My Soundblaster is misbehaving on W11

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Hi :). I purchased a new pre-built pc. It game with everything in it bar surround audio, plus W11 (21H2 OS Build 22000.795), my first actual run-in with it. Because I like online gaming where I take advantage of precise sound positioning (such as CSGO) I've been using a 5.1 set for years.

Now, I got the new PC because I didn't feel like building one myself. Because it's a brand new system that comes with some handy vendor specific things, I also don't really want to consider downgrading to Windows 10 and go through the hassle of setting up all that crap myself. I did have some teething issues with W11, most of which I managed to solve. This included the animations making my mouse lag (I just switched them off, who needs those), the SSD being inordinately slow (patched it) and the CPU sometimes getting stuck at 500mhz on all cores (fixed it).

The last part however.... when the system goes to sleep and I wake it again, my Soundblaster is 'gone'. It's still there in the sense that windows claims it has one, but 'no output devices can be detected' and trying to do anything with audio (adjust windows sounds settings, play spotify) will just hang that application. If you do get the audio to play, it will just visually indicate as much but no audio can be heard. I need a hard reboot to fix this and then it will work flawlessly. I'm using the Creative Labs drivers version 6.0.103.30 dated 2-6-2015 with a SB1570 (Audigy FX PCI-E) card.

According to the vendor:

Creative Worldwide Support > Knowledgebase Solutions

Welcome to Creative Worldwide Support. Get technical help for your Creative products through Knowledgebase Solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more.

support.creative.com

Sound Blaster Audigy Fx

SB1570

Supported

...I should be fine. But clearly, I'm not

.

I kinda want sleep to work correctly. It's a major power saver walking briefly away from the system without needing a full boot whenever I walk away for something minor. What seems to be indicative of it's age however is the fact that the Windows 11 driver dates back to 2015 which is surprising since W11 hasn't been around that long (I think). Now, I'm open to any suggestions, but I'd like to steer clear from external solutions (especially USB) since they incur latency, something that I try to avoid as much as possible. With regards to available PCI-E sound cards however... slim pickings. I can't find any that explicitly support W11. I just sent back a Terratec Aureon I briefly had in my old system (which I had to get rid of as it was, ironically, also experiencing sleep issues with sound) but that doesn't even claim to support W11.

I'm open to any soundcard, price is not that much an issue. I just want a PCI-E based solution that offers 5.1 audio through 3.5mm jack plugs (for my Logitech Z906) and that has proper W11 support. Any advice?

With regards to the sleep issue on the previous PC: that system would experience regular 'freeze ups' after having gone to sleep and being woken again. It would never completely lock up, but it would freeze for a random amount of time doing whatever (not tied to load). It would show this behavior whenever a sound card was present, but it didn't matter what kind of sound card, which is what I found out using the Aureon card, both that one and the SB card would produce the same results. This was running W10 however and it rendered the system unusable.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Hi :). I purchased a new pre-built pc. It game with everything in it bar surround audio, plus W11 (21H2 OS Build 22000.795), my first actual run-in with it. Because I like online gaming where I take advantage of precise sound positioning (such as CSGO) I've been using a 5.1 set for years.

Now, I got the new PC because I didn't feel like building one myself. Because it's a brand new system that comes with some handy vendor specific things, I also don't really want to consider downgrading to Windows 10 and go through the hassle of setting up all that crap myself. I did have some teething issues with W11, most of which I managed to solve. This included the animations making my mouse lag (I just switched them off, who needs those), the SSD being inordinately slow (patched it) and the CPU sometimes getting stuck at 500mhz on all cores (fixed it).

The last part however.... when the system goes to sleep and I wake it again, my Soundblaster is 'gone'. It's still there in the sense that windows claims it has one, but 'no output devices can be detected' and trying to do anything with audio (adjust windows sounds settings, play spotify) will just hang that application. If you do get the audio to play, it will just visually indicate as much but no audio can be heard. I need a hard reboot to fix this and then it will work flawlessly. I'm using the Creative Labs drivers version 6.0.103.30 dated 2-6-2015 with a SB1570 (Audigy FX PCI-E) card.

