ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING issues

[Fredy M]

Hmmm, not sure how to check the circuitry.

The problem was somewhat intermittent and seemed like it may have been related to playing certain frequencies at certain volume ranges. When it would do it, I could set volumes to a level and play a particular song and it would crackle in the same spots. Or hit the Windows volume control repeatedly and the ding would crackle as it fade out. Turning the volume down below 10 or way up made it disappear.

But last night Windows Update found some A-Volute(?) updates and applied them. This morning it seems to be working correctly. So I have no idea if it is really hardware, intermittent interference from wifi or power cable routing (in Meshify C case with two SSDs behind the board and 8 pin wire routed up the rear), or drivers that weren't quite installed correctly. If it comes back I might tear down the case and fool around with it.

A-Volute is the Nahimic service, Sonic Studio and all that sh*t... I don`t think that is the power cable, I have mine routed around the back as well (Corsair 230T), and the wireless router on top of the case and I didn`t notice any audio problems...yet ... in this case my money is on the driver/software side of things

edit: 4602 fixed the issue with RealBench score


edit 2: nope, scratch that, 4602 didn`t fix the RealBench score bug, after waking up the score is 0

[Sapphiress]

There was another little thing I had noticed with this system, and that was that Realbench 2.56 would give a score of 0 for any of the tests if the system was resumed from sleep.

It would seem that this is a Ryzen sleep bug with timers, and forcing HPET via powershell fixed this issue.

I am currently on bios 4207 and chipset driver 18.50.16.01. Known issue on this board? Does bios 4602 fix this by any chance?

Strange issues when returning from standby is just a Ryzen + SSD issue. I have some really odd BSODs and explorer just stops drawing correctly. My husband also has issues with using standby on his Ryzen + SSD.


My suggestions:
1. Compressed air in the 3.5mm port
2. Check the capacitors circled below make sure there aren't any dings or dents, wetness, or bulging(on the bottom). Hard caps don't go bad as often as the old electrolytic caps but they do go bad. They are pretty difficult to tell since they polymer based and not water based. So slight bulges on the bottom such as this example are bad.
3. Check the black mosfet looking components(black squares) for any scorch marks(flashlight you'll: see a lopsided ring looking mark if it's been burned). Like the picture, note that audio components are low current so it may not be burned very badly, just a shiny ring on it will also mean burned.
4. Check the solder points for corrosion.
5. Trying another audio device. Perhaps the audio wires are getting fatigued?




If that doesn't work try your front panel audio port. 3.5mm jacks are known to make crackles so switching might help.

This is my second B350-F and I didn't have any crackling issues on either of them. So if you continue having issues after all of that i'd suggest contacting the RMA department.

[hazium233]

I just got this motherboard 2 weeks ago, so I can try air in the port but it shouldn't be dirty yet.

Actually I put my PCIe Wifi card in the lowest slot, I don't know if that might be part of it. Wanted to get it as far from the GPU fan as possible for airflow. Might tear it down and move the card and take a look later.

But, I did notice something else with the sound that might point more towards driver or configuration problem or conflict. For whatever reason, in Realtek Audio Console if the system crackles and I go to test the speakers (bottom of Speakers tab), the program crashes. But when it is restarted, the test plays normally and the crackles disappear.

Today after resuming from sleep to test HPET for that sleep glitch with Realbench, I started a game and it had some crackles in the right channel. Hit Windows key and brought up Realtek Audio Console and hit the speaker test play button. The application crashed, but miraculously the crackles disappeared and did not reappear for the whole game session. The tone in Windows volume control is also played correctly, and playing my "test song" is fine too.

I don't know if it is restarting the driver when the RAC crashes, or trying to redetect the impedance, or whatever other automatic nonsense this driver does.

I guess I will still fool around with it. I don't know if trying the generic non-Sonic drivers posted in the other forum would be better, I might give that a shot again. If Microcenter still had one of these boards, I might have already tried exchanging it. Have a little while to still do that I guess.

***

As far as Realbench and HPET goes, that seems to be an old timer / clock bug that was known. Resuming from sleep could boost benchmark scores since it wasn't measuring the time accurately. I would have figured an issue that old would have been fixed by now.

