Creative X-Fi MB for your G73 (Realtek HD 2.48)

I did what you told me to do, installed R2.47 and then installed creative after I deleted all of the registry entries and files off the computer before reinstalling the audio drive but It's still coming up with the same error message that it can't recongaise the audio device

I guess my last resort is to reinstall windows when I get the chance to.

 

Download driver sweeper. Reboot computer in safe mode. Uninstall all the drivers. Run driver sweeper. Reboot again in safe mode. Run driver sweeper, again. Repeat one final time. Then it worked for me.

 

Also, these drivers seem unstable. Every once in a while my sound will be all like CRACKLE CRACKLE HISS and I never had that with 2.55.

 

I just tried to do what you told me to, it's still coming up with the same retarded message -.-"

Any more suggestions? I might try install the driver in safe mode.

 

Just tried installing the drivers in safe mode and following all of the steps Valkerie showed and it's still not working. I'm starting to give up lol.

 

If it comes down to it, and no amount of registry cleaning or driver reinstalls help, your last and possibly best alternative is to just reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 7 and put in all-recent drivers. Yeah, it's a PITA, but at least you'll be starting fresh and not having to hunt around for solutions.

 

Try using CCleaner to clean out the registry between driver sweeps.

 

Is this for 64bit? I am getting errors when I extract it and run setup under the x-fi mb folder. It says that it is not a valid 32bit application. How can I get this to run?

edit...nevermind you need the latest winrar to open it..

 

Same thought as me!
Actually this crack is not only for ASUS G-series or notebooks. ALL Realtek HD Audio chips are supported! I have got my G73 and Desktop working already. The DDL_DTS_Activator is actually the exact same crack for the "Dobly Digital Live" and "DTS Connect" packs in desktop with real X-Fi hardware. So I am also wondering.... Realtek chipsets enable the DDL / DTS Connect as well.

The screen I have by now, with 5 tabs only:


Using the same crack on desktop with X-Fi. Does enable DDL/DTS Connect (in the ENCODER tab):


If DDL can be enable, then we can enable 5.1 surround sound output when play PC games with on-board optical output! Worth for study~

N.B. DDL and DTSConnect packs can be downloaded and installed separated asside from X-Fi MB pack as those are separated paid software from Creative....

 

I have a question for you guys.

I managed to install the package correctlyon my G72GX, but I get some differences between what I see on the pics that were shown on the first page of this topic and my audio control panel window.

Under select device, my sound card is not recognized as a Creative SB X-Fi, but as Realtek High Definition Audio. Does anyone else get that?
Also, I noticed that on the X-Fi CMSS 3D tab, the X-Fi CMSS 3D Surround button is greyed out, and I can't get into its menu. Does that happen to you too?

Is there another way to enable CMSS 3D surround?

 

A warning to those about to install this: The only way I could get rid of it and get back to "stock" was to format my drive and do a clean install. The original Creative that came on our utility disk refuses to recognize the audio device no matter what. It didn't matter how many uninstalls/driversweeper/ccleaner/safe mode routines I went through. Format, reload, pop in the driver disk and all is right with the world except now I have to load all my crap again.

 

I decided to try and get this working, and I did. In the Licensing folder, delete the 3 existing license files before running run.bat. Those files shouldn't be there. The DDL_DTS app will create the license files on the fly to match your HW ID's.

@Jody: I went back and forth with various drivers and Creatives... nothing got corrupted. I did use Driver Sweeper 2.8.0 between reinstalls, so maybe that would have helped you. Tomorrow I am going to check if the patcher files work for daniel_k's 1.1 release, assuming someone wants me to.

 

Thanks for your diligence on the sound software.

My laptop went out for RMA and came back. I have fiddled with just about everything trying to solve my sound problems without RMAing. I dreaded it taking a long time and it did in fact take quite a while so my system may not be the model student.

On the upside, I'm doing a clean install right now and my shiny new RMAed computer will have a shiny new OS.

 

Something went wrong with the Creative install. Uninstall, run Driver Sweep 2.8.0 for Creative audio, and reinstall. When patching, remove any existing license files before running run.bat. They should not be there, as they need to be made custom for each machine, and the included app does that.

 

Thanks for your help Chastity!
I'd like to ask you, where do I find those license files you told me to remove?
I'm really looking forward to getting this working the right way.

Edit: I think I got it!, I'm going to try this now, thanks!

Edit 2: Nope, I just ended with the same settings than before, but at least is better than what this laptop came with.

