. The Realtek drivers suck. I can notice the sound quality difference from the original Creative ones almost immediately. I hope this problem gets resolved as I bought this computer for recording purposes only. I've already dropped 2 grand into the MOTU recording interface set up for this computer but I need that onboard card to work like it did when I bought it
with the software.

Again, if I get brave and upgrade the bios I will let you know if the Creative drivers finally work.

Glen_T
 
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Well after a few days of researching, you are correct. We've been stung by a software additive that enhances our on board sound card. I have found 2 Gateway sites with this so call Creative Audio SB X-FI MB file and guess what? Both times I downloaded the files, they ended up being corrupted. Apparently Version 1 is out as of November for Windows 7. That's the date on the files I found but like I said, they were corrupted Zip files. I was about to scream when that happened. I tried both sites a few times just in case but each time the file downloaded, but was corrupt in the sense it couldn't be unzipped. What we have on our computers is an "enhancement" software.
I actually figured it out after looking on my computer in a folder called "Old Windows". When I was upgrading to Windows 7, I had an option come up to safe the original setup of Vista and files. Low and behold in that "Old Windows" folder is a "Creative" folder and in that.... yup, you guessed it... that wonderful SB X-fi MB crap. Now, I'm looking at it and wondering how I can either get that version over to my Windows 7 folder OR find a good copy of it to download. I'm exhausted from searching for it today.

Get this... I actually emailed Gateway Support for some info. They're clueless. They send me an email back about totally unrelated things like, did you add ram, change your harddrive. I asked a simple question about why the Sound Blaster software is not working after the upgrade to Windows 7 and that everything else is fine. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyways.. The Windows 7 version of the X-FI MB software is dated November 2009 and it's Version 1. I see older versions out there but none are Windows 7. If you find a working version, let me know . In the mean time, here is one site I found the link on.

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=23511&dscr=Creative%20Audio%20Driver%20Version%201.0&uid=25533201

Glen_T
 
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I recommend you do a clean windows installation. During the Windows 7 installations, select custom installation and Delete all Windows partitions on primary drive. Then highlight the unpartitioned hard drive, click next.

Then download and install latest Realtek driver, at the moment its R2.39. http://www.realtek.com.tw/DOWNLOADS/RedirectFTPSite.aspx?SiteID=1&DownTypeID=3&DownID=575&PFid=24&Conn=3

It should definitely work, unless you have a hardware malfunctions (or have a pci sound card installed as well :heink: ).

...........................................................................
Do backup important data.
 
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Hi ibnsina

I installed the latest Realtek driver a while back as per Gateway's request which actually stumped me. Gateway actually had it on their site so after I first installed Windows 7, I loaded them in. No problems. They work fine and the sound card does actually work. The problem is that when I bought this computer which had Vista on it, the audio was using Creative Sound blaster software which had tons of options on it that I use. There are no PCI slots in this computer. It has the newer PCIe slots and no sound cards are in them. The only sound card is the onboard one that came with the computer. I have done a lot of online research and it appears that Creative has designed a software program unrelated to their own hardware cards that works with these built in onboard sound cards to enhance their quality. This software driver or software is called "Creative_Audio_X FI MB". I've also seen it listed as "Creative Sound Blaster X Fi MB". Where as most of us thought Creative only made sound cards and the software for them, they have snuck in under the radar and created software for onboard cards that use Realtek drivers. I enlightened some of the Gateway techs to that last night in an email since they didn't seem to have a clue on what I was talking about. They're looking into it now of course and stated that in an email to me. |O| I've also read that this software is on some DELL computers as well. Hey, that rhymes 🙂
I've researched this for days now and it is not a hardware issue. It's software. The computer runs perfect except that the appropriate Creative Software has to be loaded into it now since I've upgraded to Windows 7. I found a link for that software but it ended up being corrupted. It downloaded fine but the file would not "Unzip". It said corrupted file. I also enlightened Gateway about that since it's their link. When installed, this software works with the Realtek drivers in harmony. 🙂 It did with Vista. ;-)

Now my other beef with this is that that ad for my computer states that it has a Creative Extreme Gamer card.. Well, so I thought. It's actually, Creative extreme Gamer software that works with the non Creative onboard sound module. I think that is false advertising and I also mentioned that to Gateway. We've been duped if you ask me into thinking we were buying a computer with an actual physical Creative card but it's not true. This computer wasn't cheap either so I mentioned to Gateway to send me the Creative Software that works with Windows 7 and my onboard sound card "OR" send me an actual Extreme Gamer Card I can plug into my PCIe slots like their misleading spec sheet states. I hate getting ripped off and I feel I have been.

