Fed up with the ROG STRIX Z590-E GAMING WIFI audio problems and no communication.

[Nuckels]

Dear Asus

I'll get straight to it, the Z590 asus motherboard line up has consistant issues with it's audio drivers. There is a delay on waking up, there is a chance for random static to blast my ear drums and it's been 3 months since I reported it via a ticket. https://youtu.be/kiMFy8PxMqA?t=123 Like this video I just linked (which isn't made by me) the audio will randomly break when waking up killing my eardrums.

I've sent multiple emails to ASUS that were forwarded to HQ eventually acknowledging these problems and being promised new drivers on the 13th of July, it's now been two months and nothing so far and I'd say this is quite a big problem? When can I expect new drivers to resolve these issues?

Kind regards.

[Rocket_Scientis]

iisd wrote:
If you want to know more about sound delay (which weirdly is ignored a lot), watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuZvRF-OgE
It also shows a way to measure sound delay.

I am divided myself on this. USB does have higher latency, but it also has pretty much no interference. Even when you turn the volume to the max you cant hear anything.
Normal onboard chips have a much better latency, but also are very noisy, even on very expensive boards.

ASUS PCI-E sound card from this video might be not the best example in terms of delay by the way. I don't know how about ASUS Essense STX II from the video but I had ASUS ROG Phoebus once. This is the card with greatest delay. The higher sampling rate = greatest delay. It was really, I mean REALLY noticeable.
Back to video: my point is - other PCI-E sound card might have a better results.

[Nuckels]

iisd wrote:
If you want to know more about sound delay (which weirdly is ignored a lot), watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuZvRF-OgE
It also shows a way to measure sound delay.

I am divided myself on this. USB does have higher latency, but it also has pretty much no interference. Even when you turn the volume to the max you cant hear anything.
Normal onboard chips have a much better latency, but also are very noisy, even on very expensive boards.

Hold up, coudn't asus just test all this using the exact same method as posted in this video? This be a lot more accurate than my jank phone and speakers...

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi Nuckels,
Because the delay is slight, could you please help record a video in the specific games and play a video you mentioned, and our tech team can compare the difference.
Please also provide me the information like the name and the version of the games, the browser and windows media player, youtube video link and wav. file you show in videos.
Thank you.

[Nuckels]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi Nuckels,
Because the delay is slight, could you please help record a video in the specific games and play a video you mentioned, and our tech team can compare the difference.
Please also provide me the information like the name and the version of the games, the browser and windows media player, youtube video link and wav. file you show in videos.
Thank you.

I tried, the lag is too subtle to grab via a phone camera and speakers. You need to test it properly like here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTuZvRF-OgE something Asus HQ probably is way better of achieving than me. The audio is delayed nomatter what you do, removing enhancements helps a ton but it's still slower than on my asus z78-Pro 4770k setup. It doesn't matter what you do.

I can record the wake up delay but it be identical to the previous videos I sent you in DM's already.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi Nuckels,
Our tech team had checked the wake up delay video you provided and it is normal.
I'm not sure if the delay in games is lighter than the wake up delay, so it cannot be grabbed via a phone camera and speakers.
I'm afraid without the video on your own, we have no idea how is the delay on your pc and your scenario.
Thank you.

[Nuckels]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi Nuckels,
Our tech team had checked the wake up delay video you provided and it is normal.
I'm not sure if the delay in games is lighter than the wake up delay, so it cannot be grabbed via a phone camera and speakers.
I'm afraid without the video on your own, we have no idea how is the delay on your pc and your scenario.
Thank you.

I find it hard to believe the wake up delay is normal, it's not minor. I could plug in a usb device and hear NOTHING because the audio is over before it wakes up. Is that really normal?

I can't make a video of the delay within games, it's incredibly subtle were talking in the millie-seconds here. Tell HQ to grab a game called "Osu" and try and play it. It's a rithm game and anyone with remotely decent reaction speed will instantly notice it.

[BobVul]

Hi,

I am having the exact same issue with the ALC8082 codec on my Z690 Hero board.

The most reliable way to reproduce the issue is to use the Windows sound output device "test" button, which plays a test tone on each channel sequentially. As long as no other audio is playing, some 25-50% of the time you'll hear the first tone (left) play, and then the second tone (right) will be missing the first 0.5s.

In normal usage, this is also apparent when short notification sounds are played. For example, sometimes almost the entire Discord message notification sound will be missed, sometimes the second half of it will play.

Following some forum diving, a workaround that's currently working for me is to enable listen to this device against Stereo Mix, and then set its volume to 0. The explanation offered is that this keeps the audio hardware awake, preventing the delayed wake-up issues. Doing this, the "test" button now works correctly, and I no longer have issues with notification sounds.

I'm very disappointed that such an expensive board has issues even a $2 USB sound card doesn't, and that it's apparently been an issue for so many months (years?) with still no permanent fix in sight. Worse, that it apparently affected the previous generation of boards and was not addressed in that time.

My current audio driver version is 6.3.9600.2297, the latest available on the support site at https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-maximus/rog-maximus-z690-hero-model/helpdesk_download.

[BobVul]

Here's a video of the test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuWOuM19oFM

Test 1: shows the issue
Test 2: apply the stereo mix listen workaround, issue no longer occurs
Test 3: remove the workaround, shows the issue again

Also can confirm that none of the BIOS versions 0237 (original), 0702, nor 0803 (newest) have any effect.

E: Can also confirm that driver version 6.3.9600.2306 from MoKiChU's package did not have any effect either. The problem remains the same as shown in the video linked here.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi BobVul,
Could you please help to create a new thread for the discussion about Z690 Hero board?
Thank you.

[iisd]

BobVul wrote:
Here's a video of the test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuWOuM19oFM

Test 1: shows the issue
Test 2: apply the stereo mix listen workaround, issue no longer occurs
Test 3: remove the workaround, shows the issue again

Also can confirm that none of the BIOS versions 0237 (original), 0702, nor 0803 (newest) have any effect.

E: Can also confirm that driver version 6.3.9600.2306 from MoKiChU's package did not have any effect either. The problem remains the same as shown in the video linked here.

I can confirm on my Z590 board that the Stereo Mix workaround works indeed. No more noticeable delay (and in my case crackling), even when playing a wav.
Thanks a lot!
Maybe this workaround even fixes the random loud white noise sound? Would be plausible since it also only occurs when there has been no sound and is instantly fixed if you restart the output properly, like starting a new video or hitting the reload button in the browser.

Should be easy to fix then, but I reported about all these issues 9 months ago to many different manufacturers and the press and nobody cared.