Creative X-Fi causing freezing at startup

[Jerichoshade]

Hello!

I recently had to change my motherboard to a Foxconn 761MX, and moved everything on it. The computer runs just fine, however, when I plug in my Creative X-Fi sound card and boot the system, it simply freezes after some 10-15 seconds. I can't even enter BIOS with the sound card plugged in. I suspect an IRQ conflict, but... I'm not the expert. While fiddling around trying to fix this issue, I managed to also disable my on-board sound adapter somehow, so at the moment I'm stuck with no sound at all.

Here's what I use:

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3200+
Motherboard Name Foxconn 761MX (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT (512 MB)

If other information is also needed, please let me know. I would appreciate any help you could give me in this situation.

Thank you.

 

[gwailo247]

Is the card PCI or PCIe?

Have you tried resetting the BIOS settings to default to bring the onboard audio back on?

 

[Jerichoshade]

I'm not sure, how do I check whether it is PCI or PCIe? The card is rather old, and I don't have the original box or the manual any longer.

To my shame, I haven't thought about resetting BIOS. Now the on-board works. Thank you for the advice! The sound blaster card however is still a no-go.

 

[Route44]

It could be a need for the latest updated drivers for this particular card.

 

[gwailo247]

I'm guessing PCI then, I think newer cards are PCIe. PCIe cards have smaller slots than PCI.

I'm just surprised that the board won't go into BIOS with the card in, how are you supposed to fix anything then? Do you have any other cards besides the Sound Blaster and the video card? You can try running it without those.

Also if you have onboard video, you can try pulling out the video card as well and just trying to boot the computer with the sound card attached. If there are no other cards, there shouldn't be a conflict (hopefully)

 

[Jerichoshade]

@ Route44 - I tried installing the sound driver, however Creative have a thing about not allowing the drivers to be installed if none of their components are already plugged in the machine. Vicious circle there.

@gwailo247 - The only other card I have is the video one. I'll try to remove it and boot, and see what happens, however I'm not too confident about it, as on the other two motherboards I used (one was an Asus and the other I don't know, sorry) they had no trouble working together. I'll post the result tomorrow, as it's quite late here at the moment.

Again, thank you!

 

[gwailo247]

LOL, I bought a foxconn board after my asus mobo burned out, and never again.

last thing you may want to do is check the mobo BIOS and see if there are any updated ones released that may address your problem.

 

[Jerichoshade]

Thank you for your reply yet again, gwailo247. I'm sorry I posted so late today, but it's been a long day. Anyway.

I tried booting with no video card, but this time it doesn't get past POST. It starts the beep code sequence for no video card, and loops there. There's no freezing, but I guess it's normal, since the machine doesn't get to the point where it identifies the sound adapters.

I haven't updated BIOS recently, but as far as I recall I'm using the latest version. I'll try updating again tomorrow, maybe I've missed something, but again, I don't have much faith that it will solve the issue. I've also sent an e-mail to the Creative support team, asking them to provide the IRQs used by this particular sound card, and I'll try checking whether any other device is causing an IRQ conflict. I'll post the results here, but in the meantime, any other suggestion is welcome.

Thank you!

 

[Route44]

What BIOS are you running and what exactly is the Beep Code pattern like?

 

[Jerichoshade]

I'm running AWARD BIOS, and the code is 1 long, 3 short beeps. I've looked it up, and it corresponds with the video card not being installed. Since I was holding it in my hand at the time, I was pretty sure what it meant, but I looked it up anyway.

 

[Mizzou]

You might want to try disabling the onboard audio before installing the Creative sound card. Shouldn't really be necessary but is worth a shot.

 

[Jerichoshade]

I've disabled the onboard audio before first posting, and I was stuck with no sound at all, as I don't know how to enable it again. ^.^ Thanks to gwailo, at least I have that one working now, but the main issue is that I can't get the machine to run while having the X-Fi sound card plugged in. So far, I think I can rule out conflicts with the video card and the on-board sound, but the issue still remains - there's a conflict somewhere and I don't know where or how to look for it.

 

[mailpup]

I'm not clear about exactly how you went about shutting off the onboard sound and installing the X-FI card. Here is how I believe it should be done: go into the BIOS and disable the onboard sound. Of course, now you have no sound. Shut off the PC, install the X-FI card and plug the speaker jack into the new card and restart the PC. The jack should go into the green port. At this point you still have no sound. Now install the sound driver package for the X-FI card. I say package because besides the driver there is software to adjust and configure your sound output/input. Restart the PC and you should now have sound.

If you've done this exact procedure already, sorry for going over old ground but I just wanted to be sure.

 

[Jerichoshade]

Thank you for the reply.

I did as you said, mailpup, but I get the same result, as in, the comp freezest 10-15 seconds after starting. It gets past POST and then it carries on to detecting the hard drives (I have them on autodetect) and it sometimes freezes while doing that, other times it gets to detect them and freezes shortly after. In any case, it never gets to the Windows loading screen.

 

[mailpup]

If you do have an IRQ conflict, try installing the card in a different slot if you haven't already.