I will share what happens with the R2 using this thread, but it may take a while to see what happens in terms of whether or not the chipset still drops out randomly.
Sound Blaster X-Fi has received the prestigious THX Multimedia Certification award, making it the perfect choice for PC audiophiles seeking the very best music and movie experiences. View online or download Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi User Manual, Installation Manual.
We dont know when Creative decided to install memory on sound cards, but it was done in a strange fashion: X-RAM. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Pdf User Manuals. Its not for MIDI samples, but for storing and caching sounds in games.
I am going to buy this software to see if somehow it has drivers that make the R2 work better. As you may remember, top X-Fi, Fata1ity and Elite Pro models are equipped with 64 MB of on-board X-RAM memory. Includes Internal sound cards & External (USB) sound cards for the best audio and gaming exper. A wide range of Z-series, Recon3D series, Sound BlasterAxx series & X-Fi series are available.
A convenient volume control knob, headphone and microphone inputs for a headset are also close at hand. Easy to install, it replaces low quality on-board audio with high quality connectivity options. Enjoy incredible 3D Surround with any headphones in movies and games, and enhance all of your PC and online audio. Designed for maximum portability, this soundcard is small enough to fit into your pocket and even fits on your key ring. I have noticed that using standard Windows audio drivers the audio chipset seems to behave better than it does using Creative's drivers. Sound Blaster sound cards for PC gaming and entertainment audio. Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro turns your PC or notebook into a 5.1 entertainment system, featuring SBX Pro Studio technology. Creatives Sound Blaster X-Fi Go Pro brings incredible enhanced 3D audio to any computer, anywhere. The SoundBlaster Recond3Di does deliver very respectable sound on the R2, and the SoundBlaster Control Panel adds enough useful features that it's nice to have even though many of the features do not add value. Putting the laptop to sleep, waiting about 10 seconds, then resuming from sleep has restore function 100% of the time for me. This is my second M18xR2 mobo that has the same issue. It can be some system latency issue, a bad sound driver, a video driver, Wi-Fi connections, etc. Unfortunately, there is no 'one fix' for the problem. I sometimes goes for weeks without malfunctioning and sudden decides to disappear several times, then starts working again. Assuming the SoundBlaster sound card is OK, there are many reports, here and other forums, of Popping and Crackling in Windows 7 systems (and some on Win 8 systems).