I recently started having an issue with my X-Fi's CMSS-3D. Whenever it was enabled, WMP would not play any music, and Vista would return this error whenever I opened the Sound control panel:
Windows has detected that audio enhancements for the following device are causing problems:
Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Would you like to disable Driver Enhancements for this device?

Clicking yes would disable CMSS-3D as well as other enhancements of the card, and allow WMP to work again, clicking no, WMP would fail to play anything and the error would continue.

A very smart person on the Creative Labs tech support forum named Alcatr4zz found the problem.

Whatever Vize/XPize patches in Shell32.dll causes the problem. As soon as shell32.dll is unpatched (leaving every other file patched), the issue goes away.

I am posting this in hopes that the developers can find a workaround for this issue.

Thanks!

--Matt

Guess what... I have started getting the same problem. I did a clean install of my vista 32bit ultimate, and even installed the latest BETA drivers to see any change, but no luck.

btw thanks for your info, my shell32 is patched, and now i know why i could not play anything on wmp11, all this time i thought it was a codec pack problem.

Another problem i noticed is that the X-FI CMSS 3D does not work, even if i dont disable the feature. My speaker setup is 6.1, but changing settings to stereo expand or surround does not has any effect on my 6.1 speaker setup, but it use to before.

Yes, even if you don't disable enhancement's it still won't work, you have to unpatch Shell32.dll, then go into Sound, then double click the Speakers. Goto Sound Blaster tab and uncheck "Disable Enhancments". Then make sure CMSS-3D etc. are enabled in Creative's Audio Panel.

Feel free to ask any questions an I'll see what I can do.

--Matt

Thanks, i will unpatch my shell32.dll to see if it works. Btw i patched shell32.dll using restorator 2007 (resource modifiyer), not Vize
Will let you know.
Thank you

Hey matt, Thanx so much, it worked. Looks like i have to live with boring old win98's icons in shell32.dll, but i prefer my sound features working.

Hopefully somebody will come up a fix, so we can have new icons in shell32, and also the top shell.

btw if you do find a fix or something plz let me know or PM me, so i can patch shell32 again

Thank you

I did E-Mail the Vize team devs, so maybe they can come up with a solution or a workaround. All we need to do is figure out which change causes windows to hiccup.
But as stated earlier, i'd rather have the CMSS-3D then the fancier icons.
--Matt