need help: keep losing sound from my ZxR on my PC (software problem)

I have this problem a few years ago. And somehow the problem fixed by itself.

It's a pure software driver bug. I have just downloaded the latest driver, and it still doesn't work.

I can see the green sound bar moving up on my Vol. display, except there is absolutely no sound

By re-installing the driver, either the old version of the driver or the newly downloaded driver, I got back the sound right away.

So this appears to be a driver corruption issue. AS such, I even try to re-install the driver in a different sub-directory.

The problem is, after I shut down the PC, and hours later when I turn it back on again, the above happens again.

How anyone uses Creative ZxR come across this problem and how did you fix it?

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update:

just try to switch the sound card back to my Realtek on my motherboard. Now, as soon as I plug in the jack, the Asus motherboard sound software pops up, and there is a play button. I press play, and there IS sound.

However, I still get no sound on everything else.

Just the sound test by asus.

Even the windows sound icon sound test fails. Again, the green bar moves up / down, just that there is no sound. So this seems to be a windows problem?

I have a similar driver problem with my ZxR on Windows 10. If you look in device manager under sound, video and game controllers you should see 3 Sound Blaster devices. Ignore the 2 ZxR devices, they should be fine since you installed the latest driver package. But on my computer Windows keeps insisting on installing a newer driver version for the Sound Blaster Audio Controller, and this breaks sound for me. Just let this happen. Then update the driver for this device manually (hit update driver, select "browse my computer for driver software", next window select "let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer", select the older version in the list (6.0.102.50 for me) instead of the newer 6.0.103.34. After the update finishes you may have to restart (I don't remember). And then your ZxR should work properly again. Assuming you have the same issue I did.

DO NOT try to uninstall the new driver, just leave it on your system. Because then Windows Update won't download and force update it again. If you do remove it, prepare to start over.

Maybe a bitrate compatibility issue? Lower the bitrate and work up from there?

Only issue I have is audio randomely not working if I leave the computer on for a long time in an idle state.

Rebooting has always fixed it. System is the one in my sig.

I do a search online and try all those soln., none of it works. In the end, restore pt. is all it takes. I know this bug, I first thought it's a creative problem, now it seems to be win 7

I don't have that issue, but I do have a issue after every windows update my audio goes into 5.1 mode, I just manually change it to 2.1 good luck...

same here. So to play a MKV file, I have to swtich back to 2 speaker

Mine does it too.

If I leave it on speakers it’s fine, if I put it in headphones mode it will output no sound despite the green bar working. If I play with the cables then the card often disappears. Have to reboot a couple of times to get it back.

This really is the last time I get burned by shitty creative drivers

Iratus said:

Mine does it too.

If I leave it on speakers it’s fine, if I put it in headphones mode it will output no sound despite the green bar working. If I play with the cables then the card often disappears. Have to reboot a couple of times to get it back.

This really is the last time I get burned by shitty creative drivers

Click to expand...

You got burned by Microsoft messing with your drivers in reality.

B00nie said:

You got burned by Microsoft messing with your drivers in reality.

Click to expand...

Yeah but that's happened since time immemorial, it broke after creators update, it broke again recently. However Creative don't put out fixes, despite it being hundreds of dollars and still a current product the last update is March 2017.

Microsoft give warnings on this stuff to Tier 1's before they break it. Creative are just lazy and they always have been. They just had too much of the market, I've been from Sound blaster 16, through Awe64, Ti and now the ZxR. All of them have had driver issues and shit software. They work well when they work but that's it.

I shouldn't have gotten the zxr but wanted spdif in and external volume control but I'm done with them.

I don't have a choice to use Windows (for games), I do have a choice on using Creative.

It also happens on the AE-5, but luckily it hasnt hit me yet (*knock on microchips*).
Instead I have a bug where I have to switch my settings from headphones to speakers and back everytime I turn on my computer.

You know what creative tells people to do who complain? Disable fast boot, change BIOS settings, all kinds of excuses as to why their product doesnt work with current gen features enabled.
You know what happens to the majority of people that try those "fixes"? It still doesnt work!

Their drivers are shit and their product is full of bugs they refuse to fix.
If I could find a better soundcard I would jump ship, but I like their 3d headphone surround algorithm too much, its the best I've ever used for FPS games (ever since CMSS3D its been tops).

anyone has the same problem w/ Asus sound cards drivers?