SLi/Xfi =crack & popping/locking up in Crysis

[AC3421]

Im really tired of this, I can not believe they have not come out with a fix for this yet, that is just crappy. If anyone knows of a workaround/fix, PLEASE let me know!!! Crysis crackles and pops, and rips like crazy, and it locks up after random amounts of time when Sli is enabled. This is just pathetic.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[CERO]

Could it be they share the same IRQ, and causing the conflict, maybe try other PCI slot, if u have 1 left.

[AC3421]

Its a common problem, and I'm sure I would of come upon that fix when googling this.

[AC3421]

Bump.

Theres gotta be somebody here who knows something that can help me!!!

I'm desperate :(

[Unbornchild]

Follow-up: Crackle/Pop issues (http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=71962) .... maybe you find something useful in the thread. Like: switch to onboard sound.

[Per Hansson]

Or switch to a decent soundcard

I made this whine post right here, maybe it entertains someone :D (my issue was not totally unlike yours)

http://www.techspot.com/blog/110/unlike-creatives-sb-x-fi-the-auzentech-x-meridian-works-fine-with-4gb-ram/

[Robilar]

Is it only certain x-fi models? I have the x-fi gamer and run two 8800gt. prior to that I had two 8800gtx, and before that two 7900gtx all in sli and have never encountered any sound distortion


also you could be getting lockups from your crappy power supply. Kingwin 600W? You likely have your Q6600 overclocked and are running a pair of 8800GT in sli and + 8 fans and whatever else its running. Seeing as nivida recommends a 500w power supply for a system running "one" GT that may be your issue.

[Unbornchild]

My X-fi never gives problems, just like yours. But original poster has a NVidia chipset board plus Vista 64-bit.

[Robilar]

I have an nvidia chipset board as well. I kind of doubt that vista alone would cause the problem as its been reported since before vista came out?

[GabrielV]

I also have some problems with sound in Crysis but this is on Xp.

I only have crackles is sound when game loads and in music during menues - not while playing.

[AC3421]

Is it only certain x-fi models? I have the x-fi gamer and run two 8800gt. prior to that I had two 8800gtx, and before that two 7900gtx all in sli and have never encountered any sound distortion


also you could be getting lockups from your crappy power supply. Kingwin 600W? You likely have your Q6600 overclocked and are running a pair of 8800GT in sli and + 8 fans and whatever else its running. Seeing as nivida recommends a 500w power supply for a system running "one" GT that may be your issue.



It is not a crappy power supply. Kingwin makes very good PSU's and have served me very well. The recommendation for one GT is a 400w PSU, and no my Q6600 is not over clocked, and I'm only running one HDD, my 2 maxtors in my sig are not plugged in.

Many people are misinformed as to what they really need when it comes to power, and the recommendations are alwayss WAAAY over what you really could use.

The sound problem is a common problem for Vista 64/sli/x-fi users and Im just pissed that nvidia/creative/microsoft have not come out with a fix yet. Thats some Boggus s**t.

I tried onboard osund, but it was not outputting audio correctly, and I could only use one of my 5 speakers for w/e reason.

[Rattle]

why use vista ? on top of the all the other usless BS vista offers, sli performance isnt up to snuff yet either anyway

[gOtVoltage]

Creative Sound....is well Known for that issue running a X64bit Os with Nvidia Chip sets....Remeber they couldnt even get the Drivers for almost 6months when Vista was released and then they still have buggy driver support..With $100.00+ cards...What the F we paying them for.....

I know lots of Gamers that had good success in Vista32bit/64bit when they switched to (Sondigo Inferno Audio Cards 7.1) Works in Vista.. http://www.sondigo.com/inferno its cheaper than the XF-I in Price and the Egg sells it i think... i know ive seen them a tigerdirect...

I use a audigy 4 with no issues now under XP pro x64bit..Creative has had drivers that made my card sqeeel like a pig on my Asus M2N32Deluxe in the two driver sets ago...

[AC3421]

Ah hell I guess i will jsut use my dads audigy 2ZS for now.

[Truckchase!]

why use vista ? on top of the all the other usless BS vista offers, sli performance isnt up to snuff yet either anyway

:off: :horse:



AC3421, does your mobo allow for PCI latency manipulation?

[Rattle]

not off topic and not beatign a dead horse.

its fact, trust me I dual boot and I compare 100% everything OS to OS and the fact is its pretty stupid to compromise performance and deal with ridiculous issues just to run an OS that doesnt offer anything anyway. Especially when the whole point is efficiency, power and speed.

[tommyshango]

more off topic...

and thats not true

and if it is

why are you dual booting still ?

if youre unhappy why would you continue to use it?

my conclusion...

doesnt make sense.

[AC3421]

not off topic and not beatign a dead horse.

its fact, trust me I dual boot and I compare 100% everything OS to OS and the fact is its pretty stupid to compromise performance and deal with ridiculous issues just to run an OS that doesnt offer anything anyway. Especially when the whole point is efficiency, power and speed.



This is off topic. Please take it elsewhere.

With that said, I do not no why so many people give Vista a hard time. I loved XP, and now with this new build I love Vista. Its been nothing but smooth sailing, despite this one problem. When you hear all the crap on the internet about things like Vista, its really just a small group, a fraction of the real users who are having no problems.


Ok, so on topic.

