Help with Creative Fatal1ty USB Headset

[GentaiShinigami]

The subject:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826158075

I've upgraded firmware, drivers, etc, but still have an issue with audio cutting out in Windows/Games (usually games so I'm guessing it's processor load causing it?). If something like say fire in DA: Origins comes on the screen or a lot of particle effects then the audio will cut out constantly. It's very distracting, and annoys the shit out of me. It honestly sounds like some kind of buffering issue, but I can't find any way to fix buffering in the Creative software/drivers itself. If I use my normal headphones that go through the realtek on-board sound I don't have a single sound issue.

I've done all the troubleshooting I possibly can myself. I've searched the net the best I can, read the Creative forums, I've upgraded above items, changed the hardware acceleration, uninstalled and re-installed the drivers twice, changed buffering options in jetaudio to try to fix the music stuttering I get in Windows sometimes, but still during games and VERY infrequently when not in games it's giving me this problem.

One almost guaranteed place it gives me the problem is in Lord of the Rings Online (windowed or full-screen) when I hit M to bring up the map. It's almost a certainty that when I do that the audio will have this problem the entire time the map is up, and go away as soon as I go back to the ingame playing. -_-; This includes my actual music playing on an assortment of different media players in the background as well as the sound ingame (at the same time). Maybe that can help in troubleshooting what is making it do this.

I truly do love the comfort and sound (when not doing this >_>) of these headphones, and really don't want to have to give up on them, but if I can't find a fix it's looking like I might just have to. Thank you all for listening to my problem, and thanks in advance for any suggestions! This is pretty much my last shot in fixing it. Creative seems to have given up on updating drivers for these or something (they might even be discontinued?) so I won't be receiving help from them I'm sure.

PS: Are all Creative products this buggy? I was thinking about getting a sound card from them, but after this I'm leaning toward no.

[Pikarya]

First rule of Tech club. Never buy anything stamped with Fatal1ty on it.

http://i48.tinypic.com/308utlt.jpg

Case in point.

I've been using Zalman products since 2001. Never had a fucking problem till I bought this stamped piece of shit a few years back. A lot of users with the older models had problems with pieces of hardware missing fins on the metal fin pieces missing/mounting hardware screws not being included which are in the guide/scratched heat sink base/shit literally snapping off/etc. Only reason why I bought it was because it would match with the case I bought; (insides were dark red, along with motherboard)

Also had problems with the sound cards that are produced by Creative with his shit name on it. My utmost suggest is to just avoid anything with that cancer.

[GentaiShinigami]

First rule of Tech club. Never buy anything stamped with Fatal1ty on it.

Also had problems with the sound cards that are produced by Creative with his shit name on it. My utmost suggest is to just avoid anything with that cancer.

Point taken, but doesn't really help me after I've already been suckered by the "Fatal1ty" line. =P Though I will definitely be avoiding it in the future. As far as the product itself it's a very solid product with great sound and comfort. The only issues are on the software side which I'm sure would exist regardless of the branding on the headset. Are Creative products in general this buggy or just the "Fatal1ty" line of stuff?

[Pikarya]

Point taken, but doesn't really help me after I've already been suckered by the "Fatal1ty" line. =P Though I will definitely be avoiding it in the future. As far as the product itself it's a very solid product with great sound and comfort. The only issues are on the software side which I'm sure would exist regardless of the branding on the headset. Are Creative products in general this buggy or just the "Fatal1ty" line of stuff?

I've never had a problem with any Creative product till that specific one, maybe I'm just lucky. Currently sitting on a X-Fi sound card and 4.1 setup just fine for a few years now.

[GentaiShinigami]

I've never had a problem with any Creative product till that specific one, maybe I'm just lucky. Currently sitting on a X-Fi sound card and 4.1 setup just fine for a few years now.

Nice, thanks for the confirmation. I've heard in the past that Creative was supposed to be #1 in sound cards (if not close to it), but this cutting out problem on this headset was really making me dislike them. As well as not having a new driver come out for it in like forever even when many people are having problems on their forums.

Something funny I saw when looking at sound cards after the conversation we just had:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102019

>_< The sad thing is I would probably buy this one if the Fatal1ty brand wasn't such a giant piece of shit. The sound from the headset is so good, and apparently it's just a condensed version of this card built into the headphones cord so it would be nice to have that same sound on everything not just the one headset. Yeah, I'm totally not digging it too much now though! >_>

[GentaiShinigami]

A bit of an update,

Searching around still for a fix I came across someone having an audio problem, and someone suggested checking for IRQ conflicts. I've done a lot of things on PC's, but never had to mess with IRQ's, but looking at the list there are 3 different IRQ numbers being shared, and there are two USB related entries. I don't have enough experience with them to know if this is a problem or if it's OK for them to share the numbers or not so some insight into this would be helpful. Here is a list of the IRQ's that are sharing numbers, and what is using those numbers:

(PCI) 21 NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
(PCI) 21 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
(PCI) 22 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio
(PCI) 22 NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller (Yes twice)
(PCI) 23 NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
(PCI) 23 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller

The only other used IRQ's are 4, 7, 9, 13, 14, and 16. If I do need to change them the option I need to un-check to change IRQ's in Windows is currently grayed out so I can't at this time unless doing it in the BIOS it seems though I would have no idea what number to change it to.

As always thanks for taking to time to read and/or help!