Trying to determine if my Asus mobo is defective - Audio problem

I just finished my build with this motherboard and I'm having a problem that is getting on my nerves, which apparently many other people do with Realtek chips.

At random intervals that can be sometimes 20 minutes apart but sometimes 1 minute, a balloon in the tray pops up up saying that I just plugged a device, and the audio control panel pops up asking which type it is, with headphones selected by default, even though no headphones have been plugged in. I click OK to that, and a few seconds later I get the balloon again saying that a device has been unplugged.

The PC case is the same I used for two years in my last build, a Cooler Master ATCS 840, and I was using a Gigabyte motherboard for an AMD 1090T CPU, and never had this problem. The audio chipset was also Realtek, and the audio control panel was essentially the same but an older version that had a different skin. The new one looks like this (don't pay attention to the Asus thing in the back, they look like they're the same but the Asus suite just happened to be in the background when I took the screenshot):

http://i.imgur.com/ka3nK.jpg

I opened the case and tried to get to the front audio panel but it seems impossible, even after I took out the optical drive below it. It's inside an enclosure that doesn't have accessible screws as far as I can see. But if it worked fine for two years and I didn't pull on the cables, I don't see why all of a sudden it would start causing shorts or anything. I did unplug the connector to the motherboard, checked that all the pins were straight and plugged it back in.

So I thought I had a bad motherboard, but there seems to be tons of people with this problem across several motherboards, unless all those people also have a faulty motherboard. Nothing else seems to be failing, so I wonder if it's the audio chip on the motherboard or just buggy drivers. The first Win 7 installation I did I installed the latest drivers from Asus, but then I found out that Home Premium doesn't access more than 16 GB of RAM, so I had to go buy 7 Pro, reformat and install again from scratch. This time I chose the driver version that was before last, but it hasn't changed anything.

I could call Newegg and request a replacement, but after all the hours I spent putting the rig together, plus all the hours spent installing Windows, drivers, updates and programs, when I have only three hours a day of free time during the week, is not too appealing to me to say the least.

One workaround that has worked for most people is to select AC97 instead of HD Audio, but since I spent $230 in this motherboard I'm not going to tolerate any faulty component even if it's one I use every once in a while. But, I don't want to get a replacement, waste days taking apart this build, putting it together again with the new MB and then find out that I still have the same issue.

Has anybody else have this problem, and knows how to solve it?

Thanks,

Sebastian

 

Welcome to the forum Could you post the model of the motherboard and the audio chipset.

Are you using an amplified audio system?If so post the make and model,also post how you have it connected,analogue 5.1,digital 5.1,hdmi,toslink.

If you are it could be going into to standby while not being used, mine does the same after a few minutes of audio inactivity. The sound card is then picking up the audio system again when it turns on, the solution is obviously to disable power saving features on your audio system.

You can test this by playing music through your computer or a long video on youtube,if you don't receive the message during this time it's highly likely this is happening, you could also try using analogue headphones to see if the problem manifests itself while they're connected.

The motherboard could also be going into some for of standby mode, for a start I would remove all ASUS power saving features or power management software, remove all those junk gadgets that comes with a new motherboard leaving only the audio driver and system drivers to narrow the problem down then disable all windows power saving features in control panel,power.

The other solution is to disable reporting in the audio driver,I don't know what settings are in there so you'll have to look for it, it will be labelled something like connection manager, connection wizard, help mesages ect.

Do you have any yellow exclamation marks or red crosses in device manager? If so what?

 

Thanks Rikky. The motherboard is an Asus P9X79 Pro with a i7 3930k CPU. The audio chipset is the Realtek ALC898. The toslink output is going to a Pioneer VSX-1020. The cable is brand new and is one of the premium cables from Monoprice, 25 ft long. However, if you mean that the receiver is going on standby and that causes the problem, I don't think so, since it's been turned off for hours and the balloon keeps popping up. I disabled the popup dialog when device has been plugged in so it's only the balloon on the tray, but it's still annoying.

However, yesterday I played a full CD from the computer through the receiver and it didn't popup, but it could be just a coincidence.

The power saving features are all disabled, I created my own plan called "Always On" and went into every setting to make sure that everything is set to not sleep ever. Now, the motherboard software is installed, but I don't see any module that has power saving features.

