This was fine the other day but suddenly stopped working. I uninstalled the device and restarted the computer and it made no difference. It says I have an MME error and nothing works but audio all around looks like it is up. I also cannot get audio from outside websites. Is there a virus or maybe the card just crapped out?
Looks like "High definition audio" (default windows basic function driver for your motherboard's audio has taken over.
Power off PC and reseat (unplug then plug back in) the SoundBlaster and see if it fixes it. I've fixed a lot of SoundBlaster card problems with the reseat.
What DAW are you using? I use Cakewalk Sonar and Studio One 4.1 in my recording studio. Which brings up another issue, you need a "real" recording interface. PC sound cards usually make poor recording interface units. Noise level and latency are two negatives to PC sound cards.
A friend of mine suggests Audio Science cards and these would be nice but are way too expensive for me and might be overkill. Also, the pc is not custom-built, which might have been a good idea. The unit only accepts PCI-Express cards which are more expensive. I am using Adobe Cloud CC for audio. Not sure how this sort of thing just happens. Nothing changed and it worked previously. Could it have been the result of a Windows update? I am using the audio card primarily for oldtime radio. I also have an outboard USB Behringer box I could press into surface but I would have to disconnect the audio card first to use that. Thanks for your help.
What Dell are you using? e.g. Inspiron 3020, Optiplex 670, etc. It will help (I do some support on the Dell forums).
Memory "2TB" that's not correct, maybe 2"GB" but that would be insufficient. 4, 6, or 8 GB is more common amount on stock Dell's.
The Z Blaster is Win 10 compatible. Did you reseat the card as suggested? You need "Stereo Mix" as the default recording device to get streaming audio for recording. The High Definition Audio does not have that. Also, to avoid conflicts, disable the on-board sound.
The Z Blaster has ASIO drivers and those are generally best for recording programs.
If you want a full feature professional recording program, the Cakewalk Sonar (by BandLab) is free.
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name ANDYB-PC
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Inspiron 620
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU To be filled by O.E.M.
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2310 CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2901 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A00, 4/12/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Workstation
Secure Boot State Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.17134.471"
User Name AndyB-PC\Andy B
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.91 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.41 GB
Total Virtual Memory 11.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 7.43 GB
Page File Space 6.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not InstantGo, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, Disabled by policy, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes
Name Sound Blaster Z
Manufacturer Creative Technology Ltd.
Status OK
PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1102&DEV_0011&SUBSYS_11020023&REV_1009\5&32732F23&0&0101
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\cthda.sys (6.0.102.32, 1.02 MB (1,065,728 bytes), 11/26/2014 6:21 AM)
Name High Definition Audio Device
Manufacturer Microsoft
Status OK
PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_50A1&SUBSYS_102804ED&REV_1001\4&19FFB79C&0&0201
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\hdaudio.sys (10.0.17134.1, 426.50 KB (436,736 bytes), 4/11/2018 6:33 PM)
Inspiron 620 (or is it a 620S?) is all that I needed. I also see memory is 6GB, not the 2TB you list in "My Computer".
This model was not certified for Win 10 by Dell and no Conexant sound driver, and probably the reason for the generic, basic function, High Definition Audio Device. As previously noted disable this so it does not conflict with the Z Blaster.
I'll be gone for a while (going to relative's for Christmas dinner) so I won't immediately respond to any other posts.
Thank You or helping me thus far. Merry Christmas. When I bought this desktop, I was under the impression it had a 1 tb internal hard drive and then I added either another 1 tb or 2 tb internal auxiliary (Seagate) so not sure why the numbers do not reflect that. When I bought the unit it was W7 and I assumed that most or all W7 machines could upgrade to W10 or maybe it was just Microsoft trying to roll out their new OS. I wonder what would cause the readings to be inaccurate and what I could do to make them more representative. In any event, I am a bit under the weather and working until later in the week so no worries. Thanks.
I'm back, my brother is a snowbird from the north and winters about 4 miles from me.
When you are up to it. First thing do the reseat on the Z-Blaster and disable the Integrated (Conexant) audio. Then see how the Z-Blaster is working.
The older hardware compatibility with Windows 10 is not a "Dell only" issue, its almost all older hardware. I saw post on this forum of a user with a different brand PC and an older Realtek integrated sound and it was not compatible with V1803. Windows did install the generic, basic function High Definition Audio driver but the user lost the Realtek Manager app.
Quote