ASUS Maximus Z790 Dark Hero/Armoury Crate/Sonic Studio

[robi1975]

I am unable to install Armoury Crate normally using both the online and offline/full installer (the installer interrupts the process with component errors) and is successful only after several (3–5) attempts.

When Armoury Crate is successfully installed, Sonic Studio does not work properly - since the beginning of using this motherboard, there have been crackling sounds during audio playback, regardless of the source (music, movie, game) and the volume changes on its own - especially in moments of intense bass. This resembles the operation of an automatic normalizer, which significantly worsens the listening comfort.

This is not the fault of the Realtek audio system, because after turning off Sonic Studio, the problem stops and nothing crackles or gets muted - which indicates that the application is the cause, except that no sound enhancers included in Sonic Studio work then. After updating Armoury Crate to version 6.1.13.0, Sonic Studio completely disappeared from the Armoury Crate interface and even after formatting the system and cleanly installing Windows + Armoury Crate 1.4.2.6 offline (the third time), the Sonic Studio tab did not appear and the files responsible for its operation (Bongiovi) were not installed (no folder and files in Program Files). The latest Armoury Crate update to version 6.1.18.0 restored Sonic Studio, but this time no controls and sliders work, although they are available. So again I formatted everything and installed cleanly Win 11 Pro 24H2 + drivers and Armoury Crate this time installer version 1.4.4.3 (offline - the latest) and the offline installer sucked for 30 minutes (the progress bar is still) and suddenly it says that "installation failed because Windows (clean and freshly installed) is currently busy (after 6 attempts and restarts I gave up). I managed to install from version 3.3.1.0 online on the 4th attempt, but it's the same, i.e. everything works except Sonic Studio, which is there, but no control or slider works. One of the problems that can be noticed during installation is the lack of access to the "Asus Certificate Service" service in C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\AsusCertService (AsIO3 Driver), to which access is denied by Windows itself, and this is a service that for some reason is installed together with Windows 11 and not with Asus applications and is immediately started even after a clean Windows installation.

I would also like to point out that the Soinic Studio startup file "RoutingService.exe" starts and works in the background, but Sonic Studio itself does not. For a year and three months, this application has never worked as it should, and various Realtek overlays that improve sound quality, such as FXSOUND, work without the slightest stutter, and this fancy ASUS crap is a piece of crap. I would also like to add that this is the second motherboard (same model) that I have purchased, I have also changed the processor and RAM, and it is still the same. I am at a loss.

Because of the above, I have had enough of it, I was forced to buy an internal PCIe sound card (Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUS), which works flawlessly.

Please help me solve these problems.

Configuration of the set:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero

Processor: Intel Core i5-14600KF

Memory: G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 32 GB 6000MHz (F5-6000J3040F16G)

Graphics: ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER ROG STRIX Gaming OC 16GB

Additional audio: Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 PLUS

AIO: ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB

PSU: ASUS ROG THOR 850P2 Gaming

Fan control: Lian Li UNI FAN SL-INFINITY

Case: Thermaltake Core P6

Monitor: ASUS ROG Strix XG32UQ

System: Windows 11 Pro, version 24H2

Bios 1801/ USB Audio FW Update Tool_PID1A98/ PD firmware Update Tool V104/ Current drivers - the latest available

Armoury Crate UWP App      6.1.18.0   

ROG Live Service           3.0.26.0   

Aura Service (Lighting Service)  3.08.18    

Armoury Crate service      6.1.18     

Aura Wallpaper Service     Not installed

Aura SDK                   3.05.06    

ArmouryDevice              4.2.2.8    

ASUS AIOFan HAL            1.5.0.0    

ASUS AURA Extension Card HAL  1.1.0.20   

ASUS AURA Motherboard HAL  1.6.1.2    

ASUS Ambient HAL           6.1.0.0    

AacVGA                     0.0.7.9    

KingstonDram               1.1.40     

AURA DRAM Component        1.1.29     

ENE RGB HAL                1.1.57.0   

ENE_EHD_M2_HAL             1.0.14.0   

Patriot Viper M2 SSD RGB   1.1.0.3    

WD_BLACK AN1500            1.0.14.0   

AIOFanSDK                  3.00.32    

AIOFanSDKPlugin            2.00.02    

AiSuiteSDK                 1.03.06    

GameFirstSDK               6.2.7.0    

MainSDK                    2.01.40    

MbLedSDK                   3.00.57    

VgaSDK                     1.00.22    

Armoury Crate Plugin - Aio  2.1.0      

Armoury Crate Plugin - Motherboard  1.3.0      

Armoury Crate Plugin - ROG FAN XPERT 4  2.0.14     

Armoury Crate Plugin - Vga  1.0.4      

ASUS Motherboard           4.08.02    

GameFirst                  1.6.1      

ROG FAN XPERT 4            4.02.06    

ROG RYUJIN III             4.01.31    

VGA                        3.01.09

[Hari_Seldon]

That is most informative.  Thank you.  I have run into a similar situation albeit with a completely different operating system (FreeBSD).  I have even found running a tool (nvidia-settings) in a loop just to poll the version of OpenGL supported by the Nvidia driver to really "enhance" the crackling sounds.  Here is my write-up on my issue:  https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/sound-crackling-with-nvidia-card.97796/  Of course, it may be a completely different issue.  I suspect something is disturbing the USB bus in some way for me.

I also plan on getting a PCIe sound card to sidestep this issue as it really grates on me to hear music being distorted like that.

Could it be an odd interaction with your Nvidia card/driver causing it?

[robi1975]

I have already ruled out the graphics card and Nvidia drivers. I previously had a processor with integrated graphics and after installing a clean system without Nvidia graphics, the crackling also occurred, so it's not that.

I also thought, like you, that it might be something connected to the USB ports, but after disconnecting everything connected to the USB ports, the crackling continued.

It is clearly the Armoury Crate/Sonic Studio software that is the problem for me and without an appropriate patch from ASUS, nothing will change.

I am currently waiting for them to open the Armoury Crate ver.6.1.18.0 thread with the option to report problems and there I will report what is above plus send the form and add any available logs, maybe they will help.

[Hari_Seldon]

I will try to follow that upcoming thread to see where that may lead.

Actually, I did not think it was a device on the USB bus, even though that logically should have been something I checked.  😀  I was thinking that the PCI-e bus or something else was not sharing the time very well with the USB bus.