Creative WoW Headset - Software issue

[Pitchkart]

I guess this is the right place for this.

Creative's customer support is mostly useless, and I scanned Blizzard's support pages with no real help available.

Here's the problem: After picking up the Creative World of Warcraft headset, I immediately tried it out in Vent, and it worked quite well; however, the software that Creative has for it has turned to be quite a troublesome little thing.

I had to extract the .exe and change some files around to get it to install properly. Afterwards, it simply refuses to run, saying "The Audio Device (headset) supported by this application cannot be detected. This application will now close."

I -know- it's plugged in and working, because I can listen to things and record things through it. It even shows up in all of the control panels as "Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Headset." I rebooted, reinstalled, uninstalled and reinstalled again, then rebooted again, and it simply refuses to detect the headset that it was made for.

The reason I'm posting this here, is because I'd like to see if anyone has discovered a work-around for this, or a fix for this. I googled around a little bit, but couldn't find anything remarkably useful.

BTW: I'm on Windows 7 x64. I've seen lots of reports of this happening on macs, too, though, so I don't know if that necessarily means anything.

[None]

Can you go to the start menu with the headset plugged in and search for "Device Manager" and look under the drop down menu labelled "Sound, video and game controllers"? If Soundblaster World of Warcraft isn't on the list it indicates the drivers weren't installed properly.

If the drivers weren't installer correctly you can uninstall them from the Control Panel and delete any remaining files left by the uninstaller with Driver Sweeper. After completely removing the drivers you will need to restart your computer, keeping the headset plugged in (preferably in a rear USB port), and allow Windows to detect and install the necessary drivers and software.

Also note that uninstalling the control panel would be a good idea before uninstalling any other drivers from the headset, although this would only apply if the control panel was a seperate piece of software installed seperated from the drivers.

I've honestly heard of nothing but good things about that headset, it could be something as simple as driver conflicts to something stupid like a bad USB port. I personally dislike Creative though, their drivers have been terrible for a long time.

[Pitchkart]

Thanks for your reply.

The headset is listed in the device manager (under the subcategory "Unspecified") as "SB WoW Headset." Going to my sound settings lists it as its full name "Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Headset."

I followed the steps you listed, and the Creative Control Panel is still unable to read the headset. However, upon reinstalling the software, both the auto-updater and the online register software both chime in "You have a WOW headset, would you like to update/register its software?" The auto-updater will check for an update and say there is none with no error.

Interestingly enough, the Creative system information software also reads the headset with no error. Only the Audio Control Panel for things like altering the microphone's sensitivity and the faceplate's color doesn't read it.

The headset itself is wonderful, the sound quality is superb. But that extra software just refuses to work, always claiming that it can't find the headset.

[None]

It could simply be defective hardware, whether it's your computer or the headset itself is hard to say.

The only way to completely eliminate the variables you would need to install the software on another computer to test it there, if it works then it's something on your end. Whether it's driver conflicts or your computer would again be hard to say without a clean install of Windows. At that point I'd just consider returning it if you bought it locally.


Have you tried installing the control panel in another location? I do have to assume it's a fault in the headset itself, however, since Windows can immediately detect it and install the drivers.

[Pitchkart]

just tried installing it in another location, which didn't work.

It's possible it has something to do with my hardware/software setup, though. I noticed that whenever I plug the headset into my computer, my capture card software boots up for some reason. I guess it's possible that the capture card is interfering with the software somehow?

From what I can tell, the software isn't horribly important (voice changing software, ability to change the color of the lit plates, etc), but it'd be nice to have...

I do have to assume it's a fault in the headset itself, however, since Windows can immediately detect it and install the drivers.

Windows does install the drivers, and like I said before, the headset works just great. It's only the optional software that doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Creative doesn't seem to want to address the software problem (Tons of Mac users have the same issue, it seems), and seem to want to convince people that rebooting will fix it. Eventually.

[None]

From what I can tell, the software isn't horribly important (voice changing software, ability to change the color of the lit plates, etc), but it'd be nice to have...