 

Does this mean optical audio 5.1 support?

 

No, this only really offers the equalizer,cmss3d , and the crystalizer. The optical out will only output DOlby digital and DTS bitstreams, or stereo sound.

If someone finds a way to get the optical to output 5.1 PcM or dolby digital live, they will be my hero.

 

You need a modded SRS audio package to install to our audio chipset.

When you decompress the package, you have 3 directories. One of them is the Licenses Generator folder. Open that up, and there are 3 .KGA files. Delete them. Then run run.bat. You'll get all new .KGA files that work properly.

 

Thanks for your time again Chastity.
I deleted those files as you told me but ended getting the same settings as before. Obviously I uninstalled everything with driver sweeper 2.8.0 as you suggested previously.

I'm guessing I get those settings because that's what installing this package on a G72GX gives you. Anyway, I can notice the effect of CMSS 3D (even if I can't enable CMSS 3D Surround) way better than with the Audigy package my lappy came with.

P.S.: +1 rep for you, of course.

 

BTW, has anyone tried using the patcher with Daniel_K's 1.1 release?

 

Negative. I'm a big chicken after my reformat. I'm still loading software. I'm thinking I shouldn't jack with my sound software until you guinea pig it first.

 

anyone had any luck going back to stock creative drivers after installing this? I can't get it to recognize the sound card anymore and tried everything, driver sweeper, reg cleaners, rebooting into safe mode. I don't really want to reformat but I might just have to bite the bullet at this point.

 

Is it not possible to make this hack using the newest Realtek 2.56 ? ^^

 

The hack doesn't require the 2.48 drivers.

 

So can i use it with Realktek 2.56 drivers ? cause i saw 2.48 is modified version with alot of tweaks, which should improve performance and sound quality on the long run.

I'm really lost in this one, i don't know what to use with what and what it will give me. i'll appericiate any help or answers to know if i should install it or not on my laptop.

 

And if you read further on, you would see that the newer drivers were offering similar performance. Don't believe everything you read about some driver package without several confirmations.

 

I read the all posts xD

the problem is what should i install, the 1.0 X-FI win7 Update and the X-FI 1.1 MB for 30$

or just one of them ?

cause this is really confusing on what that will give me and what will improve more than now.

 

Seem you're still confused:

G73JH comes with Audigy 1.0 which is NOT FULL COMPATIBLE (aka has issues). You can install the 1.1 patch posted by Chastity to make the Audigy 1.1 more win7 friendly.

On the other hand, there's and updated/incremental version call X-Fi with is basically Audigy with some new funtions (Crystalizer among others). This version usually came with dell computers and is not installable to others computers since the installition is hardware-bound. Of course you can buy this version from Creative for 30 bucks, or, use 30 days trial (the link was posted elsewhere in the forum). The Madness posted a free version of this software modified by users to make X-Fi suite Win7 friendly (since is Vista friendly). OF course the Creative support never was present and finally users make this software installable in others computer than dell's. This package uses an user- optimided 2.48 realtek drivers version, optimizations which start to appear recently in the lasted realtek releases.

Now your question should say: I do install Audigy or X-Fi?

The obvios answer is install Audigy which came with the JH, it's free (asus pays the Licence for you) and you can update it to 1.1 aka more-win7-friendly (since Audigy was not designe for win7 x64). All completely free.

Or, if you want/need the new functions included in X-Fi package, goes for the free moded-version posted here by the Madness or pay 30 for the full license of X-Fi, which DO NOT GUARANTEE either full compatibility/stability nor Creative-support.

It's completely up to you

 

I just joined this forum for the sole reason of making this post, but first, let me get the appropriate thank-yous out of the way. Huge thanks to The Markness (for starting this thread, posting his results with this software, and posting the dead-simple instructions to get it all going), Alexa (for the modded drivers that add all the cool things that Realtek didn't think we needed to have), and finally SoloR (who provided the magic X-Fi MB package).

Now I have to confess up-front that I don't own an Asus laptop. I don't own any laptop. To be honest I own a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v1.0 motherboard with a Realtek 889 chipset on it. Don't get me wrong, it sounds awesome enough for me, but when I left my Audigy 2 ZS behind when upgrading to this new setup I was left wishing I had EAX & OpenAL functionality back. I thought I had found a working solution on Realtek's web site in the download section, but after achieving sad, sad, abysmal results from Realtek's 3D Soundback beta software when trying to achieve some kind of OpenAL compatibility to play games my search for something better to lots of different places (which resulted in lots of different failures) till my journey ended here.

