X-fi soundcard not recognised

[Dan_44]

Help, I recently bought a used creative x-fi platinum fatality championship series soundcard and I have not got my windows 7 64bit PC to recognise it? I have an MSi z97u3 plus Moby and have tried the first and second PCI e x1 slots plus the second x16 slot(it's x8) and the x-fi logo lights up but device manager does not show it and when I try to install the drivers I get a message saying a compatible device is not detected so this program will exit! I read about Win7 detection issues and found the small download and when I run that it says I need to be running Win7 or higher?? I am running win 7 ultimate...Please help with any ideas.

 

[need4speeds]

Creative is very picky about having the correct driver and software for the exact model of card you have.

There is something like 40 different models of the X-Fi card. Some even use the older audigy 2 chip and do most of the tasks in software while others have a actual X-fi chip in them.

Go to creative lab's site and pick out and download the driver and software. There is also a autodetect thing too.

It's also buggy with certain items hidden in various locations just to frustrate you in some sort of creative labs tradition.
Once it's installed you will have no sound. Why? Oh because it defaults with digital out .
Then everything is set to the wrong bitrate. Go and set most items to the standard 16bit 44100Hz that is standard in most mp3's, cd's and video including hdmi and hdtv. Forcing everything to convert bitrates on the fly and also going from 24bit to 16 bit causes lag and distortion.
But the mic and some line in's only support 48000hz, it seems to work ok that way.

Now the sound works but no sub right? Go to the speakers in the control panel in windows. un-click the smaller speakers so they are not "Full range speakers" and 5.1 or what you need.
Then open creative lab's audiorack and select bass redirection.

If you need more bass enable the 15db gain box. Then go into sound in windows control panel and speakers in properties there is a levels tab. You can adjust the sub down so it's more bass than default but not too much. I found the 15db box clicked on and the level at 60% works well.
Also the Crystalizer is set too high so set it to about 30%.

If not all the speakers work, in creative's console enable CMSS-3D surround.

I found using the game mode is the best.

-If you want to record the sound you hear, enable "what you hear" in sound. I found it distorts so i set the level to 21%. You will just have to see what the meters look like in the Creative Wavestudio.
It works with msi afterburner too.

 

[10tacle]

Did you install the drivers for it from Creative's website or the driver CD that came with the card? Stay away from the "official" Creative Labs drivers as they sometimes are the wrong ones. Try downloading these universal ones (note there are separate drivers for PCI and PCIe here so choose the right one):

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/community/forums/pax-drivers.174/

Try disabling the onboard audio as well in the BIOS. If none of that works and you've already tried all the PCIe slots, then you might have been sold a bad card. Did you buy it from someone in person or through something like eBay or Amazon? If eBay or Amazon, did the seller have a good reputation and can you return it?

 

[need4speeds]

Nope it did that with my card. "soundcard not recognized" When i found the exact driver for my model it worked and installed.

-The Fatal1ty i have and the one you have are totally different cards, it's possible the software you tried is for the older one like mine is.

There are also modded drivers on sites like guru-3d ect.

 

[Dan_44]

I tried all the drivers you mentioned, plus there is a small update specifically for Win7 detection issues and when i run that update i get a message saying I need to upgrade my system to Win7 for this to work!, I run Win7 ultimate with latest updates, latest BIOS updates also for my MSi Z97U3 Plus motherboard. I did have an Asus Xonar DG before this and I couldn't find the drivers and software in IOBit Uninstaller to uninstall so I manually found the folder and files and deleted them myself...maybe there is some residual files or registry entries left? Lastly one person mentioned a seating issue and had to really force his card into its
PCI-e slot and it only worked on 1 of the available 4 slots!?

 

[need4speeds]

The card should show up in system properties\device manager as a unknown device or something.

-On mine the 5 1/4" cd\dvd drive spot control head has a floppy power connector plug on it. I noticed the card has one beside the floppy-like ribbon cable that goes to the control head. Mine works without it plugged in. My power supply one has one, many newer power supplies likely lack this since almost no-one uses floppies anymore.

Then.
I had to get the exact model number off the card.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=46261

and then do a search for it on this page.
http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster&prodID=16559&prodName=X-Fi+Platinum+Fatal1ty+Champion+Series

Trying the card in a different computer would be a good idea too. You don't have to install the software just see if it shows up in System Properties.

 

[need4speeds]

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=10635


So only one of the power connectors needs to be connected to the floppy power connector.

"Powers the X-Fi I/O Console* via the AD_Link connector. Connect a power cable from your computer's power supply to this connector"
They put one on the I\O console and the card so you can pick the one that your floppy power connector reaches.


*****-Make sure it's actually the power connector before using it as some of them look similar but are actually sound or other connectors. ******