Hi Jibroni57,

Did you try the driver from Creative? How does your sound card appear in device manager?

ok so apparently when i rebooted windows it automatically installed the driver but now i hear crackling sometimes when watching videos on say steam.

Popping and Crackling of audio has been a problem on Windows 7 systems.  One of the prime causes is sound card drivers.  The drivers that are installed by Windows may not be the latest or best drivers for the sound card.  Get the drivers from Creative, if there are drivers available.  Creative opted to not support Windows 7 in some of the older (legacy) model Xfi cards.  If this is the case you are going to have to replace the sound card with a fully Windows 7 supported model to avoid problems.

One thought.  If your motherboard has the SigmaTel Integrated (on the motherboard) audio, the Dell Vista SigmaTel drivers will support both Vista 32 bit and 64 bit OS and as Windows 7 uses the same drivers you could remove the SoundBlaster, enable the SigmaTel in the Setup and use the SigmaTel for Windows 7 audio.  But again, DO NOT allow Windows to install the sound driver, you must use the Dell supplied driver for proper operation.

Other causes of popping and crackling can be Video drivers, Wi-Fi connections, etc. 

Dell only supports Windows XP and Vista 32 bit on this model (I have an E510 which is identical).  Anthing other than that and you are basically "on your own" to get everything working properly.  As noted the Dell Vista 32 bit driver also works with 64 bit so that is one plus. 

I was under the impression since this was a Dell OEM card that I had to get drivers from Dell or it wouldn't work properly hence the crackling and such.

I think Creative do support Windows 7 on this card. I think the download is this one here or here.

Although it's an "OEM" version for Dell it uses the Creative Drivers.  Some of the older Dell Custom OEM SoundBlasters did need Dell only drivers but that has been years ago.  Recent SoundBlasters, starting with the Audigy 2 ZS model that came with 2005 era PC's  can use Creative drivers.

But, if you opt to use the SigmaTel then you do need Dell drivers.  We have found that most of the Dell Integrated Audio systems need Dell drivers or they will either not work/install or not work correctly.  This is because the sound chip manufacturers supply the sound chips and the PC or Motherboard vendor does the implementation and it can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer thus the need for custom drivers.

Basically when I set my cousins Dimension 5150 up with XP I downloaded the wrong Audio driver from the Dell Website, installing the integrated audio.

Being stupid and not looking at the Dell Website again, I done things a very roundabout way. I searched for Dimension 5150 on google looked at the reviews seen that some of them had a creative soundblaster and so copied and pasted "Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit and Sound Blaster Audigy" ended up on the Creative Website and downloaded the driver. Everything worked, no cackling etc.

So I would bet the Windows 7 one would also work. Worth a shot anyway.

Try the Creative Drivers

Windows 7 - Driver Availability Chart
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