M18xR2 Recon3Di not working with latest Windows 10 update

I've just been through quite a bit of pain *again* with the latest Windows 10 update breaking my Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di sound driver setup...

Initially I had this problem when I first upgraded to windows 10 but I used this driver and it worked http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/4/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=5NJ7K but the latest Windows 10 update won't let me install the driver it seems. It keeps installing one that is dated either 2015 or 2016, but the one that works is version 6.0.100.2033 dated 4/30/2012.

The problem is that the volume is too low using any Creative CT9570 driver so I normally use the driver's bundled THX Trustudio "Smart Volume" enhancement to get it back up to a decent level but the one windows provides with this update is not recognised by Trustudio.

I eventually had to roll back the windows update and re-install the old driver to get it working again.

For the record, the driver that works has the following details:

Title: Audio: Sound Blaster Recon3Di - Creative CT9570 Driver
Version: A00-00 696635
OEM Name:
OEM Version: 6.0.100.2033
Computers: Alienware Notebook: M17xR4, M14xR2, M18xR2
OS: Windows 7 64-bit - Home Premium, Windows 7 64-bit - Home Basic, Windows 7 64-bit - Ultimate, Windows 7 64-bit - Professional, Windows 7 64-bit - ALL
Languages: Chinese Simplified,Japanese,Spanish,Danish,French,Finnish,Norwegian,Br Portuguese,Dutch,English,Turkish,Korean,Arabic,Russian,Polish,Italian,Chinese Traditional,German,Swedish,Hebrew
Created: 4/30/2012

Anyway, if anyone has better luck than me please post away!

 

Solution:

Don't use Windows 10 NSA Surveillance Edition.

Why even bother?

Upgrade back to 7.

 

Hmmmm well I think I need to because I have installed a GTX 970M I got from Woodzstack and want to eventually go SLI which I don't think will work under Win 7...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0m-single-upgrade-steps.776121/#post-10185629

 

Youre infinitely better off selling the 970M and going with a 1070 and Windows 7.

I could be mistaken but Windows 10 isn't required for 970 / 980M SLI?

 

1070? Has this actually been done yet for the R2? Late last year I saw that M17 R1 done but I was concerned about cutting the heatsink http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...r1-ranger-success.797893/page-6#post-10383287

Now I've seen the 1060 overcome this and working http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m18x-r2-works-perfectly-with-gtx-1060.804052/ but I still worry about this eDP/LVDS incompatibility issue I've been reading about from Woodzstack http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...pgrade-on-m18x-r2.797282/page-4#post-10465406 as well as questions about power consumption and drivers...

 

1070 is theoretically possible, no-one has yet to dive in yet, but someone already has a 1060 up and running.

Yeah well, nothing works perfect, but if it were me I would gladly sacrifice Optimus than have have to put up both with Windows 10, forced updates, telemetry, hardware not working, etc. etc. and etc. ON TOP OF SLI. A big NO THANKS to that. SLI works maybe 60% of the time. It's great for a few titles but I'm not kidding, it's really on the way out. This is coming from someone who ran SLI for like 5 years. I won't mess with it anymore. Can you say Legacy Feature?

 

Hah! Just been through another major Windows 10 update where it "upgraded" my audio driver to the Microshaft version and this has broken my Recon3Di control panel again BUT this time I fixed it!

Turns out I sort of answered my own stupid question in my original post above...

The trick is you need to force the driver once you install http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/aubsdt1/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=5NJ7K&ven1=30206 first and then go back and force it to use the driver by selecting the audio device in the device manager and clicking "update driver" then "let me choose which driver" and then "have disk" go to the folder you extracted it to and update.

My underlying stupid assumption was that I thought I could use the latest Recon3Di Creative driver and mix it with the latest version of the Recon3Di extras package (which includes the control panel) - turns out THEY ARE BUNDLED TOGETHER AND MUST MATCH.

ARRGGGGHHH!!!!

 

I also noticed an audio quality drop. Volume is also too low and effects doesn't seem to do anything....