Sound Blaster Z Control Panel - does it need to be in startup?

Hey gang,
I built a new system this past week and put a new Sound Blaster Z card in it - which I am very thrilled with. I ran this new system for about 3 days with the onboard Real Tech sound, which at the time I thought was pretty good - till I put this new card in. Really liking it so far.
My question has to do with the Sound Blaster Control Panel, showing as a startup item. I have the option " start sound blaster Z control panel at startup " unchecked.
However in task manager startup tab, it shows Sound Blaster Control Panel as a startup item. It does show the sound blaster control panel listed as running in the processes tab of task manager using app 45mb of ram.
Does this process need to be running or can I disable it? Maybe it needs to be running to process sound with the settings I have chosen in the control panel?
Just curious, thanks for any tips on this.
- Don

And of course now that I have asked the question, the last couple of times I have booted and checked, that is not the case - the Sound Blaster Control Panel is not showing as a running process...
The only items I see as running processes for this card in task manager now are:
Creative Audio Service
SoundBlaster Audio Service
Strange, but I can live with that .

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Sound Blaster z control panel slow to start slow to use

I have recently fitted the Sound Blaster z sound card to my PC. The motherboard is an a Gigabyte X58 OC.
The soundcard is working well and sounds great. However the Sound Blaster Z-Series control panel takes an age to start up, literally minutes. It works OK once it has started up although it takes a devil of a time to switch to the CrystalVoice, Cinematic or Mixer tabs, again minutes. The other tabs are fine though.
My X58 motherboard has four PCI express 2.0 slots configured
x16_1
x8_1
x16_2
x8_2
There are NO PCI express x1 or x4 slots.
A graphics card is connected to the x16_1 slot. The sound card is connected to the x8_2 slot. The other two slots are empty. I have googled the issue and am led to believe the software is behaving like this because the sound card is not connected to a PCI express x1 or x4 slot. But why is is? I have tested the x16_2 and x8_2 slots with an Intel NIC x1 and that works fine. As the soundcard is working fine this would seem to be an issue with the software rather than the hardware. Is there anyway to fix this? Luckily this is not a showstopper as I don't need to use the software regularly but nevertheless surely Creative would expect to do better.

I hate replying to my own threads but as no help has been forthcoming, this information may of use to others....
What I have found out is that x16 or x8 PCI express slots are connected to the X58 IOH northbridge chip. x1 PCI express slots are connected to the ICH10/ICH10R southbridge chip.
I am guessing this difference is why the Soundblaster Z-series control panel software works with x1 slots and only very slowly with the x16 /x8 slots. It is unfortunate I have a motherboard only with PCI express slots connected to the ICH10 ICH10R chip.
Of course why the software can't work properly with the X58 IOH Northbrige chip, only Creative can answer. It would be nice to hear from Creative and even nicer of they could fix the control panel software!

[Sound Blaster ZX]Control Panel takes 6 MINUTES to load and is nearly unusable?!

All,
Yesterday I took the plunge and picked up a Sound Blaster ZX to replace my old Audigy Platinum. Unfortunately I've been met with a series of problems that leave me with a bad taste in my mouth about my purchase.
The driver install seemed to go well though it was a little disconcerting when the 'Check for update' button in the auto update tool that runs right after install was grayed out. I noticed that I was not getting sound out of the 5.1 analog inputs that I had connected up to my Logitech Z680 speaker system. So I checked the system tray and there was a new SB icon there, that was clearly a utility to get to the configuration. Knowing this was probably the right place to start fiddling with the settings, I clicked it. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Strange I thought, so I checked the Windows task manager and located the Sound Blaster control panel in the list of running processes. I waited another minute or so and still nothing was displaying. So I killed the process in task manager, located the shortcut to the SB ZX control panel in the start menu and launched it. Again with the waiting. I immediately took to google and started researching a potential problem with this card.
As I was searching and had forgotten that I had launched the Control Panel, it suddenly showed up on my screen. Wow I thought, that took a while to load. I then proceeded to try to navigate the various areas of the Control Panel application. I was immediately concerned when I noticed that the app was not responsive and appeared to be frozen. I decided to patiently wait to see if it would wake up. Fortunately it did, though only after waiting for several minutes. I then attempted to close the Control Panel app, which it did after several more minutes of waiting.
I thought maybe there was some anomalous process running so I decided to try the Control Panel from a fresh boot. After my machine had started up, I clicked the SB icon in the system tray again, only this time I was going to time it. I recorded that it took 6 FULL MINUTES from the time I clicked the icon until the application displayed on my screen. Further, the lag of switching between the various areas of the application was as high as 3-4 minutes. In essence this software is completely unusable.
I decided to try the TOSLINK connections between my speaker system and the soundcard to see if it would respond better. I set the mixer settings(via the built in Windows mixer) and I could get it to produce sound albiet only in two channel stereo. Progress, or so I thought. So I switched back to the analog connections and there was no difference in the response of the control panel. I had found some instances where an onboard or video card based HDMI audio driver might interfere with the card. I had long since disabled the on board sound of my Asus P5Q Pro motherboard via the BIOS so there were no drivers hanging around from it. I then took a look at the device manager and disabled the ATI High Defintion Audio device that was likely part of my SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 video card. This had no effect, I was still getting no sound from my speakers and the interface is abysmally lagged.
I then took the following steps to no avail:
Uninstall all Soundblaster ZX drivers and software
Restart machine
Install the updated Soundblaster ZX software from the Creative Support site: http://support.creative.com/Products...T=CategoryID:1
Nothing I have tried has resolved the issue with the virtually unusable lag that occurs when trying to run the Control Panel and/or configure the Soundblaster ZX or the amount of time it takes to start up.
Anyone experienced this and know of a fix or a remedy? I really want to enjoy this sound card.
**UPDATE**
I just wanted to post up and say that I solved this issue by first uninstalling all drivers for both the SB ZX and my Radeon graphics card. I then used Driver Fusion(http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion) to perform a registry/file cleanup on all files associated with AMD graphics cards and Creative sound cards. Then I installed the drivers & software for the SB ZX from the CD that came in the box. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the software was responsive and the hardware was fully functioning. I then installed the software for my Radeon card however this time, I selected a custom install and chose NOT to install the HDMI audio driver. I don't know if this was key or not but at any rate, after the graphics card drivers and software was installed I am happy to report that the SB ZX software remained responsive and fully functioning.
I then updated the SB ZX software to the version linked above(1.0.22) from the version that ships on the CD - 1.0.13 and strangely the Cinematic tab disappeared from the Pro Studio control panel. Some research revealed that this tab is dependent on the Creative Labs Extras which seemed to have gotten nuked during the update. I was able to bring back the Cinematic tab by re-installing the extras from the CD, however it only installed the Dolby Digital Live component. DTS connect is still missing. I am going to do a little more research to see what I can do to get it back.
Hope this helps someone who runs into this same predicament.

