Installing Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB on Windows Server 2016.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB on Windows Server 2016 OS? Will it work on a server box? (It works on Windows Server 2008 R2. Check out the post here.)

After some testing, I manage to get it running on the Windows Server 2016 OS on a HPE ML310eGen8 v2 server box.

There’s no driver specifically meant for Windows Sever 2016. You will need to use the Windows 10 driver instead. However, I found that the latest drivers (2018-Sep) when run, will prompt an error message saying something like the OS is not supported and refuse to continue.

Even without installing any drivers, once you plug the Sound Blaster into the USB port, Windows Server 2016 will detect and install the generic sound card driver for it.

Although the OS is able to work with the sound card, but without the other accompanying software like “Entertainment Console”, you will not be able to make use of the full capability of the sound card.

I wanted to install the driver from the driver CD that came with the sound card, however, I could not locate my CD. I had no choice but to look for the drivers that I have archived on my hard disk and I found “XFXA_PCDRV_L11_1_02_0062.exe” (Release date : 25 Aug 15 Windows 10 driver). This driver is no longer available on Creative support page. If you have the driver CD, try that first.

This particular driver however does not allow you to pick and choose the individual software components. It forces you to perform a Full Installation.

Sound Card detection is successful with this particular driver version.

After the installation have completed and rebooted, the installation is complete. The sound card will be detected and driver will be changed to the one you installed.

Hope this is helpful to someone out there.

Oh, if you are thinking of getting this sound card, you can check out the price here:

Just click on the picture below to check the pricing on Amazon.