Asus P5B Deluxe audio popping and clicking

[tobehuman]

Hello,

I just put together a new system with the following specs:

Asus P5B Deluxe
Core 2 Duo E6400
OCZ Platinum 2x1GB
3D Fuzion GeForce 7600GT PCIE
Seagate 400GB SATA (ST3400620AS)

Other Info:

Windows XP SP2
Audio Driver 5.10.1.4570 (7/25/2006)

Problem:

I get pops and clicks through the audio randomly. It happens maybe every 15 to 45 seconds. The sound card is on it's own IRQ, IRQ 22.

Has anyone else experienced this same problem or know what I can do to fix it? Do you think the MB can be defective?

I've tried turning down the WAV and master volume and that doesn't help.

 

[sluzbenik]

I don't think there's anything we can do until they do more driver revisions. There are some complaints on Asus forums too. Mine pops as well, but only when I start Oblivion. I see you have the latest drivers - but did you do a clean install?

It still pops starting Oblivion, but in-game the new drivers have helped a lot. With the original drivers whenever I got into a fight it started popping and causing my frame-rate to drop to 5 fps. That problem is gone. I don't have problems in other games. Sometimes if I start a CPU-heavy operation and am playing mp3s it also still pops but then goes away in a second or two.

The one thing you cannot do is play MP3s and run a game at the same time...It is unbeeping believeable you can't do this, but them's the facts. Unfortunately reviewers never pay attention to these issues...

 

[tobehuman]

Thanks for the response. Mine is kind of weird. When listening to MP3's I get the a pop or click or two every 15 to 45 seconds. It doesn't matter if the computer is idling and doing nothing at all or under load.

 

[Corksil]

I heard something on another forum about popping and clicking audio. I remember reading something about a front-bay 5.25" audio controller setup. You know what I mean, having the audio controls in a 5.25" drive bay. This required a wire to the soundcard/mobo (I don't remember how it was set up.) Person said that as soon as they replaced the SATA cable connecting the front-drive bay audio control center with a SATA cable that was shielded, the popping and clicking went away.

On that theorum, maybe something in your system is causing interference with your audio device and that is the popping and clicking you are hearing. Just a thought.

 

[sluzbenik]

Interesting theory but I doubt it's that kind of interference...Clicks and pops when the CPU gets a load is very obviously tied to bad drivers.

For some reason I think overclocking helps this chipset...I decided to try the MP3/Oblvion thing today and had no problems. But I was overclocked to 2800 on my e6400.

It's rather weird. Some days I get a pop or two some days I don't.

 

[Corksil]

Here is one of the threads, just sorta figured that I'd mention it. Seems like drivers are the culprit, I think so too.

 

[GreenJelly]

The X-Fi devices also having a poping issue that isnt resolved, which I have yet to experiance... but wow, are they worth it.

The performance gain in video games is amazing... and the sound is breath taking. It is truely pro-audio equipment.

I cant say enough about it... its truely is amazing.

Someone once told me that 15% of the CPU for games is used on sound processing. This number is probably not very true, but I have seen a 10% gain over my MoBo sound card, in FEAR Benchmarking. AND I was playing winamp in the background with the new soundcard bench mark.

Also if you buy the Music edition, they sell a remote control for the computer (at $30)... all other versions come with the remote. So I have to say... HAHA to all you P5W-DH people!

Amazing...
Mike

 

[chizzler]

Issue resolve!! (well, for me at least...)

I started to get audio issue with my P5B deluxe onboard audio right after microsoft update KB920872. This update supposedly fixes an issue with pausing and resuming audio with XP (which is a problem I've not encountered)

When I unsinstalled this update from Add/remove programs, everything went back to normal and the issue was resolved - no more crackling/popping sounds.

Here is a link to the "critical" update:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920872

 

[ArNeo]

Issue resolve!! (well, for me too at least...)

I had the same trouble, everything in my system was going bad.
Also i changed some hardware 'swapped/cloned' the system disk, but i've done that numurous times.

SYMPTOMS
Sound hisses and click when starting whatever program that uses sound.
Random BSOD (bluescreens), with messages that was yust 8O not right.
Burning DVD's went totaly bad
Explorer.exe hangs (that is normal still from 9x era) "Thank god for TotalCMD"
Sudden freezes of the system for a minute or so.

RESOLUTION
I removed all of the updates (KB919007, KB920685, KB920872, 922582)
And checked what updates were and reinstalled them 1 by 1 except the KB920872

I guess there was a bit of poison :twisted: in that particular hotfix

Ciao

[Hardware]
Asus p4c800-e deluxe, Intel 3.2Ghz/fsb800/1Mb ( 18519'55" :tongue: onlinetime 24/7 )
Creative Audigy 2 ZS

 

[graysky]

Thanks for the response. Mine is kind of weird. When listening to MP3's I get the a pop or click or two every 15 to 45 seconds. It doesn't matter if the computer is idling and doing nothing at all or under load.