I downloaded the package The Markness provided in his OP and followed his instructions to the letter. Success! After the final reboot there were no trial/activation messages, no messages stating my audio device could not be found. Curiously, the "How To.txt" included in the archive states "Unfortunately Creative Audio Console doesn't work on ALC885/888/889A/890 as the audio devices can't be recognized, but however ALchemy can be open." However, my experience differs from this as the Creative Audio Console opens with no error messages & allows me to change settings to suit my wishes without problems. The availability of Dolby Digital Live in my Realtek control panel is still there, too.

Testing is still in the early stages, but so far foobar2000 running with the Crystalizer & CMSS-3D on provide very noticeable results when played through my Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers. The changes are more noticeable on some songs & types of music than others, but haven't yet run across a song that these processors made sound worse...so far. If I can pull myself away from the great sounding music games will be the next on my list of things to check with this driver. The lack of EAX 5.0 in this software does not bother me as I didn't have access to that functionality with my old A2ZS anyway.

I may upgrade to a newer Realtek driver version later, but truth be told I have upgraded to every driver version of theirs since I bought this motherboard I haven't noticed any difference in functionality at all and if there are any noticeable bugs I haven't run across any of them.....knock wood.

Anyway, long rambling post just to say hats off to everyone who made this experience possible on my PC! Thank you!

P.S. For those who are feeling the need to compensate Creative I noticed that they have lowered the price of the X-Fi MB software to $19.95.

P.P.S. For those who are wondering this experience all happened on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

 

@Dark_Vortex: PROTIP: If you really want the best out of your Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 (A system I do have) I would highly recommend replacing the sats with Klipsch Quintet II or III sats. (I did with Quintet II's, awesome mini-sats) They can handle anything except DVD-A audio at loud decibels. (You'll start to clip from the dynamic range) Currently using this setup in my living room

 

Chastity, I have seriously thought about replacing the sats on my set, but I don't yet feel unsatisfied with them so I keep putting off replacing them

BTW, are you the same Chastity that was over on 3DSS?

Back on the subject of these drivers, I finally got some free time to where I could install a game to check it out. EAX works perfectly with The Witcher Director's Cut. I am very pleased right now.

Thanks again to those who made this possible for me.

 

So let me get this straight, the X-Fi MB is better then the X-Fi MB2 correct? And the X-FiMB comes with a free trial? If so, I may have to give the trial a try (in a few weeks since gary pointed out that they are trying to make audio updates for the JH). If I like it, and if we get no creative updates, then $30 isn't such a bad price though it would be better to have it for free, especially for us JH users.

edit - nvm, noticed Chastity's sigs. I got all the info I need. Chastity, you are one hell of a chick xD

 

Just to make sure you got all the details straight...

X-Fi MB - 30 day trial - $19.95 - up to EAX 4.0

X-Fi MB2 - 30 day trial - $29.95 - up to EAX 5.0

X-Fi MB2 is Creative's latest and greatest offering in this area. The thing that makes the X-Fi MB version more appealing is the package offered in this thread does away with that bothersome trial limitation.

 

Where did you see a MB2 trial download? A link would be great.

Also, yes, I'm the same Chastity from 3DSS.

 

Hello, I have Creative X-Fi MB (Realtek HD 2.48) installed in my G73Jh. Can I get better sound quality for my G73?

 

If you have the X-FI and not just the realtek driver, check the sound panel settings.

 

Is there anything here that can be related to the JW model as well? This is the one I have and it's lacking most of the creative applications I was hoping to have. I've read that the MB 2 package is the one supporting eax 5.0, this computer is advertized as such but theres no such package with that name neither preloaded or on disc (Disc have THXTrustudio and ALchemy).

All I want is the Creative Console with crystalizer etc etc, EAX 5.0 support and some way to output 5.1 game audio to my Z-5500 setup. So far I know theres a S/PDIF thru audio jack but it seems that it will only support digital media as DVD playback but no PCM support.

Should I go JH-like and install the modded Realtek audio + MB 1.1 package?

But then again lol, how should I connect my speakers for 5.1 gaming ?

 

The only place I have seen any X-Fi MB2 download at all is on Asus's site. I never downloaded it and tried it out as the motherboard that had it in its download section had a non-Realtek sound chipset. Couple that with the fact that you can practically count the number of EAX 5.0 games on one hand I didn't pursue it much farther.

