No sound with XP SP3

Paradox52 · 06-27-2008, 04:18 PM

I'm running Windows XP with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. I just finished a clean install, were previously with SP2 I had sound.

After completing all critical updates from Microsoft, I noticed that SP3 has it's own Sound Blaster drivers and installed a WDM driver. Which doesn't work.

I installed the latest driver Creative has on their website and it worked until I rebooted and windows reinstalled the WDM.

I tried uninstalling the WDM driver and forcing windows to use creative's driver. Also only worked until I rebooted.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

BFWardle · 07-15-2008, 04:11 AM

I had a similar problem with similar hardware (Audigy 2) after XP SP3. It appears to be a common problem with many (if not most) sound cards. For me, installing fresh drivers (automatically or manually) resulted in sound until the next restart...then, during that restart, sound would cut off halfway through the opening wave file. After that, nothing could coax sound from the Audigy until I reinstalled the drivers again (this got old quickly, of course).

I tried several things I encountered on the web and a couple I stumbled on, and will list them all in case any one has an incremental part in fixing the problem.
- Established restore point (of course)
- Deleted current Audigy Driver
- Deleted the Microsoft "WDM compatibility sound" driver--sorry, I forget exactly what it was called, but it seemed odd to have it running next to a signed Creative driver, so I took it out.
- Ran KB35221.exe (you'll have to Google this, I forget where I got it from. It's an old MS XP patch that affects the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA), a high definition audio class driver. I don't think MS carries the exe in their KB article any more, but it is searchable on the web and some users have reported this fixed their no sound issue after SP3).
- Reinstalled latest driver from Creative.

It should be noted that none of this worked initially for me though all these suggestions apparently helped others. Sound still cut off after first restart on my machine. So, MOST IMPORTANT something I stumbled on was:

- Under the Sound control panel select Volume Tab->Device Volume Advanced Tab to bring up the Audigy Play Control.
- Under the Audigy Play Control Options Menu, select the option for "Advanced Controls." This enables an "Advanced" button at the bottom of the Play Control Volume Slider.
- Clicking the new "Advanced" button brings up the "Advanced Controls for Play Control."
- On my install, at the bottom of this dialog is a checkbox labeled "1 Digital Output Only." This was checked. I'm not using digital output, so I unchecked it and voila! My sounds started playing correctly again. Who knows why the SP3 install selected this, but it fixed the prob as tested through several restarts.

Of course, that was my problem with my own configuration...your mileage may vary. Hope you get your problem fixed if you haven't already!

06-27-2008, 04:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
Paradox52 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 1 OS: xp	No sound with XP SP3 I'm running Windows XP with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. I just finished a clean install, were previously with SP2 I had sound. After completing all critical updates from Microsoft, I noticed that SP3 has it's own Sound Blaster drivers and installed a WDM driver. Which doesn't work. I installed the latest driver Creative has on their website and it worked until I rebooted and windows reinstalled the WDM. I tried uninstalling the WDM driver and forcing windows to use creative's driver. Also only worked until I rebooted. Any advice would be great, thanks.

07-15-2008, 04:11 AM	#2 (permalink)
BFWardle Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP SP 3, Vista SP 1	Re: No sound with XP SP3 I had a similar problem with similar hardware (Audigy 2) after XP SP3. It appears to be a common problem with many (if not most) sound cards. For me, installing fresh drivers (automatically or manually) resulted in sound until the next restart...then, during that restart, sound would cut off halfway through the opening wave file. After that, nothing could coax sound from the Audigy until I reinstalled the drivers again (this got old quickly, of course). I tried several things I encountered on the web and a couple I stumbled on, and will list them all in case any one has an incremental part in fixing the problem. - Established restore point (of course) - Deleted current Audigy Driver - Deleted the Microsoft "WDM compatibility sound" driver--sorry, I forget exactly what it was called, but it seemed odd to have it running next to a signed Creative driver, so I took it out. - Ran KB35221.exe (you'll have to Google this, I forget where I got it from. It's an old MS XP patch that affects the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA), a high definition audio class driver. I don't think MS carries the exe in their KB article any more, but it is searchable on the web and some users have reported this fixed their no sound issue after SP3). - Reinstalled latest driver from Creative. It should be noted that none of this worked initially for me though all these suggestions apparently helped others. Sound still cut off after first restart on my machine. So, MOST IMPORTANT something I stumbled on was: - Under the Sound control panel select Volume Tab->Device Volume Advanced Tab to bring up the Audigy Play Control. - Under the Audigy Play Control Options Menu, select the option for "Advanced Controls." This enables an "Advanced" button at the bottom of the Play Control Volume Slider. - Clicking the new "Advanced" button brings up the "Advanced Controls for Play Control." - On my install, at the bottom of this dialog is a checkbox labeled "1 Digital Output Only." This was checked. I'm not using digital output, so I unchecked it and voila! My sounds started playing correctly again. Who knows why the SP3 install selected this, but it fixed the prob as tested through several restarts. Of course, that was my problem with my own configuration...your mileage may vary. Hope you get your problem fixed if you haven't already! Last edited by BFWardle : 07-15-2008 at 04:35 AM.