Creative Audigy 2 ZS

[rhomanski]

My sounds been crackling in all 5 channels for a while now. It only does it when the house is warm. It gets worse as the temperature goes up. I first thought it was a transistor in my 5.1 speaker system but it's quiet when the computers not running. So I assume it's the sound card. I bought it used in 2006 off of e-bay. It's worked fine with my old system until now. Bad caps? Have you heard of this problem? What can you recommend for an Asus P5Q-E with windows 7? Thanks.

[diif]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

I have exactly the same card and have experienced crackling occasionally. Recently i deiced I'd had enough and gave my computer a bit of a clean.
i found residue on my sound card around a cap. I could not determine if it was the cap that had leaked or something has got spilled on my PC. I replaced the cap and I've had no crackling since.
I'll dig out the photo i took.

The Asus Xonar DG is a good quality reasonably priced sound card available in PCI and PCI-E.

[stj]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

pull the card out, clean the contacts and put it back.
and pull the jacks out, and clean the sockets with ipa on a cotton-bud.

the socket contacts tarnish.

[stj]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

I have exactly the same card and have experienced crackling occasionally. Recently i deiced I'd had enough and gave my computer a bit of a clean.
i found residue on my sound card around a cap. I could not determine if it was the cap that had leaked or something has got spilled on my PC. I replaced the cap and I've had no crackling since.
I'll dig out the photo i took.

The Asus Xonar DG is a good quality reasonably priced sound card available in PCI and PCI-E.

shit design, putting caps between regulators to get cooked.
if i owned one of those, i would replace those 22uf caps with tantalums.

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Thanks guys, I'll try that first. I wonder if the Asus will work with such an old motherboard?

[diif]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Thanks guys, I'll try that first. I wonder if the Asus will work with such an old motherboard?

I can't see a reason why it wouldn't.

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Cool. That's great. I'll keep it in mind if the other stuff doesn't help. Don't know when I'll get to it though. I've been so busy lately. So many broken things around here.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Temperature dependent sure sounds capacitor related...
Did you see this thread?
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3543

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Interesting, there's a lot in there. Mine doesn't pop when it's around 70 in the house. Pops a little at 75. Pops so much you can hardly hear anything when it gets up to 80 in here. Nothing was changed when it started, so I would blame hardware and not software.

[Bungz]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

I will chime in with Asus DG's are superb cards for peanuts.

[stj]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

i doubt it's caps related.
caps actually work a bit better when warm.
i would strip the machine down, clean out all the dust and rebuild it.

i had a 24/7 tower case that used to get unstable after 4-6months if i didnt do that every 3 months.
it got a lot better after i fitted a bank of fans to create positive air pressure and put filters on the fans btw.

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

update:

I cleaned everything and no change. It all looks good so I would blame caps or solder. I put a Soundblaster Zrx in my new build so I ordered a Soundblaster Z for this old system. Works great with windows 7. I never could get the Audigy 2 Zs to work right with 7. I threw away the microphone that came with it. It sounds great and even in a hot house no pops. I can enjoy my music again. Thanks for the advise everybody.

P.S. Does anybody need an Audigy 2 ZS, slightly used, only driven to church on Sundays?

[ratdude747]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

I had this problem too.

Did you have the front panel option? If so, turn down the front pane's mic knob... as that was the issue in my case (same card).

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

No RD, nothing was plugged into the card except the sound system in the back. Only volume was on the speaker control head. Before I upgraded to windows 7 it worked fine. When I finally got it to work again, the back left channel would not work. Never could get it to work. I suspect it's the software but maybe another bad cap? Eventually last summer it started crackling and just kept getting worse and was definitely temperature related. The new card even sounds clearer, I can hear a lot more subtle sounds in the music or even just the noises in games.

[ratdude747]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

No RD, nothing was plugged into the card except the sound system in the back. Only volume was on the speaker control head. Before I upgraded to windows 7 it worked fine. When I finally got it to work again, the back left channel would not work. Never could get it to work. I suspect it's the software but maybe another bad cap? Eventually last summer it started crackling and just kept getting worse and was definitely temperature related. The new card even sounds clearer, I can hear a lot more subtle sounds in the music or even just the noises in games.

Strange, I am not having issues with mine under 7x32 (I am also using Daniel K's drivers, FWIW).

[rhomanski]

Re: Creative Audigy 2 ZS

I downloaded Creative's software from their website. I could have gotten the wrong one I suppose. It is an old card though, 2003 I think. It has a SNR of 97 db if my memory serves. The new card has 116db SNR.