I kinda want sleep to work correctly. It's a major power saver walking briefly away from the system without needing a full boot whenever I walk away for something minor. What seems to be indicative of it's age however is the fact that the Windows 11 driver dates back to 2015 which is surprising since W11 hasn't been around that long (I think). Now, I'm open to any suggestions, but I'd like to steer clear from external solutions (especially USB) since they incur latency, something that I try to avoid as much as possible. With regards to available PCI-E sound cards however... slim pickings. I can't find any that explicitly support W11. I just sent back a Terratec Aureon I briefly had in my old system (which I had to get rid of as it was, ironically, also experiencing sleep issues with sound) but that doesn't even claim to support W11.

I'm open to any soundcard, price is not that much an issue. I just want a PCI-E based solution that offers 5.1 audio through 3.5mm jack plugs (for my Logitech Z906) and that has proper W11 support. Any advice?

With regards to the sleep issue on the previous PC: that system would experience regular 'freeze ups' after having gone to sleep and being woken again. It would never completely lock up, but it would freeze for a random amount of time doing whatever (not tied to load). It would show this behavior whenever a sound card was present, but it didn't matter what kind of sound card, which is what I found out using the Aureon card, both that one and the SB card would produce the same results. This was running W10 however and it rendered the system unusable.

With sound I used to be a sound card kind of guy and had the greatest ones that came out. It was issue after issue in Windows 10 but when it works it's works.

I just ended up swallowing my pride and went down the road of putting together a audio receiver with legit 7.1 home audio speaker. Took a bit of time setting it up properly and never looked back. Less issues and with the Dobly Atmos app from the window store; boom I was in business.

To make it work I just plug my video card HDMI cable to the audio receiver and receiver video to the tv screen I use.

Sleep does that to me either way(sound card or receiver. I just stopped that and did normal shut downs. It's doesn't take long for my system to boot up anyways and causes less issues.

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
With sound I used to be a sound card kind of guy and had the greatest ones that came out. It was issue after issue in Windows 10 but when it works it's works.

I just ended up swallowing my pride and went down the road of putting together a audio receiver with legit 7.1 home audio speaker. Took a bit of time setting it up properly and never looked back. Less issues and with the Dobly Atmos app from the window store; boom I was in business.

To make it work I just plug my video card HDMI cable to the audio receiver and receiver video to the tv screen I use.

Sleep does that to me either way(sound card or receiver. I just stopped that and did normal shut downs. It's doesn't take long for my system to boot up anyways and causes less issues.

Hi! That might work well for movies and such, but I'm not that confident it would be a solution for games? I don't see many of my games actually supporting audio solutions like Atmos, they just have the option of choosing 'stereo' or '5.1'.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Hi! That might work well for movies and such, but I'm not that confident it would be a solution for games? I don't see many of my games actually supporting audio solutions like Atmos, they just have the option of choosing 'stereo' or '5.1'.

The funny thing is Atmos app has come a long long ways and a receiver works in tangent. I get Atmos playthrough even if it doesn't have it in the first place. Surprisingly it works really well and sounds incredible.

Movies/games/ shows all default to Atmos now. Playing Diablo 2 Resurrected and it outputs Atmos. Never sounded better.

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
The funny thing is Atmos app has come a long long ways and a receiver works in tangent. I get Atmos playthrough even if it doesn't have it in the first place. Surprisingly it works really well and sounds incredible.

Movies/games/ shows all default to Atmos now. Playing Diablo 2 Resurrected and it outputs Atmos. Never sounded better.

How well does it position? I would be kind of an investment to drop, replacing my brand new Z906 set, new cables, receiver... only to find out it doesn't fit my expectations. Surround is nice, but I want to be able to blindly point in a 360 degree direction where everything is coming from, and my current setup has always done that for me.

