Need serious help: No sound after installing Sound Blaster ZxR to new PC

[Happy Hopping]

so my sound card is running fine on the old PC. Today, I move over to the new PC. The computer sees the card just fine, the driver install just fine, as I go to youtube, I can see the green bar on the Volume Mixer moving up / down

the only problem is : there is no sound

if I switch over to use the green sound port on the motherboard, the sound comes out just fine.

Then I try the newer ver. of ZxR driver, same thing

Now I have seen something similar to this at a friend's PC, in his case, the sound was set to mute by accident

in my case, it looks a lot like the sound is set to mute, except that it is not.

any suggestion

 

[travm]

so my sound card is running fine on the old PC. Today, I move over to the new PC. The computer sees the card just fine, the driver install just fine, as I go to youtube, I can see the green bar on the Volume Mixer moving up / down

the only problem is : there is no sound

if I switch over to use the green sound port on the motherboard, the sound comes out just fine.

Then I try the newer ver. of ZxR driver, same thing

Now I have seen something similar to this at a friend's PC, in his case, the sound was set to mute by accident

in my case, it looks a lot like the sound is set to mute, except that it is not.

any suggestion

Try disabling onboard sound in BIOS.
Also you could need to change the default playback device in your system settings.

 

[Happy Hopping]

I already set the default playback device to ZxR, it has the green checkmark on it.

but I never know I need to disable the onboard sound , let me try

 

[Krispy Kritter]

You shouldn't need to disable it. But it's a good troubleshooting step. Aside from the fact that anything that won't be used, and is thus disabled, frees up resources.

 

[Happy Hopping]

Try disabling onboard sound in BIOS.
Also you could need to change the default playback device in your system settings.

it works. So turns out that's all there is. Thank you very much

both the old and new PC are asus motherboard, and I never have to disable the HD audio controller on the old PC. They must have make some changes

 

[travm]

it works. So turns out that's all there is. Thank you very much

both the old and new PC are asus motherboard, and I never have to disable the HD audio controller on the old PC. They must have make some changes

Its windows. If you disable it in bios, windows forgets it was ever there, and goes looking for other sound. Sometimes software is dumb.

 

[Zepher]

I don't remember if I disabled onboard sound in my BIOS on my Asus Hero VIII but this is what is listed for my audio out,

 

[Happy Hopping]

Try disabling onboard sound in BIOS.
Also you could need to change the default playback device in your system settings.

alright, when I wrote the above this morning, by disable the HD audio controller at the BIOS, it works. I got back the sound from the Sound blaster

just now, I turn on my PC, same thing happens, no sound, but the green bar is moving

but I didn't touch anything since I turn off the PC this morning. Nothing was changed.

so just now, I decide to disable the High Definition audio device and still no change.

what do you guys think happen this time?

 

[Zepher]

alright, when I wrote the above this morning, by disable the HD audio controller at the BIOS, it works. I got back the sound from the Sound blaster

just now, I turn on my PC, same thing happens, no sound, but the green bar is moving

but I didn't touch anything since I turn off the PC this morning. Nothing was changed.

so just now, I decide to disable the High Definition audio device and still no change.

what do you guys think happen this time?

maybe the toggle switch in the Soundblaster software is set to headphones and not speakers.
I've had that happen once in a blue moon with my setup.

 

[Happy Hopping]

let me check, I need to find out where it is

are you using ver. L13_1_0028 or L13_1_01_05?

as I just turn on this new PC, I got sound. So it seems to be hit & miss. I wonder if any specific windows hotfix address this issue

 

[Zepher]

let me check, I need to find out where it is

are you using ver. L13_1_0028 or L13_1_01_05?

as I just turn on this new PC, I got sound. So it seems to be hit & miss. I wonder if any specific windows hotfix address this issue

I am using this version,

 

[travm]

If the mixer bars are moving, it thinks it's playing sound. Just a question of where it is going.. the zxr has lots of outputs, could it be going to the wrong output?

 

[Happy Hopping]

Zepher, I also load up the same software, right now, on this boot up, I have no sound. I did change the speaker setup from 5.1 to 2 chnl. No difference

 

[Happy Hopping]

If the mixer bars are moving, it thinks it's playing sound. Just a question of where it is going.. the zxr has lots of outputs, could it be going to the wrong output?

I use the very last one at the bottom, it should be the right one

it is all hit and miss, all depends on the boot up

 

[travm]

I use the very last one at the bottom, it should be the right one

it is all hit and miss, all depends on the boot up

I don't have a zxr so saying I use the one all the way at the bottom means nothing to me.

