XFi crackling sound solve

Question

Hi Guys,
I had the same crackling sounds with my card. I bought the Cinema edition and there comes a xtreme music with this package. When i installed the drivers, my system was dam slow. the sound was crap and i could forget to play a game. Then i switched to win XP 64 and downloaded the driver for this system, gess what? The crackling stopt, games run fast and the sound is just beautiful. So switched back to win XP 32 bit. with a my new clean system i downloaded the update. and then i installed ONLY the update and my xfi runs as good under win xp (32) as it has under 64 bit. Then you can install the additional software that comes with your cd. All is running fine. But NEVER install the driver that comes with the cd. I installed the old driver and my system again (after the update). My system was slow and i had the crap sound again.
The only thing you lose is the IR Remote Control, somehow that thing doesn't work. Because of that i installed the old driver again (as i mentioned above), the remote works then, but well you know slow system and crackling sound.
So if anybody knows what the file is, i must install for the remote to work, plz tell me.
PS: when this solution was already posted in the 04+ page thread regarding this issue, i apologise. But could anyone tell me a solution with the remote issue anyway

Answer 1

Here's a bit of info that crackle-sufferers might find useful. There's a bit of a story behind it, but stay with me, I think it will be worth your while.
I just tried installing an X-Fi Platinum, and had to give up. The card was simply not detected. No matter what, system would not detect, drivers would not install. I tried everything. After too many hours of effort and a long call to tech support, I gave up and tried to revert to my previous Audigy 2 card.
Guess what? MASSIVE crackling!
I freaked. This system had been working perfectly for months. I tried all the solutions that have been posted... moving the card, pulling all other cards, etc. Finally, I scrubbed the system... ran the driver remover, deleted every line in the registry with "X-Fi," "Audigy" or "Creative" in it, deleted the Creative folder in Program Files, etc., etc. Of course, then the Audigy card wouldn't recognize! Much more swearing, fritzing... but bottom line, it finally installed.
Guess what? NO MORE CRACKLE!
I knew the X-Fi software had not uninstalled fully, which was my first clue. Now, back on pure Audigy drivers (the latest version), all is well. What does that say to you? To me, it puts the blame for the crackling squarely on the X-Fi drivers. Oh, sure, there are probably other contributing factors (since not every system exhibits the problem), but if having even a remnant of those cursed X-Fi drivers installed is enough to produce hideous crackling on a previously faultless Audigy 2, what other conclusion can you draw?
The logic seems ironclad to me. The good news: Creative COULD fix the problem, if it's just in the drivers. That stuff about the cards not recognizing... now THAT'S just evil. This is 2006 (isn't it's). That kind of annoyance went out with Win95.
-fungo-