Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D not working

Hi,

I have just plugged a Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D into my system and… it doesn’t work. I have no sound output, nor microphone input.

Here goes system info, just in case it helps.

inxi --full --system --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --admin
System:    Kernel: 5.9.3-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
       parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.9-x86_64 root=UUID=2867bf66-978f-467b-9da8-0b0c09e48967 rw apparmor=1 
       security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
       Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.7 tk: GTK 3.24.23 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450M MORTAR TITANIUM (MS-7B89) v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
       UEFI: American Megatrends v: A.D0 date: 06/12/2020 
Memory:    RAM: total: 31.37 GiB used: 2.44 GiB (7.8%) 
       RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:       Info: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 family: 17 (23) model-id: 71 (113) 
       stepping: N/A microcode: 8701021 L2 cache: 3072 KiB bogomips: 86425 
       Speed: 3600 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3600 2: 2054 3: 2053 4: 2047 5: 2057 
       6: 3249 7: 2048 8: 2049 9: 3600 10: 2054 11: 2050 12: 3587 
       Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush 
       clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total cqm_occup_llc 
       cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht 
       hw_pstate ibpb ibs irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx 
       nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_core 
       perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sep sev 
       sha_ni skinit smap smca sme smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp succor svm svm_lock syscall tce 
       topoext tsc tsc_scale umip v_vmsave_vmload vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall wbnoinvd wdt xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr 
       xsaveopt xsaves 
       Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
       Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
       Type: mds status: Not affected 
       Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
       Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
       Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
       Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
       Type: srbds status: Not affected 
       Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K2200] driver: nvidia v: 455.38 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus ID: 26:00.0 
       chip ID: 10de:13ba 
       Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia display ID: :0 screens: 1 
       Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3") s-diag: 583mm (23") 
       Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 509x286mm (20.0x11.3") diag: 584mm (23") 
       OpenGL: renderer: Quadro K2200/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.38 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Creative Labs Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D / Z-Series] driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
       bus ID: 25:00.0 chip ID: 1102:0012 
       Device-2: NVIDIA GM107 High Definition Audio [GeForce 940MX] driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 26:00.1 
       chip ID: 10de:0fbc 
       Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel 
       v: kernel bus ID: 28:00.4 chip ID: 1022:1487 
       Device-4: Trust Widescreen 3MP Webcam type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus ID: 3-3:2 chip ID: 145f:0167 
       Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.9.3-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus ID: 21:00.0 chip ID: 8086:2723 
       IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
       IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global broadcast: <filter> 
       IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
       Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel 
       port: f000 bus ID: 22:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
       IF: enp34s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
       WAN IP: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 698.65 GiB used: 623.34 GiB (89.2%) 
       SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
       ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB size: 232.89 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
       logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 2B2QEXM7 scheme: GPT 
       ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDP725050GLA360 size: 465.76 GiB block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B 
       speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: A5CA scheme: MBR 
       Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
RAID:      Message: No RAID data was found. 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 232.59 GiB size: 227.94 GiB (98.00%) used: 187.13 GiB (82.1%) fs: ext4 block size: 4096 B 
       dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 label: N/A uuid: 2867bf66-978f-467b-9da8-0b0c09e48967 
       ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 300.0 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 280 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat block size: 512 B 
       dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 label: N/A uuid: 608D-4D6A 
       ID-3: /mnt/C0D0CC01D0CBFFA0 raw size: 465.76 GiB size: 465.76 GiB (100.00%) used: 436.21 GiB (93.7%) fs: ntfs 
       block size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda1 label: Datos uuid: C0D0CC01D0CBFFA0 
Swap:      Alert: No Swap data was found. 
Unmounted: Message: No unmounted partitions found. 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
       Device-1: 1-5:2 info: Wacom ACK-40401 [Wireless Accessory Kit] type: HID driver: usbhid,wacom interfaces: 3 
       rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 056a:0084 
       Device-2: 1-6:3 info: Realtek Mass Storage Device type: Smart Card,Mass Storage driver: usb-storage interfaces: 2 
       rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 0bda:0161 serial: <filter> 
       Device-3: 1-7:4 info: HP HP USB Smartcard CCID Keyboard type: Keyboard,Smart Card,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid 
       interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip ID: 03f0:104a serial: <filter> 
       Device-4: 1-8:5 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
       chip ID: 8087:0029 
       Device-5: 1-10:6 info: Avago Pte. ADNS-5700 Optical Mouse Controller (3-button) type: Mouse 
       driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s chip ID: 192f:0416 
       Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
       Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
       Device-1: 3-3:2 info: Trust Widescreen 3MP Webcam type: Video,Audio driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo interfaces: 4 
       rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 145f:0167 
       Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 38.1 C mobo: 37.0 C gpu: nvidia temp: 39 C 
       Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0 fan-2: 937 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 43% 
Info:      Processes: 338 Uptime: 23m Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 alt: 8/9 clang: 10.0.1 Packages: 1660 
       pacman: 1637 lib: 472 flatpak: 19 snap: 4 Shell: Bash v: 5.0.18 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.1.08

