Hi all.
Since there are quite some threads about the issue in the title, I'll sum up the whole thing and provide a working solution.
1. The issue
You install/upgrade to W10 and proceed to update your drivers as provided in the RVE Support page.
When you install the Asus Realtek Audio Driver in Windows 10, the Sonic Studio and Sonic Radar are not installed.
If you launch the installer for the Sonic Studio included in the driver subfolder (Realtek...xxx...whatever/Driver/SonicSuite) it installs and launches fine, but the Sonic Studio doesn't have any effect on output sound and Sonic Radar will be empty or won't show up at all.
2. The solution
a. Premise
- If you did install the Windows 10 driver provided (rev.7571) remove it from Apps and functions. If Sonic Suite is also listed remove that too.
b. Get it together
- Download driver revision 7373 from the RVE Support page. It will only appear if you select Windows 8 as your OS. Choose 32/64 as your W10 is.
- Unpack and install rev.7373 normally (AsusSetup.exe). Reboot and you will get everything up and running, Sonic Studio and Sonic Radar included.
c. You are now stuck with obsolete drivers. Not really!
- Download driver revision 7629 from the Maximus VIII Extreme or Hero Support page. Choose 32/64 as your W10 is.
- Unpack rev.7629.
- Win+X -> Device Manager -> Sound Controllers (or Audio Controllers? Not Audio I/O anyway) -> Right click Realtek High Definition Audio -> Update Software Driver -> Look for SW in this computer -> Navigate to the new driver's decompressed folder -> Click Next
d. You are now running the very latest driver from Realtek (yay!). We retained the older driver interface (witchcraft!) but Sonic Radar and Sonic Studio plugin are old version (boo!).
- Navigate to the folder containing the uncompressed rev.7629 and then to subfolder Driver/SonicRadar.
- Launch SetupSonicPlugins_R2.exe and follow procedure to overwrite the old plugins. Reboot.
3. The epilogue
That's it. You are now running the very latest Realtek Driver with the latest working plugins (v.2.1.25). Everything works as expected, although some games are not picked up by the radar (it seems 64 bit ones are affected). If you install rev.7629 directly it will pick up more games, but won't show in game as rev.7571 does, and Sonic Studio won't work as well. The reason is the plugin installed will be version 2.2.16.
You need to ignore the Sonic Suite subfolder and its content for this whole procedure to work.
Now 2 questions for Mr. Asus:
1. Why doesn't the Windows 10 driver install all the goodies? They are part of the bundle, we paid for them upon buying the MoBo!
2. Why doesn't the latest Sonic Suite work in Windows 10? It is part of the bundle, we paid for it upon buying the MoBo!
3. Why doesn't the download page for the RVE list the latest available driver? This is no ordinary board, it's the flagship of your lineup! You should be proud of your creations and keep them alive as long as possible!
4. Why doesn't Sonic Radar allow you to remove or add programs to the list? You can deselect them, but not remove them. That's a plain design flaw. If you can't remove old/unused apps you end up with a lot of clutter in the menu. And the items changing their position when you select/deselect them are really annoying.
Hope the whole thing helped. Credits go to many people on this forum who tried to solve the problem previously, and came up with simple but working solution.
This is the no compromise solution, for people who bought a no compromise MoBo.
Bye
The Registrar
EDIT: The latest drivers provided for Win 10 (Version 6.0.1.7829) install and work fine in every part, including the plugins, so this guide is actually outdated.
