Asus ROG Strix B550-e Sound and USB Issues

[CardPin]

I purchased a Rox Strix B550-E and I am having 2 unusual issues; I was hoping someone could help.

1.The audio doesn't really work if I get audio it's at an extremely low and can hardly hear this over Bluetooth with beats headset. I updated the audio drives with no luck. I have checked the headset works with Mutiple other devices fine.

2. I have a Alienware gaming keyboard AW768 that unless it is plugged into the USB port that is also used for the flashback feature I get cycling colors and it intermittently doesn't work at all to type and lights go out. Keyboards good has zero issues on my Lenovo laptop.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[trents]

Make sure you download the latest chipset and audio drivers from the manufacturer's website for the board. Being such a new product, the built-in Windows drivers may not be entirely appropriate.

Also, uninstalling the drivers in Device Manager and letting them reinstall sometimes sorts out IRQ log jams between device drivers.

 

[CardPin]

I ended up just reinstalling the entire OS and doing just that I downloaded the app that install all of ASUS updated driver's and that seemed to fix most of the sound issues. The Bluetooth though still has issues with streaming audio tried with 3 different Bluetooth head sets Beats, AirPods, and Crusher all of they had a poor audio experience. Thank you for your input it helped me decide to just do a clean install since I loaded nothing except a browser.

 

[trents]

Bluetooth can be a very temperamental technology.

I might suggest purchasing a USB bluetooth dongle compatible with your OS (Windows 10 I assume) and disabling the onboard bluetooth. They aren't very expensive.

 

[Pepi93]

Use revo uninstaller to remove files from previous driver installations, just to make sure they are not conflicting. You mentioned you just did a clean install so this tip is just for the future.

When using revo uninstaller, choose "options", "uninstaller" and click "show system components". Uninstall the desired driver/software (old PC looking icons) only, not the light blue box icons.

After each un-installation, allow revo to check for remaining files before continuing to the next driver/software.

 

[CardPin]

Thank you that is a great idea that I did not think of, I use that application all the time.

On the sound issue I was having it was only sound with Bluetooth connected devices. I disabled the onboard Bluetooth and plugged in an adapter that I had, and that fixed the issues I was having. With further investigation through ASUS's discord it looks like the Bluetooth issue is one they are aware of and working on to correct.

Thank you

 

[trents]

Thanks for the update. What you shared might be of help to someone else.

 

[weetabixharry]

I had similar symptoms with my B550-F:

• Audio-related: After initially working, no sound output. Plugging in headphones causes any video to freeze. Unplugging headphones causes the video to continue running as normal.
• USB-related: My posh new mechanical keyboard usually isn't detected at boot or in Windows 10 (but works fine on other computers. And an old scrap keyboard always works fine with the B550-F).

It seems I was able to fix the audio issues by uninstalling everything audio-related in Device Manager and letting Windows 10 try again.

Regarding the keyboard, the comments above got me thinking that maybe a secondary USB hub would work. So I plugged my posh keyboard into the USB port on the side of my monitor and it works perfectly (so far). Still, if I plug it directly into any USB port on the motherboard/front panel it isn't even detected.

I seem to have plenty of other problems with the motherboard, most notably:

• SATA devices sometimes aren't detected. I had to move a HDD to another SATA port, which caused my software RAID to bite the dust.
• The onboard graphics don't work at all (HDMI or Display Port). Luckily, I planned to use a graphics card anyway, but this wasted quite a lot of time during initial bring-up.

The SATA issue seemed to be caused by the update to the latest BIOS (1004), and that update didn't fix anything else, so I have reverted to 0608.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has good solutions to these problems. Currently, this is looking like an expensive disaster.

 

[Johan45]

[*] The onboard graphics don't work at all (HDMI or Display Port). Luckily, I planned to use a graphics card anyway, but this wasted quite a lot of time during initial bring-up.
[/LIST]

AMD doesn't have onboard graphics unless you are using an APU and then you might have to switch outputs in BIOS

 

[weetabixharry]

AMD doesn't have onboard graphics unless you are using an APU and then you might have to switch outputs in BIOS

Ah, this is good to know. My knowledge is obviously a bit out-dated. When I last did a build (about 5 years ago), I think the general advice was to do initial bring-up using onboard graphics (if present), just to rule out compatibility (or other) issues with the graphics card.

This comes as quite a surprise, actually. I'll check the manual again, as it should probably have a warning for elderly idiots like me.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

[*] SATA devices sometimes aren't detected. Currently, this is looking like an expensive disaster.

I was thinking that you got a motherboard that was damaged during shipping.

How did you revert the BIOS? It looks like that's not even officially supported these days now.

 

[weetabixharry]

I was thinking that you got a motherboard that was damaged during shipping.

Yeah, I was beginning to wonder that, but once it boots up cleanly (with all hardware detected) it does work flawlessly. So you could be right, but I want to exhaust all other possibilities first.

How did you revert the BIOS? It looks like that's not even officially supported these days now.

Yeah, reverting the BIOS failed via 2 of the 3 available methods with some unhelpful (and factually incorrect) error message like "that's not a valid BIOS file". However, the 3rd (least convenient) method did work. I forget what names they give each method because they all sound the same to me: "EZbiosXtremeMega" or whatever. The one that worked is the one where you have to put the USB stick in a specific USB slot and hold the special button for 3 seconds. (The other 2 methods are a Windows app and a screen in the BIOS).

 

[Johan45]

It's "BIOS Flashback" with ASUS and many boards even lower level have this feature in some form. I find it extremely handy
I have also found that AMD boards can be picky about SATA ports