The 1909 windows 10 update has stopped my Creative Audigy 2 ZS soundcard working. I was half expecting it so no surprise - all the forums say the driver won't work with 1903 and 1909.

The Audigy has a front panel so although I usually use the speakers for bog standard sound applications and roughing out stuff in BIAB, I mix with headphones which I find always gives a more accurate sound.

However, the Audigy is now for all intents and purposes dead so I can get the speakers working with the motherboard's onboard sound.

But...........! I can use the Behringer usb for both recording, monitoring and playback with headphones. However, what do I hear? Is the Behringer producing the sound (which is fine as it's a good unit) or am I hearing the onboard sound when before I was hearing the soundblaster output which is superior?

If the behringer is doing the work I can live with the onboard sound but otherwise I'll need to invest in a more modern soundblaster.

Who can tell me please?

Not sure given that particular unit. Bring up the Windows Sound properties, Playback and see what device is selected. [To get to this, right click on the little speaker icon in the lower right of your Taskbar]

I had not realized the Creative Audigy units were supported this long.

thanks Matt. yes my faithful Audigy 2 ZS was fine until Windows 10 1909 ( see separate post on 1903!)

the playback device shown in Windows Sound does indeed change to the Behringer and reverts to the onboard audio when I unplug the behringer.

and through the speakers i've got the onboard sound is fine for most things.

I just googled Audigy 2 zs and windows 10 and found this. Maybe this will help?

"Hi!

This worked for my Creative Audigy 2 ZS and Windows 10 1903 update:

https://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/windows-7-8-1-und-10-windows-allgemein/540331-win-10-update-1903-soundblaster-kein-ton.html?highlight=audigy

Download "Audigy RX Driver" from Creative

Extract all files

Go to the folder "Audio\DriversWin10\wdm\"

Right-click "wdma_emu.inf" and select "install"

Restart and enjoy!

Best regards!

Markus"

Good luck.

thanks mario - i'd found that and tried it without success. maybe that worked for 1903 but not 1909 although it does seem to have worked for several people

as it is i think the onboard sound is fine for general use but the behringer gives me sound as good as the old card and with less flaky asio drivers

i always did use the behringer for recording, now i'll use it for mixing as well with the onboard sound for movies and less demanding audio uses

You probably already have tried this but have your tried installing the drivers in either administrated mode or compatibility mode?

i think the line of least resistence is to stick with the onboard sound and and use the behringer.

i've just ordered a new Soundblaster but have just read the specs that it's PCIe whereas the old card is common or garden PCI so that slot is not available

until i open the case i won't see what slots i've got available because although the motherboard manual gives me a diagram i can't remember what other slots i used for expansion cards

It’s unlikely you have an expansion card that doesn’t reveal itself out the back of the PC case. An exception could be a PCiE hard drive.

curiouser and curioser............i've been using my behringer interface for BIAB and RB with great results but today just for curiosity tried the defunct creative card not with the WAS drivers or MME drivers but the native creative asio drivers. worked fine in RB and as the card has a front panel I've got my headphone quality sound mixing option back without needing to connect the behringer

but the card still won't play audio from other applications so for that it's back to the onboard sound

bill gates and creative seem to have half their act together............

well it gets even more confusing. to try the asio drivers i went into control panel and disabled the onboard sound and then re-enabled the soundblaster. i was listening to the creative sound card through headphones when it worked with the asio driver. so i unplugged the headphones and tried an mp3 and the playback was silent - hence the above post.

but having lunch i remembered that the phones connect to the soundblaster through the front panel but the pc connects to the speakers through a jack lead. and the jack lead was plugged into the onboard sound jack outlet.

so rather than pull out the pc and try the soundblaster socket, i made sure the soundblaster was enabled and listened on headphones. sure enough the mp3 played so i pulled the pc out and reconnected the soundblaster output to the speakers.

it now all works! i had tried the fix Mario mentioned above (admittedly not running the driver in compatibility mode) but there was no sound. all i can think of is that various restarts have installed the driver properly.

and I'm sure Matt will be amazed to find that Soundblaster audigy 2 zs still works in 2020! I did nothing at all other than the original fix Mario mentioned which I had already tried.

so I'm a happy bunny but a puzzled one