# Soundblaster Z crackling sound



## Laurijan (Sep 4, 2018)

Hi!

I recently bought a Soundblaster Z (PCI-e) soundcard and get occational stuttering with it and crackling noise. 
I use spdif optical cable and DTS sound.
The problem got worse when i suspected my old logitech z-5450 speaker system to be the cause and updated it to a logitech z-906 system.
The z-906 speaker works like a charm in all cases exept when i use them with the soundblaster Z.
Disabling Nvidia HDMI audio and onboard soundcard and moving the soundblaster to another slot didnt help.
On the internet there are alot of posts about similar issues so dont really suspect the card is faulty.
Any tips what to try next?

Lauri


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## Jetster (Sep 4, 2018)

Well if you onboard sound works fine, and the HDMI sound works fine, then you have a bad card

How does it sound without using Optical? Using just analog


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 4, 2018)

Jetster said:


> Well if you onboard sound works fine, and the HDMI sound works fine, then you have a bad card
> 
> How does it sound without using Optical? Using just analog



Card is shot, get those Brand New or not at all.


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## hat (Sep 4, 2018)

If your windows volume is set to 100%, try a lower value, like 50%. It might be a weird clipping issue, had that with my Xonar DG. If not... it's really weird that you're having issues with digital audio... it may well be a problem with the card.


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## Laurijan (Sep 4, 2018)

Ok will try lowering volume to 50% and will also try to install PAX alternative drivers


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## 95Viper (Sep 4, 2018)

Check that your TOSlink cable and connections are clean and properly seated?


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## Laurijan (Sep 4, 2018)

ok with volume 50% i had no troubles anymore. cables are seated right, that should be no problem. I hope the problems are over with 50% volume. I made the xp that after a driver reinstall it works a while and then goes havoc.

Edit: last time i had problems there were like 3-4 high pitched cracks in the sound.


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## Vayra86 (Sep 4, 2018)

Sounds like postponing the inevitable. Card's still not good anymore...


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## Laurijan (Sep 4, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> Sounds like postponing the inevitable. Card's still not good anymore...



There are too many posts about similar issues that i dont think the card is faulty. Although i bought it as a warehouse deal on amazon (second hand, returned item) so one never knows..


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 4, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> Sounds like postponing the inevitable. Card's still not good anymore...


That is an opinion not supported by the stated circumstances.


Laurijan said:


> There are too many posts about similar issues that i dont think the card is faulty. Although i bought it as a warehouse deal on amazon (second hand, returned item) so one never knows..


Your card is fine. This is a problem that is encountered because of the way Windows improperly handles preamplification in software before the hardware processes the sound. While turning the volume down will work fine, the Windows software problem needed to be addressed. Microsoft has patched that problem for Windows 7 and up. The latest driver update from Creative I believe also solves that problem. So if you were installing drivers from the disc, grab the latest ones from Creative's site and you should be good to go at any volume setting.


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## Laurijan (Sep 8, 2018)

Update:
For a couple of days 50% volume in windows worked but then again it started crackling occationally.
Latest windows 10 with updates installed and latest soundblaster Z driver.
Pax alternative driver i am unable to install for some reason so i might just return the soundcard to get another one..

Edit: Was able to install Pax alternative driver. will test a bit and then return the card if it does not help


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## Laurijan (Sep 9, 2018)

PAX driver did work for like 1 day before crackling started again. Amazon RMA next.


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## hat (Sep 9, 2018)

Sounds like something very strange is going on... you find a solution that works for a little while and then it doesn't. Hopefully the RMA works out for you...


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 10, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> PAX driver did work for like 1 day before crackling started again. Amazon RMA next.


There could be a capacitor failing on the card. Might be a good idea to send it back.


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## Laurijan (Sep 21, 2018)

Today i´m gonna get the brand new soundblaster z. old one i send back for complete refund. I hope the new one works or i will have to sort out where the interference is coming from


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 21, 2018)

We'll be here to help where-ever we can. This is an interesting problem.


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## speedy77 (Sep 22, 2018)

Chiming in as a person with similar issues. I've had an X-Fi Elite Pro for the past 10 years or so and recently reinstalled Windows.  I instantly had the problems you're describing, so I had assumed it was an issue with the card (I had been using my custom drivers to get it to work properly on Windows 10 without any luck and had assumed it was just now defunct).  I decided to order the ZXR as it was the most suitable modern equivalent, and wouldn't you know it I had the EXACT same issues.  I'm now also sitting with a ZXR that I cannot use due to the driver issues that Creative has.  I've noticed that rolling back to older drivers has improved the issue, but it still persists unfortunately.  I'll be sure to post if I come up with a solution!


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## jsalpha2 (Sep 22, 2018)

I don't know if he is still around,,,Here is link to where I used to go when I had a soundblaster card.


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## spectatorx (Sep 22, 2018)

Unfortunately this is issue caused by windows 1803 to all creative x-fi series cards. I own x-fi titanium and had exactly the same problem which is hardware independent, by hardware i mean speakers, cable, connectors, etc. Card itself most likely is ok. I own my card since 8-9 years and everything is fine, i do not have this problem on linux, i've never had it on any previous windows and even on previous builds of windows 10, it started with 1803 build and this is a reason why i downgraded back to 1709 build, last one which works fine. I wonder if 1809 will be free off this issue.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 22, 2018)

spectatorx said:


> Unfortunately this is issue caused by windows 1803 to all creative x-fi series cards. I own x-fi titanium and had exactly the same problem which is hardware independent, by hardware i mean speakers, cable, connectors, etc. Card itself most likely is ok. I own my card since 8-9 years and everything is fine, i do not have this problem on linux, i've never had it on any previous windows and even on previous builds of windows 10, it started with 1803 build and this is a reason why i downgraded back to 1709 build, last one which works fine. I wonder if 1809 will be free off this issue.



So linux, 7...


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## spectatorx (Sep 22, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> So linux, 7...


or windows 10 1709 at the moment. Also vista, xp, bsd, solarisOS... etc.


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## natr0n (Sep 22, 2018)

Cracking sounds exist since the x-fi days and still occur on new cards. There driver team can't overcome certain issues it seems all these generations.

One example that can be reproduced on my system.Just enable SVM and you will get cracking after a period of time watching youtube.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 22, 2018)

natr0n said:


> Cracking sounds exist since the x-fi days and still occur on new cards. There driver team can't overcome certain issues it seems all these generations.
> 
> One example that can be reproduced on my system.Just enable SVM and you will get cracking after a period of time watching youtube.



Never had a problem here and i had a pci512, xfi, zxr


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## spectatorx (Sep 22, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> Never had a problem here and i had a pci512, xfi, zxr


Same here. X-fi gamer in the past but only for few days and x-fi titanium since almost a decade. This is first time i ever have a problem with sound card and it is not related to hardware itself or its drivers but to specific build of OS.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 22, 2018)

spectatorx said:


> Same here. X-fi gamer in the past but only for few days and x-fi titanium since almost a decade. This is first time i ever have a problem with sound card and it is not related to hardware itself or its drivers but to specific build of OS.



Part of reason I wont upgrade the OS.

MS were smart theyed drop the windows as a service model


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## speedy77 (Sep 22, 2018)

Anybody have any luck with the latest insider builds? This is my next step when I get enough energy to try another build tomorrow

Installed the latest insider version with no luck, but also did a clean install of 1703 and had the same problem. Going to try 1607 now but it’s not looking spectacular. Hopefully it’s not some strange MOBO compatibility problem


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 23, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> Never had a problem here and i had a pci512, xfi, zxr


Same here as well. I've haven't experienced anything like this problem. As long as the proper drivers were properly installed, things have been smooth sailing.


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## Athlonite (Sep 23, 2018)

Windows build 1803 here and Daniel K drivers on an X-Fi Fatality Pro and no problems so I'm betting it's the version of drivers your trying to use just google Daniel K and download the driver you need for the sound card you have

http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2017/01/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-40.html


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## natr0n (Sep 23, 2018)

Athlonite said:


> Windows build 1803 here and Daniel K drivers on an X-Fi Fatality Pro and no problems so I'm betting it's the version of drivers your trying to use just google Daniel K and download the driver you need for the sound card you have
> 
> http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2017/01/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-40.html


Those are my go to drivers. Dan K is a hero.


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Same here as well. I've experienced anything like this problem. As long as the proper drivers were properly installed, things have been smooth sailing.



Same here. Not had any issues since migrating to windows 10


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 23, 2018)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Same here. Not had any issues since migrating to windows 10


Actually, I haven't had any serious Soundblaster driver issues since the early Windows XP days.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 23, 2018)

Athlonite said:


> Windows build 1803 here and Daniel K drivers on an X-Fi Fatality Pro and no problems so I'm betting it's the version of drivers your trying to use just google Daniel K and download the driver you need for the sound card you have
> 
> http://danielkawakami.blogspot.com/2017/01/sb-x-fi-series-support-pack-40.html


Now I haven’t used Daniels drivers since I had an X-Fi and swore by them but does he even do a set for the “Z” range?


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## Laurijan (Sep 23, 2018)

So yesterday while streaming with an VPN and having so having a slower connection i got this crackling again every time the connection was not perfect. It seems like my soundcard in DTS mode amplifies streaming connection inperfections and is crackling this way. Without VPN, streaming youtube and such have not done the same.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 23, 2018)

INSTG8R said:


> but does he even do a set for the “Z” range?


No that I have seen. Just goes up as high as the X-Fi range.


Laurijan said:


> So yesterday while streaming with an VPN and having so having a slower connection i got this crackling again every time the connection was not perfect. It seems like my soundcard in DTS mode amplifies streaming connection inperfections and is crackling this way. Without VPN, streaming youtube and such have not done the same.


This seems more like a codec issue than that of a driver/hardware issue or even VPN problem. Have you tried something other than DTS?


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## Laurijan (Sep 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> No that I have seen. Just goes up as high as the X-Fi range.
> 
> This seems more like a codec issue than that of a driver/hardware issue or even VPN problem. Have you tried something other than DTS?



Tried 2.1 sound too and with that the connection errors were sounding normal and not as over the top crackling like with DTS on


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## INSTG8R (Sep 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> No that I have seen. Just goes up as high as the X-Fi range.


Yeah that's what I thought. That said I also have had zero issues with my ZX


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## FreedomEclipse (Sep 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Actually, I haven't had any serious Soundblaster driver issues since the early Windows XP days.



Last time i had issues was when a XFi Titanium was dying. apart from that, everything was fine. I found Asus Xonar cards to be a lot more buggy when it came to games.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 23, 2018)

Crackling sound is HW issue in 90% cases with sound cards. Since I kinda collect and dissect them a lot. I had most of them. Crackling is latency issues due to some fault, mostly HW or HW conflict. If you don't hear it doesn't mean it is not there. The budget time is exceeded on some processes, or the driver is not compatible with latest WIN10 builds. Mostly none of them are.

Microsoft does humongous audio stack changes, and the time has ended for certain hardware to patch it through, as it needs new HW, it cannot be patched even. Software codec doesn't care.

Lately the only robust way of getting audio from PC is using HDMI. Then you can split of the data as you wish. I2S or DSD. Keep in mind that folks. USB also isn't the savior due to the same BAD driver reason and the fundamental architecture how it even works. Video signal with Audio is highest priority thread and it should go hand in hand like bullets, patching other ways through... nada Microsoft doesn't want it even really. The integrated sound does have direct HDA audio bus coming straight from the South Bridge, you cannot hook up your creative or xonar there, actually if you could, it would solve a shitload of driver problems.


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## hat (Sep 23, 2018)

How you gonna get HDMI audio without home theater equipment? Don't you need a receiver (which is also compatible with whatever resolution/refresh rate your monitor is)?


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## rtwjunkie (Sep 23, 2018)

hat said:


> How you gonna get HDMI audio without home theater equipment? Don't you need a receiver (which is also compatible with whatever resolution/refresh rate your monitor is)?


Simply run an hdmi cable from htpc to tv is how I get my hdmi audio.


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## hat (Sep 23, 2018)

That works, if you're either okay with using the usually crappy TV speakers or if your TV has an optical out or something... but it's certainly an obstacle for any gaming computer. You still need a receiver that plays nice with your monitor (if you have >1080p60, you're eternally waiting on expensive receivers that support what you want) and then hook up whatever speakers you want to your receiver. My problem with this is having to find and purchase a specific (and expensive) receiver that meets or is superior to your monitor's resolution and refresh rate. Analog was easy. I once happened across a cd/*cassette* player (with AM/FM radio) that looked like it probably came from the late 80s. It had a single auxiliary stereo input which I connected to my PC. Worked great until the broken speaker I repaired broke again and I decided it was no longer worth messing around with...


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 24, 2018)

There are splitter devices as I said to I2s of DSD or even DACs accepting HDMI...


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## hat (Sep 24, 2018)

What/where are these devices you speak of? This is the first I've heard of it. Sounds like it would be great for HDMI audio.


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 24, 2018)

hat said:


> What/where are these devices you speak of? This is the first I've heard of it. Sounds like it would be great for HDMI audio.



NAD M51 for example as a consumer device. It is old thou, there are already XMOS based modules that does HDMI input.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 24, 2018)

hat said:


> How you gonna get HDMI audio without home theater equipment? Don't you need a receiver (which is also compatible with whatever resolution/refresh rate your monitor is)?