So that post was back in Sep-2006 ... now it's Mar-2007 and is your board stilling making those sounds (I ask because I'm thinking about buying one).

Thanks!

 

[mondo1287]

Yes, I still have the popping problem in Vista x64 with the 3-3-07 drivers. Even scrolling down webpages causes popping. It's completely rediculous that I spent $175 on a motherboard, by far the most I have ever spent on a motherboard, only to have the onboard sound have problems a $10 generic card would not have.

 

[graysky]

Yes, I still have the popping problem in Vista x64 with the 3-3-07 drivers.

You have this issue under xp?

 

[graysky]

Any other happy or unhappy owners of this board due to audio pops and clicks with disk access/scrolling etc.? I am more or less ready to buy one of these but not if this happens...

Thanks in advance for the posts.

 

[mondo1287]

You have this issue under xp?

I have not tested this under XP. Also, let it be known that the Microsoft HD-Audio drivers have the same problem with this board, but it seems less of an issue. The fact that people are having trouble regardless of OS and drivers leads me to speculate that there may be a problem with the audio chipset itself, but it still may be fixable with drivers. If you do not plan on buying a third party audio solution I'd recommend staying away from this board. I will say that people are also experiencing similar problems with Creative audio boards in Vista. Not being an audio device engineer I can't really say what is causing the problem.

 

[graysky]

That sucks man, I really wanted to get that board... wonder if the gigabyte is any better

 

[aretas]

After installing the 3/3 audio driver from Asus
The clicking problem seems to be solved.
I am using WinXP pro, and driver version is 6110
I didn't removed the KB920872 since it can't be removed in the Add/Remove Program for some reason.

 

[Andrew591]

I will post the response I get from them. They said 48 hours.

 

[Andrew591]

Here it is, they say the culprit is EMI. But if the problem only occurs in Windows then how can this be the case?

You can try downloading the updated drivers from our website to correct the issue, but other than that it will either be grounding issue or a hardware failure with the audio controller on your motherboard.


Thank you for your support of our products!

Your problem seems to be caused by an electrical stopp age of some kind. Check that your MB is not picking up EMI (Electromagnetic Interference), or improperly grounding against the case. Please remove the MB from the case and set it up DIRECTLY on the cardboard box it came in or some other non-static, non-conductive surface, like a telephone book. Install the power supply, processor (with heat sink and fan), memory and video card. If the motherboard has the vocal POST feature activated, plug speakers into the onboard audi! o jacks. If the board doesn't have this feature, or if it's deactivated, make sure to install a case speaker on the board.

If this eliminates the problem, then your problem has been caused by grounding. You will need to electrically isolate the MB from the case in order to correct it. To do this, you will need to use electrical tape to cover the brass stand-offs that support the MB, and insert paper washers between the MB and the heads of the mounting screws. The red paper washers should be incl uded with your case hardware, or they can be purchased at Radio Shack or a computer store.
Make sure that no stand-offs are placed in a spot where the motherboard isn't designed to be grounded, as some cases will have different standoff locations to accommodate different styles of motherboards. Also check that there are no other metal objects that could contact the motherboard or any other electrical device attached to the system, such as a metal burr, loose screw, me! tal rod, or any other object that could cause a short.

Please do not respond to this email. If you need further assistance please have your case number ready, then contact Technical Support at 502-995-0883 (M-F 8:30 AM - 8:00 PM EST).


Tim
Asus Support Team.

 

[mondo1287]

If it were a grounding issue there wouldn't be so many people reporting this problem. I've built hundreds of machines, and never once had an issue like this. If this were a common problem we'd all be using plastic standoffs. Anyway, with a 64bit linux kernel using the hda-intel driver, I have not been able to reproduce the same issues this audio chipset exhibits under windows. I still say the drivers are the problem, and Asus should pressure Analogue Devices to do something about it.

 

[mondo1287]

Just an update to this saga. I replaced my slot powered Radeon X800 with a 6-pin powered NVidia 7900gs, and the audio popping and clicking has disapeared. Perhaps slot powered cards pull too much power through the board and it interfers with the on board sound amp, but as I previously mentioned, I didn't experience any problems under linux using the old card.

 

[Ogresnot]

I thought it was just my speakers going bad...

I have a Asus P5B Deluxe-WiFi motherboard with this same problem. Speakers popping and clicking randomly when playing music. The problem got dramatically worse when using the software volume control instead of speaker volume control. I found a workaround in this thread http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/204509-28-asus-soundmax-clipping-distorting

Open the SoundMAX control panel, click on "Preferences" (looks like a hammer) choose "large speakers" instead of "small speakers". (Didn't need to change any other settings at all.)

Excellent file to test it with (made my speakers sound awful): ayb2.swf

Looking forward to finding a real solution.