Also, I'm not yet ready to accept sound cards are a thing of the past. Gaming is bigger than ever.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
How well does it position? I would be kind of an investment to drop, replacing my brand new Z906 set, new cables, receiver... only to find out it doesn't fit my expectations. Surround is nice, but I want to be able to blindly point in a 360 degree direction where everything is coming from, and my current setup has always done that for me.

It does an excellent job at pinpointing locations where sound comes from(Front,side,back all angles) You can get a inexpensive receiver with Atmos now a days and even if you want while waiting use your speakers you have now with the cables and hook it up that way. The only thing that cannot work would be the .1 sub(you would need a different one)

I was worried too but now it's nothing but receivers for me going forward.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
It does an excellent job at pinpointing locations where sound comes from(Front,side,back all angles) You can get a inexpensive receiver with Atmos now a days and even if you want while waiting use your speakers you have now with the cables and hook it up that way. The only thing that cannot work would be the .1 sub(you would need a different one)

I was worried too but now it's nothing but receivers for me going forward.

Just something to think about, no pressure

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
Just something to think about, no pressure

No, I get it :) it's valuable to get your viewpoint. I'd really want some others too, though. I'm secretly hoping there is still a straightforward solution with most of my current components intact.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

If you still want to stick to the sound card, the better card out of them all I used was Creative Sound Blaster Z, that gave me less problems then others

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
If you still want to stick to the sound card, the better card out of them all I used was Creative Sound Blaster Z, that gave me less problems then others

At this point I'm wondering whether CL takes driver support very seriously. Putting forward a 7+ year old driver for an OS that's barely a year old and called it 'supported' because apparently it produces sound is not proper testing in my book. On the other hand, I kinda fault Microsoft for being lazy with the same procedures. W11 clearly has some issues that should totally have been caught during 1) product testing/beta but 2) surely during the year it's been out with loads of people complaining about it.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
At this point I'm wondering whether CL takes driver support very seriously. Putting forward a 7+ year old driver for an OS that's barely a year old and called it 'supported' because apparently it produces sound is not proper testing in my book. On the other hand, I kinda fault Microsoft for being lazy with the same procedures. W11 clearly has some issues that should totally have been caught during 1) product testing/beta but 2) surely during the year it's been out with loads of people complaining about it.

As long as the driver is Windows 10 it will also work with 11. Older drivers sure can cause a lot of issues.

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
As long as the driver is Windows 10 it will also work with 11. Older drivers sure can cause a lot of issues.

Yes but this driver's release date even predates Windows 10

. Worse still, when running W10 they will offer you their 2014 driver...

RoadBlaster · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Hi :). I purchased a new pre-built pc. It game with everything in it bar surround audio, plus W11 (21H2 OS Build 22000.795), my first actual run-in with it. Because I like online gaming where I take advantage of precise sound positioning (such as CSGO) I've been using a 5.1 set for years.

Now, I got the new PC because I didn't feel like building one myself. Because it's a brand new system that comes with some handy vendor specific things, I also don't really want to consider downgrading to Windows 10 and go through the hassle of setting up all that crap myself. I did have some teething issues with W11, most of which I managed to solve. This included the animations making my mouse lag (I just switched them off, who needs those), the SSD being inordinately slow (patched it) and the CPU sometimes getting stuck at 500mhz on all cores (fixed it).

The last part however.... when the system goes to sleep and I wake it again, my Soundblaster is 'gone'. It's still there in the sense that windows claims it has one, but 'no output devices can be detected' and trying to do anything with audio (adjust windows sounds settings, play spotify) will just hang that application. If you do get the audio to play, it will just visually indicate as much but no audio can be heard. I need a hard reboot to fix this and then it will work flawlessly. I'm using the Creative Labs drivers version 6.0.103.30 dated 2-6-2015 with a SB1570 (Audigy FX PCI-E) card.

According to the vendor:

Creative Worldwide Support > Knowledgebase Solutions

Welcome to Creative Worldwide Support. Get technical help for your Creative products through Knowledgebase Solutions, firmware updates, driver downloads and more.

support.creative.com

Sound Blaster Audigy Fx SB1570 Supported

...I should be fine. But clearly, I'm not .

