P5K + 8800 + X-FI + VISTA = Mr Crackly Sound

[dangel]

Well my sound on my home system is all over the shot - it pops and crackles (and drops out) like a trooper.. Vista 32bit, P5k with bios 311, XFI in very bottom PCI slot. Is anyone successfully running this configuration? It's even doing it with mp3 playback or when playing system sounds..

I've tried pulling 2 of 4 gigs of ram, tried limiting memory in msconfig, tried uninstalling nvidia drivers, reinstalling XFI drivers, disabling onboard sound - all to no avail. Bioshock now runs fine (it crashes on XP because nVidia suck) on Vista but the sound is driving me to distraction (and preventing me playing the game tbh).

Any idea on what to try next? Should I give a newer bios a go (which one)? I wasted a good couple of hours last night getting er.. nowhere

[godsdog]

I was nosing around for a soundcard a while back and stored the X-Fi Crackling/Popping Noises thread from Creative's forum admin. Maybe worth a read.

[Clunk]

And there was a firmware update for the X-fi as well, but that was back in the Nforce 4 days, and you had to send your card back to them to do it.

[dangel]

Thanks - i did read up on creative's forums last night - no luck as yet.

Firmware update? That one went right by me.. i'll look into it.