Creative rolls out (working) driver update for X-Fi cards

While at least one enterprising individual did his best to get Creative's X-Fi sound cards to play nice with Vista, Creative wasn't exactly keen on that idea and apparently decided to have a go at updating its drivers itself instead (go figure). Among other things, the new, long overdue drivers supposedly fix the problematic Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, and they add DVD Audio playback, which previously worked under Windows XP but not in Vista -- you know, the little things. Hit up the link below to find the link to the drivers themselves, which work with all X-Fi cards except the X-Fi Extreme Audio, which is clearly so "Extreme" it doesn't need driver updates.

[Thanks, Bamboo]

[From My Cube @ Jul 31st 2008 11:29AM]

I dont know why they got so upset over the homebrew driver....thats free software going out that didnt cost them a cent....I wish they would have paid the homebrewer for his work used his...

[From My Cube @ Jul 31st 2008 11:31AM]

what the hell, where is the rest of my comment???





Dear Engadget,

Your comment system blows harder than my X360 sitting in a confined space.


Thank,

From My Cube

[Nexx @ Jul 31st 2008 11:33AM]

I ended up selling my X-Fi and getting an HT Omega because of vista problems.

Useless garbage it was.

[Kerr @ Jul 31st 2008 1:09PM]

Because it embarrassed Creative's mediocre engineers.

[HAI 2 U @ Jul 31st 2008 11:44AM]

@Cube
IF I was a manager of said driver team at Creative ... I'd have not only paid the homebrew guy (at least sent him some swap), but would have had the guys in my department draw straws to see which monkey was being replaced by said homebrewer.

[HAI 2 U @ Jul 31st 2008 11:47AM]

WTF ... swaG ... not swaP ... I know I roll my face on my keyboard alot ... but P for G? is that even possible?

[OneLove @ Jul 31st 2008 11:54AM]

don't type with your dick.

[JeffM @ Jul 31st 2008 12:56PM]

@Kerr- touche - mediocre engineers can still solve problems in a timely manner- when did Vista RTM again? Yea... hmm...

[Kamokazi @ Jul 31st 2008 2:41PM]

What Creative got into a tissy about what the fact that he was writing drivers for some other cards too that enabled technologies (Dolby stuff, etc) that they did not license on those cards (they wanted you to pay for more expensive models that they did license the tech on).

Instead of being polite and diplomatic and asking him to remove the offending drivers/features from the cards in question (which I don't even think were x-Fi's at all), they sent him a nasty e-mail riddled with legalese and threatening language telling him to take down ALL drivers. That is where Creative f'd up.

Also, the reason the x-Fi Extreme Audio is not included is because that piece of garbage is not even a real x-Fi chip. Also, nice pic of an Audigy 4 and not an x-Fi card.

[David Cruz @ Jul 31st 2008 11:33AM]

I hate it when companies release products and doesn't perform quite well out of the box... and make up excuses that is simply illogical...

[luijose @ Jul 31st 2008 11:35AM]

Now all we need is a Linux driver and we'll be happy.. :(

[Wormbolt @ Jul 31st 2008 12:51PM]

Darn RIGHT!

Come on Creative, kiss the penguin.

[rock99rock @ Jul 31st 2008 11:41AM]

Too little too late. The damage has been done. They are like a whore of an exgirlfriend to me. I will NEVA buy another product from them again.

[Andrew Borem @ Jul 31st 2008 11:46AM]

Your whore girlfriend sold products to you and now you won't buy from her? Was she a consumer electronics vendor? Drugs....?

[rock99rock @ Jul 31st 2008 12:12PM]

Yes.

[Harkonian @ Aug 1st 2008 12:45PM]

I agree about Creative. I have an X-Fi sitting here and will never install it again. Aside from their PR idiocy and their engineers lacking, uh, engineering skills if you study the details of Vista's audio architecture you'd realize that external sound cards are mostly useless anymore anyway. The primary value add for external sound cards were that they saved CPU cycles for the most expensive audio functions--such as mixing sound. Vista's architecture requires nearly all of these functions to happen on-board.

