Z390-E Gaming , replaced MB and now 5.1 sound only out of 2 speakers

[JimDirt]

I just had to replace my motherboard due to issues from power outages killing the SATA ports , this has happened 4 times , where it killed 4 ASUS boards SATA ports only , and 4 hard drives (SATA) , I just got a replacement Z390-E Gaming (WiFi) and put it in along with a new 12gb video card and a new 850watt power supply  , I reused the CPU (1151 I7 8700K 3.7) and the ram (32gb) and the SSD that has Windows on it (250gb) , my new 4tb WD Black SATA hard drive (for my games and programs) and one of my old (that did not fail) 2tb SATA drives (for My Documents)

With that said  , the new board is the exact same as the old  , I am using the onboard sound , and put in the ASUS disk and installed the Realtek driver (after the issue was found)  , So what happens is I am either only getting sound from 2 speakers using a older 5.1 Logitech setup that worked fine on the old board , its plugged in to the Green , Yellow , Black ports as it was before  , when I go to the Windows Sound it shows Speakers , and in the dropdown it shows Quadraphonic , 5.1 and 7.1  , I have 5.1 checked and when testing speakers , I either get sound coming from 4 of the test speakers , except the actual sound is only coming from the Rear speaker , or I (if I check the boxes for each speaker) I only get sound from the 2 rear speakers , but none of the other "test" speakers make any sound  

So basically I have the speakers plugged in correctly , its the exact same board as before  , I see 5.1 in the choices in Windows Sound and the Realtek Control Center that downloaded from the ASUS disk for the motherboard  , also if I go to Properties it only shows 2 speakers for volume control (Stereo , but no other speakers , like its only stereo and not 5.1 , but in the prior window it shows 5.1 and 5 speakers

I have tried every "test" people recommend on Google and in these forums , and I get the same results no matter what I try  , also in the Device Manager in Windows , (10 64 ,21H2) there seems to be several audio systems  , the Realtek Speakers , LG Full HD (Nvidia) , Realtek Audio , and Nvidia High Definition Audio 

I tried disabling everything except the Realtek and it made no difference , I don't know what else to try ..

Any Ideas ???? ..... Thanks .... Jim  

[JimDirt]

On another note  , I had a ASUS Xonar SE PCIE 5.1 sound card l had from a build I never did , so basically it is new , I put it in the small PCIe slot and there is no sound from it at all , it shows up in the Device Manager , but when I try to test it after downloading drivers  , a error pops up that says the device can't be found , so I am not sure if its a defect in the MB or the sound card is bad from new since I never got it to work before in the build I got it for a couple years ago , so I'm not having any luck with getting my sound to work  ...... Any ideas ??? 

EDIT:

I am now getting sound from all speakers , in what seems to be 5.1 , however the sub seems really low compared to the rest of the speakers  , I was messing with the Realtek settings when I noticed this (as opposed to Windows Sounds where I had only 2 speakers ) also now , in Windows Sounds all speakers work in the "test" , except as with the Realtek software , the Sub is low there as well  , so not sure what is going on  , so I don't know if its the motherboard or the speaker system at this point ... Ideas ??  ... Anyone ???

EDIT EDIT:

OK , I went to my Music files , and played a song (Dorothy-Rest in Peace) as I figured this should give a full range of sound  , I am getting good Bass sound , and ok for the rest of the speakers though it doesn't sound "full"  , however what I found is I am getting sound from the Right Front , Left Rear and Middle , but nothing from the Right Rear or Left Front speakers ... Since there is only 3 Jacks on the Motherboard for 5.1 (Green , Yellow , Black) , its basically Front , Rear , Center/Sub , so either the pins on the jack (on the MB) are bad , or the speaker system is going bad  , I have 5.1 on my other PC , so I am going to try and get the wires over to it and use it as a "Speaker Test" , to either confirm or eliminate the speakers as the issue  , it just doesn't make sense to only have a Front Left  and a Right Rear only not work ...

EDIT 3:

OK , I just spoke with a ASUS Tech Support  , and what she had me do was check the Bios Version  , so I did and mine is so old it's not even on their list of Bios Updates  , so what she wants me to do is download EACH bios update separately onto a Flash Drive and load them one at a time into the Bios , starting at 1302 then doing each one till I get to the current Bios , which there are 10 from 1302 to current , so I have to install it , reboot (hopefully) , then go to the site and download the next in line , and do the same thing each time till I get to the last/newest one  , she is afraid that since my version is so old (most likely was never updated before it was shipped to me), if I just jumped to the current version , the system would crash and I would have to start over , so it looks like my day is going to be a long one ..... Still not sure if this will solve the issue , but I don't have much choice ......

