Sound Blaster Z Audio Channel Issues

[benjaminjhof]

About a month ago I purchased a Sound Blaster Z audio card in hopes that it would alleviate some of the audio crackling issues I was having with my onboard sound when overclocking my CPU and DDR4.

The sound is great, but now I've been having a problem where randomly the audio will all switch to maybe the right headphone, and then 10 minutes later it will switch to the left side only. I've since set everything to normal settings, no over clocks, and I'm still having the same issue.

If I go to the SBZ Control Panel and switch the audio to speakers and then back to headphones it resets the sound and goes back to normal. Sometimes this even stops windows audio from working and I have to start windows audio back up. I currently have nothing but my Sony MDR-V6 headphones plugged into the sound card.

These problems seem to occur most often (every 5-20 minutes) when I am playing a game and watching/listening to something else on my second monitor.

In game if I am facing some directional audio, I will barely hear anything except for maybe deep bass, but if I turn around the sound will come through the side of the headphone that is currently producing sound.

This is driving me crazy and I don't know where to start.

MOBO: Asus Z170-A
CPU: i5 6600k
RAM: GSKILL TridentZ 16gb DDR4 3200
PSU: Corsair GS 700W v2.3 80PLUS from like 2011

 

[the nerd 389]

What speaker layout do you have? 2.1, 5.1, headphones?

And have you setup the configuration in the Sound Blaster software to match what you're using? It's in the Speakers/Headphones section of the software.

 

[Seoulja615]

First go to bios and turn off onboard sound. Second, go unintall soundblaster program and drivers and reinstall. Third, go to sound setting and turn off or disable all other sound except sbz..

About a month ago I purchased a Sound Blaster Z audio card in hopes that it would alleviate some of the audio crackling issues I was having with my onboard sound when overclocking my CPU and DDR4.

The sound is great, but now I've been having a problem where randomly the audio will all switch to maybe the right headphone, and then 10 minutes later it will switch to the left side only. I've since set everything to normal settings, no over clocks, and I'm still having the same issue.

If I go to the SBZ Control Panel and switch the audio to speakers and then back to headphones it resets the sound and goes back to normal. Sometimes this even stops windows audio from working and I have to start windows audio back up. I currently have nothing but my Sony MDR-V6 headphones plugged into the sound card.

These problems seem to occur most often (every 5-20 minutes) when I am playing a game and watching/listening to something else on my second monitor.

In game if I am facing some directional audio, I will barely hear anything except for maybe deep bass, but if I turn around the sound will come through the side of the headphone that is currently producing sound.

This is driving me crazy and I don't know where to start.

MOBO: Asus Z170-A
CPU: i5 6600k
RAM: GSKILL TridentZ 16gb DDR4 3200
PSU: Corsair GS 700W v2.3 80PLUS from like 2011

 

[benjaminjhof]

First go to bios and turn off onboard sound. Second, go unintall soundblaster program and drivers and reinstall. Third, go to sound setting and turn off or disable all other sound except sbz..

Been trying this out for a few hours and it hasn't happened since. Usually by now it happens at least once.

Some reason I never considered that the HD audio controller would be causing conflicts.

For now I'm assuming that this was the solution because everything has been great for an extended period of time now! I'll be back if things change.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[benjaminjhof]

It happened again twice now.

It took a long time for it to happen again this time, so I thought it had been resolved.

Audio switches to right side of headphone and it sounds like some channels aren't playing audio

 

[Tom72468]

It happened again twice now.

It took a long time for it to happen again this time, so I thought it had been resolved.

Audio switches to right side of headphone and it sounds like some channels aren't playing audio

I've got the AE-5 and it randomly switches channels as well (Center through back left). Have to switch between 5.1 and 2.0, and back. I was reading a post from 2012 claiming the same problems. You'd think Creative could get their shit together in 6 years. Did you ever find a solution??

 

[dinopht]

About a month ago I purchased a Sound Blaster Z audio card in hopes that it would alleviate some of the audio crackling issues I was having with my onboard sound when overclocking my CPU and DDR4.

The sound is great, but now I've been having a problem where randomly the audio will all switch to maybe the right headphone, and then 10 minutes later it will switch to the left side only. I've since set everything to normal settings, no over clocks, and I'm still having the same issue.

If I go to the SBZ Control Panel and switch the audio to speakers and then back to headphones it resets the sound and goes back to normal. Sometimes this even stops windows audio from working and I have to start windows audio back up. I currently have nothing but my Sony MDR-V6 headphones plugged into the sound card.

These problems seem to occur most often (every 5-20 minutes) when I am playing a game and watching/listening to something else on my second monitor.

In game if I am facing some directional audio, I will barely hear anything except for maybe deep bass, but if I turn around the sound will come through the side of the headphone that is currently producing sound.

This is driving me crazy and I don't know where to start.

MOBO: Asus Z170-A
CPU: i5 6600k
RAM: GSKILL TridentZ 16gb DDR4 3200
PSU: Corsair GS 700W v2.3 80PLUS from like 2011

Do you want to try to enable HPET on Windows to see if it helps?

You can enable HPET on Windows by running Command Prompt as an Administrator and entering the command "bcdedit /set useplatformclock true" and restarting the computer.

If enabling HPET on Windows does not help, you can disable it by running Command Prompt as an Administrator and entering the command "bcdedit /deletevalue useplatformclock" and restarting the computer.

Amitabha

 

[kerberos_20]

same issue here, i just keep rotating dts/dolby/no encoder
but for me it just get bugged after pc wake up from sleep, otherwise its fine

 

[Peter Martin]

Good to know what sound cards are junk

 

[kerberos_20]

on win 7/8 ive had no issues, but in win10 its another story