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Rampage iv black edition audio issues

zerosandones
Level 7
Specs:
Motherboard: Rampage IV Black Edition
CPU: i7-3960X
Memory: 32GB Corsair Dominator
SSD 1: Samsung 840 pro
SSD 2: Samsung 830
HDD 1: WD 1TB Black Eddition
HDD 2: WD 4TB Green Raid 0
HDD 3: WD 2TB Enterprise
Audio Card: Sound Blaster ZxR
Graphics: EVGA 780Ti Superclock SLI
PSU: Corsair 1200W
OS: Windows 7 pro 64bit

That should cover my system. So here is the problem.

Everything works as needed except I can not install the Bluetooth 4.0 and wireless drives for my board.

The moment I install the Bluetooth 4.0 and wireless drives for my board my sound card starts to act very funny. Here is an example of what happens: I open up any player, (iTunes, Zune, Windows Media player, etc) Pick any music clip and the sound plays just fine for a couple of seconds and than an extremely high pitch scratching sounds occurs. This sounds goes on for about 2 seconds. The sounds returns but it is softer than before. This continues on till the clip is done. If you close the player and start again, the volume is normal and the process as mentioned above starts again.

At this point, even if I try a system restore it does not fix the problem. The only way this gets fixed is a full system reformate.

Here is how my cards are installed on my board. My EVGA GPU's are installed in the PCI-E 16x Slots on the board. My Sound Blaster ZxR is installed in the PCI-E 1x slot.

Here is some troubleshooting that I did:

The Azalia HD Audio is disabled in my BIOS under on board device configuration

updated the bios to the latest and greatest available

If I move my Sound Blaster ZxR to a PCI-E 16x slot, the problem with the sound goes away. If I move it back to the PCI-E 1x slot, the problem returns.

I do not want to put my Sound Blaster ZxR in a PCI-E16x slot because I loose the x16 speeds on both of my GPU's. So the problem lies with the PCI-1x slot on the board.

I was hoping someone will be able to help me out with this issue.

Thank you for your time and await your responses.
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4 REPLIES 4

Kosmosagamemnon
Level 7
Greetings ZerosAndOnes. I too have a similar issue with my Soundblaster ZxR sound card with the same board. I have been having multiple issues in fact and I am almost ready to give up on the Black and go back to the older Rampage IV Extreme board. But before we get too far ahead let me provide my specifications, they are fairly similar.

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64 with Media Centre
Mobo: Rampage IV Black Edition on BIOS 0701 (I tried installing 0801 but that failed citing that it was not a valid UEFI BIOS)
CPU: Intel Core i7 4960X
PSU: Thermaltake 1,050 Watt Toughpower Platinum
RAM: G.Skill 16GB 2133Mhz 4x4GB modules
Audio: Sound Blaster ZxR (driver version 1.2.23)
GPU: 2 x 6GB GeForce Titan GTX cards in SLI (driver version 340.52)
SSD: 2x 512GB Samsung 840 Pro, 1x 1TB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: 1x 4TB WD Green
ODD: Pioneer Blu-Ray Writer

The On-Board audio device is disabled in the system BIOS.
Each Titan is installed in the first 2 x16 slot's.

Now, when the Soundblaster ZxR is installed in the PCIex1 Slot, I get a chirruping sound, it starts within a few seconds of playback of media and occurrs at an interval of around once every 30 seconds to a minute or two. This happens irrespective of the media source, for example I could be watching a Blu Ray movie with PowerDVD 14, I could be watching TV in Media Center, I could be playing a game and get the same stupid, annoying sound. This always amazed me because my audio card is connected to a DTS receiver via an Optical TOSLink cable, so its a digital connection sending a DTS mix to the receiver, yet there was this stupid sound creeping into the audio stream. In order to fully test whether this is related to issues surrounding the OS I re-formatted my computer and installed Windows 7 x64 Ultimate edition on it, allowed it to fully update and applied the same drivers to the machine. This resulted in exactly the same outcome under Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I then went back to Windows 8.1 Pro x64 and installed the drivers and updates resulting in exactly the same results.

When I move the ZxR to the next x16 slot on the board, the problem disappears. I confirmed this result under both Windows 8 and Windows 7. I can also confirm that this issue is not related to the ZxR. I also own an Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe sound card too. When I swapped out the ZxR and installed the Essence in the PCIe x1 slot I get a similar problem but one that was presented in a slightly different manner, owing to the different architecture of the card I assume. The chirruping became a clicking/silencing gap of a fraction of a second matching a similar timeframe to the ZxR. When I relocated that card to the x16 slot, the problem disappeared.

