Sound Blaster Z slow Control Panel

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by Abilio_KID, Aug 10, 2013.

  1. Abilio_KID

    Abilio_KID Master Guru

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    Just got this little piece of hardware to replace my old Audigy 1. It's not that I needed it, but was fed up with having small issues with swapping between speakers and headphones.
    Basically, I have an old Creative Labs FPS 1600 (4 speakers and 1 subwoofer) that I use with Window$ 7 x64. As most of you know, Creative Labs hasn't made any good driver for this OS and the Audigy. I had to use some known driver pack to kinda fix it. It didn't fix all. Mic was all weird (used the onboard instead) and I had to mess with CMSS-3D and speaker configuration to make it sound as I wanted.

    Times have changed and I got fed up, I decided to go for the SB Z. I put it on a PCI-e x8 (one of the GPU that my x58 has), since the 1x was being blocked by the GFX card, and it installed fine.

    The problem: SBX control panel takes ages to show up or to change tabs. It's a pain as I have to swap from speakers to headphones and I want it to be quick. Does anyone know a fix for this issue? I only found this problem in Creative Labs forum but nobody gave a solution yet.

    About the card... well, installation is a lot simpler, sound is crisper (or it looks like it is) but the surround isn't quite the same. Maybe I need to get used to it or something. Also, you may know it too, the mic is to quiet and the headphone is way too loud... Oh well.

    Thanks if anyone can help me out on this CPL thingy.
     
  2. Corvus.Corax

    Corvus.Corax Member

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    I encountered the same problem, when I upgraded to a AMD videocard. Just as a shot in the dark I disabled the AMD High Definition Audio Device from the device manager and that solved the problem in my case. Might be worth a try.
     
  3. Abilio_KID

    Abilio_KID Master Guru

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    Thanks Corvus.Corax. I had already tried that after searching for similar problem online. Unfortunently it doesn't change anything. Now, once in a while, it crashes too.
    I only need to access the control panel to toggle surround OFF and ON again. Yeah... sigh... need to do that or I won't hear stereo in the 4 speakers (at least not after reboot).
    Thanks anyway.
     
  4. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    Sounds like there is more wrong than with just the CP.

    It's the first thing that starts up for me.
     

  5. MaxBlade

    MaxBlade Master Guru

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    Mine does the same thing at times. If I reboot its fast but sometimes you click it and nothing then 1-5min later it pops up.
     
  6. ArgonV

    ArgonV Master Guru

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    If you have an AMD video card with built-in audio, disable ULPS in the registry. Also, in the AMD CCC Panel, disable the audio cards there for Displayport and/or HDMI. This is really a problem with how AMD cards init audio devices. It's even more of an issue if you run CrossfireX, because the second card will go into ULPS and it takes a while to reinit the audio devices on that card when you go into an audio control panel (Either Window's or Creative's).
     
  7. Abilio_KID

    Abilio_KID Master Guru

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    I tried your suggestion about the ULPS, rebooted but same thing. I didn't find anything related to Displayport and/or HDMI in CCC. Maybe because I'm using a DVI to VGA adapter (monitor only has VGA, altough it's a LCD).

    Without going into any love/hate discussion about it... I bet it's the usual Creative Labs driver behaviour...
    I'll wait for a new driver version, if any, and see if it goes away.
     
  8. velocityx

    velocityx Guest

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    thx so much for a hint. CP was so slow, I'd click the icon in the bar, wait 5 secs, it shows up,

    disabled two amd hdmi, (ulps was disabled already ) and it works from the bat no reboot needed. I click it and it pops up like it should in the beginning.
     
  9. Abilio_KID

    Abilio_KID Master Guru

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    Just to keep you up to date, and it may also help somebody else, I seem to have fixed the issue (for now).
    I removed everything related to Creative Labs, including some old installation info from my Audigy, ran Driver Sweeper, CCleaner, even manually removed stuff from Windows Registry (with proper reboot in the middle). After all this, I installed the SoundBlaster Z without the EXTRAS and it's not slow anymore.
    For the record, I can enable AMD HDMI audio (not that I need it anyway) and I don't get any problem.

    As always with Creative Labs, I hope things don't get messed again... For now it's all working as should.
     
  10. valentyn0

    valentyn0 Member Guru

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    Sorry for necroing but I have the same issue and this thread seems to adress it.

    Unfortunately I dont have AMD card to disable those hdmi audio so it wont work for me.

    I already disabled nvidia HD audio controller, cleaned with driver sweeper everything related to creative labs, even uninstalled all drivers related to nvidia then proceeded first with creative drivers (heard some guy had this fixed this way) but to no AVAIL.

    Seems Im stuck :-/

    Any hints im missing?
     

  11. Divergence19

    Divergence19 Guest

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    Registered here only to help other guys to resolve the issue. It is contrintuitive! The lag is caused by Color scheme (profile)! Just change the color profile to default sRGB IEC61966-2.1 and your control panel will start working like a flash! It may require fix on the GPU driver side if you use AMD. I found the instruction on YouTube for another Creative sound card. Bless this guy.
     

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