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 👍

[john_johnk]

Hi, don't know if I can continue on this post but I have a little similar problem on my front panel which does not work correctly. When i plug my headphones to the front panel as in the picture, nothing happens, the card does not detect anything. I have to notice that I have added a soundcard Asus Xonar SE and I disabled the integrated sound card from the Bios. But normally the front panel is plugged to the new external sound card, isn't it ?

[JohnAb]

Not sure to be honest. I've had no use for that front panel connector as I use a USB microphone and my headphones are connected via an external DAC. Assume there are connections on the back of the sound card itself - do those work OK? The front panel connections are normally to the motherboard itself and perhaps they rely on the built in Realtek sound card - that would be my assumption anyway. Not sure if an extra sound card would be connecting to the front panel jacks? Perhaps somebody with more knowledge of this can help. Does your sound card manual have any advice on connections?

[john_johnk]

Here is my current setup. My PCIE sound card is an Asus Sonar XE 5.1. It's such a mess and through all these inputs/outputs i don't see the micro of the headphones as an available input 

[JohnAb]

For sound output, I use the optical output (Realtek Digital Output) but you should be able to use the Xonar 3.5mm sound card output as you show the plug in the image. Just choose the Haut-parleurs (Xonar sound card) as the output. For the microphone, try plugging that into the sound card as well and then select Microphone (Xonar Sound card). I can't see any reason why that shouldn't be working, but if not, then just try different combinations of jack plug sockets and software selection until you find a combination that works. If still no luck, then it could be a drivers issue.  I don't know anything about your sound card, but are drivers available for it? There could also be a conflict with the Realtek drivers perhaps, so report back if still no luck.