X-Fi no headphone setting

[Kraven]

Hi all,

Ive recently installed vista ultimate 64 and previously in xp i could set the speaker setup to be headphones in the sound options, however in vista there is no selection and its setup as just speakers.

Ive set in x-fi modes and console etc to be headphones so everything is fine then but im slightly miffed as to why its saying speakers in the control panel -> sound section in windows not the x-fi . It also shows it as a speaker icon and not headphones so i dont know if this is conflicting.

Any ideas?

Thanks guys

 

[Scotteq]

Right Click the speaker icon in the lower right corner
Select Playback Devices

 

[Kraven]

ye that takes me to the sound thingy in control panel which is what im on about, it just shows as speakers and SPDIF Out, theres no headphones setting and i cant change speakers to headphones

 

[Scotteq]

That's strange.... Mine shows the speakers as well as the headphones, and indicates there are no speakers plugged in...

X-fi, is it?? Creative writes the drivers then... <grrrrrrr> The more I deal with them, the more I'm convinced that a bunch of rednecks sitting in the back of moving pickup trucks and shooting shotguns at road signs would eventually write drivers (in Braille, of course...) which are superior to anything Creative has come up with. You can try going to Creative, downloading the latest driver, uninstalling what you have, and reinstalling using the fresh driver.

 

[Kraven]

yep tried latest driver but still nothing.

This is what it looks like for me

I dont even have speakers i only use headphones! wtf :/

 

[FightingScallion]

Out of curiosity, where did you plug in the headphones?

 

[Kraven]

into the back of the soundcard behind the pc

 

[FightingScallion]

Okay, so I went and played with mine (I've got an X-Fi XtremeGamer) for a little while here. Here's what I can tell you, which will hopefully explain a little of the issue. Basically, there's no reason it should show headphones.

Basically, any plug of that shape will go into the port in the soundcard. Also, that's more or less a one-way port. We don't really want to shoot information both ways on such a cable; happily, the people who first designed stereo systems didn't really make that possible for us. So, there's no little piece of code running back to the card saying "Hey! I'm a headphone!" It can't even tell based on the amperage, since the resistance in headphones should be the same as for desktop speakers. For all it knows, they are regular speakers.

A nice comparison would be to the USB headphones I've got. It does send a little signal to the computer. I get a lovely little picture. It knows exactly what is going on. Downside is, it bypasses my card. So, I'd say it's not a big deal.

If you want to change to headphones in Vista, here's how:
1) Open Sound in the Control Panel (get to the pictuer you've got up there).
2) Click on your "Speakers"
3) Click "Properties"
4) Click on the "Sound Blaster" tab
5) Click "Settings"
6) Click the "Speakers" tab
7) Use the drop-down to select "Headphones"
(I suspect this is done automatically if you do it in Sound Blaster)

If you want to change the name to heaphones and the icon to a headphone, you can do so in the "General" tab of Properties.

Hope that helps,

Scallion

 

[Kraven]

Thanks for investigating, but yeh the soundblaster is all set to headphones in audio console and in the console launcher but was worried that windows was going to conflict etc or i was going to get different sound with windows saying speakers and soundblaster saying headphones.

But if it doesnt effect it at all then im happy with having it say speakers as long as its running as headphones correctly.

Thank you.

 

[Kraven]

Another weird problem that isnt bothering me to much but would like to fix it, when i switch modes in console launcher my volume resets so if i put it at 100% then switch to game mode then back to entertainment the volume has reset to 65% happens on all modes.

 

[FightingScallion]

Hmm...that's interesting. I rarely switch modes, so I really haven't noticed it much. Given some trial, I'm not seeing anything similar. Could have to do with your default settings, I guess. Maybe try changing those.

Something I noticed while playing around: In the entertainment mode, you can set it to automatically enable headphone settings when a headphone jack is plugged in. Have you tried that in relation to your other problem?

 

[Kraven]

Nope didnt work

 

[FightingScallion]

I wish I could tell you more to do. At this point, I'd just recommend sending something to Creative to let them know of the problem and wait for an update. The good news is that it's just an annoyance, not something more critical.

 

[Kraven]

yep thanks for your help though very appreciated