[Oinquer @ Jul 31st 2008 11:42AM]

...well...it was pretty obvious that creative wanted everyone to buy the new version of the hardware to support Vista...
they dont want you to use old hardware since that wont make them win any money....and by old i say...1 year old lol

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 31st 2008 4:36PM]

In older times that was slightly different: Creative simply didn't had in-house driver development. They were ordering reference designs and drivers from 3rd parties and then just pressing cards/driver CDs from them. So for them old product == old drivers by definition. They simply see no business reason to develop new driver for old hardware. But that was long time ago.

Vista is of course also to blame. M$ promised so many times that driver model will not change... And up to now they change it with every minor/major version of Windows. Even XP (vs. 2000) required sometimes driver updates.

[Jaygo333 @ Jul 31st 2008 11:42AM]

Why the fudge is the one that people have not being updated.

WTF Creative.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Jul 31st 2008 11:47AM]

Stop the press! Creative finally released a WORKING driver? Hang on, I have a phone call from Satan, something about his thermostat...

[Phil Perman @ Jul 31st 2008 11:53AM]

For the record, DVD audio on my Extreme Audio was fixed months ago with a driver update, and I was under the impression that it was working for most people now.

Can't comment about Dolby Digital and DTS though, never use it

[phanbouy @ Jul 31st 2008 11:59AM]

Creative Labs are neither creative nor a lab. Discuss.

[Scott @ Aug 1st 2008 1:50AM]

Are you feeling a little verklempt?

[Spanky @ Jul 31st 2008 12:06PM]

ALchemy (X-Fi Edition) 1.00.30 came out last month if anybody is interested

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SOUND-CARD/CREATIVE/Creative-ALchemy-X-Fi-Edition-10030.shtml

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 31st 2008 4:46PM]

That page I like more: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main

Though I seldom use Linux on my main PC, I still keep it Linux compatible.

Creative might be doing good hardware. But it is quite hard to experience its goodness due to terrible software. (Very similar to actual state of Logitech: good hardware; crap drivers). Thanks to poor support of Linux, they still do not bloat OS with crapload of crap applications I never asked to have installed in first place. But on Windows you get a full crapload.

To be frank, the add-on sound cards is dying market. My musician friend have measured noise level and sensitivity of built-in sound card on his VAIO and it outperformed his old professional Pinnacle card he used to record in studio before. Again: sound card in notebook outperformed professional card in special rig. That says something.

[tekdroid @ Jul 31st 2008 6:13PM]

Again: sound card in notebook outperformed professional card in special rig. That says something.
----------
Hmm. Now that's a first. Which VAIO? Which Pinnacle was he using? Certainly the exception rather than the norm, in any case. Nose is certainly one part of the picture, but it doesn't say much about THD, frequency response, etc.

[pcgecko85 @ Jul 31st 2008 12:13PM]

to be fair microsoft kinda screwed them over with vista. I had forgotten about that problem.. glad I stuck with XP

[JeffM @ Jul 31st 2008 12:53PM]

Yea- I'm sure no other vendors had to make changes to their drivers to get their products to work with Vista.

[MickAv8r @ Jul 31st 2008 12:13PM]

Would be helpful if the Exreme drivers didn't crash on a daily basis under Vista 32. Really - Vista 32 is still a struggle Creative?

[decapitor @ Jul 31st 2008 12:20PM]

I'm in that group of people who have been compulsively googling "X-Fi crackling", "X-Fi driver fix" and "X-Fi @$%! sucks donkey @%&" for the past eternity or so and have found nothing but cocommiserators and utter incompetence from Creative. I've been screwing with PCI frequencies and buses for a long time now and have just resigned myself to hear a scraping electronic whine every time I move my mouse (?!?!) Fuck you Creative.