 

[Zepher]

Zepher, I also load up the same software, right now, on this boot up, I have no sound. I did change the speaker setup from 5.1 to 2 chnl. No difference

Toggle the speaker/headphone switch

 

[Happy Hopping]

so this is what I have done in the past few days:

1) update the firmware of my motherboard
2) update the driver and software of sound blaster zxr

3) install the black color dial control and test the plug to the back of the sound card and use headphone out as speaker out.

in short, it makes no difference. There is the green bar moving up / down, but no sound

the Realtek sound card works, there is sound coming out

but my biggest problem is, I record some songs at youtube, so I use audiocity, and to get that to work, I need "what U hear", and so far, I hear nothing

any help would be good

 

[B00nie]

Did you wear antistatic protection while handling the card? If not, it might be toast. And you don't need 'what u hear' to record songs from Youtube when you can use Youtube to mp3 converters online.

 

[Happy Hopping]

I only use Audicity as I want the file in FLAC format.

the card is fine, it works for a few days after I move to the new PC. It shows the green bar is moving, even now, just no sound.

 

[Happy Hopping]

If the mixer bars are moving, it thinks it's playing sound. Just a question of where it is going.. the zxr has lots of outputs, could it be going to the wrong output?

the last output is Centre Chnl., so that is the right output, it's the slot that I always use

 

[Zepher]

the last output is Centre Chnl., so that is the right output, it's the slot that I always use

you are supposed to use the RCA outputs. card came with an RCA to 3.5mm adapter if your speakers don't use RCA.

Now this is an odd example from the manual to hook up to your AVR with RCA jacks.
Instead of showing it with straight RCA cables, they show the hook up using 2 adapter cables hooked together,

 

[Happy Hopping]

alright, as of just now, I got back my sound card. I re-sit the PCIe x 1 slot to another slot, no difference. I compare the win update on my old PC vs. my new one, same thing. So that wasn't it.

So instead of keep updating drivers, I un-install all of them.

Now, I have a question, win 7 automatically find back those 2 drivers, it says Creative .....2014. Exactly where is this driver come from? Is this a driver that is part of Win 7? or is this 1 of the old driver that I install from 1 of those Creative exe file that I put in?

 

[Happy Hopping]

Zepher​

so I got no sound again (it's only been 6 days with sound). So just now, I did try your diagram above for 2 speakers: I use the Y splitter that comes with the box, that's the Front Left / Right. And I have active speaker, so I connect the other end (the black plug) to the Y splitter cable of the 2 speakers.

Re-boot the PC.

Just after the re-boot, there is that standard windows boot up music for a few second, but after that, nothing: the green bar moves, no sound

any other trick?

P.S. I can use the embedded sound card, but I use Audacity all the time to sound capture re-mix songs at Youtube. How do you do that without a sound card? as Creative gives me that "What U Hear" software so the Audacity can record it from

 

[pendragon1]

have you tried disabling your onboard, all unneeded outputs on the sound card and your gpu audio?
edit: and what audio format do you have it set to?

 

[B00nie]

I only use Audicity as I want the file in FLAC format.

the card is fine, it works for a few days after I move to the new PC. It shows the green bar is moving, even now, just no sound.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=youtube+to+flac

Youtube audio is always compressed anyway so Flac format gives you no benefit.

 

[Zepher]

Zepher​

so I got no sound again (it's only been 6 days with sound). So just now, I did try your diagram above for 2 speakers: I use the Y splitter that comes with the box, that's the Front Left / Right. And I have active speaker, so I connect the other end (the black plug) to the Y splitter cable of the 2 speakers.

Re-boot the PC.

Just after the re-boot, there is that standard windows boot up music for a few second, but after that, nothing: the green bar moves, no sound

any other trick?

P.S. I can use the embedded sound card, but I use Audacity all the time to sound capture re-mix songs at Youtube. How do you do that without a sound card? as Creative gives me that "What U Hear" software so the Audacity can record it from

If you still have the onboard audio enabled it might be loading the driver after you hear the windows logon sound and then switching to the onboard.
you need to disable it or set the default sound to the ZxR.

If you are still using Windows 7 I can't really help you as I have no windows 7 machines or VM's to mess with.

 

[Happy Hopping]

okay, I'll do that next. Because at the top of the thread, I have already tried the route of disable the onboard, that DOES work, but then a while later, it stop working.

 

[Happy Hopping]

to cut to the chase, if this keep happening, obviously my embedded sound module on the motherboards works fine. Now, I only need to do sound capture for 2 applications:

1) On my SnagIT ver. 13, I need to record the sound via the "What U HEar" from the sound card as I post game solution on my youtube channel

2) and once again, capture save FLAC file from Audiocity from youtube music video.

so for those people who doesn't have sound card, how do they get the equivalent of "What U Hear"

 

[pendragon1]

I have already tried the route of disable the onboard, that DOES work, but then a while later, it stop working.

in bios?