Here is the exact statement from the spec sheet for my computer.
Notice how it doesn't mention a "card" or "software"? So to a dummy
like me, you think.. cool... Creative card. Not so.

AUDIO: -"Creative® Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer with EAX® 5.0 support
Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel surround sound support"

This was on their online spec sheets, Future shop instore spec sheets and no sales rep at Gateway or Future shop said it was software based. I was told it was a Creative card. Duh! That ticks me off.

I'll keep you posted on what the Gateway response is. ;-)

Thanks again for your responses.
 
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Ok, if I had seen this thread early on and realized that you had a Gateway FX6800 series system, I could have saved you a lot of trouble.

The Creative X-Fi MB is an OEM solution for which neither Creative nor Gateway supplies updates to. This solution which came with Vista, was only meant for Vista x32 & x64 systems.

X-Fi MB is not compatible with Windows 7 and as you have found out from this thread, it will not be able to find any qualifying devices on the system.

To top it off, the other X-Fi solutions which have come out for Windows 7 are meant for the various PCI Expresss cards which are out there.

One thing that Gateway (Acer) has recently done though is they have released a Cobbed Windows 7 X-Fi MB version which I have found on their FTP site after 12/23/2009.

You can find it here under the FX6830 listing which if I recall correctly is the Core i5 system.
Gateway FTP for FX6830 Creative_Audio_XFI_MB.zip 30656 KB

I find there is no reason to install this on my system as it's running really good and I don't trust Gateway (Acer) solutions.

For those of you with Gateway FX6800 systems who have not seen these threads yet, here are a couple of links you might be interested in.

Thread started 12-24-2009
FX6800 New BIOS Out 842P181G

Thread started 03-18-2009
Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

One thing I'd be interested in knowing is if the FX6801-01, FX6801-03, and the FX6802-03 use a different motherboard from the FX6800-01e and the FX6800-05.
 
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Ok, if I had seen this thread early on and realized that you had a Gateway FX6800 series system, I could have saved you a lot of trouble.

The Creative X-Fi MB is an OEM solution for which neither Creative nor Gateway supplies updates to. This solution which came with Vista, was only meant for Vista x32 & x64 systems.

X-Fi MB is not compatible with Windows 7 and as you have found out from this thread, it will not be able to find any qualifying devices on the system.

To top it off, the other X-Fi solutions which have come out for Windows 7 are meant for the various PCI Expresss cards which are out there.

One thing that Gateway (Acer) has recently done though is they have released a Cobbed Windows 7 X-Fi MB version which I have found on their FTP site after 12/23/2009.

You can find it here under the FX6830 listing which if I recall correctly is the Core i5 system.
Gateway FTP for FX6830 Creative_Audio_XFI_MB.zip 30656 KB

I find there is no reason to install this on my system as it's running really good and I don't trust Gateway (Acer) solutions.

For those of you with Gateway FX6800 systems who have not seen these threads yet, here are a couple of links you might be interested in.

Thread started 12-24-2009
FX6800 New BIOS Out 842P181G

Thread started 03-18-2009
Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

One thing I'd be interested in knowing is if the FX6801-01, FX6801-03, and the FX6802-03 use a different motherboard from the FX6800-01e and the FX6800-05.
Click to expand...

Hi Renegade_Warrior

The link you provided for the gateway ftp site is to the same software as the link I provided earlier. The file is actually corrupted. It contains 4 pieces of which a bin.cab file in the Creative Launcher part is totally corrupted. An attempt at repairing it didn't work. I also tried a similar link from Singapore's Gateway and it too is corrupted. I mentioned that to the Gateway tech in my last email to them. My system is running the "i7 Processor 920". I have written both Creative and Gateway with the problem. Gateway has been responding although they've said nothing I don't know all ready. My last message to them was about an upgrade for this Creative_Audio_IFX MB software for my system. I also mentioned giving me a physical Creative card to put in my computer since like I mentioned earlier, this is a bogus mess that should have been addressed before these computers were offered a free upgrade to Windows 7 at purchase time. There's nothing that ticks me off more than buying a computer and then finding out one month later I was mislead by a spec sheet and sales rep not mentioning a software based Creative gimmick instead of a Creative piece of hardware but even worse is to find out there's not a Creative upgrade for the software for Windows 7 yet. For all the work in researching this problem, I could have put a physical card in the computer with it's software and been on my way to enjoying it. ;-)
My computer on the positive side of things, works great and this is the only glitch.

