Sound Blaster Z / Zx / ZxR Modded Driver for Windows 10

[lexluthermiester]

FYI, DanielK has released some new drivers for the series of cards subject in this thread;

New Sound Blaster Z, Zx and ZxR drivers

This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs. Use it at your own risk. Supports the Sound Blaster Z, Sound...

danielkawakami.blogspot.com

 

[booceelee]

Thanks, @lexluthermiester

Tried daniel_k's pack and it works just fine.
It's been a while since he updated his blog.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks, @lexluthermiester

Tried daniel_k's pack and it works just fine.
It's been a while since he updated his blog.

You're welcome. I'm glad he's still doing his thing! Was kinda hoping that he would give the PCI XFi's and Audigy's one last hurrah but alas... Maybe sometime soon?

 

[Shou Miko]

I will try it on my Z card this weekend and see if it changes anyting.

I don't have any problems at the moment but always nice to get the driver updated

 

[lexluthermiester]

I don't have any problems at the moment but always nice to get the driver updated

I would caution you, if you're not having any issues, keep what you have. The new versions only fix problems Microsoft created with updates to Windows 10, they otherwise don't bring anything new to the table.

 

[INSTG8R]

I would caution you, if you're not having any issues, keep what you have. The new versions only fix problems Microsoft created with updates to Windows 10, they otherwise don't bring anything new to the table.

Exactly I had absolutely ZERO issues with my ZX on my previous Intel setup, Bought a new AM4 rig last month and BANG I had all the problems reported by other users....

 

[Fonolax]

I am still using windows10 1909 update, haven't updated anything. The cutoff/distortion problem that is caused by buffer size, suddenly returned this weekend . Did exactly all the steps for the installation, uninstall, DDU Creative drivers/stuff and disable Forced Signature . Mostly I use DTS connect and only use headphones mode to rehearse drums.

Any advice ?

 

[lexluthermiester]

I am still using windows10 1909 update, haven't updated anything. The cutoff/distortion problem that is caused by buffer size, suddenly returned this weekend . Did exactly all the steps for the installation, uninstall, DDU Creative drivers/stuff and disable Forced Signature . Mostly I use DTS connect and only use headphones mode to rehearse drums.

Any advice ?

Have you tried both these new modded drivers and DanielK's set? If not, give his a try.

 

[Fonolax]

Have you tried both these new modded drivers and DanielK's set? If not, give his a try.

Yes, i am testing the non beta version, same problem , will test the beta version tomorrow. thanks for the heads up

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yes, i am testing the non beta version, same problem , will test the beta version tomorrow. thanks for the heads up

No I meant DanialK's reworked versions of the drivers, found here;

New Sound Blaster Z, Zx and ZxR drivers

This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs. Use it at your own risk. Supports the Sound Blaster Z, Sound...

danielkawakami.blogspot.com

 

[Fonolax]

No I meant DanialK's reworked versions of the drivers, found here;

New Sound Blaster Z, Zx and ZxR drivers

This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs. Use it at your own risk. Supports the Sound Blaster Z, Sound...

danielkawakami.blogspot.com

That's exactly what i was talking about

 

[Dephect]

You disabled Driver Enforcement when you installed them? But yes sad we gotta jump through these hoops..

Yes I did.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Was kinda hoping that he would give the PCI XFi's and Audigy's one last hurrah but alas... Maybe sometime soon?

Folks, as if he heard the request, on August 2nd it would seem DanielK has grated the wish for new driver sets for X-Fi and Audigy cards that seems to solve the latest issues introduced by Windows 10 updates!

Daniel_K's Official Blog

Modified drivers for Creative soundcards

danielkawakami.blogspot.com

Thank You DanielK! You're a total bad-ass!!

 

[Ferrum Master]

As for insider guys, I can tell that Microsoft removed nlsdl.dll library and depreciated it. You have to manually copy back from the last working build. Without that dll creative control panel does not work and you cannot control anything on the Z series card.

