ROG Front Base Problems

[MattL21]

Dear Asus,
First off I want to say how disappointed I am with your ROG Front Base and your customer support. I have been a customer of Asus for years and have purchased many item in the past (These item include motherboards, video cards, Laptop’s, etc.). I have had two major problem with the ROG Front Base since I purchased it from Newegg on June 12th. The first problem was that the AAFP cable (Audio Cable) was too short, I guess they did not think people that buy a front base would be using a full tower. No big deal I will call Asus and get them to send me a longer cable. So on June 27th at 9:29am (Eastern Time) I called Asus’s hardware support line and talked to a guy name Jonathan, he setup a case number and entered in all my information but unfortunately I was at work and did not have access to the serial number. Jonathan told me just to call back when I got home and give them the case number and the product serial number. I was thinking to myself that was easy, I left work around 12pm and called Asus at around 12:38pm. I give them the case number and told them that I had the serial number now, the guy tells me that the first guy (Jonathan) does not know what he was doing and that this is not a support problem and that I needed to call the Asus E-Store. So now I’m hot and I call the E-Shore which say they don’t carry the longer AAFP cable and that I need to call the retailer. So I tell her that I have already contacted Newegg and that they don’t carry this cable. She then tells me to contact the support line again, this time when I call I get disconnected. At this time I have had enough of this BS and I’m about to call Newegg and send both my Asus ROG Maxius vii Hero and ROG Front back for a refund. Then I get a call and its Jonathan (The first rep I talked too), he apologizes for the problem and enters in the serial number and gets the cable sent out (Now that was easy).

About a week and a half later the longer AAFP cable arrives and I install it and boot the computer and as before installing the cable the only thing that works is the fan RPM read out and CPU/MB Temp read out. The audio volume and EQ does not show anything and does not work, also the fan controller is not show and does not work ether. At this time I also start having problem with the Asus AI Suite 3, preset Turbo shuts down all my fan and the only setting that works is full speed. I then rebooted my computer and go into the bio and set the fan speed and uninstall the Asus AI Suite 3 and everything seems to be working except the Front Base. I then start looking around online and find out that the bios needs to be updated on the motherboard and I also found the software update instructions. So I update the bio to the latest bio update (I think it was 904, I since updated to 1002). Then I uninstall the audio drivers and installed the audio drive from the Front Base driver page, I also ran the uninstaller/cleaner for the Asus AI Suite 3 and then reinstalled the AI Suite that was listed on the Front Base driver page. I then turn off and unplugged my computer and attached the USB Q-Connector to the ROG Front Base cable and plugged it into one of the USB 2.0 connectors. Then boot the computer up and installed the ROG Front Base Driver V1.01.06 (With ASUS ROG Connect Plus V1.00.24) for Windows. At this point everything on the front base was working including the volume\EQ and Fan Controller. I then shut down the computer and removed the USB Q-Connector and plugged the ROG Front Base cable into the ROG_EXT, then I rebooted the computer. Once I was in Windows (Windows 8.1 Pro) I started testing again but if I turned up the volume on the Front base nothing would happen, this also happens with the fan controller.

At this point I am highly disappointed:mad: with this product and I will not pay $17 to ship it back to you guys. I have included my system specs below:
• Intel Core i7-4790K
• ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO LGA 1150 Intel Z97
• CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
• CORSAIR AXi series AX860i 860W
• EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Classified w/ EVGA ACX Cooler
• Corsair Obsidian 750D Black ATX Full Tower
• CORSAIR Hydro Series H105
• 2x Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (For H105)
• 3x Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition (Front and Back Fan)
• 2x Corsair Air Series AF120 Performance Edition (Bottom Fans)
• Silverstone CPF01 3.94" PWM Fan Splitter Cable (Bottom Fans) – I removed this and I’m still having the same problem.

Any help would be great.
Matt

[YouWhat]

I had the exact same problem, but clean installs didn't work, I had to RMA the unit, got a replacement and that is working fine now except for the OC button, but that I think has to do with the profiles in the bios, and I've not time to mess about at present setting them up.

Anyway, the 1st unit I received had a black sticker with white writing on it, and didnt work with the M7H board, the replacement had a white sticker with black writing on it (V40) and this one worked, so I not sure if there any relivence to this or not, but to me it saying something is different eg it built on different production line, or factory, hence why there is a difference and why it worked 1st time opposed the the original 1.

Just something to look out for to see if there any pattern appears with this.

