Problem on Z70V... Ideas?

Yeah I have the updated drivers from creative. I can't use the FN keys to control the volume when I have headphones plugged in.

Tomorrow I'm getting a new harddrive so I'll be doing a fresh install, we'll see what happens then.

The FN keys only control the volume when I have it playing through the notebook's speakers, but not headphones, and I do have the realtek controls too, but not the windows volume control. In place of that is the creative volume controls

 

Hmm... that'd odd. Well, hopefully it'll work itself out after the fresh install. Good luck with that.

 

Hey thanks.

I would have everything up and running right now, but my reseller had his store broken into on Good Friday. Jeez, I'm so glad I picked up my notebook on thursday.

He said to come in for the harddrive swap next week, so I'll have a fresh install of windows and everything else next week sometime.

Feel so bad for him.

 

Okay guys, help me out here.

I'm having major issues getting this thing to work properly. I feel like a newbie.

All I did was a fresh windows installation and now I think I'm going to reformat again just to get this piece of poop to work PROPERLY.

Everytime I boot up I have to go into the Feature Mode Selection Utility and uncheck then recheck the enable audio playback through the notebook speakers to have audio working properly.

My problem was at first, when I had everything up and running within windows, I finally plugged in the pcmcia card to install the drivers and whatever software I wanted. I decided I only wanted the Audigy stuff, and none of the media player stuff, so I selected 1 of 2 options which was just the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and off I went.

After finishing the installation with the provided CD, I went online and updated to the latest drivers and updates for whatever I installed.

Rebooted, no problems. Everything seems great. I get up back into windows and everything seems okay once again. Volume controls are synchronized, but I can't get audio out of the headphone jack on the PCMCIA card. WHY???????????? Then I said screw it and uninstalled EVERYTHING, the audigy software/drivers, and my realtek stuff.

Went back reinstalled to the latest drivers off realtek's site incase some sort of compatibility issues arose from the two devices existing at once.

Reinstalled the RICOH drivers from Asus' site.

Then reinstalled the card over and over and over, about well, many times. I'm staying up all night because I can't get this thing to work properly. RAWR.

After the very first attempt I could not get the audio controls synchronized, meaning the provided white creative volume control icon, FN+F11/F12, and the master controls when double clicking the white creative volume control icon. Nothing would sync up, but plugging in the headphones actually would work.

Okay now I've got it down to this stupid mode selection utility. When I don't touch it and boot up, I get no windows bootup music, or I get the last split second of it because of the delay in sound production. So weird, maybe it has to do with a latency issue, but yeah. After I go into the thing and check/uncheck the dang speaker thingy, everything is okay and working great. I don't get it man.

Someone help me out here I'm going crazy.

 

Wow, that's quite odd. I remember the first time I installed it I had some problems but nothing as drastic as yours. If I remember correctly, I did the same as you and didn't install the mediasource. Try uninstalling the RICOH, realtek and creative drivers. Then install the RICOH, then realtek ones from the realtek site, and lastly the creative ones from the along with the mediasource.

You can always uninstall the mediasource after, but I kept it because it has a great audio converter. Anyway, that's what I did after my fresh format and everything has been peachy since.

 

Wow lefty, it's so weird though, because I did exactly that, but something went wrong. Why? I dunno. It's really pissing me off.

So you don't get any sound delays when booting up? Your windows startup and shutdown sounds play? I can only get my audio to be on time after unchecking then rechecking the stupid play audio through notebook speakers thingy.

Jeez, I hope another format will work this time, I'm sick of having to reinstall windows, because I just have everything perfect now, except this soundcard. Rawr.

 

Alright forget it I'm going to get specific and ask exactly what drivers you have installed, Lefty, sorry.

Instead of the provided intel inf file on the cd that came with my notebook I went to the Intel website and installed the latest one before installing anything of course. Then the ricoh drivers that drak0n installed, the latest ones on the asus website.

I should be fine right!?!?!?!? Dang, haven't slept yet, rawr, music sounds good on this thing.

I'm going to go nuts if the next reinstall doesn't work and I have to constantly keep doing this **** manually.

Yes, please let me know which inf file you used, and if it even matters, which I'm doubting.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Well, I just used the inf drivers from the CD, as they're the same ones from ASUS's site. I don't know about any sound delays, as I turned off all of windows sounds. However, I hear a distinct 'boom" from my speakers/headphones right when I turn on my laptop, indicating that they are operating. Other than that, I don't think any other kinks happen.

 

I see. Wanna do me a favour and turn on your windows sounds and then shutdown, and boot back up to see if you hear the starting and shutdown sounds? Oh yeah, of course through the speakers of the notebook, not headphones.

I just noticed that if I plug in headphones right at bootup everything is okay too. So something is wrong with my feature mode selection utility or something. I tried uninstalling just that component and reinstalling it, but nothing.

Blarg, I'm gonna do a complete reinstall as soon as I get some sleep and wake up.

