The Sound BlasterX AE-5 Owners' Club
- Thread starter Skynet5
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Thanks for the heads up.
Soldato
Do we have change log of everything they have broken?
Seems to be missing a lot of options from the Connect version some they will add in a patch like RGB Lighting. My Soundbar is redundant now because the Stereo Upmix option is gone and setting your headphone impedance is not there seems to be a watered down version of the AE 7/9 one i think at the moment. I like the interface though that's just me.
That sounds pretty bad for a Creative update, let me just hit the update button also !
hitting check now button on the SB connect software did nothing, but creative site has them here:
https://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=100277
hitting check now button on the SB connect software did nothing, but creative site has them here:
https://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=100277
Did you check playback section, select headphones and then the grey control icon the impedance option is in there. Not sure about stereo upmix probably somewhere hidden in those settings. I also like the Direct mode, creative say this is the purest stereo mode imo its the best for everything music and film wise ( I don't game)
Nice creative did an update since it felt like they gave up almost, now all they need to do is ramp up Creative AE-9 to retailers properly oh and drop it by £100.
Thanks I've seen the impedance option missed that i use Direct Mode as well I've noticed you can't use any of SBX profiles now in that mode there locked off which is probably correct for pure unfiltered sound it was available in Connect. Slow Roll Off seems to be the best i read not sure.
Direct Mode is by far the best for music listening - very noticeable increase in impact - but for gaming or general desktop use there is the issue that it significantly narrows the number of applications that can access the sound hardware at the same time so for instance you will probably lose voice comms audio while gaming in Direct Mode.
New drivers are not really worth installing why did they even bother
People were complaining there are missing features.
There was a pretty big gap between driver releases, maybe creative just did not want to look like they were not doing much.
I have since sold my AE-5 and gone back to the SB Z, sound quality still ain't shabby but the head phone amp was much better on the AE5 with the quality being more cleaner and amped up.
I will wait on the new Creative X3 or possible go headphone amp route next
I have since sold my AE-5 and gone back to the SB Z, sound quality still ain't shabby but the head phone amp was much better on the AE5 with the quality being more cleaner and amped up.
I will wait on the new Creative X3 or possible go headphone amp route next
Would a failing PSU or other component affect sound quality?
Reason i ask is the onboard sound began playing up some months ago and umpteen attempts with installing and uninstalling realtek drivers had limited success. The sound issue remained albeit intermittent.
I bought the AE-5 and all was good then the issues returned. Occasional stutters no matter the media. Youtube, spotify, netflix. Nothing major but enough to annoy.
Then bought the katana sound bar. All good but not for long. Disabled onboard audio and good time again but low and behold it is still there then goes away and you think great but it returns seemingly with no reason.
Occasionally after a windows update the onboard audio is switched on and the stutter is resolved by turning it off but back it comes sometimes within days or even weeks without issues.
It does it with AE-5 installed and uninstalled. Headphones through AE-5 or katana it will appear when it decides so i can't even eliminate a single component for blame.
I have had enough and i'm at the stage where i want to replace the whole system but sleeping on it it seems a bit extreme.
Occasionally if i reboot enough times it will behave but waiting for it to return spoils any enjoyment of films or music.
Have updated the katana and AE-5 drivers to no avail.
I know when it is not working as when i circle the mouse and follow the pointer onscreen there is a blip with the pointer trail. Like a split second outage.
This is driving me mad. Do i need a new MB, CPU and PSU or is there a simple solution?
TIA
Reason i ask is the onboard sound began playing up some months ago and umpteen attempts with installing and uninstalling realtek drivers had limited success. The sound issue remained albeit intermittent.
I bought the AE-5 and all was good then the issues returned. Occasional stutters no matter the media. Youtube, spotify, netflix. Nothing major but enough to annoy.
Then bought the katana sound bar. All good but not for long. Disabled onboard audio and good time again but low and behold it is still there then goes away and you think great but it returns seemingly with no reason.
Occasionally after a windows update the onboard audio is switched on and the stutter is resolved by turning it off but back it comes sometimes within days or even weeks without issues.
It does it with AE-5 installed and uninstalled. Headphones through AE-5 or katana it will appear when it decides so i can't even eliminate a single component for blame.
