HP Z800 Audio Issue

[Z800_SJ]

I have Souundblaster Xfi and it is working with all of the other applications and IE.  I can play music, system sounds, etc.  However, cannot play audio off any other browser.  I have tried Chrome, Opera, and none work.  Have done the troubleshooting, the volume is uop and not muted, Mixer is not muted, etc.  Any help would be appreciated as I need to move to a new gen of browser where IE 11 is no longer supported on some of the sites I visit.

[DGroves]

i own a z800 and have a HP labled creative pci-e sound card which was installed in it at some point and  had no issues with sound in a web browser

some points to consider,

have you disabled the onboard realtek audio?

have you checked the xfi's settings to confirm they are correct? this card has numerous configuration settings and i suspect the problem you are having is related to on such setting

run the creative speaker test/setup program and confirm that the speaker config matches your setup

does your card have front/rear audio jacks (not the z800 audio jacks) and if so are they setup as seperate input/outputs or as combined jacks

is chrome set as the system default browser?

[Z800_SJ]

Hello Dgroves,

Thank you for your detailed help.  Yes, I have tried all of that and did it again just now based on your feedback and have made the Chrome as a default browser including clearing all of the cache, and Temp files, but it is not working.  WMP, iTunes, IE, System sounds all good to go along with the tow DVD-R and Blue-Ray plaer, but no sound on Opera, Firefox nor Chrome!

All the drivers up to date and have run the Creative Diagnostics, too without any issue.  I have 7.1 settings, and have changed to 5.1, even mono, still nothing.  However, the Mixer icon clearly shows audio being playedback or at least received/generated by Chrome.

[BambiBoomZ]

Z800_SJ,

That is an odd one.  I use Firefox and reluctantly Chrome and I'm able to run multiple iterations of YouTube on Firefox and Chrome and run a movie simultaneously.

A couple of ideas:

1. Check that the  Mixer- the small speaker icon lower right is set to 100%

2. In Control Panel > Sound, Check that the X-Fi is set as the Default Device. Right click on the CP listing for the X-Fi for Properties, set Level to 100% . Importantly, click on the Advanced Tab  and verify that the mode - channels and  Sampling Rate is correct. 

3. Also in Control Panel > Sound > Properties, there are settings under "Exclusive Mode".  These are interesting as  they are called:

_1.  "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"

_2.   "Give exclusive mode applications priority."

Strangely,  _1. and _2.  with all the talk of "exclusive" and "applications priority", counter-intuitively seem to allow amazing flexibility in sound configuration.  In an HP z620 (E5-1680 v2) / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB sound interface (2 in/4out) > Mackie MR824 studio monitors, both _1. and _2, are checked.  The "Default Format" setting is 2 channel," 48000Hz (Studio Quality)" On this system it's possible to run two Firefox , two Chrome browsers, and IE run three YouTube tabs with sound simultantousely on each browser. On the z420 (E5-1620 v2) / ASUS Essence STX > Logitech Z2300 2.1, with the same settings as the z620, this multiple simultaneous output is also possible.

If none of the above solve the situation, consider uninstalling IE as a test, saving the bookmarks in a file to reinstall late. IE is it's a system bully in my opinion and may have a secret takeover the World setting that it checked itself- late at night- as an "update".  

By the way, I have two X-Fi Titaniums and use them in the vintage systems, both 2007: Dell Precision 390 (Xeon X3230) and Dell Dimension E520 (Core 2 E6700) both with Logitech z533 2.1 systems.  They're excellent sound cards for the price.

Let us know what happens.

BambiBoomZ