Question My Soundblaster Z disappears around once a week.

[david37362]

Around once a week, I'll turn on my PC and my sound card will no longer be detected. I'll open up the Z series control panel and it will say, "The current selected audio device is disabled, not present, not supported by the application, or has unplugged jack connections."

Reinstalling the drivers works every time, but having to do it so often is getting irritating.

Does anyone know why this happens?

I have an Asus Prime Z390-A Motherboard. Not sure if any other parts need to be listed.

 

[kerberos_20]

soundblaster z software is dated 2019, it includes driver but driver date is a bit old
id say windows update is getting u "better" driver version as 20H2 update has one dated 10/2020, but i have manual windows updates so i hadnt tried this one if it works alongside z software
creative has in support section standalone driver dated 11/2020, might be worth trying that one

anyway in case your device manager shows audio z driver installed and sbz control panel shows no device detected, look up on top right conrner in sbz, there is arrow down button instead of minimize window, click on it and select device audio selection, select your device from there, that should make your sbz working again

 

[david37362]

soundblaster z software is dated 2019, it includes driver but driver date is a bit old
id say windows update is getting u "better" driver version as 20H2 update has one dated 10/2020, but i have manual windows updates so i hadnt tried this one if it works alongside z software
creative has in support section standalone driver dated 11/2020, might be worth trying that one

anyway in case your device manager shows audio z driver installed and sbz control panel shows no device detected, look up on top right conrner in sbz, there is arrow down button instead of minimize window, click on it and select device audio selection, select your device from there, that should make your sbz working again

I clicked the "audio device selection" but the drop down menu is completely blank and I can't select anything.

 

[WilleHelm]

Around once a week, I'll turn on my PC and my sound card will no longer be detected. I'll open up the Z series control panel and it will say, "The current selected audio device is disabled, not present, not supported by the application, or has unplugged jack connections."

Reinstalling the drivers works every time, but having to do it so often is getting irritating.

Does anyone know why this happens?

I have an Asus Prime Z390-A Motherboard. Not sure if any other parts need to be listed.

I think I know what's going on here. I have suddenly got the same problem, after swapping a X-Fi for a Z on an old AM3+ system. On the other hand 4 Ryzen systems have no such problems whatsoever.

Because so many people write about the power factor and the fact it is not recognized in BIOS/EFI at POST level, I suspect ErP to be the reason which I have enabled some time ago! I never thought it was such a great implementation on that old platform anyway and it is disabled by default. Since I have turned it off again, no more problems!

It seems logical that a sloppy power on process may not give the expansion slots enough juice in time that prevents it from being initialized properly.