maximus viii audio issues, big thanks to rog community

[AmirShred]

Back in early December I purchased a Maximus VIII Hero. I immediately had problems with audio pops and clicks. Basically what people are describing as the audio channel opening and closing... very annoying. Frustratingly, a friend of mine purchased the exact same damn board and didn't have any problems. A couple days after purchasing the board I began working with ASUS support. As we all know it can be very frustrating and difficult. After about a week I finally got it escalated and then escalated again using videos demonstrating the problem. They made me try things with my graphics card power supply memory basically blamed everything but what I believed was a driver issue. After 6 weeks of back and forth I finally received confirmation this afternoon that they had identified a driver interaction with third party software.

They basically say the problem was difficult to replicate because so few users had reported it. The hilarious part is I asked how many reports they had and they said they had a few dozen over the last couple months. They however wouldn't tell me what third party software interacts. But it must be something those of us with the pops and clicks have and others like my friend don't. They say a new driver is in testing and should be available in the next couple weeks.

Based on this info, I definitely owe this community a big thank you as I know many of you have had these problems for quite some time. And I know a lot of you probably had to spend a lot of time with ASUS support. Anyway thank you again for us helping each other I suppose.

[scarystuff]

AmirShred wrote:
I do not. My chassis cabling is well shielded.

It's not the cabling, it's also on the back ports.

[Celador]

I've would've agreed that the issue is probably driver related if only it did not appear right after clean windows installation. I've also tried rebooting in diagnostic mode which disables everything except windows services and the issue was still there.

The fact that it doesn't appear with stock windows drivers makes me thing that it's probably some driver and hardware interaction related issue after all. GPU, HDD, RAM or maybe even keyboard/mouse/router. Though it does sound kinda far fetched.

[Vinny1001]

Celador wrote:
I've would've agreed that the issue is probably driver related if only it did not appear right after clean windows installation. I've also tried rebooting in diagnostic mode which disables everything except windows services and the issue was still there.

The fact that it doesn't appear with stock windows drivers makes me thing that it's probably some driver and hardware interaction related issue after all. GPU, HDD, RAM or maybe even keyboard/mouse/router. Though it does sound kinda far fetched.

Celador, are you experiencing audio issues?

I have the pop/cut out and subwoofer thump with realtek or asus realtek drivers installed, but not Windows default audio drivers. Had it on 5 different boards, 3 different CPU's, 3 different PSU's, 3 sets of RAM, and bench tested, 1 SSD.

This clearly is driver related. I've never had an issue in my previous builds, and with recent set up I went through ENDLESS replacements on each component, and used previous working components, and the audio issue was still there only with audio drivers from realtek or Asus.

Asus has had it replicated for me weeks back (they sent me two videos to confirm) and said they're working on it.

What do you think Celador?

[AmirShred]

Vinny1001 wrote:

This clearly is driver related.

Definitely, considering my experience and what others have reported about clone installs between systems confirms this. Not to mention using win drivers doesn't cause it. My big question at this point is ASUS told me 2 weeks on a new driver but still no driver.

[Celador]

Vinny1001 wrote:
Celador, are you experiencing audio issues?

I have the pop/cut out and subwoofer thump with realtek or asus realtek drivers installed, but not Windows default audio drivers. Had it on 5 different boards, 3 different CPU's, 3 different PSU's, 3 sets of RAM, and bench tested, 1 SSD.

This clearly is driver related. I've never had an issue in my previous builds, and with recent set up I went through ENDLESS replacements on each component, and used previous working components, and the audio issue was still there only with audio drivers from realtek or Asus.

Asus has had it replicated for me weeks back (they sent me two videos to confirm) and said they're working on it.

What do you think Celador?

As i posted here and in my own threads - i also have this issue. I've talked several times with different support representatives and was told several times that they know about this issue and it is probably related to a driver or hardware configuration. Im assuming that everyone has it despite some people claiming otherwise. Not everyone pays attention to such things, not everyone can even spot audio issues. Considering that different forums and youtube are filled with complaints and videos describing this - im guessing it's an Asus issue to begin with and they have to deal with it eventually.

[ondersma80]

Celador wrote:
Im assuming that everyone has it despite some people claiming otherwise. Not everyone pays attention to such things, not everyone can even spot audio issues.

There's a classic internet hallmark. If you have a problem desperately claim everyone has the same issue; and if they don't, suggest they either are too stupid or making false claims. Just because an issue affects dozens doesn't automatically mean it affects thousands.

If you bothered to read my posts earlier in this thread you will see it doesn't affect all configurations or setups. I have no issues at all with onboard audio but observed the issue on a friend's system. I cloned that exact install to my system and then my system had the issue. Took his drive back out and reinstalled mine and problem gone. It is config related and is isolated to some systems. As Amir said there is probably a driver conflict with something in the affected systems and they have to adjust the driver.

I went reading through online reviews and even see a couple at Newegg that reported they had audio issues with the Maximus VIII Hero and don't on the Maximus VIII Hero Alpha. That is probably because the installation is different as I doubt anything is physically different between the board audio hardware.

I hope they get you guys a patch soon.

[AmirShred]

+1 to Ondersma. That is why got this whole thing going. My friend's system, exact same board, bios, CPU, etc sounds great. Mine is so bad you really can't miss it. Where is the stupid driver?

[Vinny1001]

Any update on the audio issues, anyone?