Two bothersome issues appeared during use.
Two bothersome issues appeared during use.
You're dealing with two issues in Windows 10. For the first, CPU usage is high because Soundblaster x-fi is consuming resources. The best fix is to stop the program entirely instead of trying to restart it. For the second problem, when exiting GMOD from non-windowed mode or using Alt-Tab, Explorer freezes and restarts won't always help.
I wasn't able to get the drivers to function for my brother's X-Fi (the original one on PCI), unfortunately. He's already installed. I hope you have a better chance next time. I've been using my old X-Fi with Daniel K drivers, which performed much better than the Creative versions.
Additionally, the setup lacks certain features, and it seems the blame is often shifted to Windows. While Creative has the issues, switching to an ASUS Essence STX helped, along with alternative drivers. Compared to Creative, ASUS drivers perform better initially, but I believe a dedicated DAC/AMP unit would be ideal moving forward, given the increasing competition and market growth in this area.