Have you selected it in sound settings?

Yes, sure!

I assume you have speakers connected to the jacks on the card directly.

I have a Recon3d but it is currently not in any of my systems.

I’m not sure why it’s not working, inxi shows that the computer detects it. Have you tested it on a windows system or on another computer to rule out a hardware issue with the card?

I have found two articles that are older regarding it. I do not know if they still apply or not.

https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Recon3D-Linux-Sound-2018

https://community.linuxmint.com/hardware/view/21276

Yes, my headphones and mic are connected directly to the card.

Thanks for the links, but I couldn’t get anything useful. Maybe too technical for me / too old (from 2013) / too kilometric!

Any suggestions?

I don’t have any other systems to test with…

It turned out it is the headphone connector that does not work. Connecting the headphones to the line out (green) connector works.

The mic is working also. Maybe it was phisically muted (it has a switch for that), or maybe was muted in alsamixer.

Any help with the headphones connector?

There was this post on Archwiki from 2019 for a related SoundBlaster Z card
[Solved] No sound out of Sound Blaster Z-series/Recon3D/Core3D card - Arch Linux Forums
and OP posted a screenshot of alsamixer controls
https://i.imgur.com/gsS5sHB.png

suggest you check if you have similar controls in alsamixer for HP/Speaker Auto Detect and
Output Select

1 Like

Just to confirm for anyone else experiencing the same problems.
I had no sound on the headphone port of my SoundBlaster Zx card after a fresh install of Manjaro KDE.
After launching alsamixer from the terminal selecting the SB card with F6 and using the output select to select headphone the problem was 100% resolved for me.

It would be nice to have these mixer controls in the GUI.
I installed KMix but it didn’t offer any more sliders than the mixer in Manjaro. Why?

If you want a GUI mixer for ALSA controls I suggest you try qasmixer

1 Like

Thanks, I installed the qastools package and that does exactly what I wanted.

Further on this topic.
After restarting the OS all alsamixer levels return to some arbitrary default.
Searching around a bit I found I could store the state using “sudo alsactl store”
This save-state if you will, is now restored at reboot.
More searching around and I found that the alsa-restore service is indeed present and functioning correctly but the alsa-store service is missing.

This would be OK if the alternative alsa-state service was functioning. However that doesn’t run because the condition: ConditionPathExists=/etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf was not met.
As that config file is indeed missing and I have no idea what it should contain, I cant fix it.

Is this a bug in Manjaro? (5.8.18-1-MANJARO) because it is a little annoying.

ALSA and Systemd | ArchWiki

The alsa-utils package comes with systemd unit configuration files alsa-restore.service and alsa-state.service by default.

These are automatically installed and activated during installation (via package provided symlink to sound.target). Neither will run by default, as they rely on some conscious decisions by the user to know which method should be preferred. The options are as follows:

  • alsa-restore.service Reads /var/lib/alsa/asound.state on boot and writes updated values on shutdown, granted it is already present by having ran alsactl store at some point
  • alsa-state.service (Re-)Starts alsactl in daemon mode to continouously keep track of, and persist, volume changes, again under the condition that the user has consciously started alsactl daemon at least once

Both methods are mutually exclusive

/usr/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service has the opposite condition to /usr/lib/systemd/system/alsa-state.service
ConditionPathExists=!/etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf

If the file /etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf was present on your system, alsa-state.service would work instead of alsa-restore.service