Creative X-Fi FPS and BLOAT

GrimReaper

Bear with me, this is slightly long winded.....

So.. every so often nvmcp.sys (nvidia sound driver for Realtek ALC850) would cause a bsod, it was pretty rare under XP so I left it.

I just recently installed Vista alongside my XP install and the nvidia sound driver (nvmcp.sys) causes a bsod pretty much 5 minutes into any game.

Now, I figured what the hell and grabbed the Realtek 4.00 driver for the ALC850 driver chipset which totally fixed the bsod's but had a weird occasionally sounds would sound like they were underwater effect. (sometimes it'd happen, sometimes it wouldn't.. it'd be just certain sounds whilst others would be unaffected etc.

I figured what the hell and ordered the Creative X-Fi FPS.


I've just installed it along with the default programs and holy hell does it come with loads of crap.

Does anyone else here have one? What programs would be considered extraneous? I'm just starting to go through them all now, but a heads up would be appreciated.

For example, here are the Creative background processes i've identified thus far:

CTCMSGoU.exe
CTHELPER.EXE
CTPBSeq.exe
CTSVCCDA.EXE
CTXFIHLP.EXE
CTXFISPI.EXE
DLLML.EXE

I prefer to keep my machine fairly lean when it comes to memory usage and processes that serve no real purpose.

Deusfaux

it'll have a few background programs but if you note their CPU and mem usage it is nothing to worry about at all

the majority of the default programs are useless... I couldnt tell you offhand which ones were critical - it should be straightforward

you want the ones that give you control over the levels, the ability to change modes, the drives obviously.. the core functionality mostly. the media players and soundfont stuff can go

Nev

I don't remember the names of all the programs it tries to install, but I remember that you only actually need one of them, the rest is just bloat. I think it might be called the "creative console" or something similar.

Sk1nnyMan

I have the X-FI Xtreme Music and I did notice a lot of bloat after the install, it seems like stuff I would be using if this was a media centre PC but have no real need for on a desktop.

Grab Sysinternals Autoruns and disable anything that has Creative Technology Ltd as the publisher.

Or take it out and get a Razer Barracuda AC-1, it's better for games.