Most TV's/Displays have an audio out that can be hooked up to your speakers of choice. Basically the display acts as an audio pass-through.


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## Agility (Sep 24, 2018)

It seems you are not the only one with the same issue. I am currently running a Z370 Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 which comes with an Onboard x-fi card. I seem to have occasional crackling sound appearing. And it is definitely not my speaker issue cause i re-ran the same music twice and the crackling sounds appeared at two different timings.

One thing that worked temporarily for me was when i re-installed the driver and ran my computer for the first time. Subsequently after shutting down and then switching it on again, the same issue repeats.

On doing google search i can hardly find any solutions.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 24, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Actually, I haven't had any serious Soundblaster driver issues since the early Windows XP days.



Windows 98SE



Agility said:


> It seems you are not the only one with the same issue. I am currently running a Z370 Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 which comes with an Onboard x-fi card. I seem to have occasional crackling sound appearing. And it is definitely not my speaker issue cause i re-ran the same music twice and the crackling sounds appeared at two different timings.
> 
> One thing that worked temporarily for me was when i re-installed the driver and ran my computer for the first time. Subsequently after shutting down and then switching it on again, the same issue repeats.
> 
> On doing google search i can hardly find any solutions.



Try the card in another machine, if problem stops your motherboard or PSU, speakers could be defective.


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## hat (Sep 24, 2018)

He said it has onboard x-fi... good luck taking that "card" to another machine


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## spectatorx (Sep 24, 2018)

I have to repeat it: in case of windows 10 problem is caused by latest build: 1803, if this is what you have installed then you have temporarily to roll back to 1709. That's what i did and sound distortion stopped. I'm curious how next build will perform with x-fi soundcards.


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## Red_Machine (Sep 26, 2018)

I've had problems similar to this with my last three Sound Blaster cards.  X-Fi, Audigy Rx, Z.  The only way I found to fix it was to clean out the drivers and reinstall them from scratch.  That would stop any issues for several months, but they'd always come back again.  Creative's drivers really suck.


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## EsaT (Sep 26, 2018)

Ferrum Master said:


> Crackling sound is HW issue in 90% cases with sound cards. Since I kinda collect and dissect them a lot. I had most of them. Crackling is latency issues due to some fault, mostly HW or HW conflict. If you don't hear it doesn't mean it is not there. The budget time is exceeded on some processes, or the driver is not compatible with latest WIN10 builds. Mostly none of them are.


For any suspicision of latency issues DPC latency should be checked first instead of always blaming single thing.
Whole lot of other stuff which can be the culprit instead of sound card.
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon


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## Ferrum Master (Sep 26, 2018)

EsaT said:


> For any suspicision of latency issues DPC latency should be checked first instead of always blaming single thing.
> Whole lot of other stuff which can be the culprit instead of sound card.
> http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon



Did you read actually the thread, including how many builds did he try? What he will see there now? On average it will show the same obvious things as it works fine.

The only real debugging could happen with trying the card in an another PC.


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## Boombastik (Sep 26, 2018)

Disable the cpu package support in bios and it will be fixed.


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## speedy77 (Sep 29, 2018)

I can’t find anything about “cpu package support” even by Googling it. Do you mean your onboard audio drivers on the motherboard? I’ve turned this off, still with no luck.


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## Boombastik (Sep 29, 2018)




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## eidairaman1 (Sep 29, 2018)

Red_Machine said:


> I've had problems similar to this with my last three Sound Blaster cards.  X-Fi, Audigy Rx, Z.  The only way I found to fix it was to clean out the drivers and reinstall them from scratch.  That would stop any issues for several months, but they'd always come back again.  Creative's drivers really suck.



Was this all in the same motherboard with same power supply and was onboard audio enabled were you using the same speakers across all those cards?

Because I've never had a problem with any of their drivers and I had a PCI 512, xfi and zxr


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## natr0n (Sep 29, 2018)

Here is one some may remember. Many moons ago nvidia chipset boards nforce 2/3 with 4 gb ram and creative card would have all sorts of issues and cracking sounds.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 29, 2018)

natr0n said:


> Here is one some may remember. Many moons ago nvidia chipset boards nforce 2/3 with 4 gb ram and creative card would have all sorts of issues and cracking sounds.



My board was nf2, only trislot.


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## speedy77 (Sep 29, 2018)

Yeah not seeing that option in my BIOS, and honestly it seems like a strange setting to switch off to improve the issue. Do you have any reasoning to turn it off or is it just a guess?

I'm guessing more than likely it's the Creative drivers interfering with some piece of hardware and/or driver on our systems. There's no reason that both my Elite Pro and ZXR aren't working unless they're both dead (which I find unlikely). If I were to guess different drivers are updating within the system at different times, causing some sort of conflict with the Creative drivers, which makes the sound card stop working after a few months just to be fixed once the appropriate driver is installed. Not sure what I can do besides carefully nurse the issue until they come out with new drivers or I can figure out what it's conflicting with. Super dumb if you ask me, and at this point I'm not sure if I'll be buying Creative again unfortunately.


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## spectatorx (Oct 3, 2018)

1809 released, i'm going to install it on friday and after few days of testing i will let know if problem still exists like it was on 1803.


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## Regeneration (Oct 3, 2018)

Try to use the latest official driver from Creative's website (blacklist the deviceid so Windows 10 won't update the driver automatically), disable C-States and try to plug the card to another PCIe slot (it should work on PCIe X16 slots). And last but not least, ensure the card isn't sharing IRQ with another major device (run devmgmt.msc > view > resources by connection).


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## spectatorx (Oct 3, 2018)

Regeneration said:


> Try to use the latest official driver from Creative's website (blacklist the deviceid so Windows 10 won't update the driver automatically), disable C-States and try to plug the card to another PCIe slot (it should work on PCIe X16 slots). And last but not least, ensure the card isn't sharing IRQ with another major device (run devmgmt.msc > view > resources by connection).


Haven't seen you in years, man, where have you been? Pls pm me, i have few questions to you.


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## saikamaldoss (Oct 4, 2018)

Regeneration said:


> Try to use the latest official driver from Creative's website (blacklist the deviceid so Windows 10 won't update the driver automatically), disable C-States and try to plug the card to another PCIe slot (it should work on PCIe X16 slots). And last but not least, ensure the card isn't sharing IRQ with another major device (run devmgmt.msc > view > resources by connection).



Oh my god.. you are alive... happy to see a post from you man.


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## speedy77 (Oct 4, 2018)

Thanks for the reply Regeneration, super solid advice. Unfortunately I tried all of the above advice with no luck except blacklisting the deviceid as when I googled how to do it I couldn't find anything using that particular phrasing. Do you have a tutorial you could point me towards? The Windows auto-installed drivers may in fact be the issue.


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## Regeneration (Oct 4, 2018)

speedy77 said:


> Thanks for the reply Regeneration, super solid advice. Unfortunately I tried all of the above advice with no luck except blacklisting the deviceid as when I googled how to do it I couldn't find anything using that particular phrasing. Do you have a tutorial you could point me towards? The Windows auto-installed drivers may in fact be the issue.



You can download Microsoft's show or hide updates tool here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f22d5fdb-59cd-4275-8c95-1be17bf70b21/wushowhide.diagcab

And if you have Windows 10 Pro, you can do it from the group policy editor (run > gpedit.msc).



spectatorx said:


> Haven't seen you in years, man, where have you been? Pls pm me, i have few questions to you.





saikamaldoss said:


> Oh my god.. you are alive... happy to see a post from you man.



Good to hear from you. I've been busy at work, life, dealing with terrorists, sport injuries, crazy girlfriends, crazy neighbors (don't know why, but I always attract the mentally ill) and time to time, beating cheaters on PUBG and trolling them by pretending to be a Chinese cheater.


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## spectatorx (Oct 4, 2018)

Regeneration said:


> You can download Microsoft's show or hide updates tool here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f22d5fdb-59cd-4275-8c95-1be17bf70b21/wushowhide.diagcab
> 
> And if you have Windows 10 Pro, you can do it from the group policy editor (run > gpedit.msc).
> 
> ...


I would love to talk to you in private mostly about things related to ngohq.com but not only this, pls pm me here or mail or at steam where i'm using same username as here.


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## saikamaldoss (Oct 4, 2018)

Regeneration said:


> You can download Microsoft's show or hide updates tool here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f22d5fdb-59cd-4275-8c95-1be17bf70b21/wushowhide.diagcab
> 
> And if you have Windows 10 Pro, you can do it from the group policy editor (run > gpedit.msc).
> 
> ...



Same here my friend. Anyway. It’s so nice to catch you here. 

Chinese cheater ? Lol nice


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## Laurijan (Oct 5, 2018)

Ok with new soundblaster Z its a little better with the crackling. i only get crackling now when i stream something, videos and music when the connection is not perfect. So using a slow VPN makes it next to impossible to use the soundcard. most times with spotify and youtube without vpn i have no problems.


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## spectatorx (Oct 5, 2018)

I'm after fresh install of windows 10 1809, listening to music since few hours and no issues, no crackling, no distortions, etc. Seems like this build is free off this issue. In few days i will report again if nothing has changed. Anyway so far so good.


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## spectatorx (Oct 8, 2018)

Few days have passed and so far i haven't heard a single crackling nor distortion in audio and that is with 1809 and a regular driver for my x-fi titanium. Seems like audio issues are finally fixed in 1809 and were present only in 1803.


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## speedy77 (Oct 11, 2018)

Glad to hear you're clear of the issues! I am still having problems, though I found an interesting but seemingly temporary solution. It seems as though when I end the process "audiodg.exe" in the "Details" section of the task manager, my audio goes out for a split second, then it returns without any issues. Anyone have any info on what this process does?


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## E-Bear (Oct 11, 2018)

Just a question : Why does people still buy sound cards when the onboard ones are really good now? We are not in the 90's anymore.


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## Athlonite (Oct 11, 2018)

E-Bear said:


> Just a question : Why does people still buy sound cards when the onboard ones are really good now? We are not in the 90's anymore.



Yeah na onboard is only OK if you have decent speakers a decent sound card is a must


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## E-Bear (Oct 11, 2018)

Athlonite said:


> Yeah na onboard is only OK if you have decent speakers a decent sound card is a must



In my case it's not a problem the quality. One ear I have difficulty catching the high and the other ear have difficulty catching the lows.


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## rtwjunkie (Oct 11, 2018)

E-Bear said:


> Just a question : Why does people still buy sound cards when the onboard ones are really good now? We are not in the 90's anymore.


Because good onboard sound is “good enough” for basic use, but not as good as it can be.


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## spectatorx (Oct 11, 2018)

E-Bear said:


> Just a question : Why does people still buy sound cards when the onboard ones are really good now? We are not in the 90's anymore.


Few weeks ago to check something i had to take out my x-fi and use integrated soundcard for few hours.... just anything i tried i instantly heard a difference for worse. Also from time to time when i come back to f.e.a.r. (the only good f.e.a.r. which is the first one) or to crysis 1 i want to have EAX effects as they make huuuuge difference. I'm really afraid that one day this wonderful card will break because of age but for now i'm extremely happy using it and enjoy its sound quality and options it offers.

BTW: what sound card anyone would suggest at the moment which wouldn't be a downgrade from x-fi titanium and wouldn't cost more than 300 euros. I'm asking out of curiosity, not because of actual need to replace titanium as this one still works good.


Also: trend for headsets with their horrible audio processors and software post-effects to emulate 7.1 is laughable to me.


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## Salty_sandwich (Oct 11, 2018)

I had that card same thing loads of issues with sound quality crackling which got me quit angry back then I was like "WTF I thought these are supposed to have grate sound?" lol

drivers were always the issue with windwoes and sound performance of the card, from my time with it (odd thing was sometimes it worked grate) and a couple of other creative sound cards … ya think ya would learn ... but I always been the type to give a chance (at my own peril) lol

still always liked having an issue with something or I was bored back in me younger days lol


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 12, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> Ok with new soundblaster Z its a little better with the crackling. i only get crackling now when i stream something, videos and music when the connection is not perfect. So using a slow VPN makes it next to impossible to use the soundcard. most times with spotify and youtube without vpn i have no problems.


Based on this, gonna have go back to my original thoughts on this being a software problem. And if it's only happening while streaming on VPN, it's gotta be a connection issue.


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## Salty_sandwich (Oct 12, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Based on this, gonna have go back to my original thoughts on this being a software problem. And if it's only happening while streaming on VPN, it's gotta be a connection issue.



good luck with getting it to stay working lol like I said it'll be working grate 1 min, next time the poxy crackles are back ! just after ya finally thought its fixed and tried god know how many drivers even the 3rd party ones
which supposed to make it better, only made it worse! spent gawd know how long trying to resolve it, moded drivers, you name it, wasted me time, ended up using the onboard sound of the Hero VI which wasn't to bad really.

I think it was to with the chip and drivers and distorting the ress something along those lines, I never found a real fix, funny how in the reviews for the card they never ever mention the crackle issue you will end up with! loads of people have had issues with crackling distortion type sound and creative cards.