[Fredy M]

I just got this motherboard 2 weeks ago, so I can try air in the port but it shouldn't be dirty yet.

Actually I put my PCIe Wifi card in the lowest slot, I don't know if that might be part of it. Wanted to get it as far from the GPU fan as possible for airflow. Might tear it down and move the card and take a look later.

But, I did notice something else with the sound that might point more towards driver or configuration problem or conflict. For whatever reason, in Realtek Audio Console if the system crackles and I go to test the speakers (bottom of Speakers tab), the program crashes. But when it is restarted, the test plays normally and the crackles disappear.

Today after resuming from sleep to test HPET for that sleep glitch with Realbench, I started a game and it had some crackles in the right channel. Hit Windows key and brought up Realtek Audio Console and hit the speaker test play button. The application crashed, but miraculously the crackles disappeared and did not reappear for the whole game session. The tone in Windows volume control is also played correctly, and playing my "test song" is fine too.

I don't know if it is restarting the driver when the RAC crashes, or trying to redetect the impedance, or whatever other automatic nonsense this driver does.

I guess I will still fool around with it. I don't know if trying the generic non-Sonic drivers posted in the other forum would be better, I might give that a shot again. If Microcenter still had one of these boards, I might have already tried exchanging it. Have a little while to still do that I guess.

***

As far as Realbench and HPET goes, that seems to be an old timer / clock bug that was known. Resuming from sleep could boost benchmark scores since it wasn't measuring the time accurately. I would have figured an issue that old would have been fixed by now.

I use the latest audio driver from this thread: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...HD-Audio-(UAD) and it seems to work ok for me, you could give it a try and see if the noise dissapears

[Equinox187]

If you are having audio issues try disabling the Nahimic services, I was having constant issues and Nahimic crash loops, but disabling Nahimic services resolved all issues, side effect is the audio control centre will not function but you can still set things via the windows panel.

[hazium233]

Since Saturday when I intentionally crashed the Realtek Audio Console, the sound seems to have worked correctly despite being put to sleep each day. I haven't rebooted or powered off yet though, just put to sleep.

I will try disabling Nahimic some time if the issue comes back, I would imagine it might after reboot.

Looking around the internet I have seen many other ideas such as an Nvidia driver bug that has been causing issues with Realtek for a while now. Alternatively, some people seem to blame Win 1809. Nvidia does use Nahimic for their HD Audio apparently, I disabled that output though (monitor doesn't even have speakers although it always gets listed). Saw people on MSI forums talking about disabling Nahimic too.

[chiliman42]

Scratching my head and need some help, hoping someone's dealt with this before.

New build, all parts bought last week:

Mobo: ASUS ROG Strix B350-F
CPU: Ryzen 1800x
GFX: Gigabyte 1050 TI 4GB OC
PSU: Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB/550W
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO Pro or Crucial m.2 MX500

Machine posts fine, showing everything as expected. When trying to boot from USB to install Windows 10, the windows logo comes on without the loading circle animation. It does that for a minute or two and then the machine resets and display comes on as "No Signal". The same happens when trying to boot from install dvd for Windows 10.

Has anyone run into this?


- I've tried substituting the GFX card and memory, but the issue persists. CPU does not have integrated graphics so can't try through onboard graphics, but since screen comes on fine during POST and in UEFI)
- I've tried single stick in appropriate configuration and different frequencies (2133, 2400, 2666, 2733, 2800, 2933, and auto)
- I've tried updating BIOS to 4602 (2019-03-25 and then the 2019-04-01 update)
- Tried re-creating bootable USB, but same issue persists with USB and DVD options
- All power cables attached as expected
- Tried disabling Secure Boot, Fast Boot
- I’ve tried setting Ai Tweaker > Ai Overclock Tuner to D.O.C.P so it can maybe deal with my DDR-4 3200 memory.
- I’ve tried enabling SVM under Advanced > CPU Configuration
- I’ve tried disabling fast boot
- I’ve tried disabling CSM

[hazium233]

I use the latest audio driver from this thread: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...HD-Audio-(UAD) and it seems to work ok for me, you could give it a try and see if the noise dissapears

Which version of the drivers did you use? I tried the first one without Sonic and I can't get the microphone to work. It will show as plugged into the rear panel, but I will get an error in applications that the device can't be opened. Also had to disable all effects to get the speaker to work, although when I did that it the sound was good.