[JimDirt]

OK , So much for Tech Support  , the first lady said my Bios was way out of date  , turns out it was version 2004 , which is only 1 version from current , so the Flash Drive CAP file wouldn't work because it was older , so once that was determined , then I was able to update the Bios , however , after 5 dropped calls , only of which the last person I talked to managed to call me back (3 times it dropped with her and 1 time each with the other 2 Techs that never called me back like I asked them to if we got cut off) , so anyway , after about 4 total hours on the phone , I still have a sound issue that is positively the motherboard itself , otherwise the thing works fine  , I still need to try to see if I can test the sound card I have and make sure its toast , or some other glitch with the motherboard PCIe slots

[JimDirt]

So does anyone have any ideas ??? 

Does anyone know if I have to Disable the Onboard Sound in the Bios if I install a PCIe ASUS Xonar Sound Card ??  , when I tried installing the card in the PCIe slot (short one) , the Device Manager recognizes it but it said it did not have drivers installed and needed them to work , so when I installed the Drivers for the Sound Card to try and get sound from it , the Software for the sound card that I downloaded from ASUS said Device Not Found

So I have a ASUS Sound Card and its not being recognized by the driver/control center software on a ASUS MB , and I didn't see any "conflict" pop-up , so not sure why I get no sound from it  , was going to try installing it again  , but like I said  , I don't know if I have to disable the Onboard Sound or not , and it doesn't say in the Manual for the MB

Anyone ??

[JimDirt]

I ended up finding a "new" motherboard on eBay  , that I confirmed from ASUS that it was indeed "New" , so it's covered under the Factory Warranty if something is wrong with it (I gave them the Serial numbers off the sealed box on the phone and the guy checked and said it was new) I got it for $155.00 plus shipping , so I'm happy with that ..

So I am going to give up on trying to make this one work and wait for the new one to arrive in a week or so and swap everything out ..... again ..... 3rd times the charm right ? 

[JimDirt]

Well , I will say , DO NOT trust anything a ASUS Employee says , As mentioned above , I talked to them on the phone and the guy assured me that the Serial number I gave him was in fact NEW , and covered under the Full Factory Warranty , so after confirming several times with him that is was NEW and to go ahead and buy it , I got the board the day before yesterday (July 31st) and called in to Register it , and I was then told that the Warranty had expired June of 2023 and was Registered in 2020 , so the ASUS employee basically had me throw away $176.00 , because the "New" board is in fact not new and the lazy jerk at ASUS duped me into buying it , when if he had actually checked he would have been able to know it wasn't "new"

I contacted Support again and talked with a Supervisor , and filed a complaint about the employee , as well as Demanded that ASUS now give me a Full Factory Warranty in leu of their employee telling me it was new , which otherwise I would not have bought it , since the other 2 models of this board I already purchased before this one , and was lied to in claiming they were "new" as well , and were in fact Remanufactured , so I am really about done with ASUS and their inferior boards that keep failing , and having replaced all my other components in thinking they were the cause of the failures , when in fact its just ASUS and their crappy boards and Customer Service that is the problem , I could have bought a "new" entire PC for what I have wrapped up in this outdated one now

The ASUS Supervisor told me to go ahead and install this board and see if everything works , I am not sure if it doesn't they will actually do anything to replace it , but I could maybe get them to take one of the 2 other ones I have sitting here and repair one of them and give it back to me free of charge , to make up for their BS , and give it a full 3 year warranty like this board would have had , had their employee not lied to me and didn't even check the Serial numbers I gave him to verify it was good or not good , so later on today I will pull out the board I just put in at the beginning of the week , that has issues , and try this 3rd one , and see if its any better than the last 6 I have had in this PC (All ASUS boards , B360-M x2 , B365-M x1 , Z390 - E Gaming x3) all have had the exact same failure except the last one (that is currently in now) which has the sound issues , the others ALL had Failed SATA ports , literally all or all but one of the SATA ports failed on all the other boards , 4 of which ruined the hard drives that were attached to them as well  , so ASUS has cost me a lot of money in the last 2 years ..... Hopefully this Supervisor keeps her word and did report all this to Corporate like she said she was going to do  , and is actually trying to get me justice for their incompetence  

I will update the post once I find out how the "new/old" board works