Microsoft Ruined Best Dedicate Sound Card 250$ worth with 1709 Update

Vlada011 · 13 Dec 2017

Only is enough to Creative explain that can't fix sound from SBZxR and I will back to Windows 7,
We think about living on other planet, 1st software company on planet not capable to optimize own updates with hardware.
We are doomed, our species is Alan Ford comics.
Dolby Pack not exist, DTS Pack not exist and can't be installed after this Update.
Mixing channels, now I here center, later all speakers, than only front no center.
Madness. Madness.

I never had problem with Sound Cards, dedicate or Onboard.
Suddenly I heared for Update 1709 and thought to update him because 15xx to 1703 was fine.
But accidentaly I found complains of other people and I didn't done that.
After few days I notice sound card work different, one driver installation, second, nothing help... I checked little OS, device manager Audio Controller different I remember than that Windows several times asked me reinstallation, I thought some Updates for who knows what... I go to check what he done... Shock.. 1709, not anymore 1703.

muchomurka · 13 Dec 2017

Same as my Xonar D2X. After v1709 upgrade I had some crippled sound codec with generic MS driver. Had to reinstall good old Win7 driver from Asus site.

You can try to install this one:
http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/D...13_1_01_05.exe

Barman58 · 13 Dec 2017

It is the responsibility of the device manufacturer to develop and issue suitable drivers for their hardware, not Microsoft.

It is up to creative technologies to write a suitable driver for their cards to work with each version of windows as released.best to keep checking their site for news

Of course Creative may just be late with the issue of new drivers or, as they have in the past, decided to ignore their responsibilities and decided not to release a new driver, in the hope that people will buy other models that have suitable drivers

TairikuOkami · 13 Dec 2017

Windows as a service sounds great, in theory, but the reality is different. Each upgrade is basically the new Windows and MS dictates, what is what, it changes things at will and manufacturers have hard time keeping up, since they are being kept in the dark until the last minute. In the past XP was always XP, 7 was 7, but 10 is not 10, even a "simple" update can ruing something. It is as you said, it is madness. I had issues with Creative Z as well.

Lost sound after latest Windows 10 update (Sound Blaster Z) Solved - Windows 10 Forums

muchomurka · 13 Dec 2017

Barman58 said:

It is the responsibility of the device manufacturer to develop and issue suitable drivers for their hardware, not Microsoft.

I disagree. It is a responsibility of OS vendor to keep proper user-selected drivers (and programs and settings and...), not to replace them with its crappy ones. Instead, MS behaves as wilful destroyer of our systems.

Barman58 · 13 Dec 2017

With the rolling Beta program available in the insider program even small manufacturers have no excuse to not know if their hardware still works with each upcoming Windows release.

Unfortunately a lot of manufacturers fail to follow the design guidelines for Windows and insist on using their own non standard calls and code. Which results in their software & drivers failing on a new revision when an internal call changes but their hardwired code does not adapt as the correct code does

fireberd · 14 Dec 2017

I agree with Barman. Its the hardware vendor's responsibility. Microsoft releases updates for vendors well ahead of the actual release to the public. Thus the vendor's have time, if they want, to develop what is needed to maintain compliance with the OS. Its not Microsoft's responsibility to make the OS compatible with other hardware. It is no different in the Apple world, vendors have to issue compatible drivers when Apple updates their OS.

Many of us in the recording studio area had issues with some recording and music hardware when Win 10 was first released to the public. There were several years of beta Win 10's released to vendors but some dragged their feet and failed to have Win 10 compatible drivers when Win 10 was first released to the public. My Roland recording interface unit was part of that as Roland was not ready when Win 10 was released. It was about 3 weeks later that Roland finally released Win 10 drivers (made them "plug and play").

Vlada011 · 15 Dec 2017

I heared that Microsfot made serious changes with New 1709 Update and that manufacturers of hardware, in this case sound cards will face with real challenge to optimize their hardware.
If best peace of PCI-E sound hardware launch realatively soon, to serve us at least 10 years fail after 3 years because MS Update manufacturers as ASUS and Creative will faced with serious losing profit.
We had problem, huge problems, (customers who want dedicate sound card and recognize difference) to explain to gamers that investment in sound card worth 150-200-250$ worth because they are not outdated after 3 years as graphic cards.
This madness only force more people to turn to onboard audio solutions.

I have 250$ worth hardware in PC not connected.
I had SBZ 4 years and worked great. Because I had option to buy new SBZxR for 120 euro I spend only 50euro on upgrade after compensate rest of money selling my old SBZ. Sound improvement, huge sound improvements are notice immediately even on Youtube clips. I recognize difference even few months later because I used long time on SBZ and this was real upgrade. Everything was perfect until 1709 update.

Now SBZxR mean nothing. I can't install drivers because mess start.
Windows Sound is not capable to see 5.1 speakers before driver is installed not after 1709 Update.
SupremeFX on Rampage V Edition 10 recognized by Windows and give me option to change to 5.1 even before drivers installed.
Difference between SupremeFX and SBZxR is huge but now SupremeFX serve me better thanks to this update.
That's not fair.

swarfega · 15 Dec 2017

My Creative Zx works fine on the current insider build, as does my new Creative AE5.

Try uninstalling the drivers, reboot and reinstall as necessary. The latest ZxR driver release is 23rd February 2017 so make sure you have that.

sygnus21 · 16 Dec 2017

As one who owns a SoundBlaster ZxR card, I can tell you Creative had issues going all the way back to the initial release of Windows 10 with the ZxR card, so it's not just the recent updates.

Anyway the last driver update was Feb of this year (2017). Perhaps you could try those to see if your issues go away. And I've not seen (let alone used) the Dolby Pack or DTS Pack in years; And as far as I remember it never did work properly under Windows 10, but if you had it working that's good for you.

Regardless, I can't tell you how my ZxR card is fairing since I no longer have it installed in my system. I no longer have a need for a soundcard being I use a high end USB DAC pushing my powered speakers.