Tip: Use A8N32-SLI bios 0903 to prevent sound problems with X-Fi Elite Pro in windows xp 64 bit.

Hello,

I tried asus A8N32-sli bios version 1103 to enable 4 GB support. This
was not necessary.

The only thing necessary to enable 4 GB support is to enabled Hardware
Memory Hole option in bios... See/search for my other thread about that


However bios 1103 seems to have sound problems with X-Fi Elite Pro in
Windows xp 64 bit.

Bios 0903 has no sound problems with windows xp 64 bit.

So my tip is too use that bios for now if you have any sound problems.

Ofcourse watch asus support and website and bios versions and comments
in case they fix this problem in future bios versions...

Maybe they already have a beta version which fixes the problem...

Bye,
Skybuck.

Actually right now I am running bios 1103.

I flashed the bios with the afudos 1.21 version or something like that.
Instead of the older 1.19.

Since even bios 0903 the original bios was causing sound problems and
hanging system.

I also noticed that their wear hairs on the x-fi soundblaster so it
might have short circuited or something.

So I see a number of possibilities:

1. Flashing bios is causing problems.
2. X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard is damaged.
3. Motherboard is damaged.
4. Windows xp 64 bit bug.
5. Flashing in dos in unreliable on dual core processor ?
6. Flash tool not good ?

Well for now I'll keep this busy is the system start hanging again I
might give the update tool a try.

Bye,
Skybuck.

On 14 Apr 2006 13:02:33 -0700, "Skybuck"
wrote:

Hello,

I tried asus A8N32-sli bios version 1103 to enable 4 GB support. This
was not necessary.

The only thing necessary to enable 4 GB support is to enabled Hardware
Memory Hole option in bios... See/search for my other thread about that


However bios 1103 seems to have sound problems with X-Fi Elite Pro in
Windows xp 64 bit.

Bios 0903 has no sound problems with windows xp 64 bit.

So my tip is too use that bios for now if you have any sound problems.

Ofcourse watch asus support and website and bios versions and comments
in case they fix this problem in future bios versions...

Maybe they already have a beta version which fixes the problem...

Bye,
Skybuck.


[ exact copy of my posting in another of Skybuck's myriad threads ]

BIOS/nForce4/X-Fi issues... that seems awfully familiar....

Does your X-Fi have a heat-sink on the DSP ?
If not it is probably old stock, return to Creative for exchange.
Otherwise for firmware update. And the new version of either may or
may not work of course............... Or better still, exchange
immediately for an Audigy.

The trials of the X-Fi with nForce4 motherboards are well known. FOR
THE PAST 5MONTHS. Noise, static etc.

See:-

http://forums.creative.com/creativel...d=soundblaster

and specifically the umpteem-page thread that starts with this
message:-

http://forums.creative.com/creativel...ssage.id=31426

( ignore the reference to fatal1ty -- the problem affects all members
of X-Fi family.. the first poster just happened to have a fatal1ty...)

In this thread it is amusing ( in a horror-story way) to witness
Creative continually stonewalling and/or blaming MB bios or anything
else other than their design.

Seems like a design-issue causing sporadic interrupt conflicts. Seems
to vary according to motherboard variant, bios version, and even some
reports on non-nForce4 systems.

I removed X-Fi from my purchase list several months ago for
a new (A8N32-SLI) system that I built before Christmas, after I saw
these reports. Creative and flaky first-generation designs are a very
well-known couplet.

Always good to technically research all your purchases thoroughly
before taking the plunge. Never, ever believe any marketing blurb or
the so-called technical reviews, without also checking real-user
experiences. Google is your essential friend in this research !!
( Anyway, the only version of the X-Fi -- if it worked -- that is not
a TOTAL rip-off is the cheapest Extreme Music. Fleece the suckers
otherwise - 64meg of on-board memory for $100+ extra bucks that only
a handful of games supports and for minimal benefit. And the toy
interface hardware for another $100. ]

Anyway, no problem for you. Just take the digital optical output of
your on-board audio to your DD amplifier/receiver and all will be
well. Not the analog. Like all on-board audio on any high-performance
ATX motherboard there is analog crosstalk between the CPU
ground-current ( ~ peak 100 amps) and the analog audio output
circuitry.

BTW, instead of all the drivel you are posting on your PC build, you
could have done yourself a real favor by posting a full and CONCISE
list of all the components you were seriously contemplating purchasing
BEFORE you took the plunge. I did not see any such list. If I had, I
would have immediately warned you off purchasing X-Fi until Creative
coughed up a full technical explanation of the problems AND
identified the rev versions of genuinely-fixed product, confirmed by
those who originally reported problems.

You might indeed find one BIOS that works better than another. Kinda
restrictive on Bios updates, huh ?