[Vanillacide @ Jul 31st 2008 2:38PM]

Had the same pop and crackle here, and sometimes feedback type shreeking that ended in 'pop' and then silence until reboot.

Some nVidia drivers made the X-Fi problem worse but others eliminated it. Bios update to 790i chipset mobo fixed it so that no more random noises, no matter what GPU driver version.

[jpw21683 @ Jul 31st 2008 3:07PM]

@decapitor:

I had those problems too. After countless threatening posts made on Creative's official forums, and countless promises from them for drivers to resolve the issue, I threw the X-Fi in the garbage.

Problem solved.

[Decoy @ Jul 31st 2008 4:00PM]

X-FI Sound Card is an anagram for FIX Sound Card.

[Rick @ Jul 31st 2008 5:52PM]

I'm with you bro.

FUCK YOU, CREATIVE!!!

[Jason @ Jul 31st 2008 12:22PM]

Too little too late. Creative managed to burn both Windows and Linux users with the X-Fi series. My next dedicated sound card will be from Asus or Razor

[JeffM @ Jul 31st 2008 12:49PM]

Okay- what about us poor Audigy bagholders?

[psykoCommenter @ Jul 31st 2008 1:10PM]

ummm...you hold bags?

[Jason @ Jul 31st 2008 2:29PM]

I'm still using Daniel_K's for my Audigy 2. I HIGHLY doubt Creative will fix those.

[pball_inuyaha @ Jul 31st 2008 1:09PM]

man all i can say is i like my integrated sound and xp.

(waiting to get flamed out for using integrated sound) lol

[psykoCommenter @ Jul 31st 2008 1:12PM]

You're a poor bag holder? Are there any rich bag holders out there?

[phanbouy @ Jul 31st 2008 1:45PM]

carpetbaggers

[psykoCommenter @ Jul 31st 2008 1:13PM]

Actually, i have an X-Fi card sitting next to my monitor. Had so many troubles with it i couldn't be bothered to connect it again. Now i'm content (or at least moderately so) to make use of my onboard sound. Goes to show just how far i've fallen.

[Matt @ Jul 31st 2008 1:49PM]

I have the x-fi xtreme music, and never had any problems in vista. They've had "beta" vista drivers out for a long time, at least since I upgraded last summer.

[SomeAudioGuy @ Jul 31st 2008 3:30PM]

Nope.
I'm never going back to Creative.
My pro sound cards aren't the best for gaming, but 8 channel out on my FW410 will get the job done for surround sound.

They hosed their EMU line, then their consumer line, then took it out on their customers. I'll never buy from them again, and I'll never recommend their products to anyone ever again.

[dan @ Jul 31st 2008 4:56PM]

And how about linux 64bit support? when is that slated to actually happen?

[CooperFBI @ Jul 31st 2008 5:47PM]

Add me to the Creative haters. I got an x-fi two christmases ago. Instead of crystal clear sound I got crackles and machine crashes. Anyone who doubts me, take a look at their forum thread

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&thread.id=71962&view=by_date_ascending&page=148

148 pages!!!

My x-fi is in the loft, gathering dust and hopefullly rotting. I now use my onboard sound, which at least works.

I will never buy a Creative product again.

[jpw21683 @ Aug 1st 2008 12:46AM]

I had the same problems. My fix:

1. Take X-Fi.
2. Throw in garbage.

[jackflash @ Jul 31st 2008 5:49PM]

I will never buy from Creative again. I'd been buying their sound cards for about 15 years, but my Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sucks such ass, it's worse than the built-in sound that broke on my laptop's motherboard. I hate the thing. Crackle-pop-hiss all the time, it's a worthless pile of slag. No linux support, shitty XP support. Creative should die.

[tekdroid @ Jul 31st 2008 6:19PM]

I see Creative has left a legacy of lots of goodwill and word-of-mouth repeat-purchase recommendations among its customers here!

This is how you grow your company, kids!

[Circlescenter @ Jul 31st 2008 7:56PM]

Add me to the "Too little too late" column