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How to get Phoebus drivers working within Windows 8.1 64 Pro w/ Media Center.

Cageymaru
Level 7
First thing to know is that upgrading from Win 8 to 8.1 destroys the Phoebus driver install. There is no recovery for it. Some say they get lucky, but many of aren't able to fix it by normal means. So this leaves one option; erase and reinstall!

I don't mind reinstalling my OS. But I couldn't even get my OS to reset with the amount of errors that the Phoebus drivers were displaying. Microsoft was nice enough to spend 3 hours this morning walking me through how to reinstall their Upgrade version of Win 8.1 without my Win 7 discs. Granted most of it was them trying to find and verify my key from the Windows Store, but hey whatever works. 🙂


First thing to do is backup your data that you want to keep. Songs, files, documents, save games, Japanese pron, etc.

Read this little gem of a guide on Windows 8.

Using the guide I was able to find this download for Windows 8 that allows you to completely erase your old installation and start over again. Make sure you choose the correct installer. If you choose 8.1, but own a 8.0 key it's going to tell you wrong key. Yes, you would think that the same key would work for both, but it doesn't.

Let Windows erase your Windows 8 install and start over anew. After you have 8.0 on your computer and installed you need to upgrade it to 8.1. I had to run Windows Update and update 8.0 until 8.1 Pro showed up in the Windows Store as a free upgrade. The 8.1 upgrade will be the first item you see in the Windows Store on your PC.

Open Control Panel and check for updates again. After everything is up to date, reinstall the Phoebus drivers. Everything will go as well as before. You should have zero issues getting them to install. Everything that was broken in Win 8.0 is still broken in 8.1, so don't get your hopes up.

I hope this helps some of the people who just can't get their cards working. Maybe Asus will send us a new driver. Sure would be nice. But if they don't at least you can get it back to it's prior functionality.
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14 REPLIES 14

Cageymaru
Level 7
Reserved.

KILLER_K
Level 10
So you are saying reinstall the os because Asus can't make a proper working driver? That makes zero sense there. Tell Asus to do what they are suppose to do and make a properly working driver. It isn't our job to retro-fit crap together to make it work. This is why Asus still has a crappy "F" rating at the BBB. Don't buy from them and they will learn. That is the only way you will win this battle. As of right now you see zero concern in their eyes. They have your money and enjoy watching you try to make their busted drivers work.

my system crash so bad with the 8.1 update, first the xonar pheobus then the asus 770 display not working.
i lost my restore point during the upgrade. I have to do a fresh install of windows 8.1 iso. to get asus 770 working again.
i give up on the xonar phoebus using on board sound right now.

I did a win 8 to 8.1 upgrade with phoebus drivers already installed, after upgrade i had to do a complete removal of the driver (including cleaning folders & registry) and after that reinstalling it with elevated rights and UAC disabled. Doing this the driver "works" again...

Funny thing is i did an upgrade in another comp that i have a Xonar D2X in and that worked without having to do anything, though i do use the Unified driver on that one. That card also has fully working HW acc in 8 & 8.1 while this "gaming card" doesn't

It is quite stuning that a company with this big revenue has little to no software support for their own products. I have learned my lesson and will not be buying another ASUS Product and neither will I recommend anyone else to do so.
| Sabertooth p67 rev b | i7 2600k @4,8GHz | 2x8GB 2133MHz Corsair | MSI GamingX GTX 1080@2125MHz | 256GB Samsung 840Pro | MX300 1TB | 2x 120GB Intel 510 | Xonar Phoebus | Zalman ZM-850HP | Logitech G810 & SS Rival 500 | Acer Z35 |

I just recently upgraded from 8 to 8.1 and the only issue with my Phoebus was that the Dolby application stopped working. I re installed the Phoebus drivers & now all is good.

KILLER_K
Level 10
That is my main point. Everyone is having issues with this sound card and the drivers. Basically windows 8.1 killed it dead in the water. There is no need to try and do anything to get it working. It is all Asus's problem for not caring at this point. And my previous post wasn't trying to single your work out. My point was you are just doing way too much stuff to try and fix their messed up marketing and bad driver issues.

Cageymaru
Level 7
I know KILLER_K. I was just trying to help the guys out. I tried uninstalling the borked driver and then performing a driver install over it, but the OS was too far gone with errors about the Phoebus not being supported. It got to the point where my Win 8.1 64's performance was lagging. So I had to figure this out with the help of Microsoft.

In all honesty, the standard Windows driver sounds much better than the Phoebus driver. If you do go so far as to reinstall your OS, before you install the Phoebus drivers, check out Win 8.1 64's sound quality. The Phoebus using Win 8.1 64 standard drivers sounds really good! XBOX Live music doesn't disappoint.

I wish I could get Razer Surround to play nice with the Phoebus. It's way better sounding than the XEAR Surround, Dolby Digital, and DTS II on the Phoebus. When I tried to get it to work with the Phoebus, it kept cycling through it's test mode. Darn shame that we can't get that. It works great with the onboard Realtek on my Asus Sabertooth 990FX v1 motherboard. I just don't want to spend $100 - $150 for a proper headphone amp that suits my tastes as I already spent $200 on the Phoebus.

KILLER_K
Level 10
It just makes me mad that all these people have to come here and complain. While Asus does basically nothing for them at this point. You would figure Asus would like to solve the issue and show the consumer they are listening. The lucky ones got to return the sound card while some are basically stuck with it.

At this time Asus should do a public apology to everyone and offer a full 100% refund for this sound card. This would be the correct thing for them to do, since they can't release drivers and have no support for the sound card now. Hopefully this shows everyone how bad Asus handles their customers now.

And I hate posting stuff like this in a forum. But when a company abandons you on a product. You have only a few choices left to work with. It is very sad that it has come down to this. I know I wouldn't have my company ran like this by no means. When a company doesn't care about their product it makes you feel the same. Not to mention you have $200 stuck in a sound card that doesn't properly work. But I do know this, my money will be spent somewhere they support their products they make. Two drivers in a year and six months is just pathetic. There is no other way to sugar coat it or say it at this point and time.

Glasofruix
Level 8
Hey there,

Just finished asssembling/installing my new rig, chose to try windows 8 this time 😛 In the light of my fresh experience i can affirm that it's the 8.1 update that is at fault here. It actually f*cked up a couple of other drivers as well (including the catalyst drivers), the .net runtimes needed a reinstall, some DirectX issues quickly adressed, on a fresh install mind you, can't even begin to imagine the amount of devastation on an older install.
On the other hand, phoebus' drivers run just fine, here's how i did it:
-installed windows 8
-Diabled UAC (i hate that thing)
-couple of drivers (absof*ckalutly NO phoebus drivers at this point), basic software.
-updated the crap out of it
-installed 8.1 update
-reinstalled GPU drivers....
-installed phoebus drivers
-profit

It seems a nice wipe of the old driver install (driver sweeper for example) should do the trick for most people.