But Creative has not come clean with a CONFIRMED fix ON THEIR
X-Fi HARDWARE, and afair no BIOS documentation for any of the A8N
series indicates a X-Fi -related fix, after 5 months of reports --
thus guess where the problem really is, certainly not on the
motherboard and not with the nF4 chip-set.... Also, this particular
raft of problems has not been reported on the Audigy family.

John Lewis

Yes I think I have a heatsink on it.


Anyway I changed some settings in the bios and at least while loading
battlefield 2 demo no more strange sounds.

The only problem that remains if if I start civilization 3 conquest and
then try to play freecell... then freecell will make a beep sound on
wrong move... a very terrible beep sound.

I haven't tried civ3 any further with new settings.... last time i
played it I could hear some noise and stuff etc.

I still think the settings of the bios aren't perfect yet... maybe if I
tweak it some more all sound problems will go away...

All-in-all it makes sense... since the only thing I lost were the bios
settings.. during the flash etc..

However I also did install other stuff like deamon tools and bitcomet
and sounds best on blabla.

Me just hoping I won't have any sound problems or hangs etc any more
and I hope all little problems go away though I am skeptical

Bye,
Skybuck.

On 15 Apr 2006 22:49:55 -0700, "Skybuck"
wrote:

Yes I think I have a heatsink on it.


Anyway I changed some settings in the bios and at least while loading
battlefield 2 demo no more strange sounds.

The only problem that remains if if I start civilization 3 conquest and
then try to play freecell... then freecell will make a beep sound on
wrong move... a very terrible beep sound.

I haven't tried civ3 any further with new settings.... last time i
played it I could hear some noise and stuff etc.

I still think the settings of the bios aren't perfect yet... maybe if I
tweak it some more all sound problems will go away...

All-in-all it makes sense... since the only thing I lost were the bios
settings.. during the flash etc..

However I also did install other stuff like deamon tools and bitcomet
and sounds best on blabla.

Me just hoping I won't have any sound problems or hangs etc any more
and I hope all little problems go away though I am skeptical

Bye,
Skybuck.


BIOS setting changes should never change the PCI sound quality
UNLESS you have been manually messing with PCI interrupt settings !!
The X-Fi series is flaky, according to multiple reports. The sooner
you return the X-Fi and sit on your hands for a few months (using the
on-board audio digital output), the better your bank-balance will
finally look. I doubt if dear ole' Creative will voluntarily do a
recall, or ever admit a problem. I suspect the source of the problem
in embedded in the i/o or interrupt handling within their DSP, and
will quietly go away with a silent ( to you) silicon revision. Or,
just wait for a PCI-e version of the X-Fi and stick it in the extra
PCie slot, if it does not collide with the heat-pipe, which actually
appears to have enough space to be slighly re-formed to miss
a longer card.

John Lewis

John Lewis

BIOS setting changes should never change the PCI sound quality

Not for my computer.

If I change for example pci latency timer the sound can sound bad.

Right now I am quiet happy with the sound quality. I do hear some
bleeps in battlefield 2 when playing some sounds... I am not sure if
that's in the samples themselfes or causes by the soundblaster. All in
all the sound is pretty impressive/cool/good. Only during the loading
of battlefield 2 is the sound shortly very bad.

UNLESS you have been manually messing with PCI interrupt settings !!
The X-Fi series is flaky, according to multiple reports. The sooner
you return the X-Fi and sit on your hands for a few months (using the
on-board audio digital output), the better your bank-balance will
finally look. I doubt if dear ole' Creative will voluntarily do a

The sound quality is not bad enough to return the card. On the contrary
it's quite good.

I did try the onboard audio but I tried it when my bios settings were
all messed up.. battlefield 2 wouldn't even load...

I should test the onboard audio sometime... though I dont really feel
the need to do that because I am more than happy with the x-fi sound...
I just not perfect in all cases.

recall, or ever admit a problem. I suspect the source of the problem
in embedded in the i/o or interrupt handling within their DSP, and
will quietly go away with a silent ( to you) silicon revision. Or,
just wait for a PCI-e version of the X-Fi and stick it in the extra
PCie slot, if it does not collide with the heat-pipe, which actually
appears to have enough space to be slighly re-formed to miss
a longer card.

All slots are already used expect the black slot, the little one. I
have two graphics cards so can't replace anything.

Some time in future probably tomorrow... I will test with a single card
and the onboard audio...

But I already don't like the onboard audio... since I have a 7.1
surround sound speaker set.

And the onboard audio seems limited to 6.1 surround sound... euhm it
seems like it doesn't auto detect all channels... it s kinda weird..
It's also not clear how to connect the three plugs... I have a
green.black and yellow plug... green is front (left, right and center),
black is rear left, rear right and side right, yellow is
center/subwoofer/side left.

