Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Issue (SW/HW)

Hello everyone,

I need your help with something regarding the Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Issue as I'm unsure if the problem I am having is simply an issue with Creative and their drivers, or if it's a much more serious issue with the hardware.

In a nutshell: Without the Front I/O Box (The Front Bay) that comes bundled with the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (or purchased separately for use with the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional), my X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Soundcard works flawlessly. There are a few driver bugs here and there, but nothing at all too serious.
With the Front Bay attached to the Soundcard however, things get very whacky, and I'm not sure whether this is simply an issue with the Soundcard driver and/or Windows 8/8.1, or if it's an issue with the Soundcard itself or the hardware in the Front Bay. Now I'll get onto the TL;DR stuff.

I am using Windows 8.1 (fresh install). Creative haven't realised any official Windows 8.1 drivers, so I am using Windows 8's. The issues I've described below however were also present for me under Windows 8 with their Windows 8 drivers. I haven't tried Windows 7 or any Windows Operating System below 8, so I don't know if this is simply driver issues with Windows 8/8.1.

When the Front Bay isn't attached to the Soundcard, I have the following Input Devices listed under 'Recording Devices' in Windows for the X-Fi:

• Microphone FP (The Front Panel Header on the Soundcard, used for connecting the Front Panel Mic on the computer case)
• Line-In/Microphone (The Line-In jack on the back of the Soundcard. It's a Flexijack, thus can be switched between a Line-In or Microphone jack via Creative's Audio Control Panel under the 'Flexijack' Tab. Depending on which one I select, the appropriate device name and icon will be used)
• Digital-In (The SPDIF TOSLINK Input on the Soundcard)
• "What-U-Hear" (The direct monitoring of the Soundcard - same as Realtek's Stereo Mix)

Everything is normal here and all devices work as expected. However, when the Front Bay is attached to the Soundcard, I have the following Input Devices listed under 'Recording Devices' in Windows for the X-Fi.:

• Microphone (I don't know what this is. I assume it's the Microphone jack for the X-Fi's Front Bay, however I cannot remember as I don't remember using the microphone jack on the Front Bay. The Line-In Jack cannot be used as a Flexijack when the Front Bay is connected to the Soundcard. I don't know why that is.)
• Line-In (The Line-In jack on the back of the soundcard. Unlike before without the Front Bay, this cannot be switched between a Line-In or Microphone Jack. It's fixed as a Line-In jack and the Flexijack tab in Creative's Audio Control Panel is no longer visible.)
• Auxiliary (The RCA Input jacks on the Front Bay)
• Digital-In (The SPDIF TOSLINK Input on the Soundcard)
• "What-U-Hear" (The direct monitoring of the Soundcard - same as Realtek's Stereo Mix)

When the Front Bay is connected to the Soundcard, the Front Bay's lights work as normal, so it's receiving power okay and the Digital Volume Knob for controlling Window's Volume works fine too. Last time I used a Microphone with it long ago, I believe the Analog Microphone Volume knob also worked perfectly fine. However, I am limited to using one Input Device at one time. I am limited to whichever Input device is currently the Windows Default Device. The one that is the default Input device has a status of 'Ready', whilst all others state 'Currently Unavailable'. If I change the Default Device to another, the one that I change it to will then be 'Ready' whilst all others and the previous Default Device remain 'Unavailable'. This doesn't affect Input Devices from different hardware (such as Realtek's Onboard or external USB devices. The status of them all is 'Ready').

All Playback Devices function as normal without the Front Bay attached to the Soundcard. With it attached however, If I remember some audio only played out one side of the speakers, such as only out of the right side (I have 5.1 speakers and use Audio Creation Mode mostly, but use Bus Routing in the Console Launcher to play Front L/R out of the Rear L/R and C/Sub channels too). I cannot remember when it did this though, but it never has this issue without the Front Bay.

The Microphone Input might be for the Microphone jack on the Front Bay, but I cannot remember if it still had its own Microphone FP input or if this Input is a Driver error where it believes the Microphone Flexijack setting on the Line-In Jack is its own physical Input Device. That could explain why the Flexijack capabilities are not shown when the Front Bay is attached. I have no idea though. I tried 'listening' to the device (where its input is played back to you so you can hear it), but when I first listen to it using Creative's Direct Monitoring, it just makes some strange hiss noise before it dies down. There is no sound then, even when the Line-In port is in use. I hadn't tried the Microphone Jack on the Front bay however and I currently don't have the Front Bay attached to the Soundcard. I could try finding out for you if you want? If I Listen to it via Microsoft's option, there is no hiss or sound.

The Auxiliary (RCA) works, however if I choose to listen to the device through Creative's Direct Monitoring, the sound quality is fine, however it applies EAX reverb effect to the stream. Disabling EAX in Audio Creation Mode has no effect, however it seems to in Gaming Mode. With Microsoft's option, it plays the sound fine. If I record the audio from the RCA, it'll have no EAX affects, even if I use Creative's Console Launcher in Audio Creation mode.