[Mobie]

Do your show 0.800mhz in window? thanks

[wing_man]

My Front Base didn't show the frequency when I updated driver to 1.01,17. I changed it back to 1.01.15 which I had saved and all is working fine.

[MattL21]

Hey everyone,

It's going to be while till I redo my system, I am stepping up my video card to a 6GB (SC) version. I will update you guys once I get more info. Mobie, it did show 800mhz at idle, but jumped up to 4.4Ghz under load.

Matt

[Mobie]

I got new problem, if i connect AAFP cable with creative FX sound card, the front base will not show any info when boot, till i hit the front base drive in window
everything work but cpu frequency, it only show max 4.5ghz will not change when idle
really need an new bios for front base, so many case same as me in this forum… pls

[f1schu]

Same here when I plug the AAFP into my soundblaster z the time no longer shows and the volume doesn't work ?

[X-ROG]

AAFP only supports ROG motherboards as it requires specific driver and BIOS support. It will not work with a discrete sound-card sorry.

Regarding any CPU frequency display issue, please make sure you update to the latest BIOS:

MAXIMUS-VII-FORMULA-ASUS 0603
MAXIMUS-VII-RANGER-ASUS 1104
MAXIMUS-VII-GENE-ASUS 1104
MAXIMUS-VII-HERO-ASUS 1104

[f1schu]

Sorry but according to the info for the front base it DOES work with discrete soundcards, it clearly says so, so who is right the documentation or you?
Can you please confirm.

Also just found this in another review site

2. Can I use the front audio connection with a sound card as opposed to integrated motherboard audio?

Yes the front audio header a universal standard and is present on many discrete sound cards such as the Xonar sound cards.

[X-ROG]

f1schu wrote:
Sorry but according to the info for the front base it DOES work with discrete soundcards, it clearly says so, so who is right the documentation or you?
Can you please confirm.

Also just found this in another review site

2. Can I use the front audio connection with a sound card as opposed to integrated motherboard audio?

Yes the front audio header a universal standard and is present on many discrete sound cards such as the Xonar sound cards.

Review site isn't ASUS official info sorry. Please let me know where you saw the info and we will try to correct it.

The Front Base page on ASUS.com has this info: "use the included Hi-Fi-quality AAFP cable with motherboards that include SupremeFX technology for a superb audio experience with minimal noise interference."

"Combine the included Hi-Fi-quality analog-audio front-panel (AAFP) cable with motherboards that have SupremeFX technology for a very high signal quality, with low crosstalk and minimal noise interference."

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG_Front_Base/

[f1schu]

MarshallR@ASUS wrote:
Review site isn't ASUS official info sorry. Please let me know where you saw the info and we will try to correct it.

The Front Base page on ASUS.com has this info: "use the included Hi-Fi-quality AAFP cable with motherboards that include SupremeFX technology for a superb audio experience with minimal noise interference."

"Combine the included Hi-Fi-quality analog-audio front-panel (AAFP) cable with motherboards that have SupremeFX technology for a very high signal quality, with low crosstalk and minimal noise interference."

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG_Front_Base/

Here is the link and it is from Asus ( its some where near the bottom of the page.)

http://pcdiy.asus.com/2014/01/rog-front-base-the-ultimate-5-25-bay-accessory-ces-2014/

Also the need to have the audio cable connected to the supreme fx should only be because of the preset sound modes, surely it should still pass though the audio/mic from the soundcard, and it does for the sound but not the mic.
I cant for the life of me think why you would make the front base only compatible with onboard sound, sorry but that is just plain stupid.
Also why does JJ say in his youtube video that it is compatible with soundcards if indeed it isn't ?

here is a comment form JJ when someone asked about using a splitter to connect the ROG OC Panel and Front Base at the same time...

JJ
9 months ago .Reply

That is interesting the pin out is different but it is something I can discuss with our ROG team if there may be an adapter than could be used ( for the OC Panel header ) "as the Front Audio connection would be fully compatible whether it be with a sound card or the onboard audio".

EDIT: found this as well

JJ
8 months ago .Reply

Technically the audio cable would work with any front headphone connection offered on sound card or a motherboard. The audio presets on the front panel would not work though as those tie into the driver. If your goal though is to have improved headphone and microphone quality though then yes you could do it via the FRONT BASE.


so I was right, everything should still work fine, just not the sound presets as all other functions are done via the rog ext cable not the AAFP, The AAFP cable has the same wiring as a normal HD AUDIO AAFP Cable, its just of better quality, it should pass through Audio and mic from any soundcard, the only thing that should be affected is the sound presets.