BTW make sure its not ya cables or the connections into card that's what I though my probs was, but it wasn't lol
but when they work the sound is bloody good, if you have half decent speaker system for how much they cost


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## speedy77 (Oct 12, 2018)

Salty_sandwich said:


> good luck with getting it to stay working lol like I said it'll be working grate 1 min, next time the poxy crackles are back ! just after ya finally thought its fixed and tried god know how many drivers even the 3rd party ones
> which supposed to make it better, only made it worse! spent gawd know how long trying to resolve it, moded drivers, you name it, wasted me time, ended up using the onboard sound of the Hero VI which wasn't to bad really.
> 
> I think it was to with the chip and drivers and distorting the ress something along those lines, I never found a real fix, funny how in the reviews for the card they never ever mention the crackle issue you will end up with! loads of people have had issues with crackling distortion type sound and creative cards.
> ...



Have you tried to end the process "audiodg.exe" in the "Details" section of the task manager? This will cause it to reset and removes all problems for me temporarily. I’d be curious to see if this is true across all systems, if so it’s most definitely a problem with the OS handling the sound card.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 12, 2018)

speedy77 said:


> Have you tried to end the process "audiodg.exe" in the "Details" section of the task manager? This will cause it to reset and removes all problems for me temporarily. I’d be curious to see if this is true across all systems, if so it’s most definitely a problem with the OS handling the sound card.


That might work. Worth a try for those having problems.


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## Laurijan (Oct 13, 2018)

Even with new 1809 build of windows i get crackling with slow VPN service and streaming. Not as bad crackling as before but still.


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## Athlonite (Oct 13, 2018)

Has everyone here made complaints to both MS and Creative about this problem as it seems these are the companies that are going to be to sort it out


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## spectatorx (Oct 13, 2018)

Athlonite said:


> Has everyone here made complaints to both MS and Creative about this problem as it seems these are the companies that are going to be to sort it out


One problem with creative is they closed down their forums completely after some security breach.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 13, 2018)

Sb-z is a cracking good soundcard though


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## Athlonite (Oct 13, 2018)

spectatorx said:


> One problem with creative is they closed down their forums completely after some security breach.



try here instead https://us.creative.com/contactus


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## speedy77 (Oct 20, 2018)

Whelp, seemed to have found the fix for my situation! (and it's relatively embarrassing I didn't think of it sooner)

It seems to be something with the power delivery to the card. Of course upon all of my subsequent reinstalls of WIndows, I never bothered to switch my power plan to "high performance" or turn off fast startup. Changing these two options in the power setting fixed the issue for me! If anyone else is having these issues, make sure you try that out first.

[EDIT:] Totally lied, problems came back shortly after posting this, but problems definitely improved when I switched this setting


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 20, 2018)

rtwjunkie said:


> Because good onboard sound is “good enough” for basic use, but not as good as it can be.



Also onboard can crap out


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## Boombastik (Nov 18, 2018)

I noticed a  little crackle when  CVE-2018-3639 [speculative store bypass] is enabled at system wide enabled level.
Microsoft default has it disabled


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## Laurijan (Dec 2, 2018)

Hi again! I had this crackling sound all the time now since i posted first post. Now i try to have my sound as dolby digital and not DTS. So far with dolby digital the crackling did not return. Have not tested for long though...


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 2, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> Hi again! I had this crackling sound all the time now since i posted first post. Now i try to have my sound as dolby digital and not DTS. So far with dolby digital the crackling did not return. Have not tested for long though...



Join time to join the AV Receiver Master Race or grab a set of Logitech Z906's


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## Laurijan (Dec 2, 2018)

@FreedomEclipse I got me a set of Z906 speakers couple of month ago. the ancient speaker set i had before that had DD and DTS i sold for like 40e


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 2, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> @FreedomEclipse I got me a set of Z906 speakers couple of month ago. the ancient speaker set i had before that had DD and DTS i sold for like 40e



were they z5500's?


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## Laurijan (Dec 2, 2018)

FreedomEclipse said:


> were they z5500's?



Was Z5400 i think


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 3, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> Hi again! I had this crackling sound all the time now since i posted first post. Now i try to have my sound as dolby digital and not DTS. So far with dolby digital the crackling did not return. Have not tested for long though...


So this whole time it was the DTS codec? Weird..


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## Laurijan (Dec 3, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> So this whole time it was the DTS codec? Weird..



I didnt even try DD since DTS sounded somehow better imho. No crackling with DD since yesterday!


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 3, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> I didnt even try DD since DTS sounded somehow better imho. No crackling with DD since yesterday!


That's a good thing. If it's working for you stay with it!


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## Laurijan (Dec 3, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> That's a good thing. If it's working for you stay with it!



Yeah i stay with DD. I returned one soundblaster Z already and got a new one. Bought new speakers. I dont wanna lose my mind in fighting for better drivers or get refunds and such.


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## speedy77 (Dec 19, 2018)

Hey guys!

Don’t mean to update this old thread but figured it may help some of you who (like me) found this thread searching for these issues. Mine are now fixed after hours with Creative and Asus support.

The problem was a BIOS update on my z170-ar motherboard. I had updated to the most recent version for me at the time (3801) when I began to have the issues. Because I was also using a new install of Windows I assumed this was the issue, but in fact it was the BIOS update.  However now I was having a new issue, once I updated to the new BIOS I could not go back and downgrade.

Upon explaining my thoughts to the ASUS rep and having literally dozens of messages between us trying to get this issue resolved, I found that Asus will NOT help you with flashing an old BIOS, or even admit it could be an issue. I decided to take matters into my own hands and use an online guide to flash an older BIOS. I was able to successfully flash the version 2202 BIOS to my system, and all problems have ceased.

Long story short, if you have the same issues I have, consider trying a new (or old) BIOS version!


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## ArbitraryAffection (Dec 19, 2018)

I have a Creative Sound laster Z and Logitech z906 and windows 10 1809 (latest) and Everything works fine.

Edit: my phone derped. Glad to see you fixed it though.


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## fusseli (Jan 6, 2019)

I have a brand new sound blaster Zx and I'm getting crackling from Dolby Live or DTS Connect.  I swear it didn't crackle for the first few days.  Now it's crackling during music playback, but not during games like PUBG.   This was supposed to be an upgrade from a Xonar DSX that sent a loud pop over SPDIF every time I shutdown the computer (super annoying)...  I really need dolby or dts to run my surround off an AV receiver.

I fixed the win10 master volume remapping using the program Volume2 to map the windows volume control to "What U Hear" -- no problems there.

Ha, reply to my own post.  Reinstalled the drivers and reconfigured everything and it's perfectly fine again.

My next gripe is the beam forming control pod / microphone.  This thing is odd, with any of the CrystalVoice settings turned on, my friends say I sound far away or under water.  A big step down from my generic chinese knockoff $5 mic.  Anyone have luck setting one of these up yet on the Zx?


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## Laurijan (Jan 7, 2019)

I stopped using the soundblaster z and am running my sound now over hdmi. crackling with DTS and DD


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## Bones (Jan 11, 2019)

Got a Soundblaster Z from fleabay for $55 shipped and when I got it, at first it did great - No issues when first used. 
However after a little while it suddenly began dropping audio as if it was just cutting off. After a few moments the sound would come back but then cut out again, this happening over and over again. 

So.......
The Mechanic/Engineer/Mr. Fix-It in me just coudn't let it go. 

After thinking about it and looking the card over I remembered it has an amp built-in for headphones and the cover is an enclosure with little to no way for any air to move through, the back of it being the only real opening. 
Removed the card from the machine and after looking around I found what I was looking for - A fan that was close to the size of the window it has and it's screw pattern was very close to what the slits around this window are. The fan is from an older AMD Regor CPU cooler (The really cheap units, all aluminum) and started from there. 

Removed the card's cover and got to work. 
There is a "Ring" of metal on the inside of the cover that holds the little window in place, that had to come out so took a flathead screw driver and worked with it until I got the ring to pop out with it's window. There are some tiny spot welds/stamped places that holds it in, just drove the screwdriver in at these spots until those broke loose and the removal of the ring was done. 

Next, I placed the CPU fan from the cooler onto the cover and using the stock screws with the cooler I made them screw into the slits to hold the fan in place. 3 of the holes I made line up no prob, the 4th wouldn't line up but no prob, it's securely in place with the three screws. 
Checked it and the screw ends were well clear of touching anything after screwing them in and made sure the cover would go back onto to the card itself - Re-installed the cover and popped it back into the machine. 
Hooked the fan to a chassis fan header on the board and tested. 

The audio now plays without cutting out (So far) at any volume level and there is air coming out of the cover with a little bit of heat as expected. Will continue using it and if it cuts out again I'll say so but so far it's working, listening to some music as I type this post about it. No buzz, noise/bleedover from the fan or anything.

Hope this helps solve a few issues with these cards.


----------



## fusseli (Jan 11, 2019)

@Bones do you have an IR temperature gun or anything to see the temps with and without the fan?  Curious idea that it's the card overheating


----------



## Bones (Jan 12, 2019)

No I don't have an IR gun but wish I did TBH - Got the thought about it when I looked the card over and noted it has an amp built-in and aside from the rear opening, no real way for air to move through it. 
As said for now it's working fine, the cutting in and out of it's audio has stopped. 

From what I've ever known about amps from way back in the day (80's when big car audio systems were a thing) an amp does put out at least a little heat and although I can't confirm it as things are now it did figure into what I came up with in the end as a solution.

It's certainly _possible_ it had a heat issue with it's amp making it do the thermal-trip thing. 
Only real way to know is to keep using it and see if the problem comes back or not.


----------



## Bones (Feb 23, 2019)

Followup:
Since the above post, the card has been used for gaming, music listening and all else you'd expect.
The card has _not once_ dropped audio since the mod was done, also no unusual noise, crackling or anything else issue-wise.

I believe that was the problem and adding the fan solved it - Certainly seems that way from the results.


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 23, 2019)

Seems like you might have just needed to mount a heatsink to the overheating component and all would be well. I actually do that with all of my SB cards. If the chip doesn't have a HS, I put one on it.


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## natr0n (Feb 23, 2019)

If you can get to the speaker levels menu... mute everything other than main audio source used.

That has been used to solve cracking I read about somewhere.


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## Bones (Feb 23, 2019)

This particular card was dropping audio as in just quitting, then starting back up again and kept doing it over and over..... Didn't have issues with crackling noises.

A heatsink could have worked but the fan in my case was the easiest fix to try, have several spare CPU coolers and simply robbed one I'd never use for anything anyway for the fix. If I ever run into crackling with it I'll remember your suggestion NatrOn.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 23, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Seems like you might have just needed to mount a heatsink to the overheating component and all would be well. I actually do that with all of my SB cards. If the chip doesn't have a HS, I put one on it.



I guess if I ever encounter that I will, my card is a ZXR and doesn't exhibit that activity.


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## Laurijan (Feb 24, 2019)

I returned the second soundblaster Z i got because nothing helped with the crackling. I didnt want to mount any fan on it or something. amazon said they pay me back the money. i give up on soundcards with DTS and DD now. Most of them are ancient like a asus one that only had PCI that i dont have on my mobo


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## Ferrum Master (Feb 24, 2019)

Laurijan said:


> I returned the second soundblaster Z i got because nothing helped with the crackling. I didnt want to mount any fan on it or something. amazon said they pay me back the money. i give up on soundcards with DTS and DD now. Most of them are ancient like a asus one that only had PCI that i dont have on my mobo



It is all doom and gloom in that department if you use DTS and DD.

The latest W10 insider builds doesn't work with X-FI's at all. Sound Core based devices... alias all cards like Z, Zx, ZxR, AE-5 etc bug out using DTS also... if you use them without any, pardon me - crap enabled, it works fine. The M$ audio stack develops also, you cannot influence that.



> *Known issues*
> 
> Creative X-Fi sound cards are not functioning properly. We are partnering with Creative to resolve this issue.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 24, 2019)

Ferrum Master said:


> It is all doom and gloom in that department if you use DTS and DD.
> 
> The latest W10 insider builds doesn't work with X-FI's at all. Sound Core based devices... alias all cards like Z, Zx, ZxR, AE-5 etc bug out using DTS also... if you use them without any, pardon me - crap enabled, it works fine. The M$ audio stack develops also, you cannot influence that.



Good OL ms, breaking their OS since ME...


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## hat (Feb 24, 2019)

Just another disappointment from MS on PC audio. I'm still upset that they killed off true hardware sound processing after XP...


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 24, 2019)

hat said:


> Just another disappointment from MS on PC audio. I'm still upset that they killed off true hardware sound processing after XP...



I think they fixed it in 7.


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## hat (Feb 24, 2019)

I've never heard that before...


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 24, 2019)

hat said:


> I've never heard that before...



Read through the article, i guess alchemy is used


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## hat (Feb 24, 2019)

Oh, that. Isn't Alchemy a shoddy emulation work-around for processing EAX effects? It's still not true hardware accelerated sound.


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## natr0n (Feb 24, 2019)

OpenAL uses hardware acceleration if you can find games and stuff using it.

https://www.openal.org/games/


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 24, 2019)

hat said:


> Oh, that. Isn't Alchemy a shoddy emulation work-around for processing EAX effects? It's still not true hardware accelerated sound.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectSound


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## Athlonite (Feb 25, 2019)

hat said:


> Oh, that. Isn't Alchemy a shoddy emulation work-around for processing EAX effects? It's still not true hardware accelerated sound.




No not really it's actually a wrapper it sends D3DS and DSound and EAX calls to OpenAL instead of letting Windows own API screw shit up


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## Mittenz (Mar 1, 2019)

I had a similar issue, but solved it.

I found that ASUS motherboards this generation have ALOT of EMI bleed; I replaced my old soundcard to the SBZ and still had the problems.