It is the usual Cat and Mouse play there.

 

[Mariocorn]

Hi @Regeneration. So I have done everything right according to your tutorial. But during driver installation (Soundblaster Z) it gives me "Insert Sound Blaster Z-Series disk to CD-ROM and click OK". No matter which source I use to insert "Sound Blaster Z-Series.msi" it does not work.
When I cancel the installation I've got sound but on device list it shows "High Definition Audio Device". No Creative folders are installed. No extra software. Nothing.
I'm on Windows 10 Pro 2004
Any ideas how to fix it ? Or how to install modded drivers?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hi @Regeneration. So I have done everything right according to your tutorial. But during driver installation (Soundblaster Z) it gives me "Insert Sound Blaster Z-Series disk to CD-ROM and click OK". No matter which source I use to insert "Sound Blaster Z-Series.msi" it does not work.
When I cancel the installation I've got sound but on device list it shows "High Definition Audio Device". No Creative folders are installed. No extra software. Nothing.
I'm on Windows 10 Pro 2004
Any ideas how to fix it ? Or how to install modded drivers?

View attachment 165532

Are you running the .msi file directly or are you running the setup.exe(which unpacks the msi file)? If you are trying to run the msi file directly, that is your problem. Run the setup.exe to install the drivers & software.

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

 

[Mariocorn]

Are you running the .msi file directly or are you running the setup.exe(which unpacks the msi file)? If you are trying to run the msi file directly, that is your problem. Run the setup.exe to install the drivers & software.

BTW, Welcome to TPU!

I ran setup.exe as admin. I tried every solution from this forum and from other ones too. Everytime it ends with this error. I wonder how does it work as High definition Audio if I removed all audio drivers before installing modded ones. Somehow card works with drivers taken out of nowhere, because I blocked windows from updating audio drivers.
I was on modded drivers before i decided to update Windows. I wonder if they would work if I revert Win 10 from 2004 version back to 1909.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I ran setup.exe as admin. I tried every solution from this forum and from other ones too. Everytime it ends with this error. I wonder how does it work as High definition Audio if I removed all audio drivers before installing modded ones. Somehow card works with drivers taken out of nowhere, because I blocked windows from updating audio drivers.

Ok, that's weird then. This could be yet another example of Microsoft's latest humbuggery.

I was on modded drivers before i decided to update Windows. I wonder if they would work if I revert Win 10 from 2004 version back to 1909.

My guess is a strong yes. Might be worth a try.

 

[LUKASart]

Hi,
Installation of the modified driver in the 2004 release requires disabling the digital signature verification of the driver
After disabling the verification, the installation was successful and I have been enjoying crystal clear and undisturbed sound for 9 hours.
I hope this trick will help you too

How to Disable Driver Signature Verification on 64-Bit Windows 8 or 10 (So That You Can Install Unsigned Drivers)

64-bit versions of Windows 10 and 8 include a "driver signature enforcement" feature.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[MekiFoxx]

Hello hello! I'm in need of some insight on a problem I've been facing with my Z after a recent Windows Update that happened a few days ago.

For some context, unfortunately, I think Forza Horizon 4 dislikes the software Creative shipped with the Z series, and as such, it fails to open very frequently, so I am forced to run my computer without the suite. All is fine and good with this, I didn't notice any big changes from the official install to the Drivers automatically fetched by Windows, however, after said update, it feels like the sound clips? Particularly in the bass tones. I've had a look around and didn't seem to get anywhere with this, so I wonder if this Windows thing could be the problem? It sounds like a pop, almost like mechanical noise from a speaker popping or something but, I've tried on both my HD 668Bs and my Logitech X530 speakers, both have the same problem even after messing with sample rate and turning off "enhancements". Windows Sonic is also set to off.

Any help on this would be appreciated, I've been chasing ghosts for the past few days and I can't seem to think of anything but that "Windows Update" that happened. This update also broke my sound output on the first restart, I had to restart to be able to have sound again.

