sound blaster recon 3di control panel not working after w10 update

I had the same issue... The Creative support site says the updated W10 driver for the Sound Blaster Recon 3D series will be ready by August.

support.creative.com/.../ShowArticle.aspx

Hello,

I had a very similar problem with mine. You are not alone. I managed to fix my sound blaster recon 3di, so I will try to walk you through fixing yours:

1. Uninstall the sound blaster recon 3di software from your computer through "add/remove programs" equivalent on windows 10. Simply open control panel, click "uninstall a program" on the bottom left", click on "sound blaster recon 3di", and click on uninstall. A restart will be required to complete the uninstall, so go ahead and restart when it asks you to.

2. After you reboot, open device manager by clicking control panel > hardware and sound > device manager. Double click on "sound, video, and game controllers". Select the sound blaster recon 3di, right click on it, and select "update driver software...". This WILL NOT install soundblaster software. This will replace it with a generic sound controller. This is to ensure soundblaster is comletely removed from your PC. Don't worry - Soundblaster is coming back very soon. After it finishes updating, click on your speaker icon in the lower right corner. It should say "speakers (high definition audio device)", or something similar. If so, we are almost done!

3. Find the drivers for your sound blaster recon 3di on the web. If you have an Alienware laptop like I do, then simply typing "dell alienware ____ drivers", where the ____ is your alienware model, should link you to the dell drivers download page where you can select drivers to download. For example, I have an m18xr2 Alienware, so I would type "dell alienware m18xr2 drivers" into the search.

4. Under the "Audio" tab, you should see a creative labs file for download. Creative labs = soundblaster. If you find this file, then you will be able to reinstall your soundblaster recon 3di control panel. Simple download that file and install it. A restart may be required after the install, so restart if necessary. During the install, pay attention to your speaker icon in the lower right corner. Does it go from normal to having an X through it to back to normal? If it does, that means a new sound controller is being installed. That new sound controller just so happens to be soundblaster recon 3di.

5. After you reboot, search "sound" in the search box in the lower left. Sound blaster should appear. Click on it and see if it opens. It may take a few seconds longer than usual to open, as it was just installed. If all goes well, it will open and you will be greeted with the familiar set of sliders and tabs on the left.

Note: unfortunately, your profiles will be gone. So if you set up custom settings for your equalizer or other sliders, you will have to re-add them manually. At least you'll have sound blaster back, though!

Hope this helps you and any others seeking help on this issue. Good luck everyone!

you mean which one, can you show me ?

you meant which one, can you show me ?

I do not know which computer model you have nor if the driver depends on the model. However, try downloading and installing this driver:

www.dell.com/.../DriversDetails;fileId=2946387318&osCode=W764&productCode=alienware-m18x-r2&languageCode=EN&categoryId=AU

Like I said, I do not know which computer model you have. This driver is supported by Alienware M14XR2, M17XR2, and M18Xr2.

Be sure to follow the uninstalling steps I provided, or else the install will not work!

Already tried all that and its a alienware 17r2 had to roll back 2 windows 8.1 and now my sound card and control menu work just fine also windows 10 kept making my pc crash so

Thank You Unit. You saved my laptop from destruction. You are awesome! 

this fix WORKS!!!!! OMG Thank you SOOOO much!!!! Five Stars!

@Aiden Dark

@Unit745

None of those suggestions helped - I have an Alienware 18 and I think the Recon3Di is an entirely different product to the Recon3D PCIe, as I can't seem to get the system to detect it since I upgraded to Windows 10.  There's not even a mention of it on the Creative website!

I suspect I will be contacting Creative directly for the issue.

Simon,

Just to make sure I understand you correctly: you did attempt to uninstall the sound blaster control panel, remove the sound blaster drivers, and reinstall the sound blaster drivers and control panel?

Did you successfully complete all of these steps, or did you get stuck on one of them (if so, which one)?

I do understand that the 3Di is completely different from the PCe version. 3Di is a chipset attached to the motherboard, while a PCe is a separate hardware that plugs into the motherboard (a sound card). You are correct that sound blaster makes no mention of 3Di on their website (as far as I can see).

Just to make sure you are doing what fixed mine:

1. Uninstall the 3Di control panel via add/remove programs

2. Have windows install generic sound drivers via device manager

3. Reinstall the sound blaster drivers/control panel package from dell's website. Try this one: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=5NJ7K&fileId=2946387318&osCode=W764&productCode=alienware-m18x-r2&languageCode=EN&categoryId=AU

(Sorry the link is so huge; I just copy/pasted the URL, and that is what it looked like. It works though).

For a more detailed instruction set, see my above post (it's kind of long). Let me know what happens!

Dear Unit745,

I would like to thank you for restoring my faith in humanity by your eloquent yet simple way of phrasing the steps to solve this issue. With your excellent step-by-step layout, I was able to follow it with ease on my Alienware 15 laptop. I have spent nearly 2 months without working speakers and I am happy to say they work perfectly now! The only step that went a little differently for me was having to uninstall soundblaster directly from device manager because it simply refused to be uninstalled. I began to panic after I uninstalled it because I truly had no software anymore, but I calmed myself and searched for my device model's driver and downloaded it. (In my case it was Alienware 15). So thank you again for taking time out of your day to save all of our ***!

Sincerely,

Everyone who had this issue.

Did all the steps you listed, whenever i try installing it "Setup is unable to detect a supported product on your system" appears. and whenever i restart my computer the sound blaster 3di is installed again.

I'm not trying to sound mean, but you did follow the steps correctly? Let me rephrase them, just to be sure. I really do want to fix this very annoying issue for you:

1. You did uninstall the 3Di control panel software via "add or remove programs"? Yes? Good.

2. Next, you CANNOT just install the driver again. Your broken sound blaster driver will forbid it. Instead do the following:

a. Go to device manager.

b. Double click on "sound, video, and game controllers".

c. Right click on the recon 3Di, and select "update driver software". Have the PC search the web automatically for drivers. It should overwrite your sound blaster driver with a generic sound controller. If it does this for you, you are nearly done. Restart your PC.

d. Now, try to install that recon 3Di driver you downloaded. Hopefully it will work now. Restart after the installation.

e. Search "sound" in the search bar and see if sound blaster appears. I hope it does!

f. Report back with your result. I hope to hear some good news soon!

i did what you said a few times and somehow worked after doing it a few times.

Thanks a lot. it was very helpful:)

i did everything you listed above a few times and it somehow worked after a couple of restart and uninstall.
Thank you very much, it was very helpful. i might have done something wrong in the beginning that's why that thing showed up.