Audigy 2ZS Notebook and Vista

Florian Segginger · Jun 15, 2009, 03:31 PM

Hello all!

I purchased, some time ago, a Creative Audigy 2ZS Notebook sound card to go on my Dell D630 (which had horrible sound artifacts out of the box). The Creative drivers worked flawlessly on Windows XP, however I recently made the switch to Vista and all hell broke loose. First of all, the headphones jack did not work, and neither did half of the features. The sound was at a very low level (had to turn my stereo system way up to hear anything) and the quality was what I would qualify as sub-par.

The Creative drivers being what they were, with absolutely no hope for improvement, I had to find a solution. I stumbled upon the kX project by chance. It's an amazing project and the work you guys have done on this is incredible. I salute you all!

Anyways, after many, many failed attempts at configuring my sound card correctly with kX, I figured it out. Since it was such a pain to find out all by myself, I thought I'd help out anyone in my situation and explain how I figured it out!

What you need to do (this is for Windows Vista SP2):

Since you landed here, I'm guessing you've already got the Creative drivers installed. This is bad, you need to remove them and here's how:
1. Quit any audio-related applications such as media players, mixing software, et al
2. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program
3. Remove anything related to Creative or Audigy. Do not restart your system yet!
4. Depending on the configuration and which version of the Creative drivers you downloaded, the following steps won't be necessary
5. Go back to Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager
6. In Device Manager, find the Sound, Video and Game controllers
7. In there, find your sound card, right-click and choose uninstall. Don't forget to check "Delete the driver software for this device"
8. Take the sound card out of your PCMCIA slot, restart your computer
You should now have a "virgin" system without any additional audio drivers installed. You must now install the kX drivers
1. Plug in your sound card. Don't do anything until Windows tells you it needs to install drivers. Choose "Never for this device" (or something similar). That way, Windows won't ever annoy you again for this sound card
2. Get the very latest version of kX, which is version 3545 (you can find it here: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/general-...ion-3545b.html ) This is the only version that has successfully worked for me!
3. Run the auto-installer. Once that is done, the wizard will ask you to install the kX audio driver (which is done by clicking "install" on the splash screen that should appear)
4. Restart your system as the wizard asks you to
Sound should now be semi-working. However, there's still a couple things you should do to get that perfect sound you've been looking for.
1. Firstly, you have to select the correct default sound devide for Windows. Firstly, make sure you have closed any audio-related applications. Once this is done, go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound
2. Once you are on that screen, select "Master Mixer", and click "Set Default".
3. You now have selected the correct output device. To test out the sound in your system, click the volume icon at the bottom right of the task bar, which should open the volume lever. Simply click on the button to hear an audio "ding". You should hear a bit of crackling... this is normal and the following step should fix it.
Now we need to setup the buffers. This is what took me the most fiddling around. The specs could be different on your system, so don't take this as the absolute truth!
1. Right click the kX icon on the taskbar, go to Settings > Setup Buffers. These are the settings I use which produce the least crackle and pops:
  - Tank Memory Size: 256KB
  - Playback Buffer Size: 9600 bytes (~10.00 ms)
  - Recording Buffer Size: 16384 bytes
  - Number of AC3 Buffers: 4 buffers
  - GSIF Buffer Size: 512 samples
2. Obviously you need to make sure you are not running any audio-related applications when making these changes. This could corrupt the driver really badly!

And so this concludes this little how-to. I hope it will be of help to someone. I sure wish I could have found something like this!

Jun 15, 2009, 03:31 PM	#1
Florian Segginger DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Audigy 2ZS Notebook and Vista Hello all! I purchased, some time ago, a Creative Audigy 2ZS Notebook sound card to go on my Dell D630 (which had horrible sound artifacts out of the box). The Creative drivers worked flawlessly on Windows XP, however I recently made the switch to Vista and all hell broke loose. First of all, the headphones jack did not work, and neither did half of the features. The sound was at a very low level (had to turn my stereo system way up to hear anything) and the quality was what I would qualify as sub-par. The Creative drivers being what they were, with absolutely no hope for improvement, I had to find a solution. I stumbled upon the kX project by chance. It's an amazing project and the work you guys have done on this is incredible. I salute you all! Anyways, after many, many failed attempts at configuring my sound card correctly with kX, I figured it out. Since it was such a pain to find out all by myself, I thought I'd help out anyone in my situation and explain how I figured it out! What you need to do (this is for Windows Vista SP2): Since you landed here, I'm guessing you've already got the Creative drivers installed. This is bad, you need to remove them and here's how: Quit any audio-related applications such as media players, mixing software, et al Go to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program Remove anything related to Creative or Audigy. Do not restart your system yet! Depending on the configuration and which version of the Creative drivers you downloaded, the following steps won't be necessary Go back to Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Device Manager In Device Manager, find the Sound, Video and Game controllers In there, find your sound card, right-click and choose uninstall. Don't forget to check "Delete the driver software for this device" Take the sound card out of your PCMCIA slot, restart your computer You should now have a "virgin" system without any additional audio drivers installed. You must now install the kX drivers Plug in your sound card. Don't do anything until Windows tells you it needs to install drivers. Choose "Never for this device" (or something similar). That way, Windows won't ever annoy you again for this sound card Get the very latest version of kX, which is version 3545 (you can find it here: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/general-...ion-3545b.html ) This is the only version that has successfully worked for me! Run the auto-installer. Once that is done, the wizard will ask you to install the kX audio driver (which is done by clicking "install" on the splash screen that should appear) Restart your system as the wizard asks you to Sound should now be semi-working. However, there's still a couple things you should do to get that perfect sound you've been looking for. Firstly, you have to select the correct default sound devide for Windows. Firstly, make sure you have closed any audio-related applications. Once this is done, go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound Once you are on that screen, select "Master Mixer", and click "Set Default". You now have selected the correct output device. To test out the sound in your system, click the volume icon at the bottom right of the task bar, which should open the volume lever. Simply click on the button to hear an audio "ding". You should hear a bit of crackling... this is normal and the following step should fix it. Now we need to setup the buffers. This is what took me the most fiddling around. The specs could be different on your system, so don't take this as the absolute truth! Right click the kX icon on the taskbar, go to Settings > Setup Buffers. These are the settings I use which produce the least crackle and pops: Tank Memory Size: 256KB Playback Buffer Size: 9600 bytes (~10.00 ms) Recording Buffer Size: 16384 bytes Number of AC3 Buffers: 4 buffers GSIF Buffer Size: 512 samples Obviously you need to make sure you are not running any audio-related applications when making these changes. This could corrupt the driver really badly! And so this concludes this little how-to. I hope it will be of help to someone. I sure wish I could have found something like this!