Whether this will function as a trial and be priced at $29.95 remains to be seen by me. The rumors that the MB software price was lowered so that the MB2 package could enter the market at the old price point makes a lot of sense to me, though.

For everyone's convenience here's a direct download link without having to try to navigate Asus's site and captcha mechanism if anyone wants to experiment and report back: X-Fi MB2

I literally lurked there for years & never thought the advantages of participating in the forum were worth the potential hassles of tangling with the resident Monsoon speaker zealot. I think you know who I mean.

Always enjoyed your posts immensely so cheers for that.

 

Fear The Roj!!!

 

Well, I did play around for a while. The X-Fi MB2 didnt work at all as it will say theres no compatible hardware detected, be it with modded or official drivers so I installed the modded realtek drivers, then a modded X-Fi MB package that included "activator". Sound is definitly better and now I have a "lite" version of both the Sound Blaster Panel and Console.

Using Everest, the application says EAX 5.0 is supported with 128 hardware sound buffers.

So far im happy with the results but I'm still clueless about how to output 5.1 game sound from this G73JW to my Z-5500. Any tips?

I really need this 5.1 sound, if theres no hope for the integrated audio I might give this a try: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB Audio System with THX SB1095

Instead of spending $30 on pure software, I prefer going for a real piece of hardware for $60.

 

What you need for that is Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect so that it would make a AC3/DTS stream out the toslink to your Z-5500 decoder. Unfortunately, Asus did not license the Realtek chip for the SRS package. The system can only do 5.1/7.1 via HDMI.

The USB 5.1 Pro system you linked to has that feature, and will allow you to connect to your Z-5500 for 5.1 gaming.

 

Chastity is correct on all that. I've researched this a ton trying to find a way to use an Astro mixamp on the G73 w/optical out. It all comes down to Dolby Digital live. It looks like the X-fi 1095 supports it. I'd buy one but I don't want one device hanging on to another device and finally my headphones. There is another USB DD Live device called a "Castillo" but it is a few years old and discontinued. I would pay good money for a software solution to get DD live out of the G73 optical port.

 

Realtek Sound Configurations :


Windows 7 Default Driver(the way it should be):
[/QUOTE]



I don't even have all those options in the sound configuration panel. All I've got it STEREO. Is something wrong. I''ve got a 5.1 speaker connected via a DDTS-100 Creative Amp so why don't i see 5.1 speaker config in the options?

Thanks

 

I also have a question. I just installed X-Fi today as a trial and it really does sound better than the one the JH comes with. However, I'm having issues when a video is surround sound. The voice audio is very low at times when there is a lot of audio in the background (such as explosions, gun shots, music, etc).

this is happening on MP, KmPlayer, and MPC-HC. Is there a way to fix that?

Its fine when I play a video that is only 2 channel.

disabling smart volume helped for one video, but didn't do anything for the other one. The volume jumping is kinda annoying though, and the smart volume makes the volume too low, at the same time, even with it on, I played justin timberlakes "Losing My Way" and omg the volume jump was aweful. I ended up leaving smart volume off and adjusting it to where it wouldn't jump that much.

will the realtek driver version make a difference? Like the modded one for example? right now I'm using the latest driver from realtek.

 

You need to have the player setup to downmix 5.1 audio to stereo. What's happening is that you are not hearing the voices because they are being sent to the center speaker, which you do not have.

 

is it really better than the default creative software?
i have never tried X-fi

 

Hi,

I have problems with audio since my laptop returned from RMA. I have working basic drivers, sound is stanadard. But when I try to install Creative 1.0 just before installation I get message that supported device is not detected and installation will end. On the other hand I can install Xfi 1.1 but when I try to launch volume panel similiar message pop-up.
Is it possible that service worker unplugged the card, even so it is integrated? Before RMA it worked

 

thanks. I'll do that.

well, honestly I think with headphones on it sounds a lot better.

without headphones, maybe there is a little difference. My main focus is always on the equalizer and the volume jump. The bass sounds more crisp imo and the treble can be adjusted a lot better then the default (different lvls allow a unique pitch for say... high hats/cymbals).

If u want, try the trial, u don't have to uninstall, what happens is it disables ur other one and enables x-fi. If you like it, u can either pay or use the copy someone posted somewhere in the forums....

 

basically i am using creative software only for the bass
hmm i guess i need to hear it and judge it
anyway can i use creative x-fi with latest realtek ? free version ofcourse

 

yea, I'm using latest realtek right now.