Z170 Pro Gaming audio popping (Realtek issue)

[Kuripakk]

So I bought the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming board for a new build that I completed yesterday. I'm running Windows 10 and everything is working fine except for one thing:

Every time audio plays I get a small pop out of my headphones, before the sound starts and after the sound ends. So for example when you change the volume in Windows 10 you get a drrriiing sound but for me it's instead:
*pop* drrriiing *pop*

I googled a bit and apparently this is a known issue and has been going on for years, affecting multiple brands of motherboards and notebooks. The culprit is a bad set of Realtek drivers for the SupremeFX audio chip (in reality Realtek ALC1150) which supposedly has a power-management function built in that basically turns off the voltage on the audio output as soon as there is no audio playing. But this on/off behavior of the output causes a pop every time a switch happens, and it's really annoying.

So much for "Supreme" audio.

Perhaps it makes sense on a notebook in battery mode, but there is zero reason to have such a "feature" on a desktop, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same drivers and just forgot that in there.

I have confirmed that it is the drivers by rolling them back to the generic Microsoft HD audio drivers, which immediately fixes the issue, but then I'm afraid I'm losing some functions like the headphone amplifier, and Windows Update keeps trying to change back to the newer, broken drivers.

Really disappointed in ASUS. I did not pay the equivalent of $200+ for a premium product, marketed as having premium audio circuitry, only to receive something with nearly-unusable, broken drivers. They really need to get in contact with Realtek and have this driver issue sorted out once and for all.

I'm going to try to contact ASUS support but I really do not expect much, as this is the kind of case where you usually get a ton of apologies and 5 pages of boilerplate instructions you already know aren't going to help. Can't RMA either since there's technically nothing wrong with the board, and dismantling everything and returning it would be a massive pain anyway.

In the meantime however is there anyone who knows a solution to this? During my searches I came across references to a "power management" option in the Realtek audio utility as well as a registry key you could modify in RegEdit, but I had neither of those on my system.

[Mandeep148]

everything was working on windows 10 pro 10240, but when i installed new one 10586 sound not working, only microsoft one is working, asus drivers not working, whts going on
where is the issue, any one please..

[Mandeep148]

Edit. UPDATE
What i did is, i don't know this will work for all or not, the solution is just a trick,
Downloaded realtek drivers officially, from
ftp://ftp3.realtek.com.tw/Realtek/Ge..._Win7_WHQL.zip
username : spcust
password : hwwk758z

Install fresh windows(not compulsory but this is what i did, exact steps)
Install drivers which i gave link,
After installing you will still have no sound,
What you need to do is,
Now there is trick,
Install extra speaker jack or headphone jack on front jack panel,
(Dont unplug original one, mobo one)
Then i got sound, this works for me,
I hope this will work for you..

[caroten]

I don't know if it helps but you can try to enable "Depop" in BIOS.

[Jomant]

Out of the Blue the POP and cracking noise started. Switched speakers and even source via HDMI TV. How the hell I get this resolved without buying a Xonar Sound Card?

[ivanpua]

For all we have audio problems (click a pops) when CPU load is high, try this:
go to BIOS / AI Tweaker / AI Overclock, change XMP to Auto and all options under this to Auto also.

This fix all audio problems for me when high CPU or GPU loads.

[clovitox]

ivanpua wrote:
For all we have audio problems (click a pops) when CPU load is high, try this:
go to BIOS / AI Tweaker / AI Overclock, change XMP to Auto and all options under this to Auto also.

This fix all audio problems for me when high CPU or GPU loads.

This means we will not be able to use the OC profile then.
In my case i paid for a new ram of 3000mhz and was working fine but now it started with the audio problems. only solution is to disable XMP or bump the PCH voltage.