# Soundblaster X-FI not working in Windows 7



## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

I have windows 7 64bit and am using a Sound BLaster X-Fi Fatal1ity Pro Gamer. 

I have been reading all over and get mixed answers and very few "fixes". The sound simply won't work, I've tried installing the old drivers from the disc and then upgrading to the "claimed" Windows 7 compatible creative drivers but nothing. I got BSOD'd when trying to install as vista compatible.

I really would appreciate any support / knowledge of this issue. I'll continue to read and hopefully solve my own problem


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## FreeNerd (Sep 16, 2009)

I had this same issue after I upgraded from Vista 64 to Windows 7 64.

My default sound output device was not my speakers, check that the default sound output is your speakers and not the MPIO device in audio properties.

I have the x-fi extreme audio and it works in Windows 7, but was not working after upgrade and it took me a few to sort it out. Hope this helps.


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## FreeNerd (Sep 16, 2009)

Quick and dirty overview of how to do this.

right click the speaker icon by your clock, Select playback devices, make sure the speakers are set as default. If not, click them then click set as default.


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

My speakers are set to my default device 

I tried using the Daniel K's Fix.. It installed the drivers and all of the consoles etc. They work fine but I hear nothing. When I test the surround sound with the THX console the bars in the volume panel move up and down, so they're detecting sound, but I hear absolutely nothing.


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

Just tested on skype. My friends CAN hear me, and the volume levels go up and down when I speak. I cannot hear them speak but the incoming sound is showing up on my speakers.. I just cannot hear it


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## FreeNerd (Sep 16, 2009)

Check your sound blaster settings, make sure you are not set to digital output.


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

Ive managed to get sound to work but there is only one issue. When I am talking on skype and someone is NOT speaking there are large amounts of static. Even when they mute their mic.


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

I tried this on ventrilo aswell. With my friend's microphone PHYSICALLY muted. He holds down his hotkey and I hear crazy static, this happens for everyone I speak to.. What settings do i need to change..?


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## FreeNerd (Sep 16, 2009)

Check that your default recording device is your MIC in Windows 7 and in your Sound-blaster settings. I don't' recall what the right combo was but it took me quite a bit of fiddling to get my mic working and muted when the hot key was not pressed.

I can check my settings when I get home tonight, that might be late.


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

I installed the drivers from the side in combination with the fix and it appears to be working fine !

Thanks!


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

So after everything was fine last night.. No more mystery static, it's back today.. I didn't change anything..

Even with my mic.. I click "listen to this device", and unplug my mic and still hear some static when I should hear NOTHING. Yesterday this was fixed.. What is going on 


The static is only emitting from the front speakers of my headset, when I turn the front volume down it dissapears, changing the rear speakers does nothing


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## joe2002 (Oct 30, 2009)

Operating system support:

The X-Fi series of sound cards were not fully compatible with Windows Vista 64-bit systems using 4 gigabytes of RAM or more, though a driver update has now fixed this problem. However, users have reported continued issues despite updated drivers.

Drivers for Linux have been available for the X-Fi series since September 2007. Intended to be closed sourced beta, the decision resulted in a huge backlash from the community, as the drivers would only work for Linux systems built to use the older Slab allocation method and failed to load if the kernel is a SLUB kernel, and only worked if the kernel is of x86-64 architecture. It appears that Creative has finally given in to the community desire for open drivers, as the ALSA developers have reported (as of August 2008) that they have received documentation for the card as well as sample hardware from Creative, and that work to support the hardware has started On October 9, an untested, backported ALSA driver was released. Also, there are open sourced drivers for the X-FI from 4front OSS, available for all major unices. On November 6 2008, Creative released the Linux drivers as open source code, licensed under GNU GPLv2 license.

On May 15 2009 after some communications with Creative,Takashi Iwai a developer of suse finally got a mergeable version of their X-Fi driver. The patch was then merged into sound-unstable GIT tree topic/ctxfi. Mainstream support for the device finally appeared in kernel 2.6.31, released on the 9th of September 2009. 

The X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCIe is based on ca0110 chip and has not also support at the moment .


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## Pankie (Dec 13, 2006)

That is what I keep hearing, but why then do the drivers descriptions claim that they support windows 7? Is it simply that they are functional in windows 7 but not all aspects of the software are fully adaptable?


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