Working PC + Creative "X-FI" reboots before getting to the windows desktop

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 27, 2005, 07:16 PM

Working PC + Creative "X-FI" extreme music
reboots before getting to the windows desktop

I turned off the on board sound, turned off my seral ports, extra
sata controllers etc.. to free up resources (just in case)

still can't seem to get into windows, even in safe mode

AMD64 3400+
MSI Neo3 754 motherboard (7135) (Nforce4mx)
ATI X1800XT 512Mb
Rosewill 450W PSU (atx 2.01)

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 27, 2005, 07:44 PM

tried uninstalling the nforce audio drivers
Tried chageing the PCI slot
Tried connecting the power connector

any help would be hot guys something I'm misseing? bad card?

ony thing I notice is when my pc boot a whlow buch of thing show
up as something like

unkown audio device ... "NA"

in the screen where it normally tells you the IRQ's and resources

EDIT:

Tried cheating by installing the driver before the device but creatives
software doesn.t allow that

EDIT:

next stop is a format and reinstall if no one can help me!

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 27, 2005, 10:40 PM

Please tell me this is not true : http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7521

"It works as well as you can expect, by using CMSS.

Oh, one other heads-up, the card can have a nasty problem on initial install, on some bios. If your machine won't boot to windows at all and/or shows a humongous pci adapter list in bios before boot, pull the card out and update your motherboard bios to the latest version. This happened on some older nf4 bios, not sure what others were affected."

I have the "latest bios" (like nov, 10 2005)

EDIT:

AND.....FROM THE SAME GUY

"Did you experience any Nforce 4 related issues? As stated above, I have heard about issues with this chipset, that either requires you to send you card back to Creative to replace a chip on it, or a BIOS update by the motherboard manufacturer. Not all motherboard makers have released the BIOS updates yet though, so you may be required to send it in to Creative. This is something I wont accept, on a new device. Also, do you know if Creative has began shipping the newer revision/modified cards to retail, to alleviate this problem at the source?"

FLINKEN!!! Not cool indeed well I email MSI and creative lets see
what responces I recive..

but so far it looks like this POS is going back to bestbuy

(unless i get some good really good news)

EDIT:

from creatives forums trying as a last resourt while I wait
http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_in...windows_xp.htm
mKEING SURE aspi IS USED

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 27, 2005, 11:55 PM

in my decive managfer it said: ACPI Uniprocessor PC

So I upadted the driver, set it to,
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
had to reboot twice istalled my card and I made it wto windows
and just instaled the drivers!!!

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 29, 2005, 09:08 AM

now I keep getting 2 unkown devices, eveytime I boot,
that go away if I reinstall the drivers ... hmmm...???

dipstick · Dec 29, 2005, 01:10 PM

Seems like you are having the nforce/x-fi problem

I dont think there is any way of fixing it without sending the card back for repair or hoping for a new mobo bios. But I never had any issues with mine other than the fact that I cannot go into safe mode with it installed(on nf4 or x200)

**temeteus82** · Dec 29, 2005, 04:07 PM

RMA that X-FI card... the earlier versions had hw problem with nForce if I recall right....

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 30, 2005, 05:41 PM

I'm going to try a format if that fails I'm going to return it.... going to probubly have to eat 15%, 100% due to creative as if thier not compatable with some nforce4s they should SAY SO SOMEWHERE.

Also I find it funny thiey fail to mention the ealry boards they had peple
RMA them and they REPLACED CHIPS on thier boards wich then
made it work fine on all systems

Hmmm....

**********
generic creative email:
**********

Thank you for reaching us at Creative Email Technical Support; we
appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

With regards to your enquiries, you mentioned that the X-Fi soundcard
does not boot to Windows properly.

Some computers may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms while
attempting to install a Creative X-Fi sound card:

- System will either freeze or not boot

- System will say there are multiple unknown PCI Devices and then cause
the system to generate a blue screen error.

- System may reboot repeatedly depending on XP settings.

