Windows 7 audio device numbers

[Windrunner]

Cross posting from another forum that has failed to provide an answer!


I have a headset identified as a "VXI USB 7.02" and an Asus Xonar D2X in my system. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.1. My issue is that Windows prefaces sound device names with a number.



So, my Asus Xonar D2X's outputs (and inputs) are prefaced with "2", so I have

2 - ASUS Xonar D2X Audio Device
...
3 - VXI USB 7.02

Upon reboot after plugging in any other audio devices, all of the numbers change. So I'll have the VXI device changed to '1' and the Asus Xonar listed as '3'.

Most applications tolerate this well. However, Dragon Naturally Speaking has a problem with this. Dragon configures itself to a specific microphone. Every time the microphone changes, (or the number in front of it does), Dragon pitches a fit and makes me jump through hoops to get it working again.


So I need a way to force Windows to either drop the device numbers from sound device names, or a way to manually assign (permanent) numbers to sound devices. Any suggestions? (Dragon support will likely tell me to spend $300 and upgrade to the new version).

[SCOTTE]

You explained each and every thing very clearly and i want to thank you for sharing this.

[Windrunner]

Spambots suck almost as much as being a 22 year old with the chronic back pain of an old man.

[molestedbyasus]

I hear that, though I've a few years on you. Take care of that back, it'll probably only get worse.

The numbers are odd, I don't remember seeing numbers like that on any of the Win7 machines I've played with. Does setting the headset as default communication device have any effect on Dragon?

[Windrunner]

Nope.

Devices are identified by the common name and if that name changes it is required that you jump through optimization wizards (which really means the program spends 3 minutes boinking the volume setting so I have to go fix it again).

[gamerk2]

Windows is assigning a number based on what devices it detects first, so unplugging the USB at boot could "solve" the problem.

I remember seeing the numbers assigned when I was running Vista, but I don't have them anymore in my current Win7 setup. I'll toy around when I'm off work and see if I can get an exact answer for you, but I'd wager theres probably a setting somewhere...

[Windrunner]

Yeah, I suppose unplugging them all and then plugging them in in order every time I reboot might do it, but it sounds a bit extreme.

[CMB]

In the properties you can manually change the description/text of the device ie speakers to USB Speakers but I don't know if that helps you at all, whether it will revert to that name if you unplug and then reconnect it.
Though it might help you separate like devices if one that is always plugged in is renamed ? Perhaps if the description is changed on one of the similar devices then it will not number them #1 #2 etc ?

[Stonedavenger]

I have this problem as well with a PCI SB Audigy card.

This occurred for me when I moved the card from one PCI slot to another. In hindsight I wish I had removed the card, booted the system to allow it to remove the device drivers, then shut down and installed the PCI card in the other slot. I have a feeling this might have prevented the issue. My guess is when the system booted after I just changed PCI slots, it detected the "new hardware" before it had an opportunity to remove the existing driver, so basically the system briefly thought there were 2 audigy devices and therefor had to differentiate between the two.

I thought that perhaps removing the card and booting the system to allow all audigy devices to be removed would help. I even uninstalled the creative labs driver. I'm unable to remove the windows update version of the driver "Other - Hardware - SB Audigy" because I can't find it in the list of removable updates and hotfixes. After all this and another reboot for good measure I inserted the PCI audigy card and fired up the PC. Again it is identified as "2- SB Audigy".

Currently I have 3 separate sound hardware devices installed. Realtek onboard sound, an internal PCI Audigy, and an external USB SB X-Fi. Both the Realtek and the X-Fi are listed without numbers, while the Audigy has a persistent "2-" in front of it.

A search through the registry for "2- SB Audigy" and there was only one single result. I'm tempted to edit it and see what happens..though at the same time guessing is a dangerous game when it comes to the registry. I'm not suggesting anyone else edit this key..I'm only posting it as a possible source of the issue.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Creative Tech\Audio Endpoint Selection\AUDIO_CONSOLE

The key is "Adapter" and the data is "2- SB Audigy"

All other references in the registry to "Audigy" or "SB Audigy" exist without the number attached to it.

Why is this an issue? Well technically I don't have any reason to have a problem with the number, except that in some dropdown boxes in programs that allow you to select a device to use there is a limited length to display the text. Having 3 different devices complicates things a bit so seeing as much of the device name as possible is helpful. What would normally be "Speakers (SB Audigy)" is now "Speakers (2- SB Audigy)". Since I have "Speakers (SB X-Fi) as well to watch for it would be nice to have the names be nice and short like they are supposed to be.

[Cybershaman]

I know this is an old thread but I have an answer to this dilemma which I hope might help someone in the future...

What I ended up doing was going into Device Manager, Selecting View>Show hidden devices, expanding the Sound, video and game controllers branch and deleting/uninstalling all references to the sound card. Once you reboot, your card should be detected and re-installed properly without the offending "2-" designation. Yes, it is correct that you need to uninstall devices when pulling them out of their slot. I always forget... :P

Hope this helps someone in the future fix this annoying little problem!