Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero Issues

[xlar8or]

Hello, i've purchased recently my new pc with an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, i9 13900K and a RTX 4090 and overall i'm happy with it, but there are some issues that i've noticed from day 1 that i need some help with.

1- For some reason my audio rear panel isn't working when i connect my headphones to the center or rear ports. On Realtek Audio Console the light for the port turns on, so he's detecting it, but he's simply not creating the speakers device and not outputting anything.
2- This is the most annoying audio issue i'm having. I have my headphones connected to the front panel jack i get a buzzing that is lower volume when i do lower intensity gpu tasks (browser scrolling bar, panning through google maps, etc) and higher volume when i do higher intensity gpu tasks (Unreal Engine 5, etc). I get no buzzing when i do tasks that don't use the gpu or when i disable the 4090 and use the ipgu. Is this EMI? The front panel cable that connects to the motherboard e passed behind the motherboard, so it's not in contact directly with the GPU. Turning the volume of the audio output up and down doesn't make any difference in the volume of the buzzing. Since i don't have the rear audio panel working i can't do a differential to confirm that this is only a front panel issue.
3- I have 2x990 PRO (1TB and 2TB) and from crystal disk mark i'm getting almost half the performance on the D drive compared to the C drive as shown here:

Do i need to put both disks in the ROG M.2 Hyper Card to get both to perform at max speed?

4- When i turn on my PC it takes 10-15 secs just for the bios prompt screen to show up. i see the different codes showing up on the motherboard while he's doing POST. Is there any way to speed that process?

Thanks, I really appreciate any help!

[JohnAb]

I posted two responses to you, but they didn't work. This is just a test...

[JohnAb · Accepted solution]

My post failed again. Last try:

Audio
=====

1. Could be intereference - try routing the audio cable as far away from the motherboard and GPU as possible. Also make sure the motherboard connector is fully plugged in.

2. Try updating the audio codec firmware - there is a tool to do that on the support pages

3. Your headphones should be plugged into the line out socket on the motherboard rear panel (the green one)

Drives
======

You might have that slow drive plugged into M.2_2 which only supports Gen 3 speeds, The other two slots both support Gen 4.

Hyper Card
==========

It's an option but look at the motherboard user manual carefully. Adding it has implications for M.2 and PCIe slots.

POST Times
==========

The 690 Hero just takes a long time to POST, I don't think there is any solution. Mine takes 30 seconds before Windows starts to load.

Hope this helps... 

[Spicedaddy]

In what slot is the second M.2 drive?

C drive should be in top slot (PCIE 4.0 from CPU)

D drive should go in the bottom right slot (4.0 from chipset). The bottom left is only PCIE 3.0.

[xlar8or]

I swapped the 2TB to the M.2_3 and set it to PCIe on the BIOS and it's working at full speed! I connected to the rear panel on the Line Out as you said and it worked also without EMI, so i'll stick to that. I guess i have to live with the 15 sec POST, there are worst things 😛 Thank you very much for the help!

[JohnAb]

Great, happy you got it all working. Sometimes the answer is easy as in your case 👍