The Sound Blaster Z!

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poltergeisty

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Just picked this bad boy up on San Jose, I mean eBay, for forty dead Presidents and man! Thing rocks! I can definitely hear a difference in audio versus on board audio. And combine that with my THX certified Logitech Z55300e 5.1 speakers it's awesome.

If you don't have dedicated sound hardware, get some! Overall a happy camper. And quite literally got some bang for my buck.

Let me tell you about eBay and Amazon. I go to Amazon, find what I'm looking for weigh the reviews here and then head on over to eBay where nine times out of ten I get a better deal often times with free shipping with no crime, I mean Prime required. Then I have to laugh because sometimes my eBay purchases come from Amazon. HAHA I don't care, really. So long as I saved ten or more dollars and din't pay shipping and then didn't have to wait forever because I don't have fabulous Prime.
 

bharvey2

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I've been a fan of Soundblaster Audigy cards for some time. I especially liked the I/O headers that fit in the drive bays allowing "front of computer" access. It's been a while since I've purchased one and as I have a computer upgrade project on the horizon, it's probably time to buy a new one.
 

CapStar362

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yup, i have a SB-Z Also, im using it with two audio feeds.

Optical for the Home Theater for media display, and mini-jack for the headset when gaming.
 

poltergeisty

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I'm discovery now that the audio pops sometimes. I did some research and tried their remedies from others you have had the issue but no luck. I did a clean install of the updated drivers and that worked for awhile, but now the very annoying popping is back. It's just an occasional pop/crackle sound, but it's enough to piss me off when I'm trying to listen to music.
 

bharvey2

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I get some weird behavior out of mine sometimes too. Once in a while, the audio will start to distorted and sometimes the computer will lock up and then I'll get a single tone (think 1Khz sine wave). The only way to correct it is to reboot the computer. It doesn't happen very often but it's quite a PITA. I always suspected it was because the card is so old and a proper driver hasn't been written and ironed out for it.
 

poltergeisty

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Are you sure you have this card? https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Lab...oundblaster+z&qid=1555171156&s=gateway&sr=8-5

If so, try this program and make sure nothing is causing latency. Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks

You did allude to the fact there are no drivers which isn't true because I just downloaded up to date drivers which leads me to speculate you don't have a Soundblaster Z model sound card.

You do say "mine." To me that sounds like you have the same card. LOL
 

bharvey2

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Oh no. There is a misunderstanding. I have a Sound Blaster Audigy but a much older version. Hence, no current drivers. Our problems have different causes I suspect.
 

poltergeisty

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Okay, I thought as much. Yeah, that would be an issue, but you know, back then when I had an Audigy card I used third-party stripped down drivers instead of Creative's. I'll see if that website still exists and post its link if I find it. Then you can at least have a Quasi-updated driver that hopefully fixes your issue.

Is your card PCI by chance or PCI-e. Mine was PCI. Those were the days...
 

bharvey2

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I'm pretty sure mine is PCI. It's an old one. Thanks for the link on the PAX drivers. I wasn't aware that an alternate set was available. I need to do some updates on my computer and this may just help the cause.
 

bharvey2

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No I haven't tried the drivers yet. My symptoms are similar. They can cause me grief and I have to reboot (or the computer will lock up) every day or so or, problems will go away and I don't see any issues for months. Originally, I though this might have been a hardware problem but I have a few of these cards and the trouble occurs with all of them. I haven't heard of any widespread issues with them so I don't know what else it could be.
 

bharvey2

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I've never run dxdiag to diagnose the issue. I've been on a good run with the sound card lately so it hasn't been an issue. I may have mentioned early that my son gave me a SSD. I intend to use it as my OS drive but haven't gotten around to upgrading yet. I'm still torn between another Windows 7 OS or Win 10 as I have a number of older programs that may not play well with Win10.
 

poltergeisty

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I'm still torn between another Windows 7 OS or Win 10 as I have a number of older programs that may not play well with Win10.


Depending on the program, you may be able to install VMware Workstation Player in Win 10 with Win 7 installed and run your programs. Or you can do a dual boot with 7 and 10.

I didn't see your post before because in typical Xenforo fashion it likes to not give you every notification or "alert."
 
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