Absurd Audio problem with Audigy 2 ZS

TheArt · 19 Oct 2010

Hi all, I love this forum and I think this is the best place to have any info.
Let's go to my annoying problem:
Recently Windows 7 has been updated, and since that moment my audio went wrong. I can hear yeah, but the quality became worse than before, with a sort of cracking sound. However the funniest thing is that i can't install any other audio driver, because when I launch the setup it says: "Audio drivers was installed without rebotting, reboot the computer and try again". I reboot but it says the SAME !
Actually I have the latest version of my sound card : Creative Audigy 2 ZS, and i want to install the older one, 'cause maybe it can solve the problem. I also can't install even if i unistall the audio device in Device Manager and later run the setup it says : "No audio device found, setup aborted". When i reboot windows update installs the newest driver but the sound remains bad. How can i install the driver which I want ?
This is my audio specs:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/729/myaudio.jpg
Thanks to all.

fireberd · 19 Oct 2010

I notice you have both the SoundBlaster and the RealTek (integrated audio) enabled and shown in the Device Manager. You can only have one default device (sound card) for any audio function, such as playback and if you have two there is a possibility of a conflict.

The popping crackling is a bane of many. Some things that can cause that are Wi-Fi cards and connections, video card drivers, cell phone or cordless phones near the PC, etc.

The Audigy 2ZS is an "old" sound card, what "older" card do you have and is it Win 7 compatible?

Solarstarshines · 19 Oct 2010

even if he installed a new card it should overde the onboard but in other post like i have said before some mobo models have to do it yourself

with the caution mark indicatedon you're properties windows you should unistall the creative driver and have win update get you the latest for that card

and im sure it will do the right thing and make the installed card override the onboard and kill the error you are looking at if that doesnt work try reinstalling the audigy card in another slot and see if anything changes

Im almost certain you should be able to switch between the two in case of fail my video card switches back and fourth and i am using onboard and video card sound drivers with no conflicts and by me saying onboard im using onboard sound not onboard video my card is installed and disable the onboard graphics but it still has it's on sound card built in it

fireberd · 20 Oct 2010

My reasoning for disabling the Integrated audio is to eliminate that as a possible problem. If after disabling it the problem is still there then it's not the problem.

Dell used the Audigy 2ZS (Dell custom model) in a lot of their older XP desktops. This model needs a Dell driver for full capability but there are no Dell model Audigy 2ZS Vista or Win 7 drivers.

Solarstarshines · 20 Oct 2010

Well in this case might need to upgrade the card to one that supports win7

Alot of older hardware gets bogged because it wasnt made for that os even though some older models would work on win 7

but taking out the card and testing it on another win7 system might do some justice if not be more practicle to look for a more modern card something that is capadible with that os only other suggestions

TheArt · 21 Oct 2010

Thank you guys for the replies, i'm sorry i was absent in this 2 days. By the way, this card has worked fine since that windows7 update, and as i said, if i unistall the card - driver, windows update installs a new one but the sound remains bad

. I think this card is supported by windows 7 because here Creative Worldwide Support
it says that audigy 2 zs is supported.

I installed Realtek High Definition Audio just to try if it can resolve the problem, but it didn't. With audigy disabled there is no audio so realtek is useless.
However my question was another one: how can i install the driver which i want ?
I think it's a sort of a bug but i can't figure out of it.
I can try to put the sound card in another slot, later i'll try...
If there is nothing to do, i must format...

stormy13 · 21 Oct 2010

A few things to try. First if you don't have it download the driver you want to install and extract the exe using something like Winrar. Next,

1. Open Programs and features and uninstall anything listed as Creative or Audigy.

2. Open the extracted folder and go to,

Drivers\support\i386

and run the ctzapxx.exe found there, then select to uninstall the drivers. Reboot if asked.

3. back to the same folder and file as above only thins time select to install the driver, and putting a check where is asks to overwrite existing shared files.

If that works and installs the driver you should then be able to run the setup.exe found in the extracted folder to install any of the other bits (Creative Audio Control Panel for example).

If the driver didn't install from above then,

1. Open Device Manager and locate the sound card and follow this,

Driver Install - Device Manager

to manually install the driver. When you get to the Browse part go to the extracted folder and point it to the Drivers\wdm folder. If the driver then installs try the setup.exe again to install the rest.

If none of that works it could be as you said and looking at a clean install of Windows to fix. If it does come down to this make sure once Windows is installed to either turn Windows Update off (and remember to check on the 2nd Tuesday of every month), or set it to only notify when an update is available so you can pick and choose what to install (and do not install and driver updates for sound or video).

TheArt · 22 Oct 2010

stormy13 said:

If that works and installs the driver you should then be able to run the setup.exe found in the extracted folder to install any of the other bits (Creative Audio Control Panel for example).

Sorry i don't understand so much this passage, If it installs the driver from ctzapxx.exe, after that what should i do ? Must i run the setup.exe from that extracted folder or run the driver "package" that I extracted? And what do you mean with bits? Are they the creative's programs? If yes i think i don't need them, or not?
Anyway, thank you.

TheArt · 22 Oct 2010

There is a problem, when I unistalled the drivers with that ctzapxx.exe, rebooted, and when my computer logs on, windows update installed a driver which is not compatible and it rebooted my computer with BSOD, but i know that windows update sometimes does these things. So i retried, loading the last configuration.
This time, i disabled the windows update service, and then unistalled drivers with ctzapxx.exe, rebooted, windows update tried to install something but nothing happened, so i ran ctzapxx.exe again and choosed install with overwriting, i rebooted, and then i went to the extracted driver, found the setup.exe, installed, rebooted. BUT nothing changed. When i unistalled with ctzapxx.exe and rebooted it was like this: http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1585/captureev.jpg
And after it didn't change. it's the same.
?? any help ??

EDIT: I installed the driver witch i want (driver 2009, not very old) but it didn't help...So dunno what to do, cause even if i'll format, this card is no longer supported by windows 7, since the second tuesday of october 2010.

stormy13 · 22 Oct 2010

Pretty sure that it isn't Windows Update that is installing the driver upon reboot, but Windows itself. As far as I know there is no native support in Windows for Creative cards, and Windows Update won't offer or try to install updates until after the driver for the card has been installed.

One thing to do that I forgot about previously is to delete the remains from within Windows DriverStore. First thing you will need is this,

Take Ownership Shortcut

After you have done that then go to,

C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

then look for any folders with the name,

wdma_emu.inf_x86_neutral_(random numbers and letters)

There will be one of these folders for every driver for the card that has been installed, with the numbers and letters at the end being different for each. These contain the info and necessary driver files to re-install upon reboot, and I'm pretty sure this is what is getting installed.

After doing the TakeOwnership from the above link, then uninstall the driver as previously only this time do not restart. First go to the DriverStore folder, locate the one(s) mentioned above, right click on each and use the TakeOwnership that will now be there, then uninstall all of those folders. Then restart and now Windows shouldn't try and install anything for the card. If that happens I would then try the one that you want installed, and it should install this time.

If it doesn't then do the manual install method (had to do this on mine with a clean Windows install), as for whatever reason the auto-installer can't or won't see the card but once the driver has been installed manually then the rest can be installed normally.

Unless you know it it may be, have a feeling the unknown device showing in that screen shot will be the firewire port on your Audigy, which should go away once the drivers are installed.