windows 10 1903 update killed my sound card! what other card can I use?

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freestonew7

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May 17, 2019
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hi all.

windows ten 1903 update ruined my sound card. yup. It did. not working. oh, the device manager says that the card is working. card is not working.

a brand new computer, to replace my older one.
win 10.
Asus prime z390 motherboard.
creative audigy Rx5 sound card.

I did a long search on google. seems that this 1903 update ruined many people's cards and other add-on cards. a safety feature, the article says, of this update, is to remove any older card and driver, as they are older and not secure.
even in the bios, there is no card indicated, all that i can do is to enable or disable the realtek!
[lets not talk about the missing network card! this card is not now even in the device manager! i am using the motherboard wireless, seems to be a good wireless.]

I was able to reinstall the motherboard realtek 887 version sounds. so far, works ok but I have yet to determine if the realtek sounds as good as the audigy did.

I also read that creative released a updated driver for the X-fi series of cards, but not yet for the Audigy series.

I also read that even for the USB sound cards, many now have outdated drivers as of this win 10 update. usb "cards" either do not work or there is hissing and other problems.

I see the day coming when *only* motherboard "cards" will be used. seems that every major win 10 update creators upgrade ruins many add-on cards and drivers!

I have my older computer with a Asus z270 motherboard. I do not think this motherboard has a realtek audio in it, as of now, i have not updated this computer with 1902, but i see that the Day will come when i will have to update!

seems my Nvidia 1050 card has some sort of "sound system" in it. I never knew a video card has audio! at least my device manager says that there is a audio for Nvidia. I will have to google.....

I probably can live with the realtek. but what about my other computer?
what i need, from you all, is a suggestion as to what sound card or USB card can i use that is free from windows update hassles! probably a "new" card, many of the creative classics are so old that the gap is ever widening between them and modern systems. either the new drivers might not work well or maybe like my audigy, they might not make any more updated drivers for this series of cards.
I cannot afford the $200+ cards. neither do i want the el-cheapo $15 specials that advertise the "free from need for drivers" I have good ears even as I am 78 years old. of course the upper frequencies are nearly gone. I listen to music 70% and play games for the 30%.

so.
please give advice on fixing my audigy or give advice as to what card can i use that gets along with windows 10 updates.

thanks...freestone
 
The OS didn't "kill" your card, it just won't let the card interface with the OS to output sound.

I've read that manually installing the latest driver from September 2018 will work. Instead of running the downloaded executable directly, extract it first using 7-zip and then install the driver from the Device Manager old-school style.
 
Armenius said:
The OS didn't "kill" your card, it just won't let the card interface with the OS to output sound.

I've read that manually installing the latest driver from September 2018 will work. Instead of running the downloaded executable directly, extract it first using 7-zip and then install the driver from the Device Manager old-school style.
Click to expand...


yes, I know that the card still is good. i think that i tried just that, open up the driver from the zip then use device manager to install it. windows says then, that the driver for the update is the one already installed. maybe i might have to delete-uninstall the driver then reinstall that driver.

thanks...freestone
 
Creative has actually been pretty amazing as far as updating drivers on some of their older cards to keep up with all of this, but overall your Audigy was a lower-end card in addition to being older so it's probably pretty low on the totem-pole if it's going to see driver updates at all. You should still have the option to revert to the previous update for now. I use computers with an X-Fi Titanium HD, X-Fi Titanium, and an X-Fi XtremeMusic, all of which had problems with 1903, but all of which have new drivers and work now. Those cards range from 10 to almost 15 years old. I can see both perspectives on this though. Is it fair to expect Microsoft not to make changes to their OS because it might cause issues with hardware that old? I would personally prefer they ensure a high degree of compatibility, as I love my older cards and want to keep using them, but it's getting harder to get mad at Microsoft as the cards get older. I don't expect them to support my Creative AWE32 in Win10 either.

freestonew7 said:
seems my Nvidia 1050 card has some sort of "sound system" in it. I never knew a video card has audio! at least my device manager says that there is a audio for Nvidia.
Click to expand...

Modern video outputs such as HDMI and Displayport can also carry a digital audio signal in addition to a Video signal. Thus, your videocard is listed as an audio output. You still have to have it plugged into something that can make use of that digital audio signal for that to matter as the videocard does not have it's own DAC.
 
