One problem solved. Now I need a new audio card.

Roshin

I have a relatively new PC that has been causing me all sorts of problems. Well, just one problem, really. It has been hard locking frequently, sometimes like 20-25 times a day. I have checked the RAM (and even replaced it just to see if that was it), but it seems to be good. It's not heat, the machine has three big fans inside to keep it cool. I've also checked for viruses, malware, etc, and updated all drivers.

All drivers, except for the audio ones. They gave me an error and refused to update. So, I disabled the audio card (a Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer) and haven't had a single problem since then. My conclusion, then, is that the card (or the fan on it) is probably fucked and I'm looking for a new one.

Can anyone recommend a good reliable card? I'm running W7 Professional (64 bit) and use the machine for gaming, listening to music, and watching the odd video that I download.

Scrublet

Does that card have a fan on it? I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I also don't think your logic is valid..."I disabled the drivers, and system stopped failing, so the card is broken." Before going out to buy a new card, I would completely uninstall the drivers, and then use Creative's site to automatically install new ones. I am running Win7 Home (64 bit) with an X-Fi Fatal1ty and have had no problems.

And before people come in here and dogpile this thread with Creative-sucks comments, I'd have to say that by and large I haven't heard of too many X-Fi horror stories recently. Yes, when that card came out around the time Vista hit there were tons of problems. Not like a million other things weren't having Vista problems but X-Fi was definitely one of the worst offenders. But their driver installation from the site has come very far.

Roshin

Well, I've checked everything I can check, but it hasn't helped. I disabled the audio card and the problem went away completely. Maybe my logic is screwy, but I feel pretty sure this means that something is up with the card. It would be a remarkable coincidence if the problem was unrelated to the card, but happened to go away when I disabled it.

I forgot to mention it, but at one point I completely wiped the harddrive and reinstalled everything from scratch, including audio drivers, but the problems remained.

Edit: No, I don't suppose audio cards have fans, do they? I was thinking of video cards, I guess.

Scrublet

Did you install the same drivers? Or did you get the drivers from the site using their automated tool?

If you used the same drivers then yes I still think that's more likely than a hardware problem.

If you used the site then all I can say is try tech support or give up and go Turtle Beach for a brand.

General_Win

Or just use onboard. There's really no purpose for sound cards anymore.

Stormwatcher

His logic isn't screwy at all. If you disable one particular thing and the crashes completely go away, it's pretty fucking obvious what the problem was.

And Creative makes shitty crappy Hardware AND software. X-Fi's are terrible, terrible things. I mean, they sound godly when they work, but making them work can be a huge hassle. I have an original X-Fi platinum that simply stops working for months if I so much as touch the back panel plugs.

Then it randomly starts working again 7 months later.

And their drivers are worse than bad.

Scrublet

Stormwatcher wrote: »

His logic isn't screwy at all. If you disable one particular thing and the crashes completely go away, it's pretty fucking obvious what the problem was.

And Creative makes shitty crappy Hardware AND software. X-Fi's are terrible, terrible things. I mean, they sound godly when they work, but making them work can be a huge hassle. I have an original X-Fi platinum that simply stops working for months if I so much as touch the back panel plugs.

Then it randomly starts working again 7 months later.

And their drivers are worse than bad.

No dude, actually it's not pretty fucking obvious. If he's using old outmoded drivers that came with the card and are still vulnerable to vista/win7 problems, and he updates his drivers and things start working, then I guess the hardware isn't faulty then is it? And, as I tried to explain in my first post, the X-Fis of today are much different than the X-Fis that came out originally. Since your X-Fi platinum came out they have refreshed the cards once (if not twice), converted them to PCI-e, and greatly retooled their driver system. Yes they were awful in the beginning, but myself and two different friends have all built systems in the past 6 months with X-Fi cards, and all had no problems plugging them in, downloading drivers from Creative, and being good to go. I'm not going to guarantee 100% compatibility for everyone but I definitely get tired of seeing people shit on the X-Fi for problems on the original series of cards from five years ago as if that has any relevance to the products they currently sell today.

Scrublet

General_Win wrote: »

Or just use onboard. There's really no purpose for sound cards anymore.

If you use surround sound out of a receiver you still gotta use the sound card to encode the game into Dolby Digital Live, otherwise you won't be able to send the surround sound. Most onboard sound setups can't do the encoding, though I think they can all do HD decoding now?

Zell

If you use surround sound out of a receiver you still gotta use the sound card to encode the game into Dolby Digital Live

Some motherboard onboard sound cards can do that. Of course, I would rather buy a motherboard based on other things than if the onboard sound card fits my needs. I would also have to find a motherboard with optical input and full support for ALchemy...

Much, much easier to just use my X-Fi card.

Mugsley

Scrub has the right idea. I've dealt with similar issues on other hardware (I believe at the time it was either a router or some sort of card reader). Try Creative's site if at all possible and see if this fixes the problem.

Also, depending on your setup, it's possible (although unlikely) that the PCI socket could be borked somehow. Try swapping slots if you have room.