- Error: The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please
contact your system vendor... ( STOP: 0x000000A5 )

These symptoms may be corrected with an updated BIOS from the
motherboard manufacturer. To update the BIOS for your motherboard,
please contact your motherboard vendor.

In order to install your soundcard properly, I recommend you to ensure
the following for the audio installation and test:

- The card is the only card installed other than the Graphics card.
- The card is at least one empty slot away from the Graphics card.
- Place the soundcard away from all the others.
- That the card is seated properly in the PCI slot.
- Move the PC's internal wires away from the soundcard.
- That the on-board sound on your motherboard is disabled through the
BIOS.
- That the on-board gameport is disabled through the BIOS.
- That your motherboard BIOS is up-to-date.
- That the operating system is up-to-date with the latest service packs
and patches.
- That there are no background applications open when you attempt the
solution.
- That the anti-virus program is disabled.
- That if you are over-clocking your system, return all options to their
recommended settings.
- That you access the PC with administrator rights.

If the issue persists, please refer to the following knowledge base
article:

Title: How to un-install Sound Blaster drivers and applications?
Link: http://us.creative.com/support/kb/ar...p?l=3&sid=1712

Before reinstallation, please disable any anti-virus program as well as
any programs that are running in the background before attempting to
load software.

The easy way to do this is to click on Start, Run, type MSCONFIG in the
box, and hit OK. Put a check mark in "Selective Startup" and then
uncheck the box that says "Load Startup Items".

Note: After the software is all loaded and working properly, you can go
back in and
change that back to Normal Startup.

Do inform us of the outcome and if you need our further assistance,
please do not hesitate to get back to us.

Thank You.

For faster service please reply with previous correspondence when
replying to this email.

Best Regards

****************

I find it funy if my board wasn't ACPI compatable it wouldn't be running
in that mode right now LOL!

It shows all those extra things, in the boot device list and I get "unkown devices"
but after a soft reboot from inside windows, it shows propely and I get no :unkown
devices:

creative can eat my shorts!

Dec 27, 2005, 07:16 PM	#1
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	Working PC + Creative "X-FI" reboots before getting to the windows desktop Working PC + Creative "X-FI" extreme music reboots before getting to the windows desktop I turned off the on board sound, turned off my seral ports, extra sata controllers etc.. to free up resources (just in case) still can't seem to get into windows, even in safe mode AMD64 3400+ MSI Neo3 754 motherboard (7135) (Nforce4mx) ATI X1800XT 512Mb Rosewill 450W PSU (atx 2.01) __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; Dec 27, 2005 at 10:42 PM.

Dec 27, 2005, 07:44 PM	#2
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	tried uninstalling the nforce audio drivers Tried chageing the PCI slot Tried connecting the power connector any help would be hot guys something I'm misseing? bad card? ony thing I notice is when my pc boot a whlow buch of thing show up as something like unkown audio device ... "NA" in the screen where it normally tells you the IRQ's and resources EDIT: Tried cheating by installing the driver before the device but creatives software doesn.t allow that EDIT: next stop is a format and reinstall if no one can help me! __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; Dec 27, 2005 at 08:13 PM.

Dec 27, 2005, 10:40 PM	#3
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	Please tell me this is not true : http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7521 "It works as well as you can expect, by using CMSS. Oh, one other heads-up, the card can have a nasty problem on initial install, on some bios. If your machine won't boot to windows at all and/or shows a humongous pci adapter list in bios before boot, pull the card out and update your motherboard bios to the latest version. This happened on some older nf4 bios, not sure what others were affected." I have the "latest bios" (like nov, 10 2005) EDIT: AND.....FROM THE SAME GUY "Did you experience any Nforce 4 related issues? As stated above, I have heard about issues with this chipset, that either requires you to send you card back to Creative to replace a chip on it, or a BIOS update by the motherboard manufacturer. Not all motherboard makers have released the BIOS updates yet though, so you may be required to send it in to Creative. This is something I wont accept, on a new device. Also, do you know if Creative has began shipping the newer revision/modified cards to retail, to alleviate this problem at the source?" FLINKEN!!! Not cool indeed well I email MSI and creative lets see what responces I recive.. but so far it looks like this POS is going back to bestbuy (unless i get some good really good news) EDIT: from creatives forums trying as a last resourt while I wait http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_in...windows_xp.htm mKEING SURE aspi IS USED __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; Dec 27, 2005 at 11:24 PM.