Changing my motherboard to MSI... zero issue perfect audio.
Asus in my opinion isnt top tier for motherboards anymore, TONS of people have EMI issues with asus this generation. 

Keep this in mind. 

Power supplies can cause this too.
But my motherboard caused the problem before.


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## Laurijan (Mar 1, 2019)

Mittenz said:


> I had a similar issue, but solved it.
> 
> I found that ASUS motherboards this generation have ALOT of EMI bleed; I replaced my old soundcard to the SBZ and still had the problems.
> 
> ...



Got an asus mobo so that could be the cause. amazon gonna shoot me the money back and sell the card in its warehouse deals


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## Mittenz (Mar 3, 2019)

I was able to replicate this issue, when sound processing is layered on the SBZ it can crackle. Example, SBx PRO STUDIO + Dobly Atmos = Crackle, but when Nahimic 3 + Atmos = Fine. If you have crackles disable SBX and other processing that may be layered ontop of it. Zero it and then try it again. 

Seems to be the cause, Also in addition try the SBZ PAX drivers they seemed to get rid of the strange combinations all together.


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## orionbg (Jun 11, 2019)

Hey guys,
I might have stumbled upon a solution for the SBZ cracking/channel swap issues on Windows 10! With that "fix" I've got more than 3 hours yesterday of perfect 5.1 Dolby Digital Live sound and I'll continue testing for the next day or two to make sure it works properly. Before that "fix" I couldn't even get 10 minutes of proper sound.
BTW I'm running Windows 10 Pro 64bit v1903 on a Threadripper 1950x.
Will let you know how it goes.


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## lexluthermiester (Jun 11, 2019)

orionbg said:


> Hey guys,
> I might have stumbled upon a solution for the SBZ cracking/channel swap issues on Windows 10! With that "fix" I've got more than 3 hours yesterday of perfect 5.1 Dolby Digital Live sound and I'll continue testing for the next day or two to make sure it works properly. Before that "fix" I couldn't even get 10 minutes of proper sound.
> BTW I'm running Windows 10 Pro 64bit v1903 on a Threadripper 1950x.
> Will let you know how it goes.


This seems interesting, please do keep us posted and let us in on the details if successful.


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## orionbg (Jun 12, 2019)

So here is a little story with a happy (for now) ending...
An year or so ago I finished my newest PC and the Sound Blaster Z was a part of it. The system in question is a Threadripper 1950x on an ASROCK X399 Taichi, 32GB of DDR4 3200 RAM and a 1080ti.
All of this was put to work by everybody's "favorite" OS Windows 10. Aaaand the issues started...
Brand new platform (back then) there were BIOS issues, Driver issues, compatibility issues and of course the SBZ Dolby Digital Live issue... Somehow back then I was able to fix the issue and I had no issues with is until about 3 weeks ago when I got the 1903 Windows 10 update and also I updated my BIOS to the latest one. I tried everything... Clean reinstall of Windows, going back to the BIOS I had before, tried all available drivers and registry patches, HPET Enable/disable, I even contacted Creative's technical support, but all I was able to get from them for more than 10 days was several different versions of that same registry patch (just different values in the keys). At least they acknowledged that there is such an issue with some specific hardware configurations.
Two days ago while reading other posts and articles for that same issue, I clicked on a link that sent me to Microsoft's web site (Microsoft Update Catalog or something like it) there I saw all the Creative Sound Blaster drivers that were ever released on Windows Update. What caught my eye were the driver versions: for SBZ the ones they have are version 6.0.102.xx and 6.0.103.xx while the a lot newer drivers for the Sound BlasterX AE5 (the fancy one with the RGB) the latest version is 6.0.105.17.... Then a thought pop'd in my head... what if I can use those newer (supposedly made for Windows 10) drivers on the SBZ? It appears that both the SBZ series and the newer SBX AE5 are using the SoundCore3D Audio processing unit (or at least very similar versions of it).
At first I tried directly installing the driver on top of what I already had but Windows stated that there is no compatible driver in the folder and sent be packing...
After mentioning some mothers... I opened the INF from the SBX AE5 driver and the INF from the SBZ driver and oh miracle! Those had almost identical structure sans the hardware IDs and some additional things pertaining to what hardware is supported by the driver. Confidant in my skills (or lack of such) I copied all the relevant lines from the SBZ INF with the hardware IDs describing the Sound Blaster Audio Controller and the Sound Blaster Z Audio Device to the SBX AE5 INF and tried installing it again... That of course didn't work as after modifying the INF file, the Digital Certificate was now broken and Windows sent me packing again but this time I was prepared!  I quickly rebooted to Advanced Startup Options and used F7 (or only 7) for Disable Driver Digital Certificate Enforcement (or whatever it was exactly).
This time the driver installed for both devices and asked me to reboot.
After reboot (and no BSOD which I expected to be fair) I still had sound! I went in device manager to check if the "new driver" is really installed and it was. Then I checked Sound Blaster's control panel and all the setting were back to their default ones (just like after you just installed the driver) I enabled DDL (5.1 was already selected by default) and oh sweet music for my ears everything was working!
It has been 3 days since then and I watched a lot of movies, Youtube and what not and there have been ZERO audio issues with DDL (no, distortions, no channel swapping, no audio cutouts).

Now for the part you've all been waiting for...* DISCLAIMER 
YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE STEPS BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK!! I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT YOU MAY CAUSE TO YOUR WINDOWS OS BY IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE DRIVER!!!
I HAVE TESTED THIS MOD ONLY ON MY SYSTEM AND IT WORKS FOR ME. THERE IS NO 100% GUARANTEE THAT IT WILL WORK FOR YOU!*

The attached driver will only work properly on Windows 10 64bit (I did not bother with the 32bit part of the INF)

1. Download and install the newest available driver for the Sound Blaster Z (this is needed for all the software things like the Sound Blaster Control Panel, DDL, Speaker Setup and so on.) At this point you will have sound and you may even get up to 30 minutes of proper DDL before it begins to act-up... (If you already have the driver installed you can skip this step) Newest driver I have found is this one: LINK
2. Download and unpack the attached archive. Inside is the moded AE5 driver and the last registry patch that I was sent by Creative. Apply the registry patch.(not sure if it is needed but since I have already applied it before doing all this, it may be a part of the solution. Anyway it will not hurt anything to apply it)
3. Go to Settings>Recovery>Advanced Startup and click on "Restart now". Then click Troubleshoot>Advanced options>Startup Settings and click on Restart.
The system will reboot and will present you several options. Press F7 (or just 7) on the keyboard. This will disable the Digital Signature Enforcement and will allow the installation of the modded driver.
4. After the system loads, go to Device Manager and right-click on the "Sound Blaster Audio Controller". Select "Update Driver" then select "Browse my Computer..." On the next screen choose "Let me pick from a list....", then on the next screen click on "Have Disk" and find the folder you extracted the driver in. If you did it right you will be greeted with a single "Sound Blaster Audio Controller" option. Next and so on until the driver is installed. It will ask to reboot but not yet.
5.Still in Device Manager, right-click first on the "Sound Blaster Z" device and repeat the procedure from step 4. Now you can restart.
6. After reboot have completed, go to the Sound Blaster Control Panel (it should be in your taskbar) and check if 5.1 is selected and then enable DDL from the "Cinematic" tab.
7. Enjoy and report back if it worked for you.

Awaiting feedback...


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## Candyman1SFT (Jul 23, 2019)

Wow, thank you for your workaround and the effort you put in this. Had with my old system (i7 2600k) only a few times problems with the SBZ and was now experience alot of audio dropouts or audio was completely gone untill I just change quick the encoder on my new system (Ryzen 7 3700x with a X570 board).



orionbg said:


> 4. After the system loads, go to Device Manager and right-click on the "Sound Blaster Audio Controller". Select "Update Driver" then select "Browse my Computer..." On the next screen choose "Let me pick from a list....", then on the next screen click on "Have Disk" and find the folder you extracted the driver in. If you did it right you will be greeted with a single "Sound Blaster Audio Controller" option. Next and so on until the driver is installed. It will ask to reboot but not yet.



I was only able to install "Sound Blaster Z" but this was maybe enough for a proper functionality on my system.


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## hACmAn (Nov 3, 2019)

Did work for me using z570 and 3600x on windows build 19013.vb_release.191025-1609.
Did test. SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_10, SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11, PAX_SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_10V1.00, SBZxR_CD_L13_1_01_05. All the same problem for me.
SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_10 did work on my z77 and 3770k.
@*orionbg*
This one was a saver.


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## Mittenz (Nov 4, 2019)

They have new drivers for windows 10, fixes everything officially as of Sept 2019.


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## orionbg (Nov 4, 2019)

Absolutely not! I tried this "new" driver and it was awful! DDL was breaking every 2 minutes or so... Also there were some sound issues.
It may work for other people but definitely not for me!


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## CityCultivator (Nov 4, 2019)

orionbg said:


> Absolutely not! I tried this "new" driver and it was awful! DDL was breaking every 2 minutes or so... Also there were some sound issues.
> It may work for other people but definitely not for me!


Does it break only during gaming/CPU intensive tasks, or even on media playback?


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## orionbg (Nov 4, 2019)

CityCultivator said:


> Does it break only during gaming/CPU intensive tasks, or even on media playback?


I did not even get to gaming. One YouTube video was enough.... Tried several restarts, different settings... nothing helped... Rolling back to my patched driver restored my sound. 
Maybe it's just my config... I don't know... but the facts are facts...


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## fusseli (Nov 7, 2019)

FWIW, here's my recent experience through 2019.  I use a 2005 vintage AVR receiver in 4.1, call it 5.1, with a dedicated sub and amp.

I tried everything on my Zx.  My issue was a down grade in surround sound location and honestly terrible 5.1 performance.  I used to be able to locate footsteps in PUBG and other games and heavily used 5.1 to my advantage.  It never worked on the Zx, sound came out of the surrounds but something is fucked up and manipulated about it.

Not only did I have crackling and spacial issues in DTSC and DDL, but I was never able to get my mic to work right.  Even with all mic enhancements off, it never worked and people had a hard time with my mic.

So, instead of a single to toslink optical connection I try the old school 3x stereo RCA and 5.1.  BOOM, massive difference in surround sound performance in games.  No more fake manipulation of surround effects that are unadvertised.  Bumped up the LFE a little to match and and it's better than ever.

What's the point of a Zx without DTS connect or Dolby Live, and crappy mic performance?  There is none!!!  Hocked the Zx on ebay, and 100% sincere, my mic and discrete 5.1 has never been better using the onboard Realtek S1220A.  Oh, and, my mic is clear again.  Weird.

It's really sad, if not infuriating, that a Soundblaster is a literal downgrade nowadays.  I'm sure under the hood this is simply software issues and lack of profitability of sound cards in these times, but it's still a huge let down.  Especially since the licensing has made digital 5.1 basically useless.  The newest AE cards don't even have it!  Just make it free and make it work well FFS, they obviously aren't making money from charging a premium on 5.1 encoding anymore.


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## Frauss79 (Nov 7, 2019)

i've the same issue.
my system is 3700x and tuf x570 .
i install and uninstall driver official more times. But not works.
In game after 2 minuter the channel 5.1 virtualized on headset in inverted or not work. 
swiching to 2.0 a later to headset is solve ... But for few minutes.

I don't speech English well but the solution of modded driver works?


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## thesmokingman (Nov 7, 2019)

fusseli said:


> It's really sad, if not infuriating, that a Soundblaster is a literal downgrade nowadays.  I'm sure under the hood this is simply software issues and lack of profitability of sound cards in these times, but it's still a huge let down.  Especially since the licensing has made digital 5.1 basically useless.  The newest AE cards don't even have it!  Just make it free and make it work well FFS, they obviously aren't making money from charging a premium on 5.1 encoding anymore.



I don't use a soundcard anymore but I do have a modded ZXR somewhere, stored. I moved to an external hi-res dac/amp setup. Anyways, I'll find mine and test it. I wonder if you guys are running out of lanes, though that would seem unlikely with pcie4? Just curious, but have you tested the card in the x8 slot? I was still using the ZXR a 5-6 months back on a x299 board w/o issue.


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## Readlight (Nov 7, 2019)

whit windows 10 and speakers coneted to hdmi.


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## fusseli (Nov 7, 2019)

thesmokingman said:


> I don't use a soundcard anymore but I do have a modded ZXR somewhere, stored. I moved to an external hi-res dac/amp setup. Anyways, I'll find mine and test it. I wonder if you guys are running out of lanes, though that would seem unlikely with pcie4? Just curious, but have you tested the card in the x8 slot? I was still using the ZXR a 5-6 months back on a x299 board w/o issue.



I had used it in a 1x and a full size slot. I dont think that's the issue.  I think it's all drivers and software.


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## Frauss79 (Nov 7, 2019)

orionbg said:


> So here is a little story with a happy (for now) ending...
> An year or so ago I finished my newest PC and the Sound Blaster Z was a part of it. The system in question is a Threadripper 1950x on an ASROCK X399 Taichi, 32GB of DDR4 3200 RAM and a 1080ti.
> All of this was put to work by everybody's "favorite" OS Windows 10. Aaaand the issues started...
> Brand new platform (back then) there were BIOS issues, Driver issues, compatibility issues and of course the SBZ Dolby Digital Live issue... Somehow back then I was able to fix the issue and I had no issues with is until about 3 weeks ago when I got the 1903 Windows 10 update and also I updated my BIOS to the latest one. I tried everything... Clean reinstall of Windows, going back to the BIOS I had before, tried all available drivers and registry patches, HPET Enable/disable, I even contacted Creative's technical support, but all I was able to get from them for more than 10 days was several different versions of that same registry patch (just different values in the keys). At least they acknowledged that there is such an issue with some specific hardware configurations.
> ...