The asus onboard audio seems to used different assignment for the
holes... I am confused probably because it IS confusing =D

Besides battlefield 2 has many problems for many users... The full
version doesn't even start on my computer as reported by many people.

So what I am going to is simple... I am going to enjoy my new computer
and sound... and simply sit it out until better drivers emerge...
Though I am kinda skeptical if they'll ever emerge for win xp 64 bit...
I do hope so... because xp 64 bit has a nice feel too it

But maybe they gonna focus on windows vista...

Bye,
Skybuck

On 18 Apr 2006 03:19:52 -0700, "Skybuck"
wrote:

BIOS setting changes should never change the PCI sound quality

Not for my computer.

If I change for example pci latency timer the sound can sound bad.

Right now I am quiet happy with the sound quality. I do hear some
bleeps in battlefield 2 when playing some sounds... I am not sure if
that's in the samples themselfes or causes by the soundblaster. All in
all the sound is pretty impressive/cool/good. Only during the loading
of battlefield 2 is the sound shortly very bad.

UNLESS you have been manually messing with PCI interrupt settings !!
The X-Fi series is flaky, according to multiple reports. The sooner
you return the X-Fi and sit on your hands for a few months (using the
on-board audio digital output), the better your bank-balance will
finally look. I doubt if dear ole' Creative will voluntarily do a

The sound quality is not bad enough to return the card. On the contrary
it's quite good.

I did try the onboard audio but I tried it when my bios settings were
all messed up.. battlefield 2 wouldn't even load...

I should test the onboard audio sometime... though I dont really feel
the need to do that because I am more than happy with the x-fi sound...
I just not perfect in all cases.

recall, or ever admit a problem. I suspect the source of the problem
in embedded in the i/o or interrupt handling within their DSP, and
will quietly go away with a silent ( to you) silicon revision. Or,
just wait for a PCI-e version of the X-Fi and stick it in the extra
PCie slot, if it does not collide with the heat-pipe, which actually
appears to have enough space to be slighly re-formed to miss
a longer card.

All slots are already used expect the black slot, the little one.
That's the PCIe X4 slot. I expect a transition from PCI to PCIe for
plug-in peripherals to get into full swing later this year.

I
have two graphics cards so can't replace anything.


true, since you need that extra ventilation space and the X-Fi
takes up the only free PCI slot.

Some time in future probably tomorrow... I will test with a single card
and the onboard audio...

But I already don't like the onboard audio... since I have a 7.1
surround sound speaker set.

And the onboard audio seems limited to 6.1 surround sound... euhm it
seems like it doesn't auto detect all channels... it s kinda weird..
It's also not clear how to connect the three plugs... I have a
green.black and yellow plug... green is front (left, right and center),
black is rear left, rear right and side right, yellow is
center/subwoofer/side left.


I was suggesting using the motherboard digital optical output to an
external decoder. Absolutely clean. The analog is noisy, just like all
other on-motherboard audio solutions. Nothing to do with the X-Fi
problem. Analog Crosstalk from the CPU ground-currents.

The asus onboard audio seems to used different assignment for the
holes... I am confused probably because it IS confusing =D

Besides battlefield 2 has many problems for many users... The full
version doesn't even start on my computer as reported by many people.


Really... Starts just fine on my A8N32-SLI. Zero problems. Of course,
I run all my gaming software in Win32, not on that now-obsolete
half-baked bed of nails called Win 64. If you really want to run a
64-bit system and do anything productively-useful, use Linux or wait
until Vista is mature, say 2008.

So what I am going to is simple... I am going to enjoy my new computer
and sound... and simply sit it out until better drivers emerge...
Though I am kinda skeptical if they'll ever emerge for win xp 64 bit...

Of course not. All the Win developers are concentrating on Vista.

I do hope so... because xp 64 bit has a nice feel too it

But maybe they gonna focus on windows vista...

Bye,
Skybuck

Well as promised today right now I am testing the onboard audio
solution with a pretty stable system and I must say the onboard audio
playback sounds fantastic !

I also played battlefield 2 demo shortly with onboard audio and had no
problems at all. The game loaded just perfectly and no audio bugs or
anything.

I also really like the sound manager of asus... as soon as I started it
up I can choose environments... like mountains, sewer pipe, forest,
right now I have it on parking lot and the sound is fantastic at least
for the music playback I am testing right now =D

Here is a link which I am using to test the music... music directly
from the internet:

http://www.di.fm/

I just click a stream I liked... it's this one... I am not sure if I am
pasting the link correctly... since I don't know which linked I clicked
any more... but winamp shows this one in file info:

http://64.236.34.4:80/stream/1017

Pretty cool.

So far I only heard one little plop which is very acceptable...