Conclusions.

1. The current BIOS for the Asus Black Edition board may not be quite up to scratch yet.
2. The issue is probably attributable to resource sharing on the board. Since the black is a VERY busy Mobo.
3. The issue may also be related to a system level driver or a device driver that may not be sufficiently optimised or may not be sharing/relinquishing resources appropriately.
4. I can confirm your issue, I can even replicate a slight variant of it with either the ZxR or a Xonar Essence, within Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Windows 8.1 Pro x64, so this isn't related to the OS its a different, but verified problem. Either related to system drivers, firmware or resource sharing on the system.

I also think this is symptomatic of greater issues I've had ever since I moved up to this board. The Black does not perform quite right when compared to the previous RIVE board. Games randomly and momentarily freeze, Battlefield 4 crashes to desktop if I let the opening intorductory video play to the end (the game functions normally if I skip the video), there are a number of issues like this with other titles too. Mass Effect 3 crashes when I launch multiplayer from the main menu, but if I leave the main menu alone for say 30-40 seconds then launch multiplayer, its all perfect except that ME3 multiplayer freezes up during play for some unexplained reason this doesnt happen in single player (network resource sharing issue perhaps?) There is something off in the performance balance of this machine that I have not experienced with other Asus boards and that is despite a fresh re-install of Windows with the most up-to-date drivers available from Asus website. To be honest I do not know what more I can do, I am very seriously considering rolling back to the RIVE because it was at least stable. Though I am aware that it took many BIOS revisions to get it to that point, this is a $700 motherboard in my country (Australia) It seems reasonable to expect thgat with a premium product like this one especially when it is based on an earlier desing, that many of the issues will have been addressed or are being tended to. I guess we'll have to see.

This board seems off, too much random unexplained strange perofrmance related issues and there should be none. I have confirmed that my RAM is good having done 8 complete passes with Memtest on it. And in order to eliminate overclocking as a potential culprit, the system is running all the hardware devices at stock speeds. Even the video cards are running with no overclock. I don't know what else to try.

Thank you for the reply. I am glad that this problem can be replicated at the very least.

I am very sad to the degree of how this board is sold. Yes my Rampage IV, as fit and finish, was so much further ahead than this board. I troubleshooted for a couple days up until i had found the problem. I just choose not to install the Bluetooth and wireless driver for my board so that I can keep my sound card in the PCI-E 1x slot.

I think my next step is to call asus support and see if they have anything they can add. I'll keep this post alive and updated as best as I can.

Thank you for going a step further in troubleshooting by ruling out the card. I have a Creative Recon 3d, that I could have done the same.

And thank you for taking the time to respond.

Cheers.

zerosandones wrote:
Thank you for the reply. I am glad that this problem can be replicated at the very least.

I am very sad to the degree of how this board is sold. Yes my Rampage IV, as fit and finish, was so much further ahead than this board. I troubleshooted for a couple days up until i had found the problem. I just choose not to install the Bluetooth and wireless driver for my board so that I can keep my sound card in the PCI-E 1x slot.

I think my next step is to call asus support and see if they have anything they can add. I'll keep this post alive and updated as best as I can.

Thank you for going a step further in troubleshooting by ruling out the card. I have a Creative Recon 3d, that I could have done the same.

And thank you for taking the time to respond.

Cheers.


Not a problem, I have been looking into issues like this for a while, and not understanding why they occurr. There are only so many re-formats with only device drivers installed that you can perform before you have to examine other approaches to hardware issues. It sounds like you have found the base culprits being the integrated WiFi and Bluetooth package. This makes sense since its one of the extra additions to the board over the RIVE.

I was able to eliminate the OS and the sound card from the equation by trying different Operating Systems and cards, so in true Sherlock style the only thing left is the board and its devices. RAM is not the issue having passed 8 complete memtest passes successfully, though I dont have the equipment to check it out here at home its possible that interference could be being generated on the system bus by other devices, much like how you can hear a mobile phone polling its nearby mast if you leave it too close to a speaker. But the ZxR employs a significant EMI shield, I dont think its likely to be anything other than resource sharing problems. Oh well judging by the feedback *none* this will probably get overlooked.

Next time I think I'll grab an ASRock board.

dpoverlord
Level 8
any fix?