I kinda want sleep to work correctly. It's a major power saver walking briefly away from the system without needing a full boot whenever I walk away for something minor. What seems to be indicative of it's age however is the fact that the Windows 11 driver dates back to 2015 which is surprising since W11 hasn't been around that long (I think). Now, I'm open to any suggestions, but I'd like to steer clear from external solutions (especially USB) since they incur latency, something that I try to avoid as much as possible. With regards to available PCI-E sound cards however... slim pickings. I can't find any that explicitly support W11. I just sent back a Terratec Aureon I briefly had in my old system (which I had to get rid of as it was, ironically, also experiencing sleep issues with sound) but that doesn't even claim to support W11.

I'm open to any soundcard, price is not that much an issue. I just want a PCI-E based solution that offers 5.1 audio through 3.5mm jack plugs (for my Logitech Z906) and that has proper W11 support. Any advice?

With regards to the sleep issue on the previous PC: that system would experience regular 'freeze ups' after having gone to sleep and being woken again. It would never completely lock up, but it would freeze for a random amount of time doing whatever (not tied to load). It would show this behavior whenever a sound card was present, but it didn't matter what kind of sound card, which is what I found out using the Aureon card, both that one and the SB card would produce the same results. This was running W10 however and it rendered the system unusable.

I am using the Creative Sound Blaster Z SE, I had problems with drivers when I 1st purchased it but then remembered I only needed a driver to make it work.

I am using SB Z SE Driver & windows does the rest of the work to connect the card to all ports correctly regardles of power state, if the the PC is on in a power save mode it does not really save energy on the mains side of the PSU as that stays at the same power draw of 500mA from the mains weather I am gaming or just web browsing.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Yes but this driver's release date even predates Windows 10 . Worse still, when running W10 they will offer you their 2014 driver...

You can get away I find with older video drivers but sound goes ewww and gives you the finger haba

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

RoadBlaster said:
I am using the Creative Sound Blaster Z SE, I had problems with drivers when I 1st purchased it but then remembered I only needed a driver to make it work.

I am using SB Z SE Driver & windows does the rest of the work to connect the card to all ports correctly regardles of power state, if the the PC is on in a power save mode it does not really save energy on the mains side of the PSU as that stays at the same power draw of 500mA from the mains weather I am gaming or just web browsing.

Ok, so you can confirm that the Z SE works well with W11, also when being ruefully awoken from its beauty sleep? No funny business?

...because I can find some issues with it, for other users.

https://www.spamsite.com/threads/soundblaster-z-card-and-windows-11.764916/

the crackling thing seems to be quite common.

RoadBlaster · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Ok, so you can confirm that the Z SE works well with W11, also when being ruefully awoken from its beauty sleep? No funny business?

Yes, when I put some software with a driver in I have loads of problems & to remove I had to re-install the software/driver just to uninstall it, alot of software has problems with Win11 as they have changed things, as they do.

Just try each driver 1 at a time with no SB software installed & go from there?

Yerm · Jul 13, 2022

RoadBlaster said:
Yes, when I put some software with a driver in I have loads of problems & to remove I had to re-install the software/driver just to uninstall it, alot of software has problems with Win11 as they have changed things, as they do.

I know you mean to help but you are not exactly inspiring me with confidence

.

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Yerm said:
Ok, so you can confirm that the Z SE works well with W11, also when being ruefully awoken from its beauty sleep? No funny business?

...because I can find some issues with it, for other users.

https://www.spamsite.com/threads/soundblaster-z-card-and-windows-11.764916/

the crackling thing seems to be quite common.

Had no issues before I made the switch to receiver with windows 7 and 10. Never tried 11

Necrosaro · Jul 13, 2022

Necrosaro said:
Had no issues before I made the switch to receiver with windows 7 and 10. Never tried 11

The more I think about it, might be the connections wearing out if they were unplugged and plugged in too often. Could also be cable issues or even not quite seated correctly in its spot.