X-fi - no sound from speaker

[animy]

Hey,

I have X-fi Fatality, Win XP, Creative 5.1 speakers (5200) and I have the latest drivers installed.
Everything was working perfectly fine, until a few days ago, when I bought Nvidia 8800 GTX graphics card and installed it on my Nforce 4 A8-NE card.

Now I can only hear the left front speaker, center and the left rear speaker. When I do the test, I hear "LEFT front" and "RIGHT front" from the same left front speaker. The same is with the rear one. The cables are fine, I checked them and tried switching them, the speakers are fine as well. I tried re-installing the CD drivers, then the latest drivers, nothing helped. I tried reinstalling graphics drivers and chipset drivers as well.
IRQ conflicts haven't been found.

If I connect the speakers back to the Nforce4 onboard card, the speakers work perfectly fine.

One more thing I noticed is when I unplug the cables and plug them back again, the speaker input is changed: for example, if I heard LEFT FRONT from REAR LEFT, when I unplug the cables and plug them back again, I hear LEFT FRONT from the CENTER speaker. Is there some kind of a sensor?

I read that people have problems when both x-fi and nforce 4 installed. But I wonder if anyone fixed those problems, or you just throw a $200 card in the garbage? Does somebody know how to fix this?

Creative forums don't give me any replies. HotHardware forums are down. I really hope that HotHardware could offer me some suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
Animy.

 

[Peffse]

so you have already disabled onboard sound when you tried to xfi card? or are you trying to combine both at the same time... 'cause I don't think that works.

 

[Gryphyn]

I have an X-Fi Fatality on and Nforce 4 board, with an 8800 GTS and haven't experienced any issues at all.

I would agree with the above person though, you'll want to make sure your onboard sound is disabled, to prevent possible conflicts.

As far as your problem though...I've no idea. It is possible that static discharge goofed the board up a little bit, thought I doubt it. Do you have an adequate power supply for the GTX? Even if you didn't, it shouldn't cause a problem until you tried entering a game, rather than just fiddling around in windows. (And then your system would just crash instead of speakers cutting out.)

Are you plugging your speakers into the back of the computer or the front? If the front, it is possible you've knocked the X-Fi ribbon cable loose that runs to the front bay and it isn't working properly.

Try pulling the card out and reseating it in another pci slot, just for kicks. When something strange like this happens, it is usually something equally ludicrous that fixes the problem.

 

[animy]

Wow. Thanks guys!

I didn't expect so many replies in just an hour or two!

I tried disabling the onboard card, but XP keeps bringing up the "New hardware found" question. Before the 8800 GTX, the onboard card didn't cause any problems. They both were enabled and were working fine. I'll try disabling it again though and uninstall its drivers.

It could be the power supply. I just remembered that I installed the card ignoring its requirements, hoping it would work on my 420Watt 12A power supply, while the manual says that it requires 450 Watt and 30 Ampers.

I'll also try switching it to a different PCI slot.

The speakers are connected to the back, so this isn't an issue with the front panel.

Anyway, I'll try applying your ideas and post the results when I'm done.

Thanks again.

 

[evongugg]

You need to disable onboard sound in the Bios. You will no longer get "new hardware found". Also make sure you did not connect the motherboard front panel audio connector and make sure it is properly jumpered.
Tell us more about your current power supply. Read and report the amp ratings on the lable inside the computer.

 

[Techfan]

Enter to your bios and disable the on board sound card don't just disable it from windows. Then download the latest drivers from creative for your sound card. Uninstall completely the old drivers and install the new ones.
Reboot your computer and change your speaker configuration to 5.1 in control panel. Give it a try it should work.

 

[AnorianDeson]

I had a similar problem just when replacing the speaker setup I have on an X-Fi Fatility. If all else fails, try this: uninstall all Creative software, shutdown, yank the card, restart, run Driver Cleaner, shutdown plug card in and re-install the software. It worked. Maybe not the best solution, but it's the one I found on another board. : | Thanks to Creative for incredibly bad drivers.

 

[AnorianDeson]

No need to talk to me like that. I did read it. i was saying i had a similar situation with an X-Fi doing wierd things with the surround channels and it was solved by removing the software, removing the card and letting the system clean boot, then re-installing it. Being a long term member doesn't give you the right to be an ass. Do you have and X-Fi? Have you had problems with it like the surround channels getting crossed? Then post something usefull or get out.

 

[AnorianDeson]

Fair enough, the cause of my problem was way different, but the solution, which added the step of clean booting the system sans the X-fi post driver uninstall, may have proved useful. I didn't know there was a particular known issue between X-Fi's and 8800 cards, just that, as with the Audigy, Creative's drivers flip out randomly and for no apparent reason sometimes.

 

[animy]

Thank you very much!!!
It works now.

I disabled the onboard card in the bios, installed the card on a different PCI slot and reinstalled the drivers. Everything works perfectly now!

A lot of appreciation to you all for your advice and suggestions!!