Hard lockups with new X-Fi ExtremeGamer

[lament]

Hey all,

Having hard lockups lately, about 3 weeks after installing an X-Fi ExtremeGamer, so I'm assuming it's the X-Fi..

I'm on XP SP2.

One time I heard some random squealing that didn't last for more than a second, but it was definitely not normal.

First time I hard locked, I was loading up TF2 a few days ago.

The other times was were not gaming related. I was just web surfing and I loaded a page and bam - hard lock. can't move. HD light goes off. only a reset works.

it locked twice today about 6 hours apart. Both times I was ripping CDs.

I re-installed my Audigy 2 ZS gamer about 6 hours ago and so far no lockups.

Think this could be an X-Fi + Asus issue? Anyone else have a P5B Deluxe (1216 BIOS) and an X-Fi Extreme Gamer? Should I RMA this piece?

Thanks for any help.

 

[NoelS]

lament,

Proof of the pudding is in the eating... If you removed the X-Fi and you're not getting the hard lockups any more, I'd say it was the X-Fi card that was causing them. Also that squealing is an occasional X-Fi symptom from what I've heard about them...

Keep your Audigy in for awhile and see how your machine acts. If i'ts OK, you could double check by re-installing the X-Fi card. If it gives you the same again, return it as defective...

Noel

 

[lament]

thanks NoelS. yeah I've been reading about lockups with the X-Fi and was hoping that someone else had an Asus P5B Deluxe and an X-Fi and could speak to any problems they have, if any.

so far, no lockups with the old Audigy. Computer was on all night (as usual). Did some gaming as well with no issues.

I'm wondering if I should RMA this or just chalk it up to some Asus/X-Fi incompatibility? I guess I could try flashing to the latest P5B Deluxe BIOS, but they don't mention anything about fixing X-Fi issues.

 

[NoelS]

lament,

Believe I'd just RMA that dude (or get my money back). The mobo is pretty stock and if the Audigy works well with it, the X-Fi should also. I'd stick with the Audigy. Apparently you were trying to upgrade your sound with the newer card...

Another option is to just use the on-board audio. I have 2 ASUS P5K-E machines and the on-board audio is as good as from any add-in card, unless of course you're a real audiophile. I'm not, but I think I can tell bad audio, and the ASUS on-board passes my tests

Noel

 

[humanure]

I had similar trouble with my x fi. I have an abit ab9 quad gt motherboard which is the same chipset as your p5b. I switched the slot the x fi was in and it helped some. After switching to an ati card I don't have the problem anymore. I would say stick with the audigy and try to return the x fi if you can.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Hardware problems with Creative cards. NEVAR!

In case you can't detect sarcasm, don't give Creative the satisfaction. Burn the card.

 

[lament]

@humanure:

I have an 8800GTS 512MB (2-slot card) and only have 1 PCI slot free, so that's where the x-fi is.

@SphinxnihpS:

i've had creative cards since the soundblaster days and haven't had any problems until now. i figured 3 years after release they'd have worked out the issues with the x-fi series. ha!

as for going back to onboard - hell no. i tried that the other day and it was PAINFUL. the difference between the two is like night and day.

i have a rebate to send in for this in the next week, so i may just send in the rebate, buy a replacement from best buy just to try it out and see if i still have problems. I can always take back the card to best buy.

 

[lament]

ack... it just locked up while web surfing. some noise came out of the computer.. some squealing sound. might be signs of a failing HD?

 

[NoelS]

lament

Could be... do you have a spare hard drive you can clone your OS to? If you do, clone it quick and change drives, then see how the replacement performs. If all goes well, put the X-Fi card back in. Could have been a bad HDD all along causes the "lock-ups"

If you don't have a spare HDD, now may be the time to buy one before your present drive gets too far along. Can't hurt to have an extra, and they are cheap these days...

Noel

 

[lament]

ugh.. man this sucks. So I took all these lockups as a sign to get my data backup going again (I've been lagging on that), so I started that last night at 10pm and apparently it locked up at night and restarted because when I woke up this morning, i was at my login screen with no apps running (wife and I have our own logins). After logging in and checking the timestamps on the backup drive, it appears to have crashed at 3:33am. The backup wasn't even finished (I was backing up about 600GB of data).

I have 3 HDs: a 150GB Raptor, a 320GB and a 400GB. And then a 750GB external backup.

I guess I'll start by getting a new 150GB Raptor and reinstalling XP (which I just did 3 months ago)..

 

[NoelS]

lament

Sorry about that. I hope you at least got some of your more important data backed up before it crashed. Good lesson to keep backups current, eh? Next time you're in a situation like that, transfer the data to another internal hard drive rather than an external - much faster, and you might have gotten all your data on one of your other internals (except for the OS, of course).

Noel

 

[lament]

Hey guys,

Yeah the Raptor was definitely the issue. I replaced it tonight and I'm back up. And I'm all backed up as well.

X-Fi is in and sounding beautiful.

Thanks for the help guys..

 

[NoelS]

lament, Good for you. Good computing in the future! Noel