I also switched back to x-fi elite pro... but the sound was not as good
as the onboard audio... probably because the sound manager is applieing
special eax effects etc...

So now I have to go find a way to get the same cool sound on my x-fi
elite pro...

I am sure it can do it...

Maybe I need to install some special software from the cd or so.

I also for the first time took a look at the x-fi creative console
audio control panel whatever it's called.

The 24 bit crystalizer is default on off... so I haven't tried that
yet... it's supposed to make one's mp3's sound better hehe.

I also tried the soundmanager 3D demo... and when it goes to the sides
or the back or something one of those two... then I hear nothing...

So the onboard audio solution is not 100% capable of using my sourround
sound system..

I already tried to describe this in my previous post.

The problem seems to be that my sourround sound system has 3 plugs...
but the onboard audio solution appears to require 4 plugs.

You mentioned trying to use some sort of device a decorder or
something... I don't understand what you talking about... and frankly I
don't want to go buy another sound device I already have two devices
on my desktop and that's enough.

I think the onboard audio is good enough to not buy an x-fi elite pro
soundcard at least that's my current feeling when listening to this
very good music quality.

The only thing necessary is the find a matching surround sound speaker
system... or maybe asus will update their sound manager so that it can
also used the s390 gigaworks speakerset.

Well I still have a lottttttttttttt of testing to do.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Well right now I am testing the Elite Pro X-Fi card again and I have
learned some things I must say.

The CD comes with an enormous ammount of software and has everything
one could ever desire.

In one of my previous posts I wrote I was disappointed about the
software because I only downloaded the audio drivers from the website
and nothing else... I am still a little bit disappointed that all the
software on the cd can not be downloaded from the internet.

So I definetly recommend installing all the software that comes with
the installation CD !!!

IT IS VERY COOL.

For example... now when I turn the dials/notches on the silver/back
rack.. I believe that's called the i/o console... I get this volume
display on the screen so I can actually see the volume level because
it's not shown on the device itself.

The software is some immense and has so many options for me it would be
impossible to write a review about that... it has so much stuff it's
almost insane. I recommend leaving most things at default settings
though.

I saw screenshots of the mode switcher on the web and wanted it as well
so now I have it

It looks pretty cool and it's pretty handy too... it also has a testing
facility which is also located in other software... to test each
speaker etc.. pretty neat

Though what was weird is that they used some noise pattern to test the
speakers instead of some cool sound or so... that's a bit weird.. or
maybe it's a bug who knows ?

I checked the manual of my speakerset... it recommends placing the side
speakers father back behind me... and the rear speakers even more
back... But I was wondering if that really makes sense... so I have
placed the side speakers a bit to the front so their now to the left
and right of my earns... and the rear speakers are closer...

To be honest I don't like the current sound... it has too much bass...
so my earns are taking a beating it feels like... so I am going to the
mode switcher and turn down the bass... or maybe it's because I set the
environment to Dance mode.

At this point I can't help but feel that the onboard audio was
better... that's pretty strange since it didn't even use the side
speakers... To get back on that... I think it might be possible to use
the side speakers as well by enable 6.1 to 7.1 upmix on the speakerset
"console" .

I think the onboard audio solution is only 6.1 ?

The sound does sound a bit richer on the x-fi though but also a bit
more vague/duff.

The onboard audio was more like crystal clear.

So there could be many reasons why the x-fi elite pro sounds different.

It's probably because of all the different settings etc.

I just played with the equalizer of the x-fi elite pro and that surely
has a major influence on the sound.

So far I like the sound manager of asus better. It's simple and it has
some very good default settings.

So for me as an audio newby/idiot I have no idea how an equalizer works
lol

The bad thing about the asus audio manager is that it doesn't show
which settings it changes on it's own equalizer when you choose a
certain setting for example, the parkling lot setting.. So that
prevents me from copieing the equalizer settings to the x-fi equalizer
settings Nasty *******s ! =D

Well I am going to leave the speaker positions as they are right now...
and play some more battlefield 2 to see how that influences things...

But I am pretty sure I am going to place the position of the speakers
back as the manual recommends because my earns are getting an audio
overload/blast so it feels.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Well right after I wrote this... I played some more with the x-fi
equalizer.. it's pretty amazing what it can do...

It can lower or sharpen the "brightness" so to speak of all the
frequencies of the audio/music...

It sounds much better to my likings now...

So I guess one is supposed to simply play around with these qualizer
settings until you find some nice settings which suit you

Hmm I was wondering if I had to switch modes to play with the
qualizer... this is fortunately not the case lol.

Entertainment mode and game mode both have an equalizer... and the cool
thing is the settings are saved when switching modes...

I haven't tried the audio creation mode... that looks way to advanced
for me

The equalizer plays a big role/part in getting good audio quality
that's for sure !

Bye,
Skybuck.