Asus Maximus II Killed My Sound Card? And Only Posts Periodically.

Hey all,

I have been having problems with my Asus Maximus II P45-based motherboard for the past day.


I was attempting to overclock it slightly (I know how to overclock without killing hardware... The voltages were very moderate and I was attempting between 366-400FSB Speeds, Nothing higher)


Anyway, What happened was It was a succesful overclock at 3.2GHZ DDR2 1066, I primed it for 8 hours, And ran 3 Memtests for 6 Hours, Not a single error.

When I shut the computer down, It wouldn't come back on. It turned on but the video card fan went haywire and it would not post, To myself I said what the fuck, I just finished priming this computer, Memtest, Everything was rock solid and super fast.

So, I flipped the switch on the back of my powersupply and turned it back on, And it posted.

I noticed that if I hit the reset button or used the Soft-Power button, It would pretty much not post at all. I went into the bios and began lowering settings, Even changing them back to defaults would not correct this problem (At least so far, I am at work Now and cant troubleshoot)

I flashed the BIOS, and when it came back on it Reset the settings to some weird defaults and it brought the South Bridge 1.1V up to 1.9V!!! and some other garbage settings, I could'nt believe it. (Although I never booted into windows with these settings, It went strate to bios). I set them back to normal and went into Windows and everything was working fine, As far as I could tell. I was listening to music while cleaning up my room, and I gently moved the Tape-Cable that attaches to my SB-XFI Sound card, Just to kinda make it neater in the case - And the moment I touched that cable (I Decharged myself first) the sound playback stopped. This has happened to me before, The sound worked again on a reboot.

This time however, The computer wouldn't reboot again, I powered her down and when I finally got it back into windows the sound card came up in a Add new hardware Wizard (Multimedia Device), when trying to load the drivers which should have already been installed it says cannot locate drivers. I tried reinstalling the Creative latest EXE Driver file, and It loaded and when reboot - Same thing, No drivers were installed. Tried running Driver Cleaner PE, Same thing.

I have tried the sound card on another computer at work (I brought it with me) It detects the X-Fi fatality and Loads the drivers and all, But when you load Creative Audio Counsole it says No device Found that is supported, and you cant get any Audio playback out of it.

I Noticed that on one of the DAC chips there was a whitish film on the top that was easily rubbed away with my finger.


I can't afford a new sound card right now so I'm hoping this thing isnt dead,
As far as the computer at home goes, I wonder if the motherboard is damaged? Perhaps that sound card damaged the motherboard? Or vice versa, causing a chain reaction?

Either way it sucks, The sound card is out of warranty and I am an avid music producer and Cant afford a new one right now, And I'm really busy in Real life and Its going to be a bitch if I have to RMA the motherboard. (Since I have to send it back first, Probably, To asus, and then wait for them to send me one afterwards... UGH)

Does anyone here have any insight or suggestions to this problem?

Edit: After the discovery of the Motherboard Boot problems after flashing it and prior to flashing it, Tweeking it, I noticed that before I went to bed last night, When I was able to get the thing to post, It would load into windows, But after loading the windows screen it would just go to a Black Screen. I ended up getting disheartened with my situation and just turned it off and went to sleep.

I just said a prayer,
And kinda bit my lip a bit,

I am no typical believer but,
The computer which I am testing the X-fi in, upon reboot and reinstall of the drivers, I have managed to make the sound card work, At least the front output. The other Outputs seem to only have one channel, Lol. But that could just be something situational. Audio counsole opens up and there is sound, At least its not dead.

I sprayed some contact cleaner on the Contacts of the card. I think it may have helped,
Is it safe to soak the entire card sparingly in this Silicon Based Contact cleaner? says safe for use on circuit boards, contacts, most plastics and all kinds of other stuff, its non Conductive?


As far as the motherboard thing goes,
I can only hope god will help with that when I get home as well...

Heh, Discovered the sound card contacts are worn out, If its not screwed in at dead center and tightly, It doesnt work - I mean, It will detect it, But it wont actually play back any sound. Weirdest thing I'
ve seen in years (Or at least rare)

I will probably be able to scare the Motherboard back into working when I get home. It just bothers me that the BIOS for the Maximus II is so damn buggy rite now

Hmm...interesting series of events.

try cleaning the contacts with an eraser and see if it helps

cide_ said:

Heh, Discovered the sound card contacts are worn out, If its not screwed in at dead center and tightly, It doesnt work - I mean, It will detect it, But it wont actually play back any sound. Weirdest thing I'
ve seen in years (Or at least rare)

Click to expand...

Blow on it like a Nintendo Game!