 

[B00nie]

to cut to the chase, if this keep happening, obviously my embedded sound module on the motherboards works fine. Now, I only need to do sound capture for 2 applications:

1) On my SnagIT ver. 13, I need to record the sound via the "What U HEar" from the sound card as I post game solution on my youtube channel

2) and once again, capture save FLAC file from Audiocity from youtube music video.

so for those people who doesn't have sound card, how do they get the equivalent of "What U Hear"

I told you that you don't need to play the videos to record the sound. Snagit can capture the sound directly from your computer, you don't need 'what u hear'. Use system audio. If you need to include your own voice on top of the game, enable your microphone playback in the system audio. You'll need to wear headphones then or you will get microphone loopback.

Also, check the Creative software output mappings. It's possible that your output jack is mapped to something other than the default and that's why you can't hear the sound. Windows can be helpful with that (/sarcasm). Many sound cards enable the user to choose which port is used for microphone and which for different channels and this can be very confusing because the markings on the back panel no longer make sense.

 

[Happy Hopping]

in bios?

yeah, if you scroll to the top of the thread, someone else already told me to do so. And it does work. Except a few days later, it stop working. So we are going in circle. But I'll do it again, although I don't have much faith in the results after a few days

 

[Happy Hopping]

If you still have the onboard audio enabled it might be loading the driver after you hear the windows logon sound and then switching to the onboard.
you need to disable it or set the default sound to the ZxR.

If you are still using Windows 7 I can't really help you as I have no windows 7 machines or VM's to mess with.

So once again, I did go back to the BIOS and disable the onboard sound controller.

And once again, I re-boot, there is the windows charm sound just after the boot up, and then there is no more sound. The sound bar is moving though

so just now, I went to the device manager, and disable "High Definition Audio Device"

 

[Starfalcon]

You prob want to set your sound blaster as your prefrered sound device, as I had similar issues with windows changing it around randomly.

 

[michalrz]

So once again, I did go back to the BIOS and disable the onboard sound controller.

You mean --- the BIOS setting reverted back to auto/enabled?

 

[Happy Hopping]

Right now, after I disable that High Definition Audio Device, it kills the recognition of my 43" Viewsonic's sound, as well as my 60" sharp HD TV as sound. So all there is left, is the sound blaster. So as of this moment, there is sound.

 

[Happy Hopping]

You mean --- the BIOS setting reverted back to auto/enabled?

no I go w/ you guys suggestion, disable it, then I get sound to works for a few days, then no sound. So I enable back that setting at the BIOS level, and no change. So I then remove the newer drivers, and got back the sound. That works for another few days. Then once again no sound. So just today, I disable back the BIOS on the audio controller. And for now, I do have sound. But I don't know if that means anything anymore. In a few days, I could have no sound again.

 

[Zepher]

Right now, after I disable that High Definition Audio Device, it kills the recognition of my 43" Viewsonic's sound, as well as my 60" sharp HD TV as sound. So all there is left, is the sound blaster. So as of this moment, there is sound.

If you are hearing the sound from the card when it boots up and then no sound, it sounds like the sounds are going to one of the monitors through the DP or HDMI cables.
you need to decide what device you are going to use and set that as the default sound output device.

 

[Happy Hopping]

I told you that you don't need to play the videos to record the sound. Snagit can capture the sound directly from your computer, you don't need 'what u hear'. Use system audio. If you need to include your own voice on top of the game, enable your microphone playback in the system audio. You'll need to wear headphones then or you will get microphone loopback.

Also, check the Creative software output mappings. It's possible that your output jack is mapped to something other than the default and that's why you can't hear the sound. Windows can be helpful with that (/sarcasm). Many sound cards enable the user to choose which port is used for microphone and which for different channels and this can be very confusing because the markings on the back panel no longer make sense.

You are talking about Sound Blaster Command? because I haven't seen a software that shows the mapping of output on my ZxR?


https://support.creative.com/downloads/welcome.aspx?nLanguageLocale=1033&nOS=31&nDriverType=0#type_0

 

[B00nie]

Hmm maybe I remember wrong, I have a memory of having a Creative sound card that allowed me to remap the output jacks through software. If you don't have this option, ignore it.

 

[gamerk2]

One thing I've seen with my Z is Windows has a "really" annoying habit of changing my default output device to my NVIDIA HDMI connection for whatever reason. Make sure the default (and preferred) output device is "Speakers (Sound Blaster ZxR)". I recommend doing this through Control Panel->Sound so you can manually set the preferred output device.

The fact you are getting audio at boot means the sound card is connected correctly, and it's likely audio is getting re-routed somewhere else after startup. It's also possible (though unlikely) that some programs may be overriding the audio output device; for testing just use the built in audio output utility from the Sound Blaster Pro Studio.