Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook - funny sound in Source engine games?

Hi guys.

Recently received my new SB Xtreme Audio Notebook for Christmas, and decided to give it a spin today.

In Battlefield 2, the sound is fine. It actually removed this weird popping sound I had with onboard audio.

Music/movies sound above normal.

But in games such as Counter-Strike Source and Half-Life 2 (or ANY games based on the Source engine) I get this weird effect... like something is muffling the sound. I can describe it as if the sound is coming from one speaker.. in the middle of my laptop screen... which is behind a big chunk of wood.

I've changed the audio settings ingame to no avail (except for 4-7.1 speaker setups - which are just the other end of the spectrum - very tinny with no bass.). I set the performance settings in the control panel to the highest possible settings - that didn't do anything...

I'm downloading the latest available driver package at the moment. If that doesn't work, any other ideas?

 

-SOLVED-

Driver update did the trick. Hope this helps anyone out there.

 

I am glad to hear that you have solved your problem, I used to have problems with this same Sound Card with my Sager NP9262, but the driver update fixed it as well (that is, after that TuneUp 2009 deleted some important Creative Files and I had to do a really long and throught manual clening and uninstalling of the Creative Files that were left untouched so that I could install the new drivers...).

 

Well for some reason it reverted back to how it was before!

It might be because in the time I used it last I've removed the card about 10 times, and constantly switched between notebook speakers, normal desktop speakers + headphones.

I'm reinstalling the driver now, and I'll restart 5 or so times to see if it stays good.

 

I'll suggest a much better sound card, for your express card slot:

The Echo Indigo, long available in cardbus format, is now available in express card format. It is a professional sound card, and will work much better than any Soundblaster solution.

Check it out at www.echoaudio.com .

You can find it at many music retailers, on the web.

Sometimes there are long return periods for holiday gifts. You may be able to return the Soundblaster.

 

Creative sound cards may not be the best for audiophiles. But IMHO, nothing can beat them in gaming.

 

Too bad, I have it now.

For some reason when I listen to music then go to play a Source Engine game, the sound gets all screwy.

EDIT: Just figured out restarting fixes it... not too bad then.

 

Logging on and off Windows seems to fix it. Thus, I think restarting the Creative drivers would be what fixes it.

Does anybody know of ANY way to restart the Creative sound drivers without logging off + on?

 

Bump.

10char.

 

Bump.

(10charrrrrrr).

 

Nope? No answers?