09-13-202104:15 AM - last edited on 03-05-202406:54 PM by ROGBot
Asus Maximus XIII Apex onboard ALC 4080 audio codec makes static noise over front panel or rear analog audio outputs. Happens absolutely randomly and unpredictable. When I rewind videos on YouTube or rewind\change audio tracks in music player but never in games. Usually once a day or two. Asus support insist this is a faulty motherboard and recommend to RMA board to local seller but I saw few messages from Rog Strix Z590-A, F and E owners who have exactly the same issue (since these boards have ALC 4080 codec too). Other ALC4080 based boards from other vendors are affected too e.g. MSI, Gigabyte\Aorus. Some people reporting they have the same issue after board replacement. I'd like to not RMA board, it may take up to 60 days without PC (I bet they won't find any issues during first RMA request and I should RMA board one more time right away. Known story). RMA in this case will be problematic because problem can occurs randomly and in circumstances when person should rewind videos or audio tracks. Which will take a while and I have a doubts someone will rewind all this stuff all day long for several days just to catch it. More likely they will test motherboard for few days and say that board works fine. This is not the case when you launch stress test and check results later. + as I said before - I saw reports from users who had the same issue with replaced Z590 after RMA. Replace "faulty" Z590 motherboard with another "faulty" Z590 motherboard with ALC 4080 or pay even more extra for ALC 4082 board which is don't have this issue? I'd say even more, if this is a board malfunction, why this static noise over analog outputs is just not play always? Why only in some circumstances? It have the same behaviour SPDIF output had before firmware upgrade.
Realtek audio drivers uninstall does nothing. Clean Windows install without Realtek audio drivers does nothing and static noise randomly repeats, so, might be a codec firmware\hardware but not Realtek driver related issue. BIOS update or rollback not change anything. SPDIF firmware for ALC 4080\4082 is applied. I never had this issue over SPDIF by the way. Only 3.5mm analog outputs are affected.
Have been talking about this issue for many months. Nobody believed me here and claimed its just the SPDIF that has that issue. I have tried 3 different boards from 3 different manufacturers with the 4080 chip. Ive installed new drivers and the firmware update. Ive changed all other hardware components and installed windows fresh several times without any change. Its not Asus (except their bad support not acknowledging the issue or testing the chip properly before putting it on boards), its the Realtek chip.
I dont know what else to say. The media is ignoring this issue too. But I noticed that some manufacturers dont put that chip on their new boards anymore, and some have avoided it completely, like ASRock. So they seem to know about the issues.
And btw, this chip also has an issue with .wav files. It causes a huge delay before playing them. Windows system sounds seem very off because of that. The noise gate of the Line In is also very bad and cuts off sound all the time when speaking into a mic.
