Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Darren — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:25:47 GMT

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only person annoyed by this. If I had known before hand about the removal of the 'What U Hear' feature and the clicking and popping the card appears to be prone to I would have just stuck with the on board soundcard and installed my perfectly useable Soundblaster Audigy2... that was far more useful than the rubbish I paid extra for in my PC. I doubt I'll purchase my next PC from Dell.

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Iain Brown — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:54:41 GMT

The same as Peter O'Leary and David Smith, I have been completely unable to use the "What you Hear" option on my soundcard. Given the expense, this is ridiculous. I bought a SoundBlaster PCI128 card about ten years ago for £30 and it was more fully-featured than this thing. I want to be able to record audio direct from the card because I'm trying to actually write music on this computer, and if you've sequenced up any MIDI at all, by far the easiest way to do this is capture the playback from your computer. I've been forced to take a line from my output back into the mic port -- totally unacceptable.

I've also found it incredibly hard to find out precisely which X-Fi card Dell decided to put in this machine. I'd like to be able to upgrade drivers and software directly from Dell and I can't do that without knowing if I've got a proper X-Fi card or one that's basically a rebadged Audigy. I'd like to know if the card in my machine is an Xtreme Audio or a proper X-Fi card. Very hard to find out.

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

David Smith — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:46:16 GMT

I too have had the same problem as mentioned by Peter O'Leary. My system has the SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio card and I want to be able to record streaming audio from free international online radio stations. I used to be able to do this with my old system and the older version soundcard I owned. How do I do that? And why can I not currently do it? At first I thought my soundcard was not working properly, then I thought it was some default I had not changed, then I thought perhaps it was Vista (which seems to find compatibility issues with lots of software -- and maybe hardware too.) -- but now I'm just confused as to what the deal is with this soundcard. I feel ripped off also. I spent over $1,400 (not including the two flat screens) to have a top of the line system -- only to find out that my old system -- with old soundcard, XP Pro worked better. Does anyone know how to record streaming audio via the X-Fi card?

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Oracle — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:37:59 GMT

I have a Dell Inspiron 531 with a 'Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme- Vista Only' Card too. I would like to remove Vista and install XP. How can I keep my sound card working? Does 'Vista Only' mean the card is only compatible with Vista or is it just the driver?

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

JDizzle — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:33:54 GMT

there is no difference between the Dell version of the Sound Blaster X-Fi and the retail version ?

Are u guys kiding of course theres a diffrent , why cant i use the what u hear feature ?

Whats the deal with that all other retail X-fi does have this feature under Vista/xp

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

John — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:25:08 GMT

Where on Dell's website is a full driver for Xtreme Music for XP and Vista? i see only driver for work, without any panels for control sound card.

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Oscar — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:29:08 GMT

I see here o lot of questions from people that do the sound test and it works from all 5 speakers but there is no sound from the computer is anyone willing to the tell us how to fix this problem i am also having the saem problem. Please help.

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Hobbes — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:59:11 GMT

Just a quick question. . . I have refromated my computer and installed the Creative cd with its drivers and updated from their site many times trying to get my X FI sound to not come out distroted and screwed up. No mattter how many factory installs i do or quick fixes I recieve no results, any help would be appreciated ty I use a XPS 400

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Lawrence — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:21:36 GMT

I just purchased a 710 with Vista, and no sound card options were compatible save for integrated audio. I was very disappointed at this. Currently, Alienware lists system supporting both Vista and the X-Fi cards.

In another case, my father purchased an XPS system not two months ago with XP and the Vista upgrade. He was able to get a true sound card, upgrade to Vista and have both. I spoke with Customer Service, Sales, and even Tech support of which no one could offer a solution.

That's another reason I'm looking forward to the 720 harware kit to change the motherboard as I don't want integrated audio on it. I don't want to risk any compatibility issue when I do install a sound card and have a conflict with the system seeing two options.

In the end, I will have had to pay for the integrated audio, the new sound card, and ultimatly the 720 hardware upgrade kit... Is that the only option available?

re: Sound Blaster X-Fi Revisited

Peter Walden — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:55:16 GMT

Can anyone help? I've just purchased a Dell Dimension 9200 with a Soundblaster X-FI Extreme soundcard and using the Vista operating system - whenever I try to play audio, the sound is clicking and popping. Has anyone got any idea why this is happening and has anyone else had the same problem?