Distortion and fuzzy noise problems with Audigy 2 ZS on Windows 7

In my on going struggle with Creative and their Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS I've now come across a new problem that manifested a couple of weeks ago. I'm not entirely sure why it started happening then, maybe it was the heat? Maybe after 7 or 8 years the card is finally starting to die. Now sometimes after resuming from sleep, any sound has distortion and noise in it. So far I'm restarting the Windows Audio service to get things back to normal....

Friday, 2 July 2010 · 2 min · Paul Smith

Workaround for Audigy 2 ZS recording problems on Windows 7 64-bit

Those trying to record on systems with 4GB or more of RAM with an Audigy 2 ZS, possibly X-Fi and other models too, have probably come across the problem with distortion, noise, or choppy sound (like talking through a fan). This affects the microphone, line-in and also 'what u hear', important for capturing audio that is currently being played. The trouble stems from Creative's drivers not being entirely 64-bit compatible, Creative have no date for any fix to be implemented, and haven't even announced if they're working on any such fix....

Friday, 2 April 2010 · 2 min · Paul Smith

Updated Audigy and X-Fi drivers for Windows 7

Daniel_K has released an updated driver package for the Audigy and X-Fi Soundblasters. The one key fix I've come across is CMSS now works on the Audigy 2 ZS. Update for RC: These are what I'm using at the moment with my Audigy 2 ZS with the 7100 release candidate build: Forum post. Rapidshare download. Filefront download. MD5 hash: 16BEC9D7C047EF46DDA4F40AF1D47B1C. Older drivers: Audigy forum post. RapidShare download. MegaUpload download. If you're downloading from elsewhere here's the MD5 hash: 66DA82FC18E49F3B32172A61BEDD0164....

Tuesday, 20 January 2009 · 1 min · Paul Smith

Audigy 2 ZS drivers for Windows 7

I've been getting truck loads of e-mail on which drivers I'm using with my Audigy 2 ZS on Windows 7. To try and stem the tide here's the quick findings: 1) The Audigy 2 ZS drivers that Windows installs from Windows Update for both 32-bit and 64-bit occasionally produce garbled audio. These are dated 2006 and are probably identical to the original Windows Vista release. 2) Newer drivers resolve this, or at least it hasn't happened in the last week I've been using these drivers....

Thursday, 15 January 2009 · 1 min · Paul Smith