Not work for me. 

Windows not want this mod driver for my sbz


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## orionbg (Nov 13, 2019)

Frauss79 said:


> Not work for me.
> 
> Windows not want this mod driver for my sbz


Did you by any chance skip step 3?


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## Frauss79 (Nov 13, 2019)

yes, done everything. when i go to put the modded driver tells me that it is not compatible and that i'm already using a better driver. tried to delete it from the disk, but it always finds it.I noticed one thing: without HPET crash almost immediately, with HPET it does it every 10 15 mn .
I I'm working with creative support to find a solution, even if the only possible one is that they decide to make a new driver. 

( Sorry for the English  I not speak well)

With HPET on the cpu work a few more intensive


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## Frauss79 (Nov 22, 2019)

This is a official solution for problem.





						Hardware Upgrade Forum - View Single Post - [Thread Ufficiale] Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC)
					

hardware upgrade forum - il sito italiano sulla tecnologia - www.hwupgrade.it - news articoli recensioni dal mondo dell'informatica e della tecnologia, forum di discussione



					www.hwupgrade.it
				




The post is in Italian but you can use Google Traslator to read it.


----------



## orionbg (Dec 3, 2019)

Frauss79 said:


> This is a official solution for problem.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That "Official" solution is quite old and does not work in 99.9% of the cases!
Creative Tech support have been repeating it forever.
Even making the number bigger doesn't always help...


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## Frauss79 (Dec 3, 2019)

orionbg said:


> That "Official" solution is quite old and does not work in 99.9% of the cases!
> Creative Tech support have been repeating it forever.
> Even making the number bigger doesn't always help...


it's not the classic fix that sets the bus to 10. this sets it at 40 (some advise 50).I don't justify creative, but the important thing is that it works.


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 3, 2019)

The latest update fixes a number of small bug and glitches that have been introduced by Windows Updates, not a flaw in Creatives drivers.





						Creative Worldwide Support - Sound Blaster Z
					

Welcome to Creative Worldwide Support. Get technical help for your Creative products through Knowledgebase Solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more.



					support.creative.com
				



This update also resolves the issues experienced with RDR2.


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## orionbg (Dec 3, 2019)

Frauss79 said:


> it's not the classic fix that sets the bus to 10. this sets it at 40 (some advise 50).I don't justify creative, but the important thing is that it works.


Nope it does not work. At least not for me. I did "fffffff" which is a lot bigger number and that can in most cases get me through a day without issues. Not always but I get the issue quite rarely nowadays.
Basically the faster the computer is something screws up faster and you need bigger buffers to compensate. For me on a Threadripper 1950X the only valus that is as I mentioned almost working is the "fffffff"
People having the same issue with the "official" fix can try with "ff" (instead of 20/40) first then add a third "f", forth and so on until it works for you.
Again, this is somehow tied to modern PCs being a lot faster than Creative ever expected them to be (a Creative rep told me this) and this is why the issue exist...
Unfortunately the newer Sound Blaster AE5 does not support DDL so I need to get at least AE7 or AE9 or an external DAC...



lexluthermiester said:


> The latest update fixes a number of small bug and glitches that have been introduced by Windows Updates, not a flaw in Creatives drivers.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The new driver is complete waste of time! Tested it. The DDL crashed in less than 5 minutes!


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## Frauss79 (Dec 3, 2019)

orionbg said:


> Nope it does not work. At least not for me. I did "fffffff" which is a lot bigger number and that can in most cases get me through a day without issues. Not always but I get the issue quite rarely nowadays.
> Basically the faster the computer is something screws up faster and you need bigger buffers to compensate. For me on a Threadripper 1950X the only valus that is as I mentioned almost working is the "fffffff"
> People having the same issue with the "official" fix can try with "ff" (instead of 20/40) first then add a third "f", forth and so on until it works for you.
> Again, this is somehow tied to modern PCs being a lot faster than Creative ever expected them to be (a Creative rep told me this) and this is why the issue exist...
> ...


From what little I understand it depends on the speed of the RAM. If I kept them in 2133 the problem or cmq rarely presented itself. At 3200 yes. I have read above that a new driver has come out, it would be to try that and see if you solve.


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## orionbg (Dec 3, 2019)

Frauss79 said:


> From what little I understand it depends on the speed of the RAM. If I kept them in 2133 the problem or cmq rarely presented itself. At 3200 yes. I have read above that a new driver has come out, it would be to try that and see if you solve.


It does not.  I'm back to the modded AE5 driver I did and things are bearable for the time being. I will most probably either go back to analog 6 channels or get another Sound card that does DDL properly in the future.


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## Frauss79 (Dec 3, 2019)

orionbg said:


> It does not.  I'm back to the modded AE5 driver I did and things are bearable for the time being. I will most probably either go back to analog 6 channels or get another Sound card that does DDL properly in the future.


The best thing imho is a sound card with external jack optics on mobo Anyway for now I continue with the sbz


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## lexluthermiester (Dec 3, 2019)

orionbg said:


> The new driver is complete waste of time! Tested it. The DDL crashed in less than 5 minutes!


Then I would suspect the problem is with your hardware or perhaps a software configuration issue. These drivers listed above have been tested. Have you tried a fresh install of Windows on a spare drive with the drivers above to rule out software configuration problems?


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## orionbg (Dec 3, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Then I would suspect the problem is with your hardware or perhaps a software configuration issue. These drivers listed above have been tested. Have you tried a fresh install of Windows on a spare drive with the drivers above to rule out software configuration problems?



Two different computers and several clean Windows 10 installations have proven me right! I even tried only Windows and the drivers... 2 to 3 minutes at most and DDL breaks!


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## Fr3ak (Dec 6, 2019)

I am using an AE-5. After the new Creative software was out, I rarely had any crackling, before then it was a permanent thing, more or less, happened in a matter of minutes of playing anything. Then it was way better and for a few days, I get way more frequent crackling. There are games that have a super high probability for it happening rather sooner than later, alt-tabbing also seems to have some influence on it. The only solution is to reboot and hope for the best. More annoying than the crackling is actually the frozen frame or two along with each crackling sound, which is very subtle, but enough to annoy the F out of me.

Having witnessed the evolution of sound starting with a PC speaker to what we have now, makes me really sad. How hard can it be? :|


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2019)

orionbg said:


> Two different computers and several clean Windows 10 installations have proven me right! I even tried only Windows and the drivers... 2 to 3 minutes at most and DDL breaks!



What about outside the home? At a shop?


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 6, 2019)

orionbg said:


> Two different computers and several clean Windows 10 installations have proven me right! I even tried only Windows and the drivers... 2 to 3 minutes at most and DDL breaks!



when you say it breaks, have you tried ticking 'allow apps to access your microphone' in the microphone settings?? I had the same problem moving to Win10 1903 and that was the way to get around it because Microsoft changed something under the hood and drivers from 2017 werent quite upto date with this change.

There are new drivers out for the SB-Z, Im running with them right now after my small experiment with HDMI audio pass-through and they seem to be OK though some people have reported some bugs when you have a microphone plugged in and stuff.


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## marz (Apr 25, 2020)

orionbg said:


> So here is a little story with a happy (for now) ending...
> An year or so ago I finished my newest PC and the Sound Blaster Z was a part of it. The system in question is a Threadripper 1950x on an ASROCK X399 Taichi, 32GB of DDR4 3200 RAM and a 1080ti.
> All of this was put to work by everybody's "favorite" OS Windows 10. Aaaand the issues started...
> Brand new platform (back then) there were BIOS issues, Driver issues, compatibility issues and of course the SBZ Dolby Digital Live issue... Somehow back then I was able to fix the issue and I had no issues with is until about 3 weeks ago when I got the 1903 Windows 10 update and also I updated my BIOS to the latest one. I tried everything... Clean reinstall of Windows, going back to the BIOS I had before, tried all available drivers and registry patches, HPET Enable/disable, I even contacted Creative's technical support, but all I was able to get from them for more than 10 days was several different versions of that same registry patch (just different values in the keys). At least they acknowledged that there is such an issue with some specific hardware configurations.
> ...



Recently upgraded to a Ryzen which is the issue. SBZ works fine on an Intel board. I tried this fix but it removed the Digital-In option which I need to use. The real issue is the Dolby and DTS encoders. A temp fix is this: Uninstall the Dolby/DTS packages and reinstall the current SBZ driver Run As Administrator. Creative needs to also focus on their older model and drivers. Creative sucks supporting their older products. I will not buy Creative soundcards again; Creative change my mind.

*** UPDATE: If experiencing sounds dropping or switching left/right polarities Go to Sound Control Panel> SBZ default propertie>Advanced Tab> Change Default Format to 24bit, 44100hz (Studio Quality). Also, the latest Malwarebyte software interferes with the installation of the SBZ drivers and other apps.


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## Mittenz (Apr 25, 2020)

I've read this entire thread, I think you guys are mistaking new motherboard deficiency for sound blaster issues, firstly let me explain.

I have installed over 100 of these cards for a music production company and asked them to measure interference and noise on the outputs for me.

I've studied this issue and provided feedback to creative.

The main issue for these card is NOT drivers, it's two things actually, shitty motherboard onboard / usb / PCIe shielding for EMI and power supplies that have EMI leakage via the transformer / rectifier.

I have ran into 15 or so systems and the main cause was an Asus design flaw in their motherboards where MSI fixed this, I've ran into this in my personal computers and with this company as well. MSI actually EMI protects their top pci-e card which helps if you have any remote coil whine or EM leakage from your video card.

Asus does not make very EMI resistant designs including their laptops with TONs of EMI audio issues to support my case. I personally consider Asus to be of low quality and a brand you should avoid due to their neglectful and pathetic engineering.

Again, I've seen this EMO issue with Ryzen motherboards more than Intel, but it isn't a Ryzen issue it's a shitty engineering team issue that made a bad product.

I've done a few things to solve these issues first is I've ran dedicated ground lines to computer cases grounding to common or independent ground.

The Daniel k or pax drivers don't change any of these issues, so my recommendation is the following.

1)
Firstly if you have a different power supply, attach it out of the case to your system, ideally sit it on the case. Even on tin foil with the shiny side facing towards the PSU. Disable all spatial sound and mute your mic (or disable) to factor less EMI pickup on the case.

2) if this has had a positive effect to any degree, then next ground your case with a dedicated ground or common ground etc. This can be done in a number of safe methods and devices, Amazon sells these. Ground your case in 3-4 different areas, IE, near your PSU, near the expansion cards, behind the motherboard.

3) if this has a measureable reduction then we know we can reduce this more, buy using a brass farad cage -- wrap your PSU in this before installing, and wrap your sound card in this as well being careful it will not shift or short any devices out, using a wire frame to zip tie this to helps then tig weld the cage to the PSU / sound card - aluminum welding being difficult if new for you.

Often I replace the power supply with a unit that is of higher quality, I've commonly had to replace many EVGA 750 Gold rated power supplies for better units with EMI resistant designs. I have used brass screens wrapped around power supplies to absorb EMI as this often stops almost alot interferences.

Additionally have done this to soundcards, addition to this I'll  have crackle issues if ANY spatial sound is turned on, by design.

These are my findings, so hopefully this can help someone. Obviously do this at your own risk or hire a professional.


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## marz (Apr 25, 2020)

Mittenz said:


> I've read this entire thread, I think you guys are mistaking new motherboard deficiency for sound blaster issues, firstly let me explain.
> 
> I have installed over 100 of these cards for a music production company and asked them to measure interference and noise on the outputs for me.
> 
> ...



I have a gigabyte x570 and the EMI shields are adequate. The main issue is strictly software drivers with the SBZ and not hardware. There is an EMI shield covering the SBZ card.


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## Mittenz (Apr 25, 2020)

Ryzen -- check your EMI or better yet order a new psi off amazon swamp it and return it if it doesn't solve the issue.
SBZ shield has a reduction of barely 25%, it hardly protects the unit entirely, more so when the EMI is carried from the case into back connections, its not a EMI shield its more like a conductor. 

Honestly try what im saying, disable all sound enhancements in SBZ software and windows and give it a shot. Ive dealt with this issue since gen1 Ryzen onward.


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 26, 2020)

Noise comes from the bus also. Even USB devices suffer from it. (Well except isolated, like uber expensive Xmos has). So data lines also carry noise, those are terminated to ground and parasitic RF noise travels.

Often there are grounding issues. In theory ground should have the shortest path to the outlet... on practice it often is not, so the shortest path actually runs through audio cables from device X via device Y and to the outlet(it also applies to HDMI, it means also vice versa, you can have PC monitor noise traveling through your PC and causing havoc too). Using additional screws on the device cases and grouding then with an additional thick wire helps.

I have my sound cards bracket lifted from the case, thus isolating audio ground at that point, no parrasitic loops and have star shielding working better, as ground planes are inneficient at this point as they are based on a more ideal model.

Motherboards are crap. And many of them, so noise is no wonder. But GPU and also PSU makers are making illegal devices that cause wastly higher EMI during loads and nothing can help with that. Fix your damn PC and do not cheap out on core components.