I proved myself wrong. Yep, and now feel like an idiot. I decided to switch my X-Fi card to the lowest PCI port, below my Second 8800GT (Super tight squeeze cause i have a fan as well at the bottom) just for the hell of it,and what do you know, it fixed for the most part the Popping & cracking sounds. There is still some when the EA add comes up, and a few minor pops randomly, but no more ripping, and completely going out, and from what I gathered last night no more locking up (Knock on wood) So I stand corrected on my initial response to switching my PCI port.

[Rattle]

lol this has nothing to do with a some faction of people, it also has nothing to do with me or my like or dislike of vista. I actually like it. With that being said how can it be off topic when the answer to your issue is under your nose and its clear what the answer to your problem is ? We have pretty much the same rig, so I know what performs like what. i didnt put together pretty much the ultimate machine for it to be slowed down or have issues just to run the newest and coolest OS which gives no benefit over xp. If you want smooth sailing, no cracks no pops and FULL SLI performance then run xp, if you dont then run vista.

I dual boot so I can keep track and see and compare as vista matures, why else would anyone dual boot at this point ? This way I can watch it progress, try new drivers as they emerge and apply patches and fixes as they come. Maybe one day i will make the move but for now there's no reason to even when it comes to gaming. I have virtually identical installs on both OS. I compare everything.

I am not giving vista a hard time, when I compare everything I use on each OS its plain and simple. XP = faster than vista, fps wise and everything else, especially with SLI, It was better with a single gtx in vista. Vista was actually pretty good with a single 8800gtx or 2900xt, I noticed when i went to SLI that it was almost liek going back to vista and the way it was with single cards a year ago. Then there's the whole XFI/SLI/4gb .....

[hollo]

a gfx card (radeon 9550 SE) that was giving me a lot of trouble turned out to have the PCI latency timer set to 255 (maximum) when i checked it with this program http://www.mark-knutson.com/t3/_index.html

i would run it and see if any of the PCI devices have a very high latency timer - something might be hogging the PCI bus and stopping other devices from communicating.

hope it helps :)

[AC3421]

Interesting ^

[Truckchase!]

lol this has nothing...
....Then there's the whole XFI/SLI/4gb .....

still, :off:


AC3421, this definitely sounds like a latency issue. If the "DoubleDawg" software doesn't work for you, you might want to give powerstrip a try. (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm) I used to use it when I had PCI latency issues and it was able to clear up my creative/nvidia bus locking issues by incrementing the PCI latency until the problem was taken care of.

[AC3421]

Does it affect my PCI-E latency/bandwidth as well, or is it completely separate?? I don't want to have to change my PCI-E settings.

[davidm71]

Ever since I upgraded my video drivers and installed Crysis I have noticed serious sound problems with my X-fi such as crackling and pops to the point cant enjoy the gaming experience. This happens only in SLI mode. I thought well maybe my X-fi after 8 months of use is cooked so I got a new one and still had the problem!

I have an Abit IN9-32X 680i motherboard like many of you. Abit said that a new bios will fix it but I feel like thats an empty promise. After all this time they are finally going to release a bios that fixes this problem? I doubt it. More like this is a compatibility problem as when you have two large sli video cards there is only one PCI slot to use. That lone pci slot should be worked out in bios but I don't think it will ever happen...

So I now use motherboard crappy sound. What a joy!

PS: This is not a Vista problem. It happens in XP too!

[Truckchase!]

Does it affect my PCI-E latency/bandwidth as well, or is it completely separate?? I don't want to have to change my PCI-E settings.

Totally separate.

[AC3421]

Ever since I upgraded my video drivers and installed Crysis I have noticed serious sound problems with my X-fi such as crackling and pops to the point cant enjoy the gaming experience. This happens only in SLI mode. I thought well maybe my X-fi after 8 months of use is cooked so I got a new one and still had the problem!

I have an Abit IN9-32X 680i motherboard like many of you. Abit said that a new bios will fix it but I feel like thats an empty promise. After all this time they are finally going to release a bios that fixes this problem? I doubt it. More like this is a compatibility problem as when you have two large sli video cards there is only one PCI slot to use. That lone pci slot should be worked out in bios but I don't think it will ever happen...

So I now use motherboard crappy sound. What a joy!

PS: This is not a Vista problem. It happens in XP too!


When I had the stock BIOS the mobo came with, the problem was not there. Only after I flashed my BIOS to the newest one did the problem come up. But like I said, switching my PCI slot ot the one that is NOT in between the 2 video cards fixed 99% of my problems.

[gOtVoltage]

Ok , Just had a thought ...:rofl: Im laugh at self sometimes.... What if in SLI the video cards are hogging the NB to SB power....What if the volts arnt enuff and need to be raised a little? It was abig thought...:ROTF:

In short could two Cards be robbing the PCI slots of needed power for the X-Fi to work properly?

... Im curiose, because i run a Audigy 4..I was gonna upgrade to a X-Fi but after doing much reading im afraid to waste $80-$100bucks...


When my ever my NothrBridge is not set to 1.35v or higher and the SB to NB isnt set above 1.3v i experianced that same problem . It was the only time i noticed sqeeling or high pitched sound from my SOUNDCARD when ever those values were low..My Card is in Lowest PCI too....That awfull earpiercing sound right through the head set to the brain...:shakes:

[Jodiuh]

I skipped everything like a bad forum poster and suggest the pci lat tool. Set it to 128, set NIC's to 32.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

[gOtVoltage]

I skipped everything like a bad forum poster and suggest the pci lat tool. Set it to 128, set NIC's to 32.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

This helps tremendously....How ever Creative drivers need to be better period...