Radeon 9 200 hijacking creative sound blaster sound

Devilz_soul

Reputable
Jan 9, 2015
19
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4,510
Creative Sound Blaster Z series not working on SPDIF/Tosklink
Background:

My Rig
Processor: AMD FX8320
Motherboard: Asus M5 A99FX Pro R2.0
Ram: 32 Gig DDR3
Video Card: Radeon R9 200 Series (PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, blue color)
Sound Card : Creative Blaster Z (PCIe x4 mode, black color)

Os: Win 8.1

I have hooked up this rig to my Denon A/V 2809CI Reciever via HDMI coming out of Radeon R9 and Optical/Toslink from Creative Blaster Z.

The Problem

I want to bang my head on the desk while writing this, I am not getting any sound to my AV Reciever when I am using TosLink for Creative. I tested that the Microphone, headphone, 3.5 mm jacks work, I can hear sound through them when I insert my headphone. But Not through Optical.

I have disabled onboard Sound via bios, didn’t install the HDMI Audio chip drivers that Radeon have. I, did however, notice that in my control panel ? Sound, I do see a TV sign with[AMD HDMI high definition sound] option and when set to default and test it, AV receiver gets a stereo signal. But when I setup Creative Blaster Z series Speakers as default (After reading on forums all over, it seems like you set the Creative speakers as default and Creative automatically kick off SPDIF output, shrugs I don’t know how creative is still a company at this stage with this sort of convoluted ways). So yeah, when I setup the Creative Blaster Z series as default and do a test, My receiver don’t receive any sound, I can however listen to it via Headphone jack or 3.5 mm jack on the card.

Resolution steps.
- Made sure that Sound and Video cards are not sharing channels, can share pics if that help. Not using PCIe slot because Vdo card was covering it.
- Uninstalled and wiped the whole system. Reinstalled Windwos 8.1, MB drivers (excluding Audio), Video and Audio drivers. Still same result, Setting SB speakrs as default wont get me any sound, Setting the HDMI High definition as default will send crappy stereo signal.

Where I am stuck.

So it turns out that if i unplug my Radeon HDMI input to my AV Receiver, sound card start working. However, as soon as I plug in HDMI input, it stops.. I Uninstalled the HDMI audio driver but still nothing.. same behaviour.. HDMI Plugged, No Sound - No HDMI - DTS 5.1 Sound


I am extremely frustrated because I don’t know what else to do … I am not sure what else I can do to get this thing working and I feel that it is a bit too early to burn the whole rig down ……so any help that you can provide would be great.. I just want creative to behave and send me a 5.1 channel signal via Toslink


Side notes:
- Yes, I did change the Spdif/Toslink cable to check if it works well.
- Reslotted both cards
- My AV receiver can take multiple input for the same A/V channel (my older system was similar but with GeForce and Razer Baracuda sound card)

Let me know if I can send pictures to help out some sort of diagnosis
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
I may have just missed it but did you try just disabling the "HDMI Audio Device" and anything similar? Leave the driver installed just disable it. I ask because I always did that on mine and have an R9 280 and a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD and the toslink works fine. Its likely some sort of protection lock feature because its digital audio.
 

Devilz_soul

Reputable
Jan 9, 2015
19
0
4,510
So it turns out that if i unplug my Radeon HDMI input to my AV Receiver, sound card start working. However, as soon as I plug in HDMI input, it stops.. I Uninstalled the HDMI audio driver but still nothing.. same behaviour.. HDMI Plugged, No Sound - No HDMI - DTS 5.1 Sound

can anyone help me with this ? how do one disable HDMI sound when there is none.. btw, I did try DVI to HDMI (Dvi in PC, HDMI in AV Rec) same result, as soon as the AV Reciever gets the HDMI signal from PC, Creative Z get disabled..
 

Devilz_soul

Reputable
Jan 9, 2015
19
0
4,510
So I restarted the computer and went to device manager, lo and behold - the HDMI audio input was there (windows 8.1 "graciously" reinstalled it). I disabled it there.. and then disabled it in the Sound as well. Restarted my machine.. and nothing.. still the same behaviour .. with HDMI connected.. its not reading Creative as main driver.


frustrated sigh.. could it be mother board.. even though i made it sure they are not sharing any channels.
 

Devilz_soul

Reputable
Jan 9, 2015
19
0
4,510
Update 3: what is happening is that when I hook up HDMI input from Radeon R9 200 card to the AV reciever (Same reciever that have Optical out from Seriez Z for sound).. AV Reciever start thinking that Audio source is from HDMI and not from optic out. its like Creative card relinquish control for the audio to HDMI and i have no way to stop it.. i have disabled/uninstalled every thing that may be conflicting with the SB Z card ..

so as it stands, if i take out HDMI input (Radeon) from AV Receiver, I hear the crisp and amazing sound of Creative .. Plug HDMI back in and I have the picture but not the sound any more..

hope i am making sense
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
When its hooked up does it say anything about the optical out being disabled on the PC?

Its possible that its not the computer but the receiver that won't do 2 digital sources to the same input, even though the driver is disabled. Could you try hooking the HDMI direct to the tv and the optical to the receiver and see what happens?
 

Devilz_soul

Reputable
Jan 9, 2015
19
0
4,510
So turns out that the solution is S/w one. The creative blaster comes with a utility that massage the inputs and the channels. I fixed that for optical input and it started working.
 

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