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ASUS Rampage III Extreme on board sound issues

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Khato

Registered
Joined
Aug 1, 2008
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Hi All,

I am not sure if this happened to anyone but I am hoping there is an easy fix for it. My on board sound goes on and off as it pleases and I am not sure why. Sometimes it works for a few days without any issues sometimes shuts on and off every few minutes, sometimes hardware doesn't even start properly at the start up. Occasionally, I would get status updates from the Realtek Audio Manager saying I just plugged/unplugged a device to the audio jack depending on if the audio is on or off. I have uninstalled/reinstalled the latest sound drivers from Asus website but issue still persists.

I understand that the on board audio maybe going bad. I wonder if a stand alone card would fix the problem at this point.

I built this system back in June and I had no issues with the sound until a couple of months ago. I didn't have any hardware changes since June so I don't think a hardware conflict is an issue.

Maybe I am missing something very simple. Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Happy new year!
 
We have the same Realtek audio controller afaik. It is horrible. Mine never gave me issues but the noise, lack of fidelity, absentee midrange and "White people clapping along at a concert" timing made me cringe (I'm not being racist. I reserve the right to poke fun at a group I belong to). Get a sound card. Yes it'll fix the problem. Then you can disable that stupid little audio chip from the bios and never have to deal with it again.

We have crabs. (No seriously the Realtek symbol is a crab). But they CAN be treated!

The only standalone soundcard I've heard that was worse than the Realtek audio on this board was the Audigy SE, much hated and poorly received generally speaking.

Depending on the kind of audio fidelity, coloration, outputs desired, you'll be happier with any currently available soundcard.

My suggestion is an Auzentech Meridian honestly. It'll do anything you want it to, it's stupidly cheap for what it is, and it sounds brilliant. If you want to use high end headphones as your primary output, consider the Asus Xonar Essence. Both based on the CMI8788 (OxygenHD) audio chip. Both have swappable OPamps.

The Meridian will deliver a greater warmth. The essence will deliver higher fidelity and SNR. Both are very closely matched in terms of fidelity though. Both also have an undetectable SNR to my ear IMO.


I've used all the soundcards I talk about so I'm not grasping at air.
 
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Thanks for the reply and all the feedback Theocnoob. I really appreciate it.

Funny, I saw the second half of your post just today. Unfortunately, I have already ordered an ASUS Xonar DS 7.1. Hopefully it will do the trick. I will be receiving it tomorrow and will post an update once its in the system and running.

Just to let you know, I am currently using 2 front speakers of a crappy CA 4.1 sound system (subwoofer not connected). I also use a Sennheiser HD280 pro headphones (which I like a lot). Maybe it is time to level up these speakers as well. Any suggestions? I'd prefer a 2.0 setup since subwoofers gets too loud for the apartment I live in. I use my headphones when I want to go loud anyways.

Again, I appreciate the feedback. Cheers!
 
Id have gone with the headphone amp card (essence st/stx) with those headphones. You should be happy with the Xonar you got though. I have no experience with decent 2.0 setups to share sadly. :( hopefully someone else can help out.
 
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So the card arrived and installed. Everything works fine right now. I still need to figure out how to hook up the front panel of the case with the sound card. I am guessing the sound connector of the the case that goes directly into the motherboard needs to be connected directly to the sound card. I guess this is next to figure out.
 
So the card arrived and installed. Everything works fine right now. I still need to figure out how to hook up the front panel of the case with the sound card. I am guessing the sound connector of the the case that goes directly into the motherboard needs to be connected directly to the sound card. I guess this is next to figure out.

Front panel sound is crapp. You're adding so much noise and distortion with the garbage patch wire and garbage front panel jack that its better to use the back instead. :bday:
 
I have this same problem right now. Is there anything I can do to fix the on board audio without having to resort to installing an additional sound card?
 
There really isn't anything to fix. It just isn't high fidelity sound. If you have a recent GPU the sound output via HDMI from it is cleaner by a lot. Otherwise you're kinda stuck with what you have unless you put a sound card in there.
 
I noticed the onboard sound of my R3F pops while playing tunes while the system is loaded. It sounds "ok" but its far from great. Tho it is better then most other onboard solutions Ive heard. If you want good sound, you have to get a card, unfortunately.
 
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