Engineering wise Zx card... is the same sound core device... (Lego) They are same as AE-9 driver stack wise. You can rewrite eeprom and your old card will be recignised as what you wish. The further i2s/DSD?(not sure) device config and operation differs.


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## hACmAn (Apr 27, 2020)

Hello.
I have had the sound start to cracle then totally go silent on DTS and Dolby sens I upgraded to x570 and ryzen 3600x, on ASRock X570 Pro4. (Curently BIOS 2.60)
On Creatives site there is 2 versions of the Z model. (did not find the link right now) I might have the older one.@

@*orionbg*
On https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/soundblaster-z-crackling-sound.247336/page-6
orionbg have a modded driver that needs digitalsigned drivers to be turn off. The file name is Sound Blaster Z MOD DDL.zip

Using that one i have no crackling sound anymore. However the channels left/right or some times more normally Front Right and back Left switch places.
Wort a try.
Another thin that i have tested sens ASRock X570 Pro4 BIOS v2.60 came out (2020/4/16 Change log says Improve UAD-2 DUO audio card compatibility) was that

On https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=325223.0 a user*@xeo* links a pice of a redit thread (if any of you know the tread plz inform me)
The Creative response on reddit:
Cut from  the text.
"We have found that new BIOS by AMD turned on a 10-bit Tag Field, which is only available on PCI-e Gen4 devices. This resulted in compatibility issues with all our PCI-e sound cards. Users should look for a setting for "PCI-e 10-bit Tag Support" and set it to "Disabled" to allow our sound card to be recognized. We are reaching out to AMD on this issue.*"*
I did disabled it, did see no difference. Still on disable rather that auto. Dont have any pcie gen 4 devices anyway,

*To the point:*
I am currently using SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11.exe and Patch_110200xx_H10.reg No crackling sound have not have the time testing the channel switching.
*"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010*
Do seem to work for me on my x570
*Patch_110200xx_H10_modified.reg* (from  Sound Blaster Z MOD DDL.zip)
It uses *"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:000000ff*
I get crackling sound using ff not on 10

Uploading the 3 versions of the ini files i have. That @orionbg was involved in Patch_110200xx_H10_modified.reg is for shore.
Patch_110200xx_H10.reg and sbx_fix.reg (same files settings different spacing.) I dont know who made this. Creed to you.

Off/On:
Channel swapping. Some say that if you set 16Bit 44,1Khz it prolongs the time before the channels do switch.
*@marz* I have not tested 24Bit 44,1Khz. I will try. Dont belive my OLD JVC like anything that's not 48Khz

Sorry for bad Eng.
PS
INFO: if some one is afraid to download the ini files. The they overwrites the settings in the windows register so first using Patch_110200xx_H10.ini and then Patch_110200xx_H10_modified.ini makes the last one just work. 

Patch_110200xx_H10.ini should lock like this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020023]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020024]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020025]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020026]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020027]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020033]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010

DS


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## marz (May 1, 2020)

Update: I narrowed my issue with SBZ changing/swapping channels and it was the Dolby/DTS packs. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the packs and still have minimal issues during application or game launching. If it swaps I just throttle between No Encoder to DTS or Dolby in the SB control panel Cinematic tab. Then it would be fine until I switch apps, again. No issues at all when using No Encoder. The crackling in Optical mode has stopped or at least I think it did using the reg fix posted by @*hACmAn Patch_110200xx_H10 so thank you for posting. *


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## EnterpriseNL (May 16, 2020)

I've had this problem too, I thought it was my optical cable, so bought a new one,  seemed it was MSI, I have a Gaming edge wifi with an SBZ and had stuttering during music on youtube with DTS enabled, no encoder worked fine tho, So MSI just released new bios for this board(V1.92) and it solved the issue


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## kenshin1 (Jun 23, 2020)

And now that i just built a Ryzen 3000 on an X570 Taichi mainboard.. we are right back to this bullshit again, except this time the sounds are bouncing from speaker to speaker like crazy on my Logitech Z5500s, and within 10minutes of startup, the sound completely stops working.. the MOD DLL hasnt fixed this one. And now that Creative has the AE cards out now, Ill bet they abandon all support for Sounblster Z soundcards so they dont have to deal with it. Swapping .inis worked for me for a short time, but the issue has resurfaced. Have also tried lowering the playback rates, no success.. the only thing it has done is reduced teh time the issues occur, but they do stil occur given time.


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## orionbg (Jun 24, 2020)

Hey guys, maybe not a solution for everybody here but what I finally did after everything else failed was to order myself a Creative SB OMNI 5.1. It is a USB external sound card with support for DDL and works perfectly fine! No matter the Windows (or MAC OS for that matter) version. The latest driver for this thing on Creative's web site is from 2015 and it still works perfectly! Some times there is a click that can be heard from the device itself (some relay) but that is very quiet and is not having any effect on the sound quality. Most stores have a return policy so you can always try it. Just remember to remove all the SBZ drivers/software before using the OMNI. BTW the OMNI control panel and capabilities is 99% the same as the one on the SBZ. Also, you can sell the SBZ and recoup some of the money you spent on the OMNI.


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## CityCultivator (Jun 24, 2020)

orionbg said:


> Hey guys, maybe not a solution for everybody here but what I finally did after everything else failed was to order myself a Creative SB OMNI 5.1. It is a USB external sound card with support for DDL and works perfectly fine! No matter the Windows (or MAC OS for that matter) version. The latest driver for this thing on Creative's web site is from 2015 and it still works perfectly! Some times there is a click that can be heard from the device itself (some relay) but that is very quiet and is not having any effect on the sound quality. Most stores have a return policy so you can always try it. Just remember to remove all the SBZ drivers/software before using the OMNI. BTW the OMNI control panel and capabilities is 99% the same as the one on the SBZ. Also, you can sell the SBZ and recoup some of the money you spent on the OMNI.


Also own an Omni.
The latest driver is from 2018. Creative has not put the driver in Omni installation package, but in X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro installation package. You can extract it and install it, or download this and install.
If you use DDL, you can update the DDL part to the latest available version, released in 2019.
DDL feature is not available on Mac.


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## erocker (Jun 24, 2020)

My Soundblaster Zx was fine until Windows 10. After that, multiple issues with occasional noise and drivers/Windows update issues. I always stayed away from USB sound but switched to a Yamaha USB mixer and I'll never go back to a sound card again.


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## Regeneration (Jun 25, 2020)

Windows 10 build 1803 (and newer) is plagued with latency issues.

Microsoft made a change to the OS timer that drove a lot of drivers mad.

Audio stuttering is one of the symptoms and it is not exclusive to Creative products.


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## INSTG8R (Jun 26, 2020)

Welp I upgraded to X570 and now I’m in the same boat as everyone else...I gave up and I’ve removed it and am now on onboard and can already hear the loss of quality right from the intro/load screen to Forza 4....I’ll mess with the EQ a bit but my 5.1 sounds so flat...


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## Regeneration (Jun 28, 2020)

Please try this driver and let me know if it helps with anything.


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## INSTG8R (Jun 28, 2020)

Regeneration said:


> Please try this driver and let me know if it helps with anything.


I’ll put it aside. I have nuked my OS a few times and finally got my build stable  So I decIdea to give it another chance. I haven’t really done any game testing just got a bare bones install but it seems fine now.



Regeneration said:


> Please try this driver and let me know if it helps with anything.


Well I just did a quick Modify install and no change. I will do a clean install later and report back. I switched from the Rig in my wig to a 3700X/Arous X570 Pro and it’s been a less than fun build and it’s hot as balls. my literally bulletproof SB experience has now been shattered and I’m very much about sound as much as visuals
i hope your driver fixes it because Realtek still sucks...


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## Regeneration (Jun 30, 2020)

INSTG8R said:


> Well I just did a quick Modify install and no change. I will do a clean install later and report back. I switched from the Rig in my wig to a 3700X/Arous X570 Pro and it’s been a less than fun build and it’s hot as balls. my literally bulletproof SB experience has now been shattered and I’m very much about sound as much as visuals
> i hope your driver fixes it because Realtek still sucks...



Try a clean installation of the driver.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 1, 2020)

Regeneration said:


> Try a clean installation of the driver.


Tried that too same result.


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## alias007 (Jul 12, 2020)

Hi Everyone, 

I owner Ryzen 3900X and ASUS X570 CROSSHAIR VIII (bios ver:2103) and I connected optical cable with Z906. I have same issue (crackling, dropping and swapping). 

I tried Sound Blaster Z MOD DDL and other solutions (44100 hz, 10bit tag, PAX driver etc.) 
Result : No crackling, no dropping but rarely swapping sound. 

Temp solution for swap: I'm selecting headphones and again selecting speakers from SBX Studio Pro. But after a while it swapping again. 

I connected with Creative Technical Support. 

They want Diagnostic file for issue. I sent file and they sent REG Patch Files for issue. 

Result : No crackling, no dropping, no swapping!!



I want to share Creative's suggestions with you:

"1.Update the BIOS / chipset on the motherboard if it is not up to date; You do this at your own risk, please contact the motherboard manufacturer if you are not sure.

2. Deactivate the quick start function, as it cannot correctly perform a required restart for installation / deinstallation processes.

Help Deactivate quick start function:

  - Open the Control Panel and click on Power Options
  - Click on the option that links the power buttons on the left.
  - Click "Change the setting that is currently unavailable".
  - If prompted by UAC, click "Yes".
  - Under shutdown settings, uncheck the box "Enable quick start (recommended)", click the "Save changes" button

3. Now uninstall the sound card including driver software and all related creative applications from programs and functions in Cleanboot mode



			https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
		


Remove all driver residues from the registry with a third-party cleaner (e.g. CC CLeaner).

4. A reboot should be carried out here. Check programs and functions again, registry, whether everything has really been removed, repeat if necessary.

5. Download (don't install yet !!!) the following driver software link:

File name: SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11.exe






						Creative Worldwide Support >
					

Welcome to Creative Worldwide Support. Get technical help for your Creative products through Knowledgebase Solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more.



					support.creative.com
				




6. Now temporarily disconnect the internet connection in order to avoid possible faults e.g. to avoid by auto updates.

7. Install the downloaded software package

8. Reboot the system


7 different patches so that you can install them, please install them one by one, reboot each time and then test your sound card for the problem described.
If there is a patch that fixes the problem, you should not test the other patches any longer and then please let us know which patch has brought about the solution for you, your components.

-  Patch_11020033_H10.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H0C.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H08.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H04.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H14.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H18.reg
-  Patch_11020033_H20.reg

Notes: In principle, the user must double-click on one of these registration files so that the settings in the local system registry are available.
Next, restart the computer. (Reboot)
Next, check if there are any improvements.
If the problems are resolved, stick to these settings.
Otherwise, try the next registry file.
For example, let's start with the recommendation from H10.reg. If the symptom worsens, we recommend a lower value, e.g. B. H08.reg. If the symptoms improve, we recommend a lower value, e.g. B. H04.reg. If H04.reg addresses the user problem, we recommend that the user keep the value.
However, if the symptom improves with H10.reg, we continue to recommend H14.reg and so on."

Firstly I tried Patch_11020033_H0C file. This file solved my issue. You can apply the them recommends if you want. 

After I enabled quick start. Because Windows late opening. 

A suggestion for advanced user: 
If you downloaded mod drivers before, delete older files (cthda files) from System 32/drivestore/filerepository. 
Maybe old and new drivers conflict. 

I hope this patches will be a permanent solution.


----------



## mvpalves (Jul 28, 2020)

alias007 said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I owner Ryzen 3900X and ASUS X570 CROSSHAIR VIII (bios ver:2103) and I connected optical cable with Z906. I have same issue (crackling, dropping and swapping).
> 
> ...



I just created an account to say THANK YOU!!

It worked for me!! At least I'm hearing music for 4 hours straight without being interrupted by the DDL/DTSC bug.

I'm also using the H0C file

Thank you


----------



## alias007 (Jul 28, 2020)

@mvpalves  You are welcome. I glad that your problem is solved.


----------



## Dephect (Jul 28, 2020)

mvpalves said:


> I just created an account to say THANK YOU!!
> 
> It worked for me!! At least I'm hearing music for 4 hours straight without being interrupted by the DDL/DTSC bug.
> 
> ...


Hi mvpalves, I'm glad this worked for you.

Which Windows version are you running and build please?


----------



## hifimonkey (Aug 7, 2020)

Dephect said:


> Hi mvpalves, I'm glad this worked for you.
> 
> Which Windows version are you running and build please?



I also just created an account to thank you for post the guide. So far (few hours) this has worked for me as well. Didn't need to install any of the patches either. 

Running Windows 10 19041.


----------



## lquser (Aug 14, 2020)

@alias007 First thank you to bring this fix to the masses. I buy my SoundBlasterZ second hand and don't have proof to talk with creative.
Just to bring so far my expirience.
I directly try your reg file Patch_11020033_H0C.reg and channel swaping was fixed, but rarely some crackling occure.
Then begin with lesser file Patch_11020033_H04.reg, but after some long time swaping channel occure, no crackling.
And now I am with Patch_11020033_H08.reg and for 24h things look OK with no swap and crackling.

For similar systems, I am with Asrock x470 gaming K4 mobo, Ryzen 3700x and OC ram 4000@3733 16-16-16-32, nvme PCIe x3  Samsung drivers.