Dec 27, 2005, 11:55 PM	#4
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	in my decive managfer it said: ACPI Uniprocessor PC So I upadted the driver, set it to, Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC had to reboot twice istalled my card and I made it wto windows and just instaled the drivers!!! __________________

Dec 29, 2005, 09:08 AM	#5
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	now I keep getting 2 unkown devices, eveytime I boot, that go away if I reinstall the drivers ... hmmm...??? __________________

Dec 29, 2005, 01:10 PM	#6
dipstick DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,565 Rep Power: 53 System Specs	Seems like you are having the nforce/x-fi problem I dont think there is any way of fixing it without sending the card back for repair or hoping for a new mobo bios. But I never had any issues with mine other than the fact that I cannot go into safe mode with it installed(on nf4 or x200)

Dec 30, 2005, 05:41 PM	#8
The_Neon_Cowboy DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,135 Rep Power: 77 System Specs	I'm going to try a format if that fails I'm going to return it.... going to probubly have to eat 15%, 100% due to creative as if thier not compatable with some nforce4s they should SAY SO SOMEWHERE. Also I find it funny thiey fail to mention the ealry boards they had peple RMA them and they REPLACED CHIPS on thier boards wich then made it work fine on all systems Hmmm.... ******** generic creative email: ****** Thank you for reaching us at Creative Email Technical Support; we appreciate the opportunity to assist you. With regards to your enquiries, you mentioned that the X-Fi soundcard does not boot to Windows properly. Some computers may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms while attempting to install a Creative X-Fi sound card: - System will either freeze or not boot - System will say there are multiple unknown PCI Devices and then cause the system to generate a blue screen error. - System may reboot repeatedly depending on XP settings. - Error: The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your system vendor... ( STOP: 0x000000A5 ) These symptoms may be corrected with an updated BIOS from the motherboard manufacturer. To update the BIOS for your motherboard, please contact your motherboard vendor. In order to install your soundcard properly, I recommend you to ensure the following for the audio installation and test: - The card is the only card installed other than the Graphics card. - The card is at least one empty slot away from the Graphics card. - Place the soundcard away from all the others. - That the card is seated properly in the PCI slot. - Move the PC's internal wires away from the soundcard. - That the on-board sound on your motherboard is disabled through the BIOS. - That the on-board gameport is disabled through the BIOS. - That your motherboard BIOS is up-to-date. - That the operating system is up-to-date with the latest service packs and patches. - That there are no background applications open when you attempt the solution. - That the anti-virus program is disabled. - That if you are over-clocking your system, return all options to their recommended settings. - That you access the PC with administrator rights. If the issue persists, please refer to the following knowledge base article: Title: How to un-install Sound Blaster drivers and applications? Link: http://us.creative.com/support/kb/ar...p?l=3&sid=1712 Before reinstallation, please disable any anti-virus program as well as any programs that are running in the background before attempting to load software. The easy way to do this is to click on Start, Run, type MSCONFIG in the box, and hit OK. Put a check mark in "Selective Startup" and then uncheck the box that says "Load Startup Items". Note: After the software is all loaded and working properly, you can go back in and change that back to Normal Startup. Do inform us of the outcome and if you need our further assistance, please do not hesitate to get back to us. Thank You. For faster service please reply with previous correspondence when replying to this email. Best Regards ************** I find it funy if my board wasn't ACPI compatable it wouldn't be running in that mode right now LOL! It shows all those extra things, in the boot device list and I get "unkown devices" but after a soft reboot from inside windows, it shows propely and I get no :unkown devices: creative can eat my shorts! __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; Dec 30, 2005 at 10:28 PM.