Windows 8 I should have known better, Help?

MikeHawthorne

Essential Member
Microsoft Community Contributor
Hi

Today I was getting a little audio distortion in a new game I'm trying out.
So I decided to update the drivers for my Creative SB Recon3D PCIe sound card.

The problem was probably with the game not the drivers but I figured what the heck I might as well keep things up to date.

I downloaded the drives from the Creative web site and installed them.

The end result it that my sound doesn't work.

I started by checking for some kind of problem in the sound windows and in Device
Manager I thought I'd roll back the driver, but there was no option to roll it back.

I created a restore point before I did the update so the next thing I did was go back to the old restore point.

That restored some very faint sound and the icon on the taskbar show that the sound is working, no red not well symbol.

I then dug out the disk that came with the SB card and deleted the old drives and uninstalled the SB card in Device Manager and rebooted.

No change, still a very faint sound.

Nothing shows any errors, Device Manager shows that both the SB card and nVidia High Definition Audio it working normally.

The speakers are on and the volume control on the speakers still controls the sound level on the internal speaker?

Turn it up and the internal speaker gets louder but not very much but if you turn it down you can't hear the internal speaker at all.

Device Manager 01.JPG

Device Manager 02.JPG

Device Manager 03.JPG

All of the entries under Audio Inputs and Outputs say that everything is working OK as well.

Device Manager 04.JPG

Device Manager 05.JPG


That's when I realised that the sound was coming from the speaker in the computer and not the external speakers. That's why it is weak and requires full volume to hear anything.

I looked at the sounds settings panel, and it shows the Speakers are the default device.

Sound Settings 01.JPG

Sound Settings 02.JPG

The microphone works, at least the bar move up and down when I talk.

So the problem seems to be that Windows is sending the sound to the internal speaker instead of the external speakers through the SB card.

It appears that everything is working, but the sound device selected someplace, is the internal speaker.

As you can see in the image above the SB card is set as the default device.

Anyone have any idea how I can get it to use the speakers?

Any help appreciated.

Mike
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi again....

Here's an update.

I decided that I might as well update my nVidia Geforce 680 video card drivers as long as I was doing things and that the nVidia audio is part of the audio as well.

When I rebooted the computer could not boot and went into recovery mode.

When it recovered the sound had quit all together and it says that there are no speakers or headphones plugged in.
Tomorrow I will dig out my USB headphones and see if they work but I still need to figure out what's going on with my speakers.

It would appear that the Soundblaster was the cause of the crash, the new video drivers are working fine.
I think that when I installed the card from the disk it may have updated, I'll try and do that again and not let it.

As I said, any help appreciated.

Mike
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey Mike, the only thing that looks a little strange to me is you have a SB Recon3d PCIe and SB Recon3d PCIe audio controller listed. Has it always been that way or do you have two controllers for the same device?

I would probably try uninstalling that device in device manager and check the box to remove all drivers. When done, reload the drivers that were working.

Also, you might check the hidden devices to see if there are any instances of the controller there. Uninstalling others may allow prior ones to show up.
 
Hi

I'm not sure about the way the device is shown in Device Manager.
Can anyone check and see if their sound card is listed twice as shown in the image below.

Device Manager 06.JPG

I'm trying to delete the software for the device under properties when I uninstall it so I can do a clean reinstall.

Mike
 
Hi

After removing the software physically, (I deleted the folder), I installed the 2011 drivers from the DVD and the speakers started working again.

Live and learn.

My USB headset works too.

I guess I'll try again to remember "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!"

I can't think how many times I've said that, and then gone ahead and done it anyway, and regretted it!

I'll use these drivers from now until I'm 90.

Thanks for the help.

Mike
 
Hey: I still have 15 years to go!

By then we'll probably have Windows 17 on computers embedded in our heads.
No touchscreen, no keyboard no nothing.
 
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