I have had enough and i'm at the stage where i want to replace the whole system but sleeping on it it seems a bit extreme.
Occasionally if i reboot enough times it will behave but waiting for it to return spoils any enjoyment of films or music.
Have updated the katana and AE-5 drivers to no avail.
I know when it is not working as when i circle the mouse and follow the pointer onscreen there is a blip with the pointer trail. Like a split second outage.
This is driving me mad. Do i need a new MB, CPU and PSU or is there a simple solution?
TIA
Cheers. Have run latencymon a number of times today. It says asstor64.sys and dxgkrnl.sys are running high latency.
Have updated bios and As media sata driver related to asstor64. Latencymon still says they are an issue however i have no audio issues today so will need to see how thing pan out.
Could be wrong on this and its not easy to diagnose such faults but sounds like it could be a failing hard drive or failing RAM modules. That could explain the stutter issue. Power supplies can cause weird issues also especially if not providing a clean and stable energy to the Pc parts. If you can borrow the parts from another pc system or have more then 1 ssd and ram you can diagnose easily.
You would really need to replace 1 component item at a time and retry the system, but I would go with main windows hard drive first, ram, p/s these are the usual suspects but some freaky stuff can occur like a bad gpu even.
I would also disconnect the system as much as you can, ie disconnect all hdds even a dodgy one connected to the system can cause issues, just one hdd at a time say the main windows hard drive only. And if you got 2 ram stick modules, try 1 only and at a time etc
Diagnostic tools you can try but just since your hdd or ram has passed does not mean there is no fault. I tested a SSD which passed all test after 4hrs but could see Windows was pausing time to time randomly, swopped the SSD and now works perfect. Same with ram modules in the past.
Baring a full on diagnostic sometimes your cpu and mobo is just bad even.
Thank you for a very comprehensive reply. Since my last post stating all was good we are back to micro stutter again. Appreciate all the possible fault finding advice but i have decided to just start afresh. Full system inbound.
Working full time with a family i would struggle to try all the various tests, reboots install/uninstall etc but appreciate your advice.
System is five years old so likely needs a refresh. Fingers crossed on the next one
Thank you for a very comprehensive reply. Since my last post stating all was good we are back to micro stutter again. Appreciate all the possible fault finding advice but i have decided to just start afresh. Full system inbound.
Working full time with a family i would struggle to try all the various tests, reboots install/uninstall etc but appreciate your advice.
System is five years old so likely needs a refresh. Fingers crossed on the next one
Can't blame you at all and tbf 5 years is pretty good run for any computer system !
Just make sure every component is new, nothing from the old system comes over and maybe keep the old data on an external hdd for temporary at the beginning, worth giving all your old data a good virus scan with malwarebytes and 2nd decent AV scanner to be 100% safe too. Literally the only thing I would take over from the old pc is the bookmarks, then see how it goes
Just picked up this card, and it's working ok it seems.
At the moment I'm running the latest Soundblaster Command install, but I see there is a also download available called 'SoundBlaster Connect'.
As far as I can tell, this is needed to enable RGB lighting control and scout radar.
I'm not interested in the latter and might use the former at some point, so is there any other pressing reasons to install the Soundblaster Connect?
All it says on Creative's download page is:
What's the consensus on this?
At the moment I'm running the latest Soundblaster Command install, but I see there is a also download available called 'SoundBlaster Connect'.
As far as I can tell, this is needed to enable RGB lighting control and scout radar.
I'm not interested in the latter and might use the former at some point, so is there any other pressing reasons to install the Soundblaster Connect?
All it says on Creative's download page is:
- Improves Scout Radar reliability.
- Fixes selected EQ (preset or custom) does not applies on next boot up.
- Fixes selected Headphone Gain does not applies on next boot up.
- Fixes noise issue in rear channel.
What's the consensus on this?
Just installed the Sound Blaster Command, seems much more refined UI wise and a lot of the bugs related to output switching / profiles seems to be resolved. Installed the latest software on their web site and on the of chance clicked check for latest in the UI and it downloaded an update, now on 3.4.41.1. Fingers crossed and so far so good...