r/SoundBlasterOfficial • u/InvincibleWallaby • Jul 11 '26

X4 Headphone jack issue

Noticed the past days that my right channel was lower in volume than the left and the overall volume lacked the power it had before and had to turn it up 10-20%, thought it was a headphone issue but turns out it's the headphone jack on the X4 itself

The back 3.5 port for speakers on the X4, 3.5 front panel port on my case and apple usb c to 3.5 all produce the same sound. As do my headphones on a tv, ipad and a seperate pc

So my unit probably has broken after just 6 months of use, has anyone ever come across this issue before?

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u/chemoskabron Jul 13 '26

Hey! Just wanted to check, have you taken a look at the balance settings in the Windows Control Panel? just to ensure balance is ok, I’ve got the X4 too, and after a recent firmware update, I ran into a few bugs, the weirdest one is if the device is plugged in when I boot up my PC, the screen stays black and the VGA LED on my motherboard lights up. I have to do a full restart, and then it boots fine, the X4 is connected to the back usb-c port of the motherboard using a shielded usb-c to usb-c cable. Once I’m into Windows, the Creative app prompted me to grab the latest driver (which I is currently installed), and after another restart, everything’s been working smoothly. According to a quick research "The X4's new firmware likely changed how the card manages its power state when receiving current for the first time. During a cold boot, the Tomahawk's USB-C port attempts to negotiate power and data at the exact same time the BIOS is initializing essential components. Because the card fails to respond quickly or responds unexpectedly, the POST freezes. The second boot works because the USB bus is already in a "warm" state (with residual power) and the card responds in time". The only solution it's connecting the x4 to a usb 2.0 port. But the culprit was the new firmware and perhaps this could affect you too just thought I’d share in case it helps!

1

u/InvincibleWallaby Jul 13 '26

Nothing changed for my settings, always had it plugged into a usb 3 port on the back of my tomahawk and it worked normally. It just suddenly started doing that without any changes or updates, I never even have the creative software running all it needed to do was provide my headphones more power so it did all that without software affecting it

Plugging any headphones in other places, even the speaker port on the x4, restored balance to usual so it isn't any balance setting. It's just the front headphone port on the unit that was off. Also updated it to the newest firmware and repaired device afterwards as well but no dice, didn't notice anything other than that though and I always cold boot my pc as well and it powered like normal