Weird Audigy 2 ZS problem

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sjps220

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Apr 4, 2006
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I am having some problems with my audigy 2 zs and I have no idea what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

A while ago, I was listening to music, when there was some really loud distortion. It almost sounded like a radio tuning, but high pitched and loud. After that, the left channel was replaced by a clicking. It was a specific tempo, and never changed. I restarted the computer and all was fine.

I had that happen one more time, and now when I play wolfentein enemy territory, my sound hangs up when I enter a server, after I've been in for about 5 seconds. It only does it for a second, but sometimes, the games audio doesn't work after the hangup, and I have to restart the game.

Any ideas or suggestions?
 
I am having some problems with my audigy 2 zs and I have no idea what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

A while ago, I was listening to music, when there was some really loud distortion. It almost sounded like a radio tuning, but high pitched and loud. After that, the left channel was replaced by a clicking. It was a specific tempo, and never changed. I restarted the computer and all was fine.

I had that happen one more time, and now when I play wolfentein enemy territory, my sound hangs up when I enter a server, after I've been in for about 5 seconds. It only does it for a second, but sometimes, the games audio doesn't work after the hangup, and I have to restart the game.

Any ideas or suggestions?
Click to expand...

There's tons of things to check. First, check all your connections for anything that might be loose. What kind of power conditioning/protection do you have your PC plugged into? A cheap powerstrip isn't setting you free, trust me.

Got any headphones you can plug into the front channels. If you get the same noise, you can rule out speakers quickly and without much physical work.

If that's not it try moving the card to the 1st or 2nd PCI slots (this has been known to solve noise issues)

If that doona work, focus on the drivers (if you've not already). Removing the old and downloading/install the newest from the web.

I've left out plenty but these are the first things I'd look into.
 
Thanks for the reply Halcyon

I tried your suggestions, and while they didn't fix my problem, they did help me narrow my search.

I think the issue is with Wolfenstein: ET. I haven't had any of the popping noises during music, except for those few times a few weeks ago.

I just reinstalled wolfenstein, and found that the issue was fixed, until I downloaded the files necessary for the servers I play on. I think one of those files is the issue.

Again, thank you for your help.
 
I play ET all the time. And it sounds like you figured it out. Most servers make their own custom sound paks to go with the game. If you get tired of playing on that server come over to: www.eptexasgaming.com
 
yeah I'll probably check it out. Etpub with whaleclient is what I'm used to. I would like to get this issue resolved first though! Its bothering me!

I just realized something that I should have mentioned earlier. I was connecting, and I couldn't hear any sound, so I started moving forward and I realized that I was doing this because the video skips too when this problem happens. I am trying to figure out what this means. I have a 7600gt, a model of card which has had issues with lockups and freezing.

If you guys had to guess, would you say that this is the soundcard causing the video to skip, or the videocard causing the sound to skip and stop working?

I really want to fix this!!! I have tried:

Reinstalling all available drivers from creative and software for audigy
moving audigy to different pci slots
reinstalling motherboard drivers
reinstalling display drivers (different releases)
reinstalling enemy territory
 
Ahhhh good old ET...
did you try the creative auto driver downloader thingy?

Here

Also...some may call it a long shot(i say its worth a try i've seen it do odd stuff)....but Punk Buster is a pain the the a$$. so run pbweb to make sure u are up to date.....
 
thanks for the suggestions nukemaster. Yeah I forgot to mention that I have run pbweb.

As for the audio driver thing, I'll try it again tonight. I tried it last night, but ran into issues because I don't ever use IE and all these security popups kept happening and it eventually said something was corrupt. I was tired and on my way to bed so I didn't really look into it too far.

thanks!
 
You can try to check if the board has been physically damaged. If not and you still cant find the problem sounds like its time to upgrade to an X-FI
Trust me you will not be dissapointed 😀
Elleviated stress on your cpu, gives you better frame rated and the sound quality is crystal sharp and clear.
A wonderful piecr of technology from Creative.
Mad props :twisted:
 
I may have fixed the problem. I haven't seen the problem at all today.

I didn't really do much though. I was trying to show someone the problem earlier today, and the stuttering didn't occur. I thought it must have just been a fluke. I tried again tonight a few different times, and there was no stuttering.

I haven't really tried anything recently to fix the problem, but I was using compressed air to dust my case today (since its been open during this problem its gotten very dusty) and I noticed that a few of the small plugs (like USB connectors etc) on the mobo had worked themselves partially loose, so I reattached them.

could that be all it was?
 
Hi, I've been having the exact same problem.

I think most of it began in the last month or so when my PSU died and when I began to do some heavy upgrading, new PSU, new hard drive, new video card etc.

I've had weird problems with my Audigy 2 zs platinum before, especially when playing Battlefield 2, the game would freeze for a while with a stuttering sound and either crash to desktop afterwards or just stay that way.

Recently though that stopped only to be replaced by a random high pitched squeel that would come in and out during gameplay, lasting anywhere from 2-10 minutes at a time, it sounded sorta cool at first but it gets really damn annoying when you're trying to concentrate and snipe.


I've also noticed intermittent popping sounds once in a while while just browsing the net.

