Rog Strix Z590-E Gaming Wifi sound issue

[Cool_Barn]

EDIT : It turns out the problem was my DAC, not the motherboard. See my final post for the exhilarating story.

Hello there.

I'm having issues with the optical audio on my new Strix Z590-E Gaming Wifi. I have tried both the Asus and Microsoft drivers, and with both drivers the sound will cut out momentarily every 5 - 10 seconds or so.

Normally the first thing I do upon installing a new motherboard is a fresh Windows install, but for a number of reasons, I am yet to get around to it. I tried running Ubuntu Live to make sure it was software rather than hardware, but that didn't play any sound at all when selecting the Realtek USB option.

I have just updated the BIOS with the most recent version that has just been released.

I can't say for sure whether it's hardware or software, but I'm 95% sure it's driver-related. Probably a fresh install will fix the problem, but if anybody else has experienced this, could you please let me know (and a possible fix 🙂 )

Thank you for your help!

[Cool_Barn]

satyrlampu wrote:
Crackling sound on TOSLINK (I use soundbard) is so loud which made my little boy surprised and cry.

It's not just little boys. This big boy was also surprised, and shed a few tears, when it started happening 😄

[MikeMS]

Hello, same issue 😞 When it happened first time - I thought I will get a heart strike such incredibly loud and sudden this noise was. Spended a lot of time trying to fix this by reinstalling different drivers, changing settings e.t.c..((
Glad to hear that asus works with realtek to fix this and I hope solution will be very soon. Currently wouldn't use my spdif audio speakers and will try to wait, don't want to deal with MB refund...
P.S.: Heard that not only asus mb's have this issue but at least msi and gygabyte as well with the same realtek chipset.

[TomCruiseContro]

I have this same issue as well. Sometimes I can go for hours without the sound going to static and other times it'll happen every few minutes.

[octiva]

TomCruiseControl wrote:
I have this same issue as well. Sometimes I can go for hours without the sound going to static and other times it'll happen every few minutes.

yea why fixit ,,the allready got the money for the motherboard

[_Emanuel_]

octiva wrote:
yea why fixit ,,the allready got the money for the motherboard

Yep .. at this point I'm just happy that I didn't paid more on Apex or Hero.

[Feklar]

_Emanuel_ wrote:
Yep .. at this point I'm just happy that I didn't paid more on Apex or Hero.

Hero does not have this issue since it uses a different codec (4082).

[Cool_Barn]

octiva wrote:
yea why fixit ,,the allready got the money for the motherboard

Sure, ASUS could think like that. Many companies do.

But how long do those sorts of companies succeed? History is full of major businesses who are top of the pile one minute, and then ultimately fail because they release a bad product, and forget about customer service. In an industry where there is competition (ie most of them) then customer service, and brand recognition, is still king.

So yeah - ASUS could simply ignore the problem. And what do you think all the affected customers would think? Would they ever buy Asus products again? I know I wouldn't. More importantly what do you think popular tech-sites will publish when they get wind of it - do you think they will be complimentary to ASUS now or in the future?

Over time - a tiny snowball can become a massive one.

There's a lot to be said about customer service. Many times in the past I have forgiven companies who initially made a mistake, but then quickly made up for their error, by doing the right thing and fixing it for their customers. I will still buy their products today. But there are a few companies who I refuse to buy from, because of terrible support. Thankfully some of the problem companies from my past now cease to exist.

I have been buying Asus products for over 25 years. And I have always been impressed with their support. Blake's responses in this thread have reinforced this.

I will be very surprised, and disappointed, if this changes. I for one am expecting a fix relatively soon 🙂

[Feklar]

I doubt if this issue will ever get resolved. All Realtek has to do is stop using the 4080 codec and just use the 4082 instead going forward. Z590 although new is already nearly eol because of Z690 coming in Q4 and I'm sure more effort is going there as opposed to Z590 and the ALC 4080 issue. I'll be satisfied if the issue is fixed, but not shocked if it isn't.

[Blake1]

Dear all,
This issue is not being ignored. But it is true that we did not make much progress.
The new firmwares continue to fail, not just on ASUS product.
We will continue to work on this and I will keep you posted here.
We are really sorry about this and please kindly give us some more time.
Thank you very much.

[_Emanuel_]

Blake@ROG wrote:
The new firmwares continue to fail, not just on ASUS product.

What firmware are you referring?

It is a driver issue and Realtek must solve it somehow or it is a bios issue? (meaning some third party code from Realtek that must be included in the UEFI?