It's not doing what was advertised which is more than enough reason to at least exchange it for another headset.

It's strange that your capture card reacts. What model and brand is the capture card?

[Pitchkart]

It's an AVer Media capture card. This guy right here, to be exact. It's not the highest quality, but it gets the job done well enough.

And I'd normally agree with you about exchanging it for another headset, but the store only had one other USB headset (I Prefer USB over the normal audio jacks for my headset, to keep game sounds and Vent sounds separate for recording purposes), and it was a fairly low-quality Microsoft headset.

[None]

Have you tried updating the Tuner Card to the latest driver version located here?

You could also exchange it for the same headset, what I was implying was that it could be a hardware issue related to the specific headset that you own.

[Pitchkart]

You could also exchange it for the same headset, what I was implying was that it could be a hardware issue related to the specific headset that you own.

Ah, that might be something to try.

Also, I went ahead and updated the drivers to my capture card... Nothing seemed to change. And the software still boots upon plugging the headset in. That in itself is strange all on its own, even if just a minor annoyance.

Thanks for your time and responses. I'll have to see about trying it on a different computer tomorrow. I have another computer that uses WinXP; if that doesn't work, I'll see if I can replace the headset.

[Cilraaz]

Do you happen to have it plugged in to either a frontal USB port or a USB hub? They can sometimes cause hardware to act erratically. If so, try plugging it directly into a rear port.

(I know None touched on the subject, but it was never stated definitively one way or another)

[Pitchkart]

I've got it in the rear port right now. I've tried it in both a top port and rear port, but it's currently in the rear.

[Cilraaz]

Hmm, well, I'd be hard pressed to think that it was a problem with the headset itself, considering that it works perfectly everywhere else. You said in your first post that you had problems installing the Audio Control Panel. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling? That might help, since it's the only thing not recognizing the headset. It really is a strange issue you've found.

[Pitchkart]

Well, I've tried installing it again. It doesn't -have- a proper uninstall function, so I basically just get to delete it and reinstall it. The Audio Control Panel doesn't even show up in "Remove a Program" in the Windows control panel.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers as well.

EDIT: The trouble with installing the software is actually a -known- issue that Creative never fixed. It's basically solved by tearing the .exe apart and renaming one of the components. After that, it installed cleanly.

[Pitchkart]

Sorry to double post, but I think this discovery deserves a post of its own.

I installed the software on my secondary machine, a computer running WinXP, and it works fine.

This means the problem is one or two things:

A) The software has discovery problems with Win 7 x64, or Win 7 in general

or

B) The software is having comparability issues with my hardware/software layout.

[Cilraaz]

In that case, can you try running the software in XP SP3 compatibility mode? (If you haven't already)

[Pitchkart]

Yeah, I tried that... and, no good, unfortunately.

[Pitchkart]

Doing some comparison to try to figure out why it works on XP but not 7, I realized that Vent on XP sees the headset as "SB WoW Headset" and Vent on 7 sees the headset as "Soundblaster World of Warcraft Headset."

Is it possible that the software is looking for "SB WoW Headset", but sees "Soundblaster World of Warcraft Headset," and gives up? If so, any ideas how to force the headset to appear as "SB WoW Headset", or to force the software to look for "Soundblaster World of Warcraft Headset"?

[None]

Have you tried installing the drivers under Windows XP compatibility mode?

[Pitchkart]

Have you tried installing the drivers under Windows XP compatibility mode?

Y'know, I went to do that just now, and to my surprise, it seems that the setup.exe is -by default- set to WinXP SP2 compatibility mode. Even more annoying is that the box is ghosted and I can't change it.

EDIT:

Okay, I managed to change the compatibility mode, and I turned it off, so that it was installing under Win7 mode. Then I ran the software in Win7 mode... and it works.

Apparently, the issue was that the default setting to install it under WinXP mode was messing it up.

[None]

That's a bit surprising. A quick google search brings up quite a few people with the same issue, I wonder if anyone else managed to resolve it the same way.