In the Console Launcher, under the Input Tabs (This is in Audio Creation Mode), without the Front Bay there is a slider for Line-In/Mic as normal. With the Front Bay however, there is a dropdown arrow to change this between Microphone, Line-In or Auxiliary. I'm not sure if that is a bug or by design. It seems only one can be used at a time.

Some history behind my Soundcard and Front-Bay. I originally Purchased the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional off Ebay cheap (I needed one, there was very little available and I found this one and bought it as it was dirt cheap). The previous owner simply didn't want it and was giving it away cheap. Although it's technically pre-owned, the Soundcard, and included CD where in their packaging and it hadn't been opened before. Only the box had been open, which he told me was to check everything was in there. When I received the Soundcard, I checked it and it appeared fine. I plugged it into my PC, installed the drivers and have had no issues whatsoever.

I bought the Front Bay off Ebay separately from someone else. They were selling it for cheap also. I figured why not? This had been previously used by the owner however, but said they was giving it up as he bought other devices that fit into the front of his PC and he had no room for it. It arrived with the two Creative proprietary cables and they and the Front Panel appeared to be in good condition, no problems that I could see. It's just that and the Soundcard don't play well when combined it seems.

I'm hoping this isn't a hardware fault, at least not with the Soundcard. The reason why I'd consider the possibility of it being that it works absolutely fine when working without the Front Bay, but with it, it doesn't.
The regular X-Fi Titanium shares the same PCB as the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional, but it doesn't have the Pins for connecting Creative's Front Bay (only the standard Intel HD pins for front panel on the computer case), and it's also lacking 3 capacitors. Two at the top of the board and one next to the proprietary Digital connector on the back of the Soundcard. As the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty has these capacitors, I can only assume they are for use with the Front Bay. If that's the case, maybe it could be that these capacitors are damaged and are therefore causing some of the issues? I have absolutely no knowledge on capacitors, so I could be speaking absolutely nonsense. I thought that as these aren't on the regular X-Fi Titanium Soundcard, they must be used for the Front Bay available on the X-Fi Fatal1ty Professional/Champion and could therefore be the cause of the problem.

I'm hoping this is simply a software issue, such as the drivers. That's no problem for me if it is. If it's a hardware issue, but concerning the Front Bay and not the Soundcard, I'm fine with that too. It didn't cost me much and it's not vital. If anyone else uses Windows 8/8.1 with an X-Fi Titanium Champion, I'd like to know what your experiences are with it.

Thank you very much for your help!

I have an Xfi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion, that I no longer use as it was interfering with my Recording Studio program (Sonar). I used it with Windows 7 64 bit Pro. But, it sounds like it is working correctly with the front panel attached. I didn't read through your very long post, but there are two different operations - with the front panel assembly attached and without. I only used mine with the front panel attached as I wanted the I/O jacks in the front of the PC.

As far as the recording device, normally the "What You Hear" is set as the default recording device, not one of the inputs such as microphone or Line In. With the What You Hear set as the default recording device what is plugged in (e.g. microphone or line is) will be recorded. You also need the What You Hear for recording audio from the internet.

fireberd said:

I have an Xfi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion, that I no longer use as it was interfering with my Recording Studio program (Sonar). I used it with Windows 7 64 bit Pro. But, it sounds like it is working correctly with the front panel attached. I didn't read through your very long post, but there are two different operations - with the front panel assembly attached and without. I only used mine with the front panel attached as I wanted the I/O jacks in the front of the PC.

As far as the recording device, normally the "What You Hear" is set as the default recording device, not one of the inputs such as microphone or Line In. With the What You Hear set as the default recording device what is plugged in (e.g. microphone or line is) will be recorded. You also need the What You Hear for recording audio from the internet.

Click to expand...

Hello fireberd,

Thank you for your response. Yes it works perfectly fine without the Front Bay of the X-Fi Champion. It works with my Case front panel with no issue at all. Issues only arise when the Front Bay is attached instead.

I don't blame you. It is a very long post, but I wanted to be as detailed as I could be. The more important bits are in bold. I more or less just need confirmation of whether this is a Software or Hardware issue. If it's Software, I'm not bothered about fixing it, same if it's a Hardware Issue with the X-Fi Champion Front Bay. As long as the Soundcard itself is okay Hardware-wise, I'm okay.

I know what the "What U Hear" input does. It's direct monitoring of the Soundcard, so anything that would be played out of the speakers can be captured and saved as an audio file for example, such as from media sources on the Internet like you said. There's nothing wrong with "What U Hear" though, with or without the Front Bay attached (other than being stated as 'Currently Unavailable' when the Front Bay is attached and not set as the Default Recording Device. Same applies to all other inputs though).