All the best, thanks again


----------



## DronedOut (Aug 29, 2020)

Hello, I have read this entire forum and is this fix really a permanent fix? I had to pull my SBZx out due to crackling and channel swapping on a system using an r9 3900x, x470 Taichi BIOS 3.90, RTX 2080ti, 32GB G.Skill 3200 CL14. The issues was unbearable but after using the card for years upgrading to the 3900x and using new bios is what did me in I think and have not been able to use this expensive paper weight since.


----------



## stinger608 (Aug 30, 2020)

So, bottom line here? Is the newest drivers from Creative working with the newest update on Windows 10? 

Or is it better to download the Daniel K drivers? 

Got a Sound Blaster Z coming sometime next week and want to be sure I don't have these issues mentioned in this thread.


----------



## 529th (Sep 4, 2020)

Been running the latest windows 2004 for a month or two.  Had a Zx installed and started noticing sound swapping.  Was completely fine before, and running 24 bit 192Hz.  Bought an Audigy Fx and the same thing.  This is with CS:GO, Rising Storm, Rising Storm: Vietnam, Unreal Tournament 4.  Ryzen 3800X, X570. 

If you want to know what's in the .reg files just right click and choose 'edit' and you can see what's being changed, and if you want you can manually change it instead.  I haven't tried any reg files yet, what one works for sound swapping?  I use Stereo Direct, btw

EDIT: Are the dword's in hexideciman or decimal?


----------



## stinger608 (Sep 6, 2020)

Well, I can confirm that the Daniel K drivers along with the Reg fix works. 
When I first installed the Sound Blaster Z it was doing the swap channel thing. 
Uninstalled the drivers and installed the Daniel K drivers and ran the reg fix and it now is good.


----------



## 529th (Sep 6, 2020)

stinger608 said:


> Well, I can confirm that the Daniel K drivers along with the Reg fix works.
> When I first installed the Sound Blaster Z it was doing the swap channel thing.
> Uninstalled the drivers and installed the Daniel K drivers and ran the reg fix and it now is good.



Could it possibly be one and not the other?

I applied the reg patch for my Audigy Fx but used a (10) instead of 10(16)

This is what's needed for the Fx:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020041]
"HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword:00000010


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## phasemaster (Sep 8, 2020)

Wow this thread has been quite a read. I too have been having (crackling?) issues with my Sound Blaster Z. I did try the registry fix suggested by @*hACmAn, *but it appears to have had no effect. I just noticed Creative put out some new drivers in August so I will try those*.*

Anyway, the main reason I wanted to post here is because I found a temporary workaround that makes the crackling/distortion issue go away for a couple hours (on my machine, anyway). In the video I linked above you'll notice the crackling start at about the 0:08 mark and continue until I switch the 'Encoder' setting on the 'Cinematic' tab of Sound Blaster Pro Studio from 'DDS Connect' to 'Dolby Digital Live' (around 0:53 in the video).

Hope this is helpful for anyone that still has the problem and didn't already stumble upon this workaround


----------



## stinger608 (Sep 8, 2020)

phasemaster said:


> I just noticed Creative put out some new drivers in August so I will try those*.*



Didn't help at all on the one I had. 

I ended up downloading and installing the Daniel K driver and reg fix.






						Beta test drivers for Sound Blaster Z, Zx, ZxR and Recon3D PCIe
					

This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs.   Use it at your own risk.    Supports Sound Blaster Z,  Sound Bla...




					danielkawakami.blogspot.com


----------



## phasemaster (Sep 8, 2020)

stinger608 said:


> Didn't help at all on the one I had.
> 
> I ended up downloading and installing the Daniel K driver and reg fix.
> 
> ...



Hmm, I wonder if there are multiple issues going on here. Maybe this would explain why some people hear "crackling" and I hear something more like digital distortion (you can hear it in the video I posted above).

Also, the official Creative/Sound Blaster drivers from August did not fix the issue for my Sound Blaster Z, so I will give the Daniel K drivers a shot.

Thanks!


----------



## stinger608 (Sep 8, 2020)

phasemaster said:


> Hmm, I wonder if there are multiple issues going on here. Maybe this would explain why some people hear "crackling" and I hear something more like digital distortion (you can hear it in the video I posted above).
> 
> Also, the official Creative/Sound Blaster drivers from August did not fix the issue for my Sound Blaster Z, so I will give the Daniel K drivers a shot.
> 
> Thanks!


 Once you download the driver and the reg fix, install driver, then reboot, then run the reg fix before firing the program up.


----------



## phasemaster (Sep 9, 2020)

stinger608 said:


> Once you download the driver and the reg fix, install driver, then reboot, then run the reg fix before firing the program up.



TLDR; Installed custom Daniel K driver and registry fix (I think). No recurring issues yet.
-----
OK. That was weird. I downloaded the 'SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_12X.7z' and 'SBZRegFix.7z' files via Daniel K's site. However, during the driver install, I got an error (see attached) stating that 'Installation is unable to continue...(code) I-010'. (According to Creative, this error relates to 'missing Windows components'). I expected this to kill the installer, but it seemed to finish anyway. So I rebooted, ran the registry fix utility, then rebooted again.

I wasn't getting sound initially, so I went into the Sound Blaster Pro Studio app, clicked on the 'cinematic' tab, and was slightly horrified to see that the DTS Connect radio option was _missing_. (In retrospect, this was not that big of a deal, as I could always re-install the official drivers).

According to the Creative troubleshooting article I mentioned above, one must find an 'install.log' file before dismissing the driver installer's error message, so I set about trying to re-install the driver. Thankfully this did not seem to be necessary, as launching the Daniel K installer again gave me the 'repair' option, which seems to have done the trick. I also re-ran the registry fix utility again (and rebooted again) for good measure.

So I currently have working sound and the 'DTS Connect' option is back in SB Pro Studio. I won't know for sure whether these steps fixed my distortion issue until at least a couple of days, but I will report back either way.

Thanks.


----------



## phasemaster (Sep 10, 2020)

phasemaster said:


> TLDR; Installed custom Daniel K driver and registry fix (I think). No recurring issues yet.
> -----
> OK. That was weird. I downloaded the 'SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_12X.7z' and 'SBZRegFix.7z' files via Daniel K's site. However, during the driver install, I got an error (see attached) stating that 'Installation is unable to continue...(code) I-010'. (According to Creative, this error relates to 'missing Windows components'). I expected this to kill the installer, but it seemed to finish anyway. So I rebooted, ran the registry fix utility, then rebooted again.
> 
> ...



Distortion issue came back today  At least the workaround I mentioned still seems to be effective.


----------



## 529th (Sep 25, 2020)

Yesterday Windows Update offered a Creative driver update.  I installed the driver update.  Noticed my control panel settings were reset, so something was installed yet I can't seem to find what's been updated.  Looked through device manager and the driver was from 2017 - I'm probably looking in the wrong place but just thought I'd mention it here.  Oh and the registry edit via Creative support is untouched, still the same = "HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword: 0x00000010 (16)  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020041]  41 is for the Audigy Fx


----------



## 529th (Oct 6, 2020)

529th said:


> Yesterday Windows Update offered a Creative driver update.  I installed the driver update.  Noticed my control panel settings were reset, so something was installed yet I can't seem to find what's been updated.  Looked through device manager and the driver was from 2017 - I'm probably looking in the wrong place but just thought I'd mention it here.  Oh and the registry edit via Creative support is untouched, still the same = "HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE"=dword: 0x00000010 (16)  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020041]  41 is for the Audigy Fx



Without the reg setting and with the windows update that I mentioned, CS:GO and Rising Storm audio both cut out mid-game.


----------



## alias007 (Nov 6, 2020)

Hi Everyone, 

Creative released official new driver (Only driver not software): 

SBZSeriesDriverInstaller (6.0.102.74) 

_Works With:_

Sound Blaster Z
Sound Blaster Zx
_Fixes:_

Fix master volume laggy issue on Z Series.
Fix possible DDL audio break and no audio after a period of continuous playback esp. in certain x570 motherboard.
_Requirements:_

Microsoft® Windows® 10 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit
_Notes:_

To install this driver installer, do the following:
Download the file onto your local hard disk.
Double-click the downloaded file.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
Restart your computer after installation.



*My recommend:* Firstly check for BIOS update and clean install SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11 after install new driver.

Software: SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11.exe


----------



## hACmAn (Nov 7, 2020)

This will be tested. =) FINALLY


----------



## INSTG8R (Nov 8, 2020)

Running the new driver. Nothing untoward to report, everything working normally.


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## hACmAn (Nov 8, 2020)

To early for me to say. I knormaly need a maraton like potplayer or some not so long time in the frostbyte engine to get the total swapp of speakers. The crakling sound was gone for me efter reg, fixes mm.

Before this driver and still are i am running 3600x and AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 V2 1.1.0.0 . Seams Update AMD AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.1.0.0 Patch C is out for my MB. I habe to retest.

A cupple off days and no OS restart is minimum when i try creative and there drivers. =(


----------



## INSTG8R (Nov 8, 2020)

hACmAn said:


> To early for me to say. I knormaly need a maraton like potplayer or some not so long time in the frostbyte engine to get the total swapp of speakers. The crakling sound was gone for me efter reg, fixes mm.
> 
> Before this driver and still are i am running 3600x and AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 V2 1.1.0.0 . Seams Update AMD AGESA ComboAM4v2 1.1.0.0 Patch C is out for my MB. I habe to retest.
> 
> A cupple off days and no OS restart is minimum when i try creative and there drivers. =(


I cannot stress this enough a BIOS update is gonna reset settings meaning Spread Spectrum will be enabled by default and will wreak absolute havoc on sound cards and all those symptoms you describe  I’m waiting for the AGESA final before updating.


----------



## hACmAn (Nov 10, 2020)

INSTG8R said:


> I cannot stress this enough a BIOS update is gonna reset settings meaning Spread Spectrum will be enabled by default and will wreak absolute havoc on sound cards and all those symptoms you describe  I’m waiting for the AGESA final before updating.


OK. I normaly reconfig all settings manualy after a bios update to get the OC right. ASRock do change the menys in my bios all the time. Spred Specrum is one that i set to disabled the first think i can.
I am testing every beta bios to see if it helps the sound problem.


----------



## alias007 (Jan 11, 2021)

Hi Everyone,

Creative released official new application for Sound Blaster Z, Zx, ZxR, Z SE : *Sound Blaster Command* _(new driver included: 6.0.102.75)_






This download contains the Sound Blaster® Command application for Windows® operating systems. For more details, please read the rest of this web release note.
Sound Blaster Command provides you with various configuration options to enhance the performance of your product and personalize your audio settings.
_Works With:_

Sound BlasterX G6
Sound BlasterX AE-5
Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus
Sound Blaster X3
Sound Blaster G3
Sound Blaster AE-9
Sound Blaster AE-7
Sound Blaster AE-9PE
Sound Blaster Z
Sound Blaster Zx
Sound Blaster ZxR
Sound Blaster Z SE
_What's New:_

First release for Z, Zx, ZxR, Z SE.
_Fixes:
Requirements:_

Sound Blaster G3: Microsoft® Windows 10 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8 32-bit or 64-bit
Others: Microsoft® Windows® 10 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8.1 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 8 32-bit or 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit
_Notes:_

To install this application, do the following:
Download the file onto your local hard disk.
Double-click the downloaded file.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
Restart your computer when prompted.


*About for Sound Blaster Command:* Sound Blaster Command Guide

*Sound Blaster Command Download:* SBZMasterInstaller_3.4.94.03.exe


----------



## DronedOut (Jan 13, 2021)

I am glad to announce this driver has made my Zx a working sound card again. It is also no more improved as well. Before I have to disable all other sound devices. With this new driver I am able to keep all other devices enabled. The software is a lil wonky and I was forced to reinstall once so I suggest not fiddling with it too much. I am happy to be able to use my card again.


----------



## hACmAn (Jan 27, 2021)

@alias007 nice links

Sorry for not being to optimistic. One off these days.

I have instilled the driver now on w10 build rs_prerelese 21296.
Ihave not used the reg fixes H10/H14 that worked decent for me before. None here just see, so might take some hours or day to see if i get the switching problem from audio sources.

I have noticed 2 bad parts, maybe more.
I use DTS connect or DD Live depending on driver versions. I have a 5.0 system.
In the menu "Playback" there is now only Stereo, 2.1 surround, *4.0 surround*, 4.1 surround and 5.1 surround.

Edit1 Start:
Full range front is still there. Full range pack speakers is gone for back speakers or is now named Surround Speakers? (In old GUI Full range back speakers was an option.)
In that way is the old control panel superior. Its the same in the old panel i did just misunderstood.
Edit1 End:

The speaker test is ok better that the DING all your neibers can not hear anything anymore. To bad on the 0.1 subbwofer that dont exist and sounds off.

I don't use the Equalizer or scout mode so can say anything about that part.

Overall:
GUI fix on SBX Profile so you cant change settings before activating the on/off button. Might be one ide for later versions.

I will test the driver out and not use reg fixes i normally use just to test and i am on an old AMD bios. (AMD AGESA Combo-AM4 V2 1.1.0.0 patch C)

GUI:
I don't like it. Test to create a new SBX Profile if you want the crystalizer.