Thanks again for your helps everyone.

Glen_T


 
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Yes I agree with you there, that’s quite misleading and dirty business tactics. I lost trust in Acer long time ago, the other brands they own (Gateway,Packard Bell,eMachines) are all worse than each other. They fool you with high specification and fancy words, but after using the product for a while it turns out to be a junk.

What specific features are you looking for in the Creative software?

 
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I haven't opened up the box on my rig yet to see what mother board is in it but being that I may end up having to put a sound card in it with working software, I'll let you know what it has.. It appears to be quite a mystery on the motherboards used in this series. ;-)

Glen_T
 
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I have an older computer running XP Pro with a Platinum series card. I use it for recording. The recorder that came with it along with the one with the new Gateway computer has functions for recording that I use when song writing. I also have a 24 track MOTU interface on the new computer. I bought this computer for my recording studio and graphics work. Everything works great on it but this Creative stuff. Unfortunately, the older Platinum series card and input module on my old rig is not compatible with the new computer other wise, it would be in there instead of wasting my time with the Creative FX MB software glitch. The old Platinum card needs a PCI slot of which the new computer has none. I even told the sales rep what I was buying this computer for and he mentioned it having a Creative Card in it. Pretty naive of me to believe him but it was misleading from the start with the spec sheet. We'll see how things pan out soon. I just have this feeling I will be buying a Creative sound card with software to suit my needs.

Thanks again ;-)
 
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The file can be opened using 7-Zip by right clicking on it and selecting Open Archive.

I have successfully downloaded and opened the archive myself, but decided not to install it and instead deleted it.

All the files in the archive have dates from the previous release, but there is a .dll file which is more recent. I do not recall if it was from this September or more recent.

- I'll be busy for the next half hour or more as I'm busy trying to prepare supper :)
 
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Dont waste your time trying to get creative software. Just push them to supply you with the dedicated card.

If that fails I would definitely buy a good quality sound card and good quality cables to go with.
 
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The file can be opened using 7-Zip by right clicking on it and selecting Open Archive.

I have successfully downloaded and opened the archive myself, but decided not to install it and instead deleted it.

All the files in the archive have dates from the previous release, but there is a .dll file which is more recent. I do not recall if it was from this September or more recent.

- I'll be busy for the next half hour or more as I'm busy trying to prepare supper :)
Click to expand...


I'm getting a password window on that link you put up :-( My Gateway password for their main site doesn't work on it.
 
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I'm with you on that one ;-) I need a good quality card for playback in my studio along with what I mentioned earlier. I want to experiment in recording in surround sound. The MOTU interface I mentioned earlier allows me to record 24 things at once but it places each of those things on it's own track within the recording software I use which in this case is Sonar 8 by Cakewalk. The Creative software is mainly for getting the rough ideas recorded. It's simple but solid quality for demos. I'll keep ya posted on how things turn out. I know of some Dell users going through the same thing and 3 people with the same computer as me experiencing this. *joy* 🙂

Glen_T
 
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Ohhhh......SH!!!!!T

I knew I forgot something.

I was in such a hurry to get back to preparing supper that I forgot that. Sorry about that. 😀

username: esupport

password: vImvF88

The link should have looked like this:

Code: 
ftp://esupport:vImvF88@ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/drivers/desktop/FX6830/

Also, I agree with ibnsina

Don't waste your time with the Gateway (Acer) software solutions.
Push them to supply you with the dedicated card.
 
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Thanks Renegade Warrior

Unfortunately the link you provided is to the exact file I downloaded earlier. I'm not sure why I get a corrupted file and you don't. Just to test, I downloaded a few other zip files there and they extracted fine. I'm stumped.
|O| Time for a hand grenade repair session 🙂.
 
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