B00nie said:
And people still continue to use Windows after all this. Amazing.
Click to expand...

None of Creative's newer cards were affected. The Card OP is using is a card that is basically an Audigy 4 (based on the Audigy 2 from 2004) "upgraded" for PCIe, such that it has an onboard PLX chip to translate the PCIe interface for the PCI based controller.
 
Spend the money on an external DAC like the cheap Creative Omni Surround 5.1 or higher end BlasterX G6. I never had an issue with the Omni on Windows 10.
 
so the consensus seems to be wait for a fix or buy a new card.

here's an idea. go back to windows 7... fucking solved.

it won't EOL your sound card for you.
 
I'm with the OP on this one. If windows 10 did support your hardware and then a forced update removed support for your hardware (even if it was accidental) I would expect MS to fix it - Or allow you to stay on the version that does support your hardware and still get 5 or 10 years of security patches. I'm not at all impressed with their update policies.
 
andrewaggb said:
I'm with the OP on this one. If windows 10 did support your hardware and then a forced update removed support for your hardware (even if it was accidental) I would expect MS to fix it - Or allow you to stay on the version that does support your hardware and still get 5 or 10 years of security patches. I'm not at all impressed with their update policies.
Click to expand...
ms doesnt make the card or drivers. its up to the maker of the card to release drivers for the new update. creative hasn't released a new driver set since last fall, this is on them. op could roll back.
 
drivers were insecure before so m$ nuked them.. oh well ask creative to make updates..

if m$ let people use vulnerable drivers knowingly everyone would be mad at them.. bad enough my cpu is apparently F'd by design from a security standpoint don't need my sound card drivers making things worse.

what do you have hooked up to your pc... if it is any sort of multimedia speakers .. the onboard sound is probably more than fine.. or pick up a $20~ fiio optical dac and use the optical out on your pc to that and then RCA or RCA to 3.5mm cable as applicable, to amp / speakers

https://www.amazon.com/D03K-Digital-Analog-Audio-Converter/dp/B009346RSS
 
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andrewaggb said:
I'm with the OP on this one. If windows 10 did support your hardware and then a forced update removed support for your hardware (even if it was accidental) I would expect MS to fix it - Or allow you to stay on the version that does support your hardware and still get 5 or 10 years of security patches. I'm not at all impressed with their update policies.
Click to expand...

Microsoft has been pushing for security for quite some time- to include rearchitecting the driver structure. I get that that's inconvenient, but so is security. Be happy that old hardware works as long as it has.


To answer the OP: find the drivers for your motherboard. You can turn the Realtek stuff on in the BIOS and download Realtek's drivers and get sound now.

If you want something better, you can get something newer- and there are many solutions to include many USB solutions.

atarione said:
or pick up a $20~ fiio optical dac and use the optical out on your pc to that and then RCA or RCA to 3.5mm cable as applicable, to amp / speakers

https://www.amazon.com/D03K-Digital-Analog-Audio-Converter/dp/B009346RSS
Click to expand...

And this is a good one.
 
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Honestly, while I agree what microsoft did was crap.. This is a good sign that it is probably time to move away from expansion sound cards. With the way windows handles audio now.. You're better off just getting a quality USB DAC and moving forward.
 
Mchart said:
Honestly, while I agree what microsoft did was crap.. This is a good sign that it is probably time to move away from expansion sound cards. With the way windows handles audio now.. You're better off just getting a quality USB DAC and moving forward.
Click to expand...

If you really need 'better', or need more flexibility, this is true- however, it's also far less necessary given how good integrated audio has become, and how, uh, 'decent' USB headsets have become.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
If you really need 'better', or need more flexibility, this is true- however, it's also far less necessary given how good integrated audio has become, and how, uh, 'decent' USB headsets have become.
Click to expand...

Any decent headphone just won't be driven properly with an on board setup. Even the 'better' onboard setups with a headphone amp aren't great.

But yes, if you're in that under $200 price range for headphones on-board / USB headphones are adequate.
 
Mchart said:
Any decent headphone just won't be driven properly with an on board setup. Even the 'better' onboard setups with a headphone amp aren't great.
Click to expand...

No problem driving my HD600's at 300Ω out of an ASUS Z170A. Now, I say 'no problem', because the power was there- that doesn't mean that they sounded great. But they will certainly work and they're on the higher end of what's available and certainly what's useful on the desktop.
 
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