Question

Microphone issues with Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7 and Vista

Asked by: a_anis3000

Hi, I have the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and I have issues with the Microphone. When talking into the mic over MSN,Google Talk Skype...etc people report that there is some stuttering/shivering/popping (I don't know exactly what is called) backround noise, which is indeed the case when I tried testing in "Sound Recorder" that comes with Windows Vista/7, please see attached file in the link below to hear a sample of my voice recording and see what I mean

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J1ZU242H

Worse there are times when the stuttering becomes severe that no one can hear or understand what I am saying, and times that the mic doesn't work at all. I have been having this issue in Vista and still the same after upgrading to Windows 7 RTM.

I ensured the standard troubleshooting steps were followed, such as making sure the mic was  connected to the correct sound card jack and Microphone is set as default device in Recording Devices in Windows..etc
Additionally I installed the latest creative driver (2_18_0011 is the current version). with no luck and as a last resort I tried installing the latest beta version, oddly enough the problem was completely gone for a minute then returned and now persist.

To make sure the mike was not the issue I tried testing it in another computer (my laptop) and its working fine

Interesting enough while googling around for the problem I found this thread
http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/21647-audigy-2zs-microphone-not-working.html
posted by someone having similar problem, unfortunately the suggested solutions didn't work for me

Note: the current version of Windows I am using is 7 Ultimate RTM, but since I have been having the same issue in Windows vista I believe I should include Windows Vista in the zone selection as well.



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Asked On
2009-09-06 at 11:02:45ID24711199
Tags

Windows 7/Vista

,

Microphone Issues

Topics

Computer Sound Cards

,

Windows 7

,

Windows Vista

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-09-07 at 01:00:13ID: 25273389

Hi is this a laptop? or desktop, HP DEL?
Post back those details please/
yes definately sounds like a problem with the onboard sound card like it's not grounding correctly I can hear the decimal ping like, how loud is the wav volume on the master volume?
Try decreasing that volume
I'm on XP now but check>start-control panel-sounds right click the entry "speakers" and select "set as default".
It maybe set to "digital" by default
that may resolve it.

It might be down to the card itself, on laptops it's a half duplex in otherwords you dont have the stereo mix option, cause there is no external speakers only the inbuilt.
Maybe it's causing a loopback noise since it's sharing the resources with mic.
try these trouble shoot ideas,  
Soundcard tips and facts
look down to Tips on using microphones, it refers to sound blaster mikes as no good
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/pc/soundcard_tips.html#micinput
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/pc/soundcard_tips.html#commonproblems
Could be USB problem
another sound blaster assistance
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5080&start=0
BTW
I had problems installing the drivers for my creative sound blaster on the W7 ultimate as well.
 Never resolved it.

 

by: a_anis3000Posted on 2009-09-07 at 11:11:50ID: 25276524

My PC is a custom build desktop with the following main specification

CPU: Pentium Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ
Memory: 4GB RAM (4 x 1 667MHZ Dual Channel)
Graphic Card: XFX Geforce GTX 260 896MB
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS
MotherBoard: XFX Nforce 650i Ultra
PSU: K-Mex 500W

In terms of the sound setting you suggested, sound setting in Windows Vista is significantly different from windows xp so most of the settings you talked about doesn't apply to Vista however as far as the master volume goes, its set at 75%, I tried lowering it but had no effect

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-09-07 at 22:03:24ID: 25278757

The settings I was referring to was for W7 and I have used these to ref the digital speaker configuration  Vista,
I do feel it's related to the digital dolby or a booster on the microphone recording levels
and of course creative sound blaster drivers must be 2009
This is to illistrate what i'm referring to
http://www.kombitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/w7-sound-3.jpg
http://www.kombitz.com/2009/01/14/microphone-problem-under-windows-7-and-vista/
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Windows-Vista-Volume-Mixer-41882.shtml

try installing  the  AC3Filter which is an audio decoder and processor filter.
The codec is a free download from the following link.
http://ac3filter.net/projects/ac3filter

 

by: a_anis3000Posted on 2009-09-08 at 05:18:02ID: 25281032

>>It might be down to the card itself<<
You know.. I am beginning to suspect its a problem with the sound card itself, either hardware or driver related issue. And I am more inclined to the later since I didn't use to have mic issue in the past until recently namely after updating sound card driver, I think the recent drivers introduced this bug because I noticed there were other problems along such as Windows media players not playing audio files, flv files playing with a sound volume that is too low. Unfortunately creative don't update their drivers as frequently as they used to do, particularly for older hardware. Given that they quite often take ages for the next version driver release it will probably be long before I see my issue fixed. My sound card is around 5 to 6 years old so chances its reaching the end of its life cycle in terms of support, hence it might be the time to switch to another sound card, so I am going to try switching to the onboard audio (Realtek ALC885) my motherboard has and see what happens, hopefully it does support OpenAL.

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-09-08 at 17:59:23ID: 25287487

Sounds good, yes agree with the card is getting old, also the updated drivers in my humble opinion may actually not be compatible.
I get this problem with my nvidia  audio and video card, all the new updates gives it a new interface and other stuff geared towards blueray DVD and HD TV 5.1 surround etc I dont have that stuff anyway
 I nolonger upgrade it anymore just stick with what works and leave it at that.
The new latest greatest often beta versions and have many bugs.
They want you to buy a new computer every 2 years not 5 years :)

 

by: a_anis3000Posted on 2009-09-09 at 17:43:12ID: 25296731

Well It has been almost 2 days since I switched the motherboard onboard audio, so far so good, mic working without any noises in the background, and no shivering in the voice either. Additionally other problems I had with the sound card are gone

>> my humble opinion may actually not be compatible.<<
I suspected it was a hardware issue with the sound card, but its possible the drivers are the issue too, if so that is a shame, the sound card was really great till now, but no matter how good it is useless if doesn't have good drivers anymore

>>They want you to buy a new computer every 2 years not 5 years<<
That could be true, when I upgraded to Windows Vista the driver that was released for my audigy only provided the basic functionality, others were removed which creative explained due to technical issue in vista, however it wasn't not removed from their latest X-FI series, shortly a modded driver was released by a person nicknamed Daniel_K for the audigy series that brough back all the missing functionality. It wasn't long before he received a cease and desist letter from creative stating that the deliberate removal of the functionality in vista  was for business reason. Needless to say they obviously lied blaming vista for the lack of functionality while it was actually for blatant commercial reasons namely to give people incentive to buy their next products (X-Fi)

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-09-09 at 20:21:08ID: 25297202

That's partly true>blatant commercial reasons on behalf of Microsoft for sure/
Vista was originally called Longhorn and was ion the works for years,
 I was really looking forward to it but it took long and  MS decided to release a different version and named it Vista. And here we go again Vista Business Vista Home Visa Basic and so on
Longhorn became a server.
 Vista was released before it was fully tested and Companies like intel- Creative and many others had  no time to prepare OEM drivers to match each OS.
I often wonder why we have to constantly upgrade windows? And I think they would concur
Xp was the best why go Vista now W7?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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