Thanks for your help Lefty,

 

As in unplug my speakers from the audio out of the sound card and then do so or???

 

Mike, the windows sounds don't play through the laptop speakers with the ZS installed. Don't know why; they just don't. If you plug in earphones, they play fine. It happened to me too. It's a minor inconvience imo. My main concern was whether it'll work for my games and music. As far as my installation procedure: I had installed the latest RICOH drivers from Asus' website, then I installed the Realtek drivers from the z70va driver cd, then I plugged in the ZS and installed the drivers from the cd provided. After that I went to creative's website and got the latest driver available and installed that. Then I went back to the creative site and got this patch (#10) for the Feature Mode Selection Utility: http://us.creative.com/support/down...=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=3&x=25&y=1

After that, I didn't have any problems with sound, except with the windows music which is minor.

 

Sounds like what I have, except one thing. Did you notice that from a fresh boot your sound production is delayed a half second? So if an alert pops up and the default sound goes off then you hear it much later than when it appears.

Also with music or anything else. I checked this out by playing music through winamp and it was delayed. I would hit play, almost a full second later it would start playing and when I stopped it same thing.

This is ONLY through the notebook's speakers. Once headphones or a set of speakers are plugged into the jack on the PCMCIA card, everything is okay. So this is only with the notebook's speakers.

So without plugging in headphones the only way around this is to go into the feature mode selection utility and check/uncheck the box to let the sound play through your notebook's speakers.

That's what I'm trying to check Lefty.

When I do play music or sounds through headphones it sounds amazing. JUST AMAZING.

 

Guys I've decided to screw the reinstall of windows because my problem is ONLY with sound playing through my speakers upon fresh boot. All I have to do is uncheck/recheck the stupid box so no biggy.

I tried plugging my headphones in and booting up. Guess what, everything is A-okay and the windows shutdown music plays as well, so I'm guessing this problem will be fixed with the next release of software updates.

Cheers,
Mike

Edit:: Sound reproduction is JUST AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL with this soundcard, anyone and everyone who is looking for great sound should get this soundcard, if you can get it to work.

 

Huh? There shouldn't be sound from the notebook speakers if you have the soundcard plugged in. Sorry if I'm getting confused...

 

Lefty, you didn't download the feature mode selection utility? It lets you play sound through your notebook's speakers.

That's the feature that I'm having problems with. Other than that it's working perfectly.

 

Guys I think I've totally figured out this product now, excluding the whole delayed sound upon bootup through the notebook's speakers.

Okay, for those who say the sound is quieter than using the realtek audio is actually mistaken. If you think it is too quiet you MUST first raise the realtek audio to max, THEN, switch back to your audigy to play sound.

Do this in the Sound and Audio Devices and select your Realtek audio under Audio tab and Voice tab, then click apply, then check to see the Realtek audio has been selected by going back to the first tab, Volume tab, it should say Realtek or whatever audio underlined and highlighted in blue at the top.

Then access the master volume and raise it to max, or just use the FN function and jack up your volume.

Then go back into the Sound and Audio Devices menu and change the device back to the audigy.

Voila you've got louder sound, plus I noticed when the realtek audio volume wasn't set to max, for some reason the audigy sound was distorted for me, so put your realtek audio volume to max before inserting your audigy.

Cheers,
Mike

Edit:: I forgot to add that using this pcmcia soundcard takes about 30mins off my maximum battery life, but that's expected since this thing produces such great sound. Cheers

 

Well, I just figured out how I can control the volume from the Fn keys: Just mute the notebook speakers then you can control the volume of the audigy via the Fn keys.

 

Hi,
I'm not an Asus owner, but rather a Dell. I have read this topic for quite a while (right, Mike) and bought the Audigy card from amazon.com (link provided by drak0n) and it worked on my laptop (with black listed RICOH controller) in advanced mode right from the start. Had to do some research and tweaking to make it work with my laptop speakers but now they do.

Edit: Adding information on model and S/N in case someone needs it. I got an "old" version, meaning sticker is perpendicular to CREATIVE lettering on the top, not parallel to it as it has been said that's the version that works, odd, isn't it?
53SB053000003
S/N M1SB0530477000341A

 

Good to hear you have it working zicky~!!!

You can never trust stickers to identify models. Did it come in a box or plastic packaging?

 

Well, I really can't tell you. It came on a "carton box" but it was a plain brown box, no creative logo or anything, so I wouldn't know which was the original packaging. It seems now to me that it really is a hit or miss kind of thing to get it working. It does require some tweaking and researching to make it work properly, I did find a guide on another forum but it is too vague on some details, maybe I should come up with one here.

 

Very interesting zicky. It came in a box eh? Hrmm...as long as it is working.

I sent creative an email a while back about people who have their product working with blacklisted controllers, but they haven't written me back about anything.

Glad it is working for you.

Cheers,
Mike