Issues with sound output from ProArt X870E-CREATOR WIFI device
Issues with sound output from ProArt X870E-CREATOR WIFI device
Hi All, I'm usually fairly good with technical issues (I work in tech support), however this one and the attitude of Asus support on this has me stumped. I bought this board last year and it's been working great, 5.1 audio is a little odd with the rear motherboard ports assigned to centre/sub, front, side surround and then to get rear surround you need to enable 7.1 and have a splitter cable from the front panel 4pole combo jack. It's less than ideal, so I swapped to a Sound Blaster Z SE, which worked great, Then I updated my motherboard BIOS and after that the SB card was fine until I played Fortnite, which caused the sound to glitch significantly until the PC would BSOD. This behaviour would happen if the card was physically installed, whether or not I was using it, HDMI audio, or USB headset audio, the fact the card was present caused the problem. After the BSOD, the PC wouldn't detect the card again until after the it had been either physically removed -> booted -> turned off -> replaced, or left powered off for a number of hours. Tried reinstalling drivers, reinstalling the card (can't choose another port because there's none free thanks to how chunky my GPU is) and the effect is the same, so resorted to my onboard audio. Along came 25H2, suddenly, I can no longer go into the Realtek Audio Console and my motherboard won't allow me to set the audio as I would like, it has defaulted to front panel audio, even if I unplug anything plugged in, it still defaults to front panel audio, I either need to unplug the motherboard header, or remove the driver and let windows 11 install it's standard driver for the rear 3.5mm jacks to work. So that's what I've done. I then contacted Asus support about the issue and said it's likely a driver issue, they send pictures and guides over for how to correctly connect my speakers (having used a 5.1 system for 10 years now, this isn't a problem - Aside from their goofy port layout), when I explained that none of this would work because of RealTek Audio Console having a RPC issue, The Asus support rep suggested using a digital output, which the motherboard doesn't have exclusively for audio and my amp, whilst supporting SPDIF, doesn't have HDMI input, which leaves me needing either a different sound card (apparently not Creative, but with how lost it gets, maybe it's a PCIe issue?), a different driver when it's released (Standard RealTek and Asus's drivers for this board all point to something from December 2024), Windows Reinstall (I'd have to wait until I'm on holiday again as my internet is 50Mb down 18Mb up, and I'll live with stereo if I must until I have more time), or finally to RMA the motherboard which has to be done through Amazon. Honestly, the support from Asus on a £480 motherboard is very disappointing. I have a history with Asus devices on my account and most of them have been fine, but this is an expensive purchase for me. Feature wise it ticked all the right boxes (odd audio port assignment aside, 5.1 should always be the old skool front, centre/sub, rear, at least as an option and configured to the 3 rear 3.5mm sockets), but to be relatively dismissive, and not know the product enough that other than HDMI/DP there's no other digital audio out (especially when all I, as the end user, have mentioned is 6ch analogue) leaving me to look for adapters and other sound hardware. I would even settle for "Thanks for your query, we'll pass it on to our driver team and do some testing" at this point, or allow them to do a remote session (which I suggested, not unreasonable on such an expensive product), but no, the "How did we do?" survey pretty much came through at the same time as telling me to use a different output. If anyone has had similar experience, or has suggestions on what to do with the RCP issue that doesn't involve reinstalling windows (SFC /Scannow and DISM scan health both came up clean) I'd be happy to hear them.
Review the Windows update log to confirm the audio driver was downloaded and installed. Even if the current driver is present, an older one might still cause problems. Also examine the Windows security protection history, as it can block drivers and sometimes result in a green screen when dealing with audio.
I've included the minidumps. The timestamps seem to match what I did with the Sound Blaster Z SE Minidump.zip.
I reviewed the update logs for any audio-related drivers and found only entries from the time I first installed the Sound Blaster Z SE after a firmware change. Since I used DDU’s removal tools during installation and the problems returned on that same day, it seems the issue isn’t the driver Microsoft provided. The original setup with Creative’s own utilities was likely the cause.
Occasionally a driver update may lead to problems, regardless of the source. Older drivers might offer more stability. It often involves testing and adjustments. Windows security can sometimes block drivers from loading, which may trigger crashes. You should review the Windows security protection log to see if it appears there. For Windows 25H2, certain bugs exist. An update was scheduled for Tuesday, November 11th to address these issues. You might want to download the Realtek audio console from the Windows store. If that fails, search for it in your programs folder.
Consider using USB external audio cards such as the Sound Blaster X4. They provide the required connections, are affordable, and don’t depend on PCI-E.
This indicates the power state change fails when the PnP subsystem attempts to start a device and remove another in the opposite unit. The exact device or driver involved isn't clear. I searched for drivers but only found Sound Blaster Commander listed under "Drivers." Could that include the necessary support?
Sound Blaster Commander acts as the overseer for the device and its driver. It often mimics a printer driver behavior, displaying the device even after removal—either physically or due to strange PCIe complications. While working on this problem, I attempted to turn off and turn on the card in Device Manager; occasionally, the settings would reappear in SB Commander.