Technical details if it helps at all
Driver version: 6.0.102.56
Driver date: 8/13/2019
Provider: CREATIVE

Thank you!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

@MekiFoxx

Hit Win+R and type in services.msc and look for all the creative stuff to make sure they are set to autostart or delayed start.

Alternatively, I do think there is a newer creative driver for your card available. I would give that a try

 

[MekiFoxx]

@MekiFoxx

Hit Win+R and type in services.msc and look for all the creative stuff to make sure they are set to autostart or delayed start.

Alternatively, I do think there is a newer creative driver for your card available. I would give that a try

Thank you! I didn't get to give this a try and, the notification for this reply was buried in my email, sorry!

However, I have found the solution to my problem. For some odd reason? Either because of the Windows Update or a driver update? Sound Blaster's software enabled "SBX studio" even though I didn't have the SBX sound panel installed? Very bizarre.

I came to this conclusion by using line-in and a program called Visual Analyzer, I ran various tests on the output of my SB Z and indeed there was distortion in the bass tones, tried installing the modded drivers on the post (which worked first try, wonderfully, thank you so much!) and that did not solve my problem, however I went looking through the control panel to try Stereo Direct mode, and noticed SBX enhancements were on, I was thinking I made a goof with the tests after installing the modded driver, so I ran the test again as a sanity check, and what do you know, the bass distortion was gone and so were the weird frequency responses causing other types of audio clipping at the high end. I wish I could make this up!

I'm not sure if this is the place to post about this but, I figured I might as well follow up with a fix in case anyone runs into this very bizarre and unique situation.

Thank you for the help anyways, I'm very pleased and happy to hear there is a community still behind this product!

 

[xrror]

First, thanks @Regeneration for a fresh thread on the SB-Z family on win10 driver madness issue. And @lexluthermiester for spotting the DanielK update.

Spoiler: DanielK is awesome

Side note - seriously if you haven't heard of DanielK, they are one of those people who should have been hired by a audio card company years ago and given their own friggin' BRAND cause they're cursed with a passion for brutalizing audio drivers and the ever broken Windows audio subsystem to do amazing things - and ironically with win10 amazing things includes working as intended. You know it's a "passion" 'cause Creative even SUED him (stupidly) and he quit and swore off driver modding... sure Creative eventually dropped the suit but - it really did put the coals to DanK for something he did as a hobby and nobody would have blamed him for disappearing forever. But yet DanK came back like a few (!) years later modding Asus Zonar drivers. And then even more amazingly out of the blue there were some patches for Creative cards. Like after the PTSD from Creative threatening his very livehood before I really do think it's an obsession for him and we're lucky to have peeps like DanielK.

So I'm posting because I'm in the position of wanting to "upgrade" from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 with this system that has a SoundBlaster Zx in it. Mostly since I anticipate wanting DX12 support in CyberPunk 2077 for raytracing support.

What might be unique and/or interesting or useful for the thread though is... this system is a Ryzen 3800x running on an AsRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 - using zeffy's wufuc utility to ignore the win8.1 blacklist so I still get windows updates.

Basically I'm running win 8.1 on hardware that under win10 is known to be a complete clusterf* for the SoundBlasterZ family.
And guess what - it has worked perfectly fine over multiple BIOS/uefi updates on this x570 board too.

That's somewhat damning since that kinda proves that there's no issue with the fundemental hardware, it's a win10 jacking around with timers, extended ticks, and being mobile first problem.

Anyways, on the assumption that this is not a common config people run, are there any utils and/or metrics I can run that might be of use for people in trying to triage problems?

 

[stinger608]

I know since I downloaded and installed the Daniel K driver and reg fix I haven't had any issues!!!!!!!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Mostly since I anticipate wanting DX12 support in CyberPunk 2077 for raytracing support.

That game is going to have RT support for Win7/8/8.1 users. No need to "upgrade" just for that..