dualhunter Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Windows 10 1903 can't install because of BSODs and the likely culprit is the driver for my ancient Auzentech X-Fi Prelude sound card (better amps than the Creative X-Fi). Support for the previous version of Windows 10 ends in less than 2 weeks and Auzentech is defunct so no new drivers. I use the sound card exclusively with headphones (with a little headphone amp, I do have a mic connected but haven't used it in a long time I guess I can enable onboard sound if I need it for the mic), my speakers go through HDMI. My Monitor has a headphone port so sound of Display Port is fine though it maxes out at a lower volume (turns out the monitor has it's own volume setting and it was at 50). I can live with with going through my monitor for now at least but I'm open to a better solution. My headphones are Sennheiser HD598s and I mainly use them for gaming (for games that control well with keyboard and mouse, controller games go on the TV and speakers) but sometimes use them for music. The headphone amp is a Behringer MA400, ideally the DAC would replace it but if it gets the price down I'd consider using both together. The Creative E5 has a mic jack too which could be nice. The Fostex HP-A3 is about as high as I'd like to go budget wise but I'd prefer something cheaper like the Creative E5 (since I have a working solution I can wait in the hopes better pricing in a few weeks). Any recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleG Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone-Amplifier-Titanium/dp/B074P7C9JR https://www.amazon.com/FiiO-Headphone-Amplifier-Computer-Balanced/dp/B07KR3RF4H/ref=pd_sbs_23_6/144-7463330-1598960?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07KR3RF4H&pd_rd_r=f4844866-febf-4323-8c90-4aff396c81b5&pd_rd_w=gRLMp&pd_rd_wg=E85dt&pf_rd_p=52b7592c-2dc9-4ac6-84d4-4bda6360045e&pf_rd_r=Z56J3Y2XJC99HMAMQYCM&refRID=Z56J3Y2XJC99HMAMQYCM&th=1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleG Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 2 hours ago, dualhunter said: The Creative E5 has a mic jack too which could be nice I am not fan of it, the build quality was poor and the sound was meh. 2 hours ago, dualhunter said: Fostex HP-A3 Honestly its a waste of money for what you have and for what your using it for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 Speaking of 1903 do you still have to manually download it? I've yet to see it pop up in Windows Update and the Update Assistant just thanks me for updating to the latest version of Windows 10 even though I'm on 1803. [edit] nvm, ran some updates and rebooted and now I'm seeing it. I guess I was more backlogged on updates than I'd realized. [edit 2] Kept getting "Download Error 0xc1900223" trying to do it through the regular Check for Updates panel so had to download the update exe here (not the install media one, the first one): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 It should automatically download unless it failed a couple times. If it fails, do you have an X-Fi sound card, if not do you have Intel Rapid Storage driver installed? If it's not one of those search for Windows 10 version 1903 and whatever your oldest hardware is to see if there are any issues. You can use the Windows Update Assistant or Media Creation Tool to try to manually run the update. If it fails it will roll back to your current version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 52 minutes ago, dualhunter said: It should automatically download unless it failed a couple times. If it fails, do you have an X-Fi sound card, if not do you have Intel Rapid Storage driver installed? If it's not one of those search for Windows 10 version 1903 and whatever your oldest hardware is to see if there are any issues. You can use the Windows Update Assistant or Media Creation Tool to try to manually run the update. If it fails it will roll back to your current version. Realtek for the sound card, and no Intel Rapid Storage listed under Device Manager->Storage controllers, just Microsoft Storage Space Controllers. Weirdly, I ran Windows10Upgrade9252.exe and it looks like after seeming to get pretty much all of the way along that it just silently quit and left me on 1803. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted November 10, 2019 Author Share Posted November 10, 2019 I was getting to about 80% before it failed. I removed my sound card and did a fresh install and it worked. My onboard sound is still disabled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 3 hours ago, dualhunter said: I was getting to about 80% before it failed. I removed my sound card and did a fresh install and it worked. My onboard sound is still disabled. Well uh this is interesting, my sound card is an Asus Xonar which hasn't had new drivers released since 2015, but I just checked the back of my computer (which I haven't done in ages) and apparently I'm actually just running off the motherboard sound output. No idea why but I must have run into some sort of a problem with the sound card and then just said fuck it and plugged back into the motherboard sound output. So maybe I can just completely ditch sound card without it being a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 1 hour ago, BlueAngel said: Onboard sound isn't bad like it used to be. If my audio device is being listed as Realtek then it's the onboard motherboard audio, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 I didn't get around to opening up my computer yesterday but I looked at the back of it again and I think the sound card I thought I had installed may not actually even installed? So not sure what the problem here is. Can USB accessories cause issues with Windows Update/is it worth unplugging all my USB accessories other than my keyboard and mouse and seeing if that helps? When I get home I'll also check if the Xonar driver is still installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 It wasn't for this update but for the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 where on one computer (actually for that computer it may have actually been for 8.1 to 10) the upgrade got stuck part way through. I unplugged the printer and the upgrade immediately continued. So it's worth trying it with USB devices other than wired keyboard and mouse unplugged. If you had the sound card set up in the past and then disabled and/or removed it, there could still be something that was left behind causing issues. Something else to try is go in Settings (gear icon in Windows menu) -> Update & Security -> Troubleshoot -> Windows Update It didn't help me but every time I ran it, it said it found issues and fixed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 26 minutes ago, dualhunter said: It wasn't for this update but for the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 where on one computer (actually for that computer it may have actually been for 8.1 to 10) the upgrade got stuck part way through. I unplugged the printer and the upgrade immediately continued. So it's worth trying it with USB devices other than wired keyboard and mouse unplugged. If you had the sound card set up in the past and then disabled and/or removed it, there could still be something that was left behind causing issues. Something else to try is go in Settings (gear icon in Windows menu) -> Update & Security -> Troubleshoot -> Windows Update It didn't help me but every time I ran it, it said it found issues and fixed them. I downloaded the Windows 10 Update Troubleshooter here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027322/windows-update-troubleshooter And it found 3 issues and only fixed 2 of them. I'm blanking on what the unfixed issue was but I looked up how to fix it manually and after doing that still couldn't get the update to install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted November 11, 2019 Author Share Posted November 11, 2019 If you get the same issue I had (BSOD during update) you can try checking the minidump to try to track down the cause but you might need to change some Windows settings in order to get the minidump preserved somewhere where you can check it later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 8 hours ago, dualhunter said: If you get the same issue I had (BSOD during update) you can try checking the minidump to try to track down the cause but you might need to change some Windows settings in order to get the minidump preserved somewhere where you can check it later. So you had to resort to I tried using driverquery to get a full list of every single driver on my system and it looks like I have a few audio drivers installed: https://send.firefox.com/download/1f4e431e595fc9e2/#mus3_As1IwDse0-90vMYkA Seeing the "Service for NVIDIA High Definition Audio Driver" listing made me realize I haven't updated my nVidia drivers in quite a while...and a quick Google search suggests nVidia drivers were causing issues with the 1903 update for some people. I'm about to go to bed but I'm thinking updating my nVidia drivers is what I need to try next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 So I didn't try checking the Update Assistant again before updating my GeForce drivers, but my drivers were pretty ancient and after updating them the Update Assistant went from just thanking me for having the latest version of Windows to offering to upgrade me to 1903. So I'm betting it was the GeForce drivers being really old that was blocking the update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Yup, successful install confirmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dualhunter Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 Apparently 1909 is about to release but at least with the upgrade to 1903 we avoid any end of life issues with 1803 and can wait and see for 1909. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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