[Solution] X-Fi related BSOD on Windows 7 / Vista

[Strat_84]

It happens from time to time that I get a BSOD when playing FH2 with the following message: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA

I'm using a X-fi Xtreme Music, according to the crash report this would be always caused by Creative drivers.
I recently found a forum where the same issue has been investigated for another game.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?419565-X-fi-Users-Rejoice!-%28Creative-Releases-Drivers-to-Fix-BSOD-Issue%29


It seems using any X-Fi soundcard featuring onboard ram can cause BSOD when running OpenAL (which is the case when BF2 sound settings are set on "Creative X-Fi"). There would be a bug in Creative drivers preventing this memory from being adressed properly, thus crashing the computer.
Here are beta drivers supposed to fix the issue on Creative Website (select your soundcard, then your OS and English as language or they won't appear in the list)

Beta driver 2_18_0015A was released publicly on 9/16/2011. It is intended for these PCI x-fi cards:

    Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty® Professional Series
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
    Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
    Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Beta driver 2_17_0008C was released publicly on 12/12/2011. It is intended for these PCI-E x-fi cards:

    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty® Champion Series
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty® Professional Series
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Professional Audio
    Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

So far I've no absolute certainty this will work (I'm using it only since a few days), but according to the other forum it should. 

If you give it a try don't forget to clean entirely the previous drivers before installing those ones (but I guess all users are aware of the mess updating a driver can be with Creative  )


EDIT 25/09/2016:

I can currently confirm the following :

- Beta driver 2_18_0015A works. No more BSOD issues with a PCI X-Fi card using this driver.

- Beta driver 2_17_0008C doesn't work. An X-Fi titanium has BSOD issues with it in FH2. Newer drivers didn't fix this.
It seems to work properly only with driver 2_17_0007 and older (though older drivers than this one have microphone volume issues).

[Laboraffe]

I've been running SBXF_PCDRVBETA_US_2_18_0015A for nearly a year without issue so no worries though of course cannot be sure if it will solve that BSOD.

Another tip to minimize problems while ensuring quality and performance is to verify OpenAL is current (6.14.357.25 installed to system by these driver packages) and replace the default DirectSound3D wrapper named BF2OpenAL.dll (otherwise named wrap_oal.dll) with the OpenAL hardware router OpenAL32.dll.

Specifically: rename, move, or archive "\Battlefield 2\BF2OpenAl.dll" then copy "System32\OpenAL32.dll" to "\Battlefield 2", and rename to BF2OpenAL.dll.

For those not using a hardware X-Fi card, you may still benefit from likewise replacing BF2OpenAL.dll with current wrap_oal.dll (2.2.0.7).

[Laboraffe]

New X-Fi driver released March 28

SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_30_0004

http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&subCatID=208&prodID=14066&prodName=X-Fi XtremeMusic&subCatName=X-Fi Series&CatName=Sound+Blaster&VARSET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_14066,VARSET=CategoryID:1

[Strat_84]

A little bump for people still using those awesome sound cards (with worse than pathetic drivers). 1rst post updated.

I exhumated an X-Fi Titanium (PCI-e) from its box and performed some tests. In short, all drivers starting from 2.17.0008 are junk and may cause BSODs with EAX 5.0 enabled in BF2. Version 2.17.0008C which was supposed to fix this doesn't work. Neither does any newer driver.

Fortunately there is one driver that seems to work properly, version 2.17.0007. The very first driver provided on the CD with the card also seems to work without BSOD but it has other flaws like issues with the microphone input.

I hope this will be useful. 

[Laboraffe]

Since migrating to a motherboard with a PCIe to PCI bridge chip and/or subsequent system software updates, both XtremeMusic and XtremeGamer X-Fi DSP (hardware) cards experienced occasional failures requiring some form of reinstallation (device disable & enable, reinstall drivers "over top", or physical removal and cleaning first).

So, on a lark  , I discovered that the more recent Windows 10 drivers (SBXF_PCDRV_L11_2_30_0011) actually work on Windows 7 -as an upgrade at least since a clean install has not been necessary. It has been over a month without issue - excepting http://fhpubforum.warumdarum.de/index.php?topic=20688.

Although another non FH2 specific issue remains where switching X-Fi Modes requires a Sound Playback Device Test to initialise output, so I just leave it in Game Mode and only switch between Speaker or Headphone Configurations.

Having re-read the OP, note that all X-Fi DSP have onboard RAM of at least 2MB whereas "X-RAM" denotes 64MB.

[Laboraffe]

It eventually failed again where the Speakers tab disappears from the last Mode, although output continues. Solved again with reinstall over top. Annoying, but will stick with it for the quality in FH2. Anyone have experience with Sound Blaster Z or X-Fi MB5?