SoundBlaster ZxR, Windows 10 Issues.

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by TheDeeGee, Nov 24, 2016.

  1. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    Since Windows 10 my ZxR been acting up from time to time.

    Sometimes after a cold boot there is no sound, even though the ZxR is recognized and you can see the volume indication moving up and down when playing sound.

    I then have to reboot to fix it.

    I'm using the latest Driver available from the Creative site, which is 1.01.01.

    Anyone familiar with this?
     
  2. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    I guess this piece of garbage is going out of the window next Motherboard Upgrade then.
     
  3. CPC_RedDawn

    CPC_RedDawn Ancient Guru

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    Im sure there a community made driver version that solves 99% of the issues.

    I remember when I used my old Sound Blaster Z card that the drivers from creative were a bit hit a miss.

    Maybe someone else on here can point you into the direction of those as I honestly can't remember what they were called.

    EDIT:

    Found them

    its the PAX drivers

    http://www.hardwareheaven.com/community/forums/pax-drivers.174/
     
  4. Truder

    Truder Ancient Guru

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    This is a bug I've found with Windows 10, it's happened to me with my SB Z, my X-Fi and when I use my GPU's audio through HDMI. It's also happened on my laptop which doesn't use a creative device.

    I'm not sure what causes this issue, but it's not been happening to me for a while now so perhaps one of the windows updates fixed it but I think it's related to having multiple audio devices and windows forgets which one it should be using but here are some of the workarounds I used.

    1. Disable all other sound devices (onboard sound, usb adapters, gpu sound hardware, webcams etc).

    2. Ensure in sound and audio devices (old control panel), you've set up speakers and set up your defaults (I've also had windows randomly change it's default recording device randomly).

    3. Use windows built in trouble shooter - it sometimes gets windows to recognise the hardware

    4. Rather than rebooting, go into device manager, find your device and disable it and re-enable it.

    If these suggestions don't help workaround the issue, I guess it means using alternative driver packs. You could use the PAX drivers CPC_Redsawn suggested, or try clean installing your drivers etc but otherwise I'm not sure how to fix it (it's one of the most frustrating things that happens in Windows 10).
     

  5. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    I recently done a complete reinstall of Win 10, so i guess it could be multiple Audio Devices... which would be the one from my Videocard. Since Windows automaticly installs those.

    Ive disabled that now, see if that makes any difference the coming weeks.

    And it is indeed Windows 10 related, cuz this never happend when i used Windows 7.

    Thanks for the suggestions so far, and i'm glad it's not just me.
     
  6. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    I had something similar happen to me with xfi titanium hd @win8, the fix was -when it happened, to go to device manager disable and enbale it back..

    When you do it try putting it in sleep and check if it still works.. maybe it will stick now.
     
  7. Octopuss

    Octopuss Guest

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    PAX drivers is snake oil at best. I don't even understand how could it have its thread here which is even stickied.
     
  8. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    I figured, it's why i havn't bothered to install them.

    The one for the ZxR only has some openAL tweaks it seems.
     
  9. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    So far it's all working fine after disabling the High Definition Sound in Device Manager.
     
  10. noidin

    noidin Guest

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    Have new drivers for SBZ to june 2016 or only software? someone using this ?

    "Release date : 24 Jun 16
    This download contains the software(s) and application(s) for Sound BlasterĀ® Z-Series. For more details, read the rest of this Web release note."
     

  11. FatBoyNL

    FatBoyNL Ancient Guru

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    Unfortunately, those drivers are only intended for SoundBlaster Z and Zx.
    ZxR has it's own driver set, which hasn't been updated for over a year now :(
     
  12. noidin

    noidin Guest

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    Someone have a good preset EQ for listen music? my fone is a hd598 but i dont find a good config for me!!
     
  13. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    It's all personal preference, but this is what i use for my AKG K601.

    http://imgur.com/a/1I89t
     
  14. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    Well still working so far, so it must have been the Audio Device of the Videocard causing it.

    Glad it's solved ^^
     
  15. cyclone3d

    cyclone3d Master Guru

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    Glad you got it sorted.

    I was having issues with my ZxR when I first got it where it would not always show up on a cold boot.

    Moving it to a different PCIe slot fixed it for me.

    Could be that the PCIe slot you have the ZxR in is using the same IRQ as the audio for the video card.
     

  16. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    Ye i'm familiar with the issue as well.

    Though for me that happend when i switched the card to another slot, basicly have to boot without it first, and then move it to the new slot.
     
  17. Ieppo

    Ieppo Member

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    How come? I've been using those zxr pax drivers for sometime now and i haven't had any problems since.
     
  18. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    The pax drivers tend to work for those who have problems with creative original drivers. That's mainly what makes them great that they work for those when the original don't.

    In the past with older creative products, the normal drivers used to give me problems as well and pax drivers fixes the issue and work. Even I know you can't just make an file and add words to it and call it an tweak but that not the reason why I fall back on his drivers. It's when the original's don't work his tend to work. I use his before I use the one Daniel_K modded since Daniel's also tend to muck up my system when ever I tried to use his modded drivers to fix issues.

    Luckily so far My ZXR haven't gave me any windows 10 issues to the point where I have to switch to pax drivers.

    the only thing pax tend to really mess with is the bass when he changes the default bass EQ, which i wish he stops.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2017
  19. Passus

    Passus Ancient Guru

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    Use Daniel_K's drivers, I use them for a ZS i have in my win 10 PC and they are great
     
  20. noidin

    noidin Guest

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    Have new drivers for windows 10, someone test it, and what change? ? i install here and work fine ...
     

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