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Dell 790i nForce Motherboard verses X-Fi Xtreme Music pci
I bought the dell xps 730 4 months ago. Works very well. until the X-Fi card keeps giving me a headache. Now lets get one thing straight. This isn't the first X-fi card i've owned and running it in Vista. I have on my older rig a X-Fi Elite Pro and I have it working fine.
Current Dell 730 Specs,
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz
4gigs dual channel 4 chips DDR3
Nvidia GeForce GTX280 solo
Seagate Harddrive 750gig
X-fi extreme music Model Number SB0770
Originally came with Vista Home premium 32bit but I changed it to Vista Ultimate 64, then updated using dell driver, tool so-on.
No overclocking, No water cooling heatsinks, all drivers, firmware and bios upto date.
Now I played alot of games.
MEPC, STALKER CS and SOC, DEEPSPACE, FALLOUT 3, so-on
The only problems I have is with the creative x-fi sound card. Why the *** did Dell install x-fi card when a creative nforce mother board doesn't properly support the chipset?
When I play games I get these unique effects depending on the game intensity and level of details I push my rig,
A)odd clicking sounds,
B)odd CTDs
C)Very odd Blue screens my favorite.
Yes I've used dells utility tool programs and tested them. They all show working fine. No hardware issues glitches etc.
I removed the X-fi extreme music pci card and behold no more issues. I re-enable the onboard sound via bios 1.05 and install proper driver all is working good. Perfect.
A) No more clicking sounds
B) No more application crashes
C) No more Blue screens.
I give my older ultimate X-fi elite pro model SB0550 a try and yes its exist in Device Manager but the Creative labs drivers install program doesn't recognize its own hardware? Go figure. Vista 64 problem or creative driver problem? Or a hardware problem?
I'm banking on a hardware problem. I know what problems X-Fi's have on nForce 600 series motherboards. I figured dell would realize that? Dell has adopted the Nvidia mobo mainboards 700series so I would assume they have done extensive test and push the systems to the limit to findout hardware glitches like the cursed creative x-fi cards and nvidia's nforce boards?
I remove the X-fi elite pro and now currently using the onboard sound card. Before I bought a dell I built my own rigs. I never had a bluescreen in my life, even with vista 32 on my old rig. I was so surprised to see the mighty XPS 730 die on me.
If you find my post abit intimidating you have to understand that this isn't a $600 rig. My XPS 730 is almost $3000 and thats just the system no extras like monitors, etc. I'm not a rich guy. I like to investing in something worth while. But this really ticked me off.
Right now my useless card is sitting on my desk collecting dust.
So what are my options?
A concerned client,
WH
Pat1
176 Posts
1
January 24th, 2009 19:00
WH, first let me welcome you to the dell forums. Now on to the subject matter, early in your post you stated and I quote:
"Originally came with Vista Home premium 32bit but I changed it to Vista Ultimate 64, then updated using dell driver, tool so-on."
So you changed the machine from what Dell sold you, then you started having problems with the sound card and this is somehow Dells fault.
"Before I bought a dell I built my own rigs. I never had a bluescreen in my life, even with vista 32 on my old rig. I was so surprised to see the mighty XPS 730 die on me."
It appears to me that you have done enough research to know that there are incompatabilities between some hardware and a 64 bit operating system but you chose to go there anyway. The way I see it you have two choices, restore back to the original configuration or wait until creative comes out with a better driver. Just don`t come in here bashing Dell for something you may have caused yourself. If you want help with a problem, just ask cause there are some pretty smart members willing to help.
Pat
PS: I recently purchased an XPS-730 with Vista Home Premium 32-bit and I have been using the onboard sound but have an X-Fi I plan to install someday.
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
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33.3K Posts
1
January 27th, 2009 03:00
Just a comment on the Xfi cards - whether a Dell OEM or an aftermarket. There are many posts on the old fourm of Xfi problems with many models and various motherboards. A lot of users have went back to just using the Integrated Audio (on the motherboard) because of the problems. SoundBlaster has issued a lot of updates but it hasn't fixed all of the problems. It's not an OS issue, there are problems with XP and Vista (32 and 64 bit).
SoundBlaster has issues with other model sound cards too. I worked on a client's PC a couple of weeks ago that has a SoundBlaster Audigy SE sound card and Vista 32 bit (an E Machine, not Dell). The client wanted "what you hear" (system mixer) and EAX (sound enhancements such as reverb, etc). As it turns out with the current SoundBlaster Vista drivers you can't have both - you can either have the what you hear (so you can record streaming audio from the net) or you can have the EAX features.
One user, on the old Dell users forum, reported installing a new ASUS sound card but I never saw any feedback on how it worked.
50pence
166 Posts
1
January 27th, 2009 05:00
The X-Fi cards are great though they were initially problematic on Vista because MS removed the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) from Vista, that being said the later drivers are supposed to be fine.
Sorry if I missed it though have you tried the latest drivers from Creative dated 17th December?