As for the device manager, the only thing with a yellow mark is a multimedia controller which is the Grass Valley HD Spark card, for which I still have to install the drivers along with Edius, but I doubt that could be causing it. But this card, along with a Matrox MXO2 Mini Max were installed on the Gigabyte board and didn't cause this to happen.

 

An update to my reply, which is still not visible because it says it has to be approved by a moderator. The toslink cable or the receiver are not causing this problem. After typing my reply I disconnected the toslink cable and the balloon popped up twice since.

 

Definitely remove or install driver to eliminate it.

You have a realtek Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC This is your motherboard and your sound chip correct?

http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/P9X79/#specifications

The first obvious thing which I should have mentioned is to update all motherboard drivers including the bios,don't use the CD's that came with the motherboard they are all usually out of date before the motherboard is put on sale.

http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/P9X79/#download

Make sure it's sure motherboard or search the asus site again to be sure it's correct.

If these don't work or you've already installed them you can try the realtek driver if your wish.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads...=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

The notification is called "Jack detection" and I've seen a lot of complaints about this so I'm assuming it's a driver problem, the goal therefore would be to disable it, without the computer in front of me I can't really help with this within the driver but there is a long standing work around to disable windows 7 jack detection and here it is, be sure to create a restore point and registry backup before attempting.

http://thextramoney.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/how-to-disable-jack-detection-on-windows-7/

If after these fixes you still receive the notification I would definitely return the board for a replacement,I definitely think it's driver problem not a hardware problem with in either case it doesn't work as advertised.

 

:-D Nobody can call himself a real geek if he installs the drivers from the CD that came with any device.

Regardless of that, I will call for a replacement, because after having tried several things it still has the problem:

- I took out one of the PCIe cards, the HD Spark, which was in the nearest slot to the connector, even though most likely it had nothing to do, but it didn't work.
- the cable that came from the front audio panel was sitting on the top of the PSU, so just in case there is some electrical interference, I tied it to another cable so it's not touching the PSU
- I uninstalled all Realtek and Nvidia drivers, then I installed the Nvidia drivers deselecting only the audio drivers, and after the reboot, I installed the latest available drivers from the Asus website. I didn't try the Realtek drivers because as far as I can see they are only drivers, so it would be pointless since Windows 7 installs the basic drivers. The only reason to install the drivers from the Asus website is to have access to the equalizer and sound enhancements.

So having tried all this without success, I'll try to get a replacement from Newegg tomorrow, since this is perhaps a defective audio chipset in the motherboard. If the replacement has the same problem, then I guess I'll have to pull out the front panel and not use it, but at least I have to make sure that this is not a problem with my unit.

 

Sorry I couldn't help.

Before you return it though I'd contact Asus for support, at least give them chance to fix it,at least then you've exhausted all Avenues.

Are you talking about the front audio panel on the case? Does the problem disappear when this isn't connected? I was assuming you'd removed all external to connectors to the sound chip and still had the problem.

If so I would conclude the audio panel is defective, the reason is there are no electronic components that could fail just wires,connectors,switches and lights,the short could have been there all the time but only now manifest with jack detection software.

If you do decide to remove the panel and test it I could advise but that's up to you

 

Greetings, sebasvideo...

Pardon the intrusion, guys - if this is a Realtek system, is there a Realtek HD Audio Manager in Control Panel? If so, there may be a disable option for the tray icon, something like ""Display icon in notification area" radio button".

I know that's not a fix, per se, but those damn popups can get annoying...

Just a thought.

 

Well, without the front panel connected (that's the only external connector) the problem doesn't happen, and if this was a new case I would definitely think it's the front panel, but that front panel never gave me a problem with the Gigabyte motherboard I had before, plus this is a high quality case that I paid close to $200 for, it's not the flaky $40 kind.

If I get the replacement motherboard and this still happens, then I will try the workarounds, but for now I gotta make sure that I didn't pay for a motherboard that doesn't work as it should.

Thanks for your help nonetheless

 

I also have the same setup as you have but with HAF X case, and I recently started experiencing the same issue after building my system for a good 6 months. I have creative inspire 4400 4.1 speakers connected at the back. Its driving me nuts. But strangely when I change sound mode from realtek sound manager from Qudraphonic to stereo the problem doesn't happen. Have you tried that. With me also if i remove the front panel connectors the problem doesnt happen. I am also following up with ASUS about it.