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Maximus X Audio Popping

wambo
Level 7
Hi everyone, I've noticed that I get random audio popping while listening to an audio Stream in Chrome while I am browsing other tabs or have Chrome in the background.

I have forced Chrome not to throttle background tabs and have checked that I have the latest drivers. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

The audio sounds great if I have that tab in focus, but as soon as I start browsing another tab, I get intermittent pops. This happens with multiple speaker setups and with headphones on the front IO ports. I'm thinking it is a driver issue. I have all audio enhancements turned off. I see that there are some similar issues with the previous boards but I don't see a consolidated / agreed upon solution.
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346 REPLIES 346

Hey, folks. I'm on a Prime Z270-A and I experience the same audio crackling after resuming from sleep as described by everyone else here. Since this appears to be some sort of strange interaction between Microsoft and Nvidia, I was wondering - is this issue exclusive to windows 10, or is it present in windows 7 as well?

Also, for anyone here who happens to use HWmonitor or any other sort of sensor-reading software: Do your readings get messed up after resuming from sleep? I normally have around, let's say 20 different sensors displayed when I launch HWmonitor. After resuming from sleep, however, I'll have almost double that amount of various readings listed and they're all just repeating the same values. I haven't seen anyone else mention this yet so I imagine it's likely unrelated to the audio issue, but I figured I would ask.

Lylat97 wrote:
Hey, folks. I'm on a Prime Z270-A and I experience the same audio crackling after resuming from sleep as described by everyone else here. Since this appears to be some sort of strange interaction between Microsoft and Nvidia, I was wondering - is this issue exclusive to windows 10, or is it present in windows 7 as well?

Also, for anyone here who happens to use HWmonitor or any other sort of sensor-reading software: Do your readings get messed up after resuming from sleep? I normally have around, let's say 20 different sensors displayed when I launch HWmonitor. After resuming from sleep, however, I'll have almost double that amount of various readings listed and they're all just repeating the same values. I haven't seen anyone else mention this yet so I imagine it's likely unrelated to the audio issue, but I figured I would ask.



ASUS Z370 X HERO here .

crackling audio from front panel on windows 7 , windows 8.1 , win 10 1607,1704,1709,1803 all crackle and diffrent drivers same thing .

rear panel out put is 25 % un balanced sound across ( all ) operating systems tried diffrent speakers cables as well .

fast start up off , sleep off , hybrid sleep off on all tests .

rear panel only and have to balance to right side louder by 25 % evry reboot . starting to get old 😞
Rig # 1 - 14900Ks SP-118 | 87 MC @ 6.0 GHZ | 5.2 R | 4.7 E | DDR5 48GB @ 8,600 c36 | Strix RTX 4090 | PG27AQN 1440P 27" 360 Hz G-Sync ULMB 2

Rig # 2 - 14900K-SP-120 | 89 MC @ 5.9 GHZ | 5.2 R | 4.7 E | DDR4 32GB @ 4,300 c15 | Strix RTX 3080 | Aoc 1080P 25" 240 Hz G-Sync

bass junkie xl wrote:
ASUS Z370 X HERO here .

crackling audio from front panel on windows 7 , windows 8.1 , win 10 1607,1704,1709,1803 all crackle and diffrent drivers same thing .

rear panel out put is 25 % un balanced sound across ( all ) operating systems tried diffrent speakers cables as well .

fast start up off , sleep off , hybrid sleep off on all tests .

rear panel only and have to balance to right side louder by 25 % evry reboot . starting to get old 😞


Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Based on what you've said it makes me wonder if the cause of this might be more on the Nvidia side of things. I might try to do some testing with older Nividia drivers and see if I can come up with anything. (It's just a shame that Win10 automatically force-installs newer drivers as soon as you reboot).

That aside, the next creator's update is right around the corner and I'm hopeful that it might introduce some sort of change that could fix the issue from microsoft's end.

I believe you mentioned in an earlier post that you had a gigabyte board at one point before the Hero X. Did you experience any sort of audio crackling back then? For me, the issues didn't begin until I installed my current board. (At least as far as I'm aware).

Lylat97 wrote:
Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Based on what you've said it makes me wonder if the cause of this might be more on the Nvidia side of things. I might try to do some testing with older Nividia drivers and see if I can come up with anything. (It's just a shame that Win10 automatically force-installs newer drivers as soon as you reboot).

That aside, the next creator's update is right around the corner and I'm hopeful that it might introduce some sort of change that could fix the issue from microsoft's end.

I believe you mentioned in an earlier post that you had a gigabyte board at one point before the Hero X. Did you experience any sort of audio crackling back then? For me, the issues didn't begin until I installed my current board. (At least as far as I'm aware).


