No sound from the headphones.

Check the following:

• The headphones are connected to the Headphone jack.
• In the Speakers tab of Audio Console, the Headphones option is selected in the Speaker/Headphone Selection box. OR In the speakers and headphone selection of Entertainment Mode, Game Mode or Audio Creation Mode, the Headphones option is selected.

No audio output when playing digital files such as .WAV, MIDI files or AVI clips.

Check the following:

• The speakers' volume control knob, if any, is set at mid-range. Adjust the volume mixer settings in Entertainment Mode or Game Mode, if necessary.

In Entertainment Mode, your audio device is optimized for movie soundtrack and music playback. With the Entertainment Mode console, you can:

1. Adjust master volume, bass and treble levels.
2. Adjust volume mixer settings.
3. Configure playback settings for your speakers or headphones.
4. Adjust equalizer settings.
5. Enable environment effects.
6. Enable multichannel upmixing.
7. Enable virtual surround sound.
8. Enhance detail and impact of audio with 24-bit Crystalizer.
9. Configure Dolby® and DTS® decoding settings.


In Game Mode, your audio device is optimized for 3D audio and EAX performance in games. With the Game Mode console, you can:

1. Adjust the master volume or mute all audio.
2. Configure playback settings for your speakers or headphones.
3. Adjust the Bass Boost and Bass Management settings.
4. Enable multichannel upmixing.
5. Enable virtual surround sound.
6. Enhance detail and impact of audio with 24-bit Crystalizer.
7. Adjust equalizer settings.
8. Adjust basic controls for common mixer sources.

• The powered speakers or external amplifier are connected to the card's Line Out jacks.
• There is no hardware conflict between the card and a peripheral device. Click on and see Problems with Digital Audio Devices heading.
• The speakers and headphone selection in Audio Console, Entertainment Mode, Game Mode or Audio Creation Mode corresponds to your speaker or headphone configuration.

To solve this problem, enable digital CD playback:

1. Click Start, Settings then Control Panel or Start, Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog box, double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.
5. Double-click the DVD/CD-ROM drives icon, and your computer drives appear.
6. Right-click the disk drive icon. A menu appears.
7. Click Properties.
8. In the Digital CD Playback box of the next dialog box, click the Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device check box to select it.

This may occur when a SoundFont-compatible MIDI file is loaded or played while insufficient memory has been allocated to SoundFont Bank Manager. To have sufficient SoundFont cache memory:

Remove one or more SoundFont banks from your SoundFont cache.

1. Click the Bank button.
2. The Configure Bank panel appears.
3. In the Select Bank box, click a bank location. If the selected bank location contains a bank, the bank will appear in the Bank Stack box.
4. Click the bank you want to remove in the Bank Stack box and click the Remove button.
5. Click the OK button to finish configuring your banks.
6. Load smaller SoundFont banks instead; or add more RAM to your system. Do one of the following:

In the Configure Bank panel of SoundFont Bank Manager, select a smaller SoundFont bank, if available, from the Select Bank box or increase the system RAM on your computer.

The other installed audio card is not working well.

You may have an existing audio device installed in your computer. The audio device may be an audio card or an onboard audio chipset. Before you install your Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card, you are advised to disable or completely uninstall and remove your existing audio device. Operating multiple audio devices in your computer may introduce usability issues. Alternatively, during the installation of your audio card, do the following:

• If your computer detects an installed Sound Blaster Audigy series, Sound Blaster Live! series or Sound Blaster PCI512 audio card, a message box recommending that you completely uninstall and remove the older audio device will appear. Click the Yes button and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the removal of the old audio device. Remove the old audio card from your computer.
• If your computer detects any other installed audio card, a message box recommending that you completely uninstall and remove the older audio device will appear. Click the Yes button to continue with the installation of the Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card. After the installation of the Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card, completely uninstall the existing card and remove the audio card from your computer.

Apart from normal playback and recording functions, older Sound Blaster audio devices may not work well when Sound Blaster X-Fi is installed. To solve this problem, uninstall and remove the older audio device from the computer, or you can choose to disable it:

1. Click Start, Settings then Control Panel or Start, Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog box, double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.
5. Double-click Sound, Video And Game Controllers, and then select the name of the audio device you would like to disable.
6. In the Device usage list, select the Do not use this device (disable) option.
7. Click OK to restart Windows and for the change to take effect.

When the audio device is disabled, the entry in Device Manager shows a red cross.

Make sure you select the sampling rate of the PCM SPDIF output of your Digital I/O connector to match the requirements of the receiving device. You may need to select a lower digital output sampling rate. The choices available are 48 kHz and 96 kHz. To solve this problem:

In Creative MediaSource Go! Launcher:

1. Click the Product Settings tab.
2. Double-click the Audio Console icon.
3. Click the SPDIF I/O tab.
4. Click the required sampling rate from the Digital Output (PCM) Sampling Rate list.
5. In Entertainment Mode, click the Digital I/O button, and click the required sampling rate from the Digital Output Sampling Rate list.

Popping noises are heard during playback.

The DMA feature may not be enabled for your computer's drives. To solve this problem:

1. Click Start, Settings then Control Panel or Start, Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel dialog box, double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Hardware tab.
4. Click the Device Manager button.
5. Double-click the ATA/ATAPI IDE Controllers icon. Your IDE channels will appear.
6. Right-click the Primary IDE Channel icon.
7. Click Properties.
8. In the Properties dialog box, click the Advanced Settings tab.
9. Click the DMA if available check box to select it.
10. Click the OK button.

This may occur when you switch modes or restore the mode settings to their factory default. The sound comes from the relays of your uniquely designed Sound Blaster X-Fi audio card.

This may occur when you are playing a 2D MIDI file. When playing 2D MIDI content without the "pan" parameter or SoundFont-compatible MIDI content with zero panning, Sound Blaster X-Fi may channel sound through your analog center speaker only.

Note:

• 2D MIDI content is equivalent to the standard MIDI format. Use the 3DMIDI Player application to convert your 2D MIDI file to a 3D MIDI file.
• By configuring the MIDI pan parameter of a SoundFont-compatible MIDI content, you can channel sound through other speakers beside the center speaker.

If your Sound Blaster X-Fi card is connected to your PC case front panel connectors, you may experience audio and video stuttering for 1-2 seconds after connecting your headphones to the front panel. This is due to special handling in the output switching of the card to support the added connectivity and should not be a cause for concern.