ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX onboard audio cause of problem

[Rocket_Scientis]

Hello. Recently I've purchased this motherboard with Intel i7 11700K CPU.
For some reason if I reboot my PC I have a problem caused by audio driver for this motherboard or its onboard sound card. When Windows boots, in the moment when I see desktop my system then screen turns off for a moment, also network and audio doesn't work and usb devices hang. If I uninstall audio driver - problem goes away but in this case Sonic Studio 3 won't work with Microsoft audio driver which Windows install after Realtek audio driver uninstallation. This motherboard have only 1 version of audio driver on its product page, so I can't try any other drivers. Also I didn't tweaked anything yet. I have a BIOS with default settings and clean WIndows OS installed.
Could you assist me to try solve this issue?

i7 11700K, ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX, G.SKILL F-4000C19-8GTZKW, Gigabyte GTX 1660S Gaming OC, EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2, Win 10

[MoKiChU]

Hi,

Try with latest audio drivers :

You have an ASUS ROG SS3|DTS Sound Unbound motherboard with ALC408x codec, so :

You need Realtek USB Audio Drivers (UAD - ASUS ROG SS3-DTS MB) from the first post of this thread : [DRIVERS] Realtek USB Audio (MB | Intel 5xx & AMD 5xx/TRX40).

Follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process then your INSTALL process, for the next drivers packages that I would release, you will can directly follow your UPDATE process.


Note : If that doesn't fix or reduce your issue, follow your CLEANUP process then install/use the drivers package from your motherboard support page then open a ticket with ASUS Support (and/or you can post in ROG Care section : ROG Care).

[Rocket_Scientis]

MoKiChU wrote:
Hi,

Try with latest audio drivers :

You have an ASUS ROG SS3|DTS Sound Unbound Intel motherboard with ALC408x codec, so :

You need Realtek USB Audio Drivers (UAD - ASUS ROG SS3-DTS Intel MB) from the first post of this thread : [DRIVERS] Realtek USB Audio (MB | Intel 5xx & AMD TRX40).

Follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process then your INSTALL process, for the next drivers packages that I would release, you will can directly follow your UPDATE process.


Note : If that doesn't fix or reduce your issue, follow your CLEANUP process then install/use the drivers package from your motherboard support page then open a ticket with ASUS Support (and/or you can post in ROG Care section : ROG Care).

I tried this driver but no difference.

[Rocket_Scientis]

I did some testing and figured out that this issue is occurs only when headphones or speakers 3.5mm audio mini-jack is plugged into rear audio output or front audio panel output. If output is empty (no audio mini-jack is plugged in) - then issue is not occurs but as soon as I plug speakers or headphones in rear or front audio output - problem appears. I guess this is because motherboard measuring speakers\headphones impedance each time Windows boot (which motherboard won't do if Realtek audio drivers are not installed or audio mini-jack is not plugged in).
P.S.
This is not broken rear audio output, because same happens with front audio output.
This is not affecting SPDIF output by obvious reason.

ASUS support employee offered me to try RMA my APEX XIII board because ASUS believe this is a hardware malfunction. But I really don't want to deal with my local retailer because of their doubtful "honest" reputation. Any idea how to make a workaround without uninstalling the drivers?

[MoKiChU]

Rocket Scientist wrote:
Any idea how to make a workaround without uninstalling the drivers?

Hi,

If you want troubleshoot drivers side, the UAD/DCH drivers being modular, you can try to install your drivers by these different types of install from the most complete to the lightest in order to try to identify the root cause :

- Full : Follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process then your INSTALL process.

- Full without SS3 apps : Uninstall Sonic Studio III & Sonic Radar III (Start > Settings > Apps) then restart your PC.

- Full without DTS app : Uninstall DTS Sound Unbound (Start > Settings > Apps) then restart your PC.

- Realtek Only (equalizer in Realtek Audio Control will not work) : Delete the ThirdParty folder from AUDIO_Realtek_USB_UAD_ASUS_ROG_SS3-DTS_Intel_MB_v6.3.9600.xxxx folder then follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process then your INSTALL process.

- Minimal (such as Microsoft built-in drivers, without Realtek app) : Follow scrupulously your CLEANUP process > Right click on RtDUsbAD_asus.inf (in AUDIO_Realtek_USB_UAD_ASUS_ROG_SS3-DTS_Intel_MB_v6.3.9600.xxxx\Realtek\CodecUsb_xxxx folder) > Install > Wait for the message "The operation completed successfully" or for restart request.

[MoKiChU]

Rocket Scientist wrote:
Any idea how to make a workaround without uninstalling the drivers?

Hi,

If you want troubleshoot in the meantime : https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?118522-DRIVERS-Realtek-USB-Audio-(MB-Intel-5xx-amp-AMD-TRX...

[MoKiChU]

Rocket Scientist wrote:
Any idea how to make a workaround without uninstalling the drivers?

Hi,

If you want troubleshoot : https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?118522-DRIVERS-Realtek-USB-Audio-(MB-Intel-5xx-amp-AMD-TRX...

[kvarq]

buy a SoundBlaster Z
trust me, you won't regret this
on Apex all the time they used reduced/cheap versions of the on-board cards from other models
until this generation they used S1220A vs S1220 which was on other models, now ALC4080 vs ALC4082

[Rocket_Scientis]

Sound card doesn't matter in my case since I use SPDIF connection in my speakers and speakers have own DSP. Headpnones are not my main audio device.
The problem is - discrete sound cards, like Creative (as far as I know) , can't play 2 different audio streams simultaneously on different outputs (like crappy Realtek can do) which is very critical for me. This is "must have" feature in my case.