Sound very distorted at bootup with Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio

Question

I have a new HP Pavilion Elite e9180t PC with a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card, an OEM card offered by HP.  On two occasions, only two, so far, when the system is done booting the sound is distorted and it buzzes and hisses periodically.  Upon reboot it is fine.
I have no idea what is going on and am concerned that this is a system of a pending failure.  Is there something I can check?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I have this exact same system with the exact same problems.  I called HP and got a woman who insisted it was all in my head.  She didn't say that, but she continuted to tell me that unless she personally heard the problem herself, she could not help me.  I told her it didn't happen all the time but usually at bootup and about every 6 hours or so as I was playing games throughout the day.  I am a computer professional also, which should be noted, and I have worked tier 3 support for many years so I know how much knowledge a tier 1 support person has, which is what she was.  I couldn't understand much of what she said due to the accent, which made it even more frustrating.  Additionally, she remotely got on my system and clicked a bunch of things that made absolutely no sense whatsoever to the resolution of the problem.  It seemed to me that she was trying to portray herself as "fixing" the problem so that I would agree it was now fixed and move one without her having to send me a new sound card, as I suggested.  She asked me the same questions over and over "so what exactly are you hearing?" and "How often does this occur?".  After the 4th time my frustration really began to show.  Especially after "I'm afraid I have to conclude that there is not a problem with your soundcard if I cannot hear it." and "the diagnostics say the sound card is fine so it must be your speakers" even though I have swapped out the speakers several times and it also occurs on the headphones.  Additionally, I bought TWO identical systems, one for me and one for my husband and his does not have the same problem.  She tried to tell me that our parts were not identical, even though I opened both computers and I will tell you they certainly ARE identical.  She is now calling me in exactly 6 hours because I told her that the issue occurs every 6 hours or so -- clearly she does not understand that that was an estimate of how often it occurs, not an exact timeline.  I am really frustrated.  She also told me there were no other complaints for this issue and now I find this forum.  I also found a similar forum on the creative website.  hmmmm.  That tells me she was lying.  She refused to let me speak to anyone else, also.  Where are the award winning service and support technicians in all of this??  I mean, I work with HP from a business perspective all the time and I get better service.  I am extremely frustrated.