Annoying problem with new sound card!

Let me start off by saying that my pc knowledge is not very broad so if i leave out any information that people might need to help me I apologize ahead of time, feel free to ask and I will provide as much info as possible.

I recently purchased a soundblaster xfi platinum sound card which i installed and it worked perfectly for 4 days.

I than went to put some spiffy neons in my comp which required nothing more than plugging the power in for them. I turned on my computer and it wouldn't start windows. It would just keep restarting before it started windows.

I took the neon out and the problem stayed the same.

After a few hours of trying to fix the problem i decided to remove my sound card and that fixed the problem. Windows started and everything ran smoothly.

I thought i maybe fried my sound card or something so i returned it and got a new one. Put the new one in and same problem. Put the new one in a friends computer and it works fine. Just won't work on my computer.

I tried other pci devices like a ethernet card and it works fine. I even put in a soundblaster 5.1 pci and it works just fine. The only thing i can't get to work is the xfi.

I have now even tried totally formating my hard drive and using a fresh install of windows and still the xfi won't let my windows start up but any other sound card I put it will work.

I know the sound card is good because it works on 2 other pcs that i tried.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

 

Sounds like you do not have enough power for everything that you are plugging into the Power Supply. I would suggest upgrading the PS to a larger, or unplug the Neon and try to boot.

 

Take the XFI out. Remove drivers and apps that came with XFI. Turn off machine. Put XFI back in. Same results?

Does the computer, with the XFI, start up? As in, any blinking lights, hard drive spin-up, etc?

This is dated info, but, I hear there are issues with XFI and Nvidia chipsets..........Dated yes, I'd love to know if this has been resolved (small cases).

 

IS there any Ports that are not Used in the comp, Does your System BIOS Support IRQ Re-Assignment, Try to Free an Used IRQ, If that is not supported then, Disable any Parellel or Serial Port that is not being used then Insert the Card and Try !!!!

And even i have heard XFI has some Issues that Creative are breaking their Head On,

 

I know there is talk on one of the other Geek boards about the Audiogy having problems, due to the new driver issues.

 

Try out Re-assigning an IRQ in the BIOS, Since your problem I Feel is not abt the drivers becoz the system is not Posting , that means that the Drivers is still not Loaded. I feel its with the Hardware Level, Wat you feel Major & Brownizs???

 

If not posting, then possibly the Power Supply is being overloaded to keep it from booting. How many watts is it?

 

Thanks for all the advice guys.

After doing a lot more research I found other people with the same problem. Most suggested "flashing my bios" After doing this (which was kinda scary since i don't have much experience with pcs) it seemed to fix the problem and everything is working fine now.

I should have updated my bios first thing when I built my pc but it was one of the few things that I didn't update

Oh and by the way I have a 450w power supply and I am running a geforce 7800gt. Should i consider getting a bigger power supply?

 

If i were you i would stay with that soundblaster 5.1 (i got a soundblaster live 5.1 in my machine and i have no problems playing games with it),
Also i have heard that most people have had problems with the xfi card.