Vista - Low level sound out of Vista

I just upgraded to Vista U x64 and am having sound problems. I have a prelude x-fi sound card but the sound coming out of it is extremely low. I have maxed out every thing I can max (control panel sound, creative panel) and the sound level is whisper quiet. I have also upgraded all my drivers except the prelude's, I would but their website isn't offering those drivers at the moment. But the drivers supplied with the card are vista certified so I should get something. But my mobo, etc is all updated. I have been searching for a solution for two days to no avail. Anyone have some suggestions, or even know what the problem could be? Vista, mobo, sound card?

My rig
Intel E8400 3.0
EVGA 780i mobo
EVGA 9800 GX2
Auzen Prelude X-fi
4gig Corsair Dom Ram 6400
Seagate Baracuda 750g 7200
Antec 1000w
Antec 900

What kind of speakers are you using? Are they working fine if they are amplified/powered?

Headphones, Sennheiser pc350 150ohms. They work fine. My laptop and ipod can power them the prelude should be able to.

First pull 2GB of RAM (older X-Fi drivers had problems with 4GB of RAM, Vista x64 and nvidia chipsets). If that doesn't do it, I would uninstall the drivers, pull the card and reinstall in another slot. Reinstall the drivers you have if necessary (it may pick then up automatically). Try them with a set of speakers if you can. These steps should rule out interrupt conflicts, bad card seat and card to speaker connection (the simple stuff).

If none of these steps work, I would wait for the new drivers before I call up their support. I have a copy of the new drivers and can work with you to get you a copy.

I have the same mobo (XFX and eVGA are both nvidia reference 780) with an X-Fi Prelude with 8GB of PC2-6400 RAM, same power supply and case. It works fine with both speakers and powered headphones so there is no reason we shouldn't be able to get it to work.

Pulled out 2gb, no change. Changed the pci slot it was in and reseated the card. No change there. Auzen finally got back to me and sent a drivers link to DL. The version they sent is 6.0.1.1281. Reinstalled with these drivers. The sound is a bit more clear and the volume is a tiny bit louder, but it is still way to quiet for use. I don't have any speakers to try out, my home audio system has open wire ends, not capped. I did try different sets of headphones though to no avail. The mike input in non-responsive, and I noticed I didn't get any sound out of the other jacks except full. There are no conflicts listed in the hardware manager, and it says the device is working properly.

At this point I am wondering if it's not the pci slots on my mobo, but it would be strange that both would be messed up. I read another thread on creative that suggested bumping up the pci slot voltage in my bios.

At this point I guess I wait for new drivers. Doesn't seem like there is much more I can do. Unless those drivers they sent are old and do not match the version you have. I am pretty much stuck.

I'd call Auzen to RMA your card. Same problems with different slots, drivers and output devices? If your onboard sound works fine with the headphones, I'd RMA that bad boy.

And those are the drivers I have.

Can I ask what Key board you are using?

A lot of the multi media/multi function ones come with a volume control....

Logitech Cordless Elite Keyboard. But they don't have vista drivers for it, so it is using basic vista supported drivers. The volume control doesn't work on it. If it did, it would effect the volume on the on-board sound card.

It was worth checking.... my logitech cheapy multifunction kb didn;t have drivers either but the volume and various other buttons worked anyway with the basic driver.