A friend suggested that if I already had the newest drivers I should swap the card to another PCI slot and dust it all out incase a connection is being obstructed. I've just put it into the last PCI slot at the bottom of the case and now i'm reinstalling the newest drivers.

Apparently this and similar sound oddity problem has been known to Creative since atleast 2002 (posts from that year with similar problems on SB Live and Audigy chipsets) but they haven't addressed it to my knowledge. If swapping the card to another PCI slot doesn't help, then I'm going to be hard pressed to ever buy a creative product again. I e-mailed creative and all i got about the problem was a reminder that my card wasn't under the craptastic 1 year warranty and that I could pay for "technical support" or use google for 3rd party help. :roll:
 
Mine was bought in the last year. If the problem returns at all, I'll email them with the details and see what they say. I wont hold my breath though, I've heard creative isn't very good with customer support.
 
im having the same problem, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. (sound "death" after joining a ET server -> mute). so i went through ~ 2-3h of reinstalling all drivers i held in suspicion (audigy, motherboard etc, even though i havent even upgraded them).. i even downgraded them. nothing helped, still the same sound-error. (and god knows i hate down- and re-upgrading drivers just to find out that it didnt help at all).
i also had reinstalled ET + created a clean new config file twice in that time.
not working.

so, i finally came to think that something that has been known for being a hive of problems might have updated itself and is now pestering my audigy2: punkbuster... so i checked evenbalance.com -> the last pb update was on the 6.th of juli... weirdly enuff, my probs started around that time.
so i connected to a non-pb server ... no problems for 10 mins... i disconnected, and tried a pb server, this time paying attention to the console: as soon as pb verifys itself with the master server, the sound dies.

ive now filed a "trouble ticket" at evenbalance... i bet theyll just ignore it though

i love punkbuster... it doesnt seem to bother the cheaters (and im not falsely accusing, they openly stated they cheat, acc 80%+, autonameswitch), but it keeps honest players from playing one of their fav multiplayer games.

good work evenbalance.

try connecting to a non-pb server, or check the console to see WHEN your sound dies exactly.

so long,
.fallen.
 
ok, i didnt expect it, but im gonna say it: sorry evenbalance.

dont get me wrong, it *was* a punkbuster error, but the support evenbalance gave me was exceptional... guess ive never had such support *ever*... within about 45 minutes, they had replied to my "trouble ticket", supplying me with a new punkbuster test-dll which i should try. so i did, and no more sound-errors whatsoever in ET...

so thx evenbalance...
 
Battlefield 2 uses punkbuster too, I'm going to see if i can find that test dll for BF2. Swapping to another PCI slot didn't help.

Also, from punkbuster.com
Other background programs that seem to conflict with PB for some users are Sound Blaster Live software and helper programs that come with video cards (especially ATI keyboard shortcut programs).
Click to expand...
 
dunno.. you also said you had sound-probs while surfing the net.. / not in games ... which i never had... and which cant be a pb issue.

but anyway, just check the console ingame and see whats going on when the sound-errors start... or even better: play on a pb-disabled server and see, if they still occur.
 
I play BF2 (the demo, still considering a purchase - kickin' game) and I don't have any problems at all with my X-Fi. Come to think of it, it's never given me any grief at all, except for some confusing speaker connections. But that's all gone now.

I <3 Creative.
 
hey minty,

could you send that punkbuster file my way? I did notice that my problems occurred around the time that the two light blue PB messages appear in the console.

thanks!
 
I am having some problems with my audigy 2 zs and I have no idea what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

A while ago, I was listening to music, when there was some really loud distortion. It almost sounded like a radio tuning, but high pitched and loud. After that, the left channel was replaced by a clicking. It was a specific tempo, and never changed. I restarted the computer and all was fine.

I had that happen one more time, and now when I play wolfentein enemy territory, my sound hangs up when I enter a server, after I've been in for about 5 seconds. It only does it for a second, but sometimes, the games audio doesn't work after the hangup, and I have to restart the game.

Any ideas or suggestions?
Click to expand...

I had that same clicking thing happen to me. I thought the speakers were busted at first. But then I restarted my PC like you did and it went away.
 
I am having some problems with my audigy 2 zs and I have no idea what's causing it. Any help would be appreciated.

A while ago, I was listening to music, when there was some really loud distortion. It almost sounded like a radio tuning, but high pitched and loud. After that, the left channel was replaced by a clicking. It was a specific tempo, and never changed. I restarted the computer and all was fine.

I had that happen one more time, and now when I play wolfentein enemy territory, my sound hangs up when I enter a server, after I've been in for about 5 seconds. It only does it for a second, but sometimes, the games audio doesn't work after the hangup, and I have to restart the game.

Any ideas or suggestions?
Click to expand...

I had that same clicking thing happen to me. I thought the speakers were busted at first. But then I restarted my PC like you did and it went away.

I still occasionally experience similar audio artifacts with my X-Fi even when only using's the card's inherent DSP (outboard DAC and amp). I really think its a PCI-bus/cpu usage issue...but it happens so rarely it hasn't even warranted further investigation (my excuse for laziness). ...nothing's perfect (except my lady, of course).
 
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