Any news about the SoundBlaster Zx Linux drivers? Currently, there's no way to get even the most basic sound of it on Linux.

Officejet J3680 Control Panel does not respond to buttons, just make "beep sound"

Hi everybody, thanks for reading.
The problem is that my (brand new) J3680 control panel does not work until I press all the buttons, yes its weird.
Note #1: The printer works perfect when used through the computer (I am Linux user).
Note #2: Once I have pressed all the buttons at control panel the control panel (kind of) works.
Heres how this happens:
I plug the power cord
Now, the printers start and not even the Power button works, so I cant turn it off, each time I press any button it just do a “beep sound” and the LCD screen keeps the same
The LCD shows this:
0 Speed Dial
<One-Touch 1>
Now I have figured out what the LCD screen initialization means:
0: Thats the times I have pressed the “Speed Dial” button
Speed Dial: Thats the button I have to press to make the Control Panel works
<One-Touch 1>: This is the next button I have to press after the “Speed Dial” has been pressed
The printer then makes me press all the buttons (...)
I think this is kind of some “Control Panel button calibration", because the LCD respond perfect when I press the button the printer ask
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The LCD ends showing:
1 Color Start
<Hidden 1+Black>
Where “1 Color Start” was the last button it asked me to press, and the <Hidden 1+Black> is the next one combination.
Note that “Hidden 1” is not “1” not “Speed Dial 1”, I have just tried that combinations, but does not work.
Please help I have to do this each time I turn on the printer to make the control panel work. Thanks a lot.
Message Edited by NxGTR on 08-14-2009 07:15 AM

Nao Consigo estalar impressoura HP Officejet J3680 Faz horas que estu tentando estalar nao sei se esuporte ou provedor gostaria muito de ajuda para italar. obrigado Rui

Beware: icloud control panel DOES NOT WORK for icloud email

Opposing evidence is welcome. Please comment.
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http://sysdev.microsoft.com/support/default.aspx
Help and Support:
http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub
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Screen shots.
soundblaster_error.jpgsoundblaster_audigy_properties.jpgsoundblaster_properties.jpg

Originally Posted by SHS
My question no you mean you I don't understand my answer
HTML Code:
<This sentence makes no sense>
It simple you shouldn't have install those windows update driver
HTML Code:
<How would I know that?>
The simple fix is to uninstall the Sound Blaster software from the Control Panel and then re-install it that should fix the problem.
HTML Code:
<Done. Did not fix the problem>
OK, so you don't understand my original post. I installed the card and software two days ago, 12/16/14. The problem was present at that time. Then today at 1:47pm, I installed the Windows update. The problem persists, that means I still have the problem. The problem exists BEFORE and AFTER Windows update. I did follow your suggestion and uninstall and re-install the Audigy FX software and STILL have the problem.

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Originally Posted by dinopkk
Hi Cavegraffitti,
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I want a full refund please.

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Sound Blaster Z Control Panel - does it need to be in startup?

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