I only experienced the issue after getting rid of a usb audio card and starting using the onboard audio. I'm sure the problem was there the whole time I owned the board I just didn't realize the first 3 months.

I also bought a new monitor at the same time a dell s2716DG 1440p g-sync monitor. And this is what caused notice of the vga_led staying lit on board after resume. I still wonder if it has something to do with using display port. I was blaming my monitors hdmi audio devices, blaming nvidias audio devices. But I've permanently disabled them all in device manager.

I think its a combination of the asus board/bios and Nvidia drivers and MS too. I'm not sure realtek even has anything to do with it anymore.

richac wrote:

I think its a combination of the asus board/bios and Nvidia drivers and MS too. I'm not sure realtek even has anything to do with it anymore.


Just like the microphone levels on VI HERO, where Asus never accepted responsibility and never fixed it, my money is mostly on Asus here also.
Good thing I have a USB soundcard so I don't have to use the "audiophile" grade one from Asus 🙂

I know I am a bit bitter, but I am sick and tired of false marketing and overpricing of "gaming" parts.

richac wrote:
I only experienced the issue after getting rid of a usb audio card and starting using the onboard audio. I'm sure the problem was there the whole time I owned the board I just didn't realize the first 3 months.

I also bought a new monitor at the same time a dell s2716DG 1440p g-sync monitor. And this is what caused notice of the vga_led staying lit on board after resume. I still wonder if it has something to do with using display port. I was blaming my monitors hdmi audio devices, blaming nvidias audio devices. But I've permanently disabled them all in device manager.

I think its a combination of the asus board/bios and Nvidia drivers and MS too. I'm not sure realtek even has anything to do with it anymore.


I fixed it by enabling CSM for vga_led staying lit.
slightly longer boot but no more vga_led staying lit after resume or reboot.
luckily I don't have audio pop, only unbalanced.

cyanid wrote:
I fixed it by enabling CSM for vga_led staying lit.
slightly longer boot but no more vga_led staying lit after resume or reboot.
luckily I don't have audio pop, only unbalanced.


I think you mean you disabled fast boot? That will fix the issue people have when turning on the machine. But the issue comes back if using sleep mode. restarting will fix it since that is not affected by fast boot, and disabling enabling the gpu card in device manager seem to be the only solutions.

richac wrote:
I think you mean you disabled fast boot? That will fix the issue people have when turning on the machine. But the issue comes back if using sleep mode. restarting will fix it since that is not affected by fast boot, and disabling enabling the gpu card in device manager seem to be the only solutions.


Maybe my problem is different than yours.
strangely csm fix it for me. google evga 1080 ftw csm.
so far either I use another monitor or enable csm.

Lylat97 wrote:
Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Based on what you've said it makes me wonder if the cause of this might be more on the Nvidia side of things. I might try to do some testing with older Nividia drivers and see if I can come up with anything. (It's just a shame that Win10 automatically force-installs newer drivers as soon as you reboot).

That aside, the next creator's update is right around the corner and I'm hopeful that it might introduce some sort of change that could fix the issue from microsoft's end.

I believe you mentioned in an earlier post that you had a gigabyte board at one point before the Hero X. Did you experience any sort of audio crackling back then? For me, the issues didn't begin until I installed my current board. (At least as far as I'm aware).


yeah i had a gigabyte z270 gaming k 5 with a 7700k it had built in realtec / extreme fi never had a issue on it front or rear panel just the same issue asus has with the amplify level reset .

good news is my rear panel doesnt crackle it just has unblanced sound by 25 % and lacks in audio quality flat sound , no punchy lows or crisp highs unfortunately my razer kraken 7.1 usb head set which is okay when you boost the 2 khz - 16 khz + 8 db beats the asus x hero sound quality even after boosting the 2 khz , 4khz ,8 khz , 16 khz .

lets hope it gets fixed sound quality being low isnt as big of a deal as audio crackling just want it to work lol
Rig # 1 - 14900Ks SP-118 | 87 MC @ 6.0 GHZ | 5.2 R | 4.7 E | DDR5 48GB @ 8,600 c36 | Strix RTX 4090 | PG27AQN 1440P 27" 360 Hz G-Sync ULMB 2

Rig # 2 - 14900K-SP-120 | 89 MC @ 5.9 GHZ | 5.2 R | 4.7 E | DDR4 32GB @ 4,300 c15 | Strix RTX 3080 | Aoc 1080P 25" 240 Hz G-Sync

Hey, I'm running a system with a Z170-A and W10 and have this exact issue as well (waking computer to popping sounds in media games,etc). Cold boot and toggling Nvidia on/off seems to fix the issue. This is definitely widespread across Asus mobos.