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Creative Sound Blaster ZxR ACM Headset jack not working still?

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1623 / 2 Years ago, wed, october 5, 2022, 12:11:12

I have just installed the somewhat aged Creative Sound Blaster ZxR on my up to date Ubuntu 18.04. To be more precise this is what I get as of today:

(base) skywalker@Zeus:~$ uname -a

Linux Zeus 5.3.0-45-generic #37~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 27 15:58:10 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I can see the correct sound adapter being recognized by the OS in the sound settings:

However, the headset doesn't work while connected to the sound blaster Accessible Audio Control Module (ACM) or front panel (while when booting with Windows 7 it does). I found some issues reported on this before back in 2018 but I expected all those patches to have gone mainstream by now or? I run the following and see that in my installation the rev 01 is the same old as in those 2018 posts I found online. What can I do to get the latest versions and patches? is there a solution for this?

(base) skywalker@Zeus:~$ lspci

...

05:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D / Z-Series] (rev 01)

...

Are there any patches or software I can get to fix this?

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istmasted

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago atereress · Accepted Answer

I bench tested this card recently and managed to get the ACM to work after reading some Reddit posts. What you need to do is go to the shell and open up alsamixer. Select your Sound Blaster card and change the output to "headphones." If you listen carefully you'll hear an audible click-noise from the sound card, and the ACM headphone jack will magically come to life. Your stereo and/or surround sound speakers will fall silent.

I'm no expert when it comes to HiFi, but I think the clicking noise is actually a mechanical-relay switch that physically transfers the channel to the ACM's headphone jack; probably a choice by Creative's engineers to minimize any possible feedback interference from other connected speakers.

As I understand it, the kernel driver is written to support the entire Sound Blaster-Z family of products. I'd gamble that it probably doesn't hook up some product-specific features to Pulseaudio.

All that said, I could be completely wrong. Regardless, from my own recent testing of the ZxR, it seems like it's a great product minus the hiccup with the headphone jack. Sound is crystal clear with hardly any background hiss. I've decided to keep mine and install it on my main PC once I've upgraded it to Ubuntu 20.04. Good luck with yours!