Windows 7 Another "Creative" sound issue

[Scott_M]

Howdy folks !
First post here.
After reading all the threads with anything to do with "Sound" I beleive this is a different issue. It may still be "Creative" related though , but I thought a new thread was in order.

I upgraded from Vista Ultimate to 7 build 7000 with out any problems. A few shortcuts were borked but all in all everything worked and went smooth. All devices in device manager report OK. All windows sounds work. So I did not think anything was wrong until I started gaming the other day. About 5-10 minutes into a game ( any game ) all sound quits. Alt-tab to desktop and no windows sounds. Exit game and everything works again.

Media Player will play just fine for a song or 2 and then gets all crackly. But it continues to play.

The sound card is an older Audigy model SB0090 I had been using the SBAX_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0001 driver. This worked fine in Vista.
I installed (without any problems ) The Beta Driver SBAX_PCDRVBETA_US_2_18_0001 this made no difference.

It seems that after 5-10 minutes of any continuous sounds it will mess up. But the occasional sounds like the default windows sounds are no trouble.

If you all think that this is "Creative" related then it is a good excuse to get a new sound card. But If you think it may be something else I am all ears.
Let me know what you think.

Machine in question
GA-P35-DQ6 ( Note: onboard sound does not work...so that is not an option )
Q6600
2x1gb OCZ Reaper
EVGA GTX 260 core 216
Audigy SB 1394 EAX Advanced HD Model SB0900


Thanks

Scott

 

[momalle1]

I have the same problem, (I think). I would call it more of a buzzing that plays over the music. I've tried every Creative driver I can find with no change. I tried my onboard sound, and it did not do it, and I've only seen people with Audigy cards saying they had this issue.

I want a card with Bass/Treble controls, as soon as I find one, I'll dump Creative, I won't buy an X-Fi after I got screwed by creative with my SB Live and now the Audigy. I'm not sure if Creative doesn't know how to write drivers for Vista/7 or what, but I'm not a happy customer, and I've been a Creative fan for years.

 

[Scott_M]

I have been crusing around all over the net this afternoon trying to find a fix for this and found someone who said that they selected SPDIF as the default audio device and it fixed it for them.
momalle1 I saw your name in the list of posters. It seems to be working for me. My speakers are now listed as "Default communications device" and SPDIF is listed as "Default Device".
Media Player has been running for about a half hour now with no issues. I will do some gaming tonight and report back.

 

[Scott_M]

Here is a screenshot
So far so good

Link Removed due to 404 Error

Scott

 

[momalle1]

I hope it works for you Scott, I get no sound selecting SPDIF. Do you have digital or analog speakers?

 

[Scott_M]

Analog


Played through a couple of albums no issues.

I will game tonight and see if that is fixed as well.


Scott

 

[momalle1]

Funny, I have analog too, SPDIF works fine in Vista, not in 7. I'll have to try the same drivers I have in Vista. Glad yours is working.

Tried the drivers Win7 provides, no sound in SPDIF, latest Vista drivers and DanielK's drivers, all no sound with SPDIF, works in Vista. Oh well!

 

[Scott_M]

I started a game last night and got about 30 minutes in and the sound just stopped. Bummer !

After exiting everything worked again. I installed the Daniel_K drivers and rebooted, I started media Player and it sounded kind of fuzzy , I switched to SPDIF and it sounded good.

Restarted the game and played for almost 2 hours without any sound issues.

I hope its fixed.

Scott

 

[B Anderson]

SPDIF worked for me

Creative Labs Z2 was crackling like you guys, changed it to spdif and it works like a charm with analog speakers. Thanks peeps.

 

[B Anderson]

An Update

Been using PC for several days with SPDIF setting, seems to be fixed using that setting.

 

[MajorDan]

Unfortunatly, Creative decided long ago to stiff there customers who own slightly older but very capable sound cards. If it wasn't for a rogue programer who released Vista compatible drivers that fully supported older creative sound cards, thus creating a huge embarrassment for the creative labs programming team, I honestly think they would have never released an official driver for Vista. Just try to contact them, they require a serial number from you just to complete an online support form. I would have to tear my micro ATX computer apart to get this information, are they nuts? There are no phone numbers listed on there website. Enough is enough. I have been buying creative products since the 1980's, they lost my business 2 years ago.

Here is the article that talks about this rogue programer in more detail and provides a link for Vista 32/64 compatible drivers that also work with W7.

http://www.thespecter.net/blog/?tag=creative-sucks

MajorDan

 

[MrSpiffdifilous]

Has this been resolved?

I'm having the same issue, it takes the sound about 45 minutes to quit in games but otherwise works well. I have no crackling like other people have reported though. I also can't get my surround sound to actually work. I have a Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. I won't get into the surround sound issue here though. I'm going to read the above article tonight when I get home and report my results.