On all. Give me my 5.0. 4 full range speakers and a center back. =)

To sum it agen. THEY HAVE STARTED TO DO NEW DRIVERS.  Time will tell. And after they say that it was a hardware problem that could not be solved on AMD X570 motherboards. Its a lot better sens last patch. One maybe test to install the new driver and install the old control panel to se the reg keys. =)

On/off Topic:
Do we have a tread on the different behaviors on the revisions on the cards?

On/off Topic:
Do we have a tread on the different behaviors on the revisions on the cards?
I have the first off the two revisions on Z.

Edit2:
Fore those that want to try out the old Surround setting and Crystalizer so was the old defaults 67% on Surround and 65% on the Crystalizer.


----------



## INSTG8R (Jan 27, 2021)

hACmAn said:


> @alias007 nice links
> 
> Sorry for not being to optimistic. One off these days.
> 
> ...


Yeah on AMD boards just turn off Spread Spectrum in the BIOS and everything is solved


----------



## hACmAn (Jan 28, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Yeah on AMD boards just turn off Spread Spectrum in the BIOS and everything is solved


It still did not solve anything for me. I have had it off sens i got my x570 ordered 2019-10-31 so sens some days after that. =(


----------



## INSTG8R (Jan 28, 2021)

hACmAn said:


> It still did not solve anything for me. I have had it off sens i got my x570 ordered 2019-10-31 so sens some days after that. =(


Only thing that messes up my ZX, could always try Daniel Ks drivers that have been posted earlier in this thread. I‘m using the latest Creative officials in 5.1 with zero issues as long as SS is off


----------



## hACmAn (Jan 28, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Only thing that messes up my ZX, could always try Daniel Ks drivers that have been posted earlier in this thread. I‘m using the latest Creative officials in 5.1 with zero issues as long as SS is off


And what MB cipset are you using? And are you using DTS or DD over tosslink?


----------



## INSTG8R (Jan 29, 2021)

hACmAn said:


> And what MB cipset are you using? And are you using DTS or DD over tosslink?


MoBo and audio are in my specs, I use analog


----------



## hACmAn (Jan 29, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> MoBo and audio are in my specs, I use analog



Ok, now i am on the track. Tnx

Edit: Spelling and clarification.
I installed the latest and version of the driver. Then uninstalled it. Then installed the old SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11.exe and  SBZSeriesDriverInstaller.exe (dated 2021-01-06 20:48) (see older posts from@alias007).
Tested and restarted, installed the later/last/curent. Installed the lates and now i have both the new and old control panel active. Did not modify a single line of code or regedit.

I se good potential in future updates to Sound Blaster Command if it reacts this way.
In the video i have both open at the same time and testing around how the settings in the old reacts on the new one. (dated 2021-01-27 18:52(SBZMasterInstaller_3.4.94.03.exe))  The EULA still say 2019 something









I have now done a DDU do to some sound volume problems. I, at this point believe its related on how my JVC handle the DDL signal. So ignore that parts for now.
End edit 2021-01-30 05:11 GTM+1


----------



## INSTG8R (Jan 29, 2021)

hACmAn said:


> Ok, now i am on the track. Tnx
> 
> Installed the latest and version of the driver. Then installed the old some tests and restarts later instaled the lates and now i have both the new and old control panel active. Did not modify a single line of code or regedit.
> 
> ...


Yeah I tried the new Commander but it really didn’t offer me anything over the OG CP because I just set 5.1, Full Range and a Classical EQ and turn off all the other “Nonsense effects” like Crystallizer etc.


----------



## hACmAn (Jan 30, 2021)

INSTG8R said:


> Yeah I tried the new Commander but it really didn’t offer me anything over the OG CP because I just set 5.1, Full Range and a Classical EQ and turn off all the other “Nonsense effects” like Crystallizer etc.


I do like the crystalizer, did belive it did work better on the X-Fi Elite Pro i hade/have before. So i might just be nostalgic.

Another que.
The old drivar sayd it fixed Dolby Digital Live channel swapping. DTS was not mentioned in the change note. And its diferent wrappers for DDL and DTS, Id DTS not works after some times try DDL.


----------



## marz (Feb 3, 2021)

*Problem Solved*

If you have an AMD 570x mobo (like I do) just change the *PCIe slot to Gen 2*. No more encoder issues or crackling.


----------



## hACmAn (Feb 5, 2021)

marz said:


> *Problem Solved*
> 
> If you have an AMD 570x mobo (like I do) just change the *PCIe slot to Gen 2*. N


To bad it did not work for most of us, I cant change all to one setteing or specific. Thaw another function Creative did wine about they culd not be solved on the 5xx series, That the 4xx series did not have.
I had missed SBZMasterInstaller_3.4.98.00.exe was using SBZMasterInstaller_3.4.94.03.exe
27Jan vs 2Feb.

Q? hav you that uses seen a guge deference between DDL and DTS in channel jumping? Thay did say in an older chancled that DDL was solved and did not remember DTS.

And before i did a DDU to get rid of the drivers and reinstall I uninstall the DDL and DTS software from add/remove program. If you want to test what i did.
The channeljumping for me is now mostly notably in movies. Have them on for houres even if the apliferier is muted. And some long moves in a row or you favorit series in 5-6h. In games it goes faster hover not that noticeable like in a move. Hope you understand what i mean. =(



INSTG8R said:


> Yeah I tried the new Commander but it really didn’t offer me anything over the OG CP because I just set 5.1, Full Range and a Classical EQ and turn off all the other “Nonsense effects” like Crystallizer etc.


The new one have profiles. It is less good if you look at my video. The other things the installer does is the interesting part.
Edit:
And that the new and old are so conected so we can prpbly install the old one and disable the new one afterwards to get the old menues working, We lose the Profile part do. For now i just want to test how this new versions work withot me changen more that my windows builds.


----------



## INSTG8R (Feb 5, 2021)

hACmAn said:


> The new one have profiles.


Old one had profiles you could set and save yourself


----------



## bibouli (Jun 22, 2021)

I had similar issue. Fixed the issue by seting the sound quality to the same thing in every output and input i was listening to, in my case 24bit, 48hz.


----------



## RJARRRPCGP (Jun 22, 2021)

A custom equalizer, isn't the problem. It's the Crystalizer and the other stuff.


----------



## Frauss79 (Jun 22, 2021)

the only solution to the problem with the latest windows version, you set the audio in stereo from windows audio and kill the sounblaster and creative services.


----------



## Athlonite (Jun 23, 2021)

You know how I solved this problem I simply stopped using the SB-Z and just used HDMI audio from my GPU into my amp problem solved


----------



## Slion (Jul 2, 2022)

I still have that issue with the latest drivers and Sound Blaster Command using a Sound Blaster Z on an Asus Z270-WS motherboard.
After a few minutes listening to some stereo audio that's going through DDL or DTS encoding the front channels audio comes out of the surround speakers and its all broken with intermittent crackling. The issue occurred when watching YouTube in Vivaldi and when doing video calls on Microsoft Teams. I wonder if it did occur when playing Fortnite too.
In any case it happens after a period of continuous playback as those Creative Labs driver release notes seems to suggest.

Sounds like a software problem so I'm assuming the latest Sound Blaster hardware also have those issues right?
Is there other hardware out there that does DDL/DTS encoding for SPDIF and that actually works? Sound Blaster or not Sound Blaster.
Crazy to see how hard it is to get reliable surround audio on Windows 10 in 2022.
On an other PC I'm using HDMI and there too it's a mess, mostly Windows/Microsoft issue though in that case or maybe NVidia… who knows…

Looking back up on that thread it looks like Creative Labs was suggesting people to adjust some registry settings to control some buffer size in order to fix the issue.
The registry key in question is:
`Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020027\HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE`
Mine was set to `8`. I set it to `C` which is the next value up Create Labs recommended.
So far so good I could play over 60 minutes of audio without having that issue which is way better than what it could do before, so I'm going to assume that fixed it.


----------



## Mittenz (Jul 3, 2022)

What motherboards are you guys using?
Power supply?
case?

this is starting to sound like 100% hardware related issues on your PCI-E bleeding emi into it, or power related.

in-fact my SBZ is the only device that gives me solid optical out and DDL and DTS.

now I hope everyone here has tried a fresh OS and DDU to purge all drivers before proceeding further. 

I’m just saying you should honestly order new parts one by one on Amazon because I don’t think it’s hardware related to the card, I’m sure it isn’t software either if I had to bet, unless you all are corrupting drivers which a DDU purge and reinstall should help.

All these work around and buffers are just showing you have anolog interference your trying to offset.

I’ve been ordering sbz off eBay that have crackling issues in discriptions cheap and testing them in my cracking verified config that I know has grounding and emi issues, and my fixed machines and they work fine.

so I’m quite sure it isn’t software related.
But you guys all need to also run OCCT stress test and make sure you memory, cpu are all stable aswell under heavy load. 

These issues seem too unexplained, unless there is more complexity like your systems have unstable aspects to them, maybe corrupting memory or a bad psu struggling with spikes 

but i see it like this, the only time I had crackling issues was with hardware problems, power supply but almost always motherboards and very often with ryzen and more so then intel, but intel can aswell. 

When I discovered this and fixed it my SBZ is 100% rock solid on any OS, in fact every one I’ve test has been I have had like 5+ I bought for testing this theory.

Also make sure spread spectrum is enabled on your bios for some emi minimization as having this off messes with analog audio often.

Also if your onboard is working, and gpu they can be isolated for emi where you sbz can be effected by it.

what you should do is try to get a usb mouse (wired) and turn up your volume super loud, along with your in windows and see if you can hear anything when you move it, try front back and all USB ports and if you hear anything you got hardware issues 100%. It might be faint but if you hear anything faint at all when the mouse is polling you have hardware issues on your motherboard imo.



because trying to fix this software wise you’ll never get a cure sorry to say even if you do it’s a temp fix and the issue will show it’s head again one way or another when the buffer can bury the problem.

that is after trying the DDU clean os steps first.


if it still does try different pcie ports, top bottom mid, any difference?

try changing motherboards (avoid asus or gigabyte) fixed?

try using DDU and reinstall drives before trying all that. Try a fresh os even.

it will prolly still be there showing it’s likely not software.

order a second sbz off Amazon and test, same issues? Prolly not the card.

try a different sound card, any weird issues?

There are so many solutions, however this isn’t software, I’m quite sure it isn’t, if you get a temp fix with software by messing with ram buffers

regardless, if you’re spending this much time trying to fix this, time to trouble shoot via hardware swapping.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 3, 2022)

Slion said:


> Looking back up on that thread it looks like Creative Labs was suggesting people to adjust some registry settings to control some buffer size in order to fix the issue.
> The registry key in question is:
> `Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\cthda\HDB\11020027\HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE`
> Mine was set to `8`. I set it to `C` which is the next value up Create Labs recommended.
> So far so good I could play over 60 minutes of audio without having that issue which is way better than what it could do before, so I'm going to assume that fixed it.


What Creative needs to do is create a utility that gives fine-grained controls over settings like these. That way people can make adjustments without mucking about in the registry directly..


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## Slion (Jul 4, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> What Creative needs to do is create a utility that gives fine-grained controls over settings like these. That way people can make adjustments without mucking about in the registry directly..


That would just be a workaround really. What they should really do is get their shit together and fix the root cause of the issue. They should be able to determine the proper buffer size for your system if that's all there is to it.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 5, 2022)

Slion said:


> What they should really do is get their shit together and fix the root cause of the issue.


Not going to disagree.


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## hACmAn (Jul 5, 2022)

Sadly day say the way the AMD 500 series had implemented the PCIE part its not possible.
I use the regfiles to get it decent. Some of my last BIOSE(UEFI) to my MB did make me change a little. So for me Patch_11020023_H10.reg or Patch_11020023_H14.reg with SBZMasterInstaller_3.4.98.00.exe works best.

The interesting part here is that I use (already mentioned here) Use DTS Connect or DD LIve over toslink. The problem is not Spread Spectrum like some still say. If so it would have worked for the masses.
Based on my X-Fi Elite pro. The files seem very similar to DND_PCApp_2_00_00.exe on the outside. And how mutch have thay changed. I dont now. Its not in hardware there att least. The conversation program.

I have given up. I can normaly now using reg files make it work decent (for weeks) with no shutdown the pc and I dont notice the problem.
From what i know ther is atleast 2 revisions of my card. I have the first.


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## Slion (Jul 12, 2022)

Turns out the HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE registry fix only works properly with the older Sound Blaster Z Control Panel. Installer file name is SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_11.exe, you can still download it from Creative support page. When using the latest Sound Blaster Command the registry key keeps being reset to its default value which ends up breaking the digital encoder again. With the old software the key is not reset and the encoder keeps working as it should.

Another major fail from Creative Labs right there… I mean they suggest their users a workaround for a show stopper issue and then they go on making sure they release a new version of the software that not only does not fix to original issue but also breaks the workaround. Seriously Creative, could you be more disrespectful of your customers? Too bad no other vendor offers DDL/DTS encoding, not that I know of anyway.


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## Slion (Jul 24, 2022)

I did not have any issues for weeks with `HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE` set to `C`, until yesterday that bug occurred again. I've changed `HW_CTL_MX_BSIZE` to `10` and restarted the _*Sound Blaster Audio Service*_. No issues so far so it looks like it works at least as good as with `C`. Time will tell if it still happens occasionally. By the way to fix the issue when it occurs all you need to do is go to Windows Services and restart that _*Sound Blaster Audio Service*_.


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