Yesterday I had removed all of the Realtek stuff and went back to the MS generic driver. It will work without issue on fresh boot, but then gets borked after waking from sleep.

[hazium233]

Scratching my head and need some help, hoping someone's dealt with this before.

New build, all parts bought last week:

Mobo: ASUS ROG Strix B350-F
CPU: Ryzen 1800x
GFX: Gigabyte 1050 TI 4GB OC
PSU: Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB/550W
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO Pro or Crucial m.2 MX500

Machine posts fine, showing everything as expected. When trying to boot from USB to install Windows 10, the windows logo comes on without the loading circle animation. It does that for a minute or two and then the machine resets and display comes on as "No Signal". The same happens when trying to boot from install dvd for Windows 10.

Has anyone run into this?


- I've tried substituting the GFX card and memory, but the issue persists. CPU does not have integrated graphics so can't try through onboard graphics, but since screen comes on fine during POST and in UEFI)
- I've tried single stick in appropriate configuration and different frequencies (2133, 2400, 2666, 2733, 2800, 2933, and auto)
- I've tried updating BIOS to 4602 (2019-03-25 and then the 2019-04-01 update)
- Tried re-creating bootable USB, but same issue persists with USB and DVD options
- All power cables attached as expected
- Tried disabling Secure Boot, Fast Boot
- I’ve tried setting Ai Tweaker > Ai Overclock Tuner to D.O.C.P so it can maybe deal with my DDR-4 3200 memory.
- I’ve tried enabling SVM under Advanced > CPU Configuration
- I’ve tried disabling fast boot
- I’ve tried disabling CSM

Which version of Windows are you trying to install?

1803 and 1809 installer supposedly has a bug with virtualization enabled, so I would turn that back off. Sometimes the driver is picky about USB file system and size, but I don't know why it wouldn't work from DVD if that was the problem.

[Sapphiress]

Scratching my head and need some help, hoping someone's dealt with this before.

New build, all parts bought last week:

Mobo: ASUS ROG Strix B350-F
CPU: Ryzen 1800x
GFX: Gigabyte 1050 TI 4GB OC
PSU: Thermaltake Smart BX1 RGB/550W
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO Pro or Crucial m.2 MX500

Machine posts fine, showing everything as expected. When trying to boot from USB to install Windows 10, the windows logo comes on without the loading circle animation. It does that for a minute or two and then the machine resets and display comes on as "No Signal". The same happens when trying to boot from install dvd for Windows 10.

Has anyone run into this?


- I've tried substituting the GFX card and memory, but the issue persists. CPU does not have integrated graphics so can't try through onboard graphics, but since screen comes on fine during POST and in UEFI)
- I've tried single stick in appropriate configuration and different frequencies (2133, 2400, 2666, 2733, 2800, 2933, and auto)
- I've tried updating BIOS to 4602 (2019-03-25 and then the 2019-04-01 update)
- Tried re-creating bootable USB, but same issue persists with USB and DVD options
- All power cables attached as expected
- Tried disabling Secure Boot, Fast Boot
- I’ve tried setting Ai Tweaker > Ai Overclock Tuner to D.O.C.P so it can maybe deal with my DDR-4 3200 memory.
- I’ve tried enabling SVM under Advanced > CPU Configuration
- I’ve tried disabling fast boot
- I’ve tried disabling CSM

Use a USB 2.0(Black ones) port on the motherboard. I have issues sometimes with certain version of windows acting funny when installing from USB 3.0+ Especially with Ryzen. Can't speak for DVD since I haven't needed a disc drive since 2010.
If that still doesn't work ensure your BIOS is updated to 4207. NOT 4602 as some of the first gen Ryzen chipsets needed updates in order for them to work with the Nvidia 10XX Series cards.


Also update: Since we haven't heard a peep about fixing 4602 I'm just going to buy an X470 board. Nothing i've tried has been able to downgrade back to 4207. and Nothing i've tried has been able to make 4602 even halfway work short of resetting the CMOS and never touching it again. This is the second board i've had from ASUS that has just been broken by updates. And just like last time I feel like it's going to be just left there for 6-8months.