Zenith II Extreme Alpha audiojack static?

K

Kainzo

Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
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Hey guys, a bit stumped and not sure where else to go with this...

I recently built a new rig and I'm getting horrendous audiojack static (slight crackles in the beginning) when I have my Logitech X530 (or any headphones plugged into the back of the PC.)
The static slowly degrades over time until its complete 100% white noise static, if I go into the sound settings and reset the device or change a setting it immediately "fixes" the issue but then slowly starts again.

I've tried a fresh reinstall of Windows 10, twice.
I've retried going the route of uninstalling all audio drivers and reinstalled but it still exists.
I didn't buy new speakers and these were working 100% fine on my old intel motherboard.
I've tried using the front of the case's jack, no issues with the same device or others.
I've tried using different 3.5mm cables.

I believe its a jack problem because when I'm using my USB wireless headphones, it never happens.

Anyone have similar issues with the Zenith II Extreme?
 
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I would agree that it's a jack connection problem, except you said you are able to clear the problem by using the sounds settings or resetting the device?

Seems to me that a bad connection could not be fixed with software. That would seem to be a problem with the sound logic/circuitry on the mobo.
You may want to contact customer support for the mobo and see what they say.

I have had mobos with of out of spec audio jacks. They are just slightly too large for the 3.5mm plugs and don't make proper contact.
In that case I've taken pliers and just very slightly smashed the plug into more of an oval shape. Then I was able to rotate the plug so it made solid contact
and it fixed the static problem.

I would not try that on an expensive device that plugs into the jack.... get yourself a 3.5mm extension cable and try it on that if you want to see if that helps.

Other than that, I would say a simple solution would be a PCI-E sound card. Some people do that to get better sound than the mobo provides anyway.

.
 
Spartacus said:
I would agree that it's a jack connection problem, except you said you are able to clear the problem by using the sounds settings or resetting the device?

Seems to me that a bad connection could not be fixed with software. That would seem to be a problem with the sound logic/circuitry on the mobo.
You may want to contact customer support for the mobo and see what they say.

I have had mobos with of out of spec audio jacks. They are just slightly too large for the 3.5mm plugs and don't make proper contact.
In that case I've taken pliers and just very slightly smashed the plug into more of an oval shape. Then I was able to rotate the plug so it made solid contact
and it fixed the static problem.

I would not try that on an expensive device that plugs into the jack.... get yourself a 3.5mm extension cable and try it on that if you want to see if that helps.

Other than that, I would say a simple solution would be a PCI-E sound card. Some people do that to get better sound than the mobo provides anyway.

.
Click to expand...
This motherboard is $850 from amazon... I just didn't want to go through the trouble of RMAing it and not have the issue fixed.
could it be the grounding or power some how causing it? Just trying to see what it could be.
I'm guessing it could be the jacks... but they look fine and it feels like it fits in great.. so strange.
 
Try ordering a short audio extension cable and see if the rear audio jack likes that better.

.
 
Spartacus said:
Try ordering a short audio extension cable and see if the rear audio jack likes that better.

.
Click to expand...
I've tried two different cables, both with the same issue. So im going to unscrew the motherboard and move it out of the case to see if that fixes it.
I've never had to RMA a motherboard for this... I feel like they wont believe me and I dont know how the ASUS advanced RMA process is...
 
Kainzo said:
I've tried two different cables, both with the same issue. So im going to unscrew the motherboard and move it out of the case to see if that fixes it.
I've never had to RMA a motherboard for this... I feel like they wont believe me and I dont know how the ASUS advanced RMA process is...
Click to expand...

Could also be isolation on the board in general; don't remember reading a lot about the jack quality on it, but for TR3 it's a "usb connected" audio chipset for both front and rear, since TRX40 doesn't include audio in any form. I haven't tried on mine yet, but if taking it out doesn't, buy the highest quality audio extension cable you can find and try that - and try a different set of phones in the rear too.
 
lopoetve said:
Could also be isolation on the board in general; don't remember reading a lot about the jack quality on it, but for TR3 it's a "usb connected" audio chipset for both front and rear, since TRX40 doesn't include audio in any form. I haven't tried on mine yet, but if taking it out doesn't, buy the highest quality audio extension cable you can find and try that - and try a different set of phones in the rear too.
Click to expand...
I highly doubt it is the 3 devices I've tried thats the problem and if it is thats really shoddy engineering...
Could it be something I plugged in wrong ON the board? Maybe I'm really daft and plugged in a USB somewhere...
 
Kainzo said:
I highly doubt it is the 3 devices I've tried thats the problem and if it is thats really shoddy engineering...
Could it be something I plugged in wrong ON the board? Maybe I'm really daft and plugged in a USB somewhere...
Click to expand...

Can’t hurt to try. Unplug the extra usb connections. Also might try turning off the lighting in case that’s causing issues. You’re using the headphone out on the rear?
 
lopoetve said:
Can’t hurt to try. Unplug the extra usb connections. Also might try turning off the lighting in case that’s causing issues. You’re using the headphone out on the rear?
Click to expand...
I have a 7.1 surround sound speaker system and a 3.5mm headphone jack/headset that causes static when plugged into the rear. The headset is wireless and when I transfer it to USB it doesnt happen. When I plug the speaker system into the front, it also doesnt cause static.
Both of these items worked 100% fine on an intelmotherboard

I'll give it some time to see if I can pin point the issue...
 
Ok. That I can test. Been needing to swap over anyway. Will take a bit as I need to find my cables.
 
so I got rid of the crackle for a temporary period by disabling all devices and re-enabling... and then it came back in two or three hours.
this is magic.
 
Kainzo said:
so I got rid of the crackle for a temporary period by disabling all devices and re-enabling... and then it came back in two or three hours.
this is magic.
Click to expand...

That makes no sense why you can get rid of the rear jack noise by messing with drivers, but the case jack always works ok.

If you rotate the plug in the rear jack does that cause noise or no? (Leave it fully inserted, just turn it a little cw & ccw)

Can you get rid of the noise that way?


.
 
Kainzo said:
This motherboard is $850 from amazon... I just didn't want to go through the trouble of RMAing it and not have the issue fixed.
could it be the grounding or power some how causing it? Just trying to see what it could be.
I'm guessing it could be the jacks... but they look fine and it feels like it fits in great.. so strange.
Click to expand...

Does the same thing happen with speakers plugged in? Does it occur if you plug in your headphones into the front panel audio jack?

Edit: I saw that no matter what you plug into that jack, it always happens. In my opinion, without having the board in my hand, the best I can guess is that the board should be replaced.
 
Spartacus said:
That makes no sense why you can get rid of the rear jack noise by messing with drivers, but the case jack always works ok.

If you rotate the plug in the rear jack does that cause noise or no? (Leave it fully inserted, just turn it a little cw & ccw)

Can you get rid of the noise that way?


.
Click to expand...
rotating does nothing... could it be board if I can fix it through software? I want to try reinstalling windows again but I dont think this will be resolved.
I will say I was having issues installing the Armory Crate from ASUS... I dont believe it ever allowed me to install the full platform but I dont know how that relates to this.
 
ManofGod said:
Does the same thing happen with speakers plugged in? Does it occur if you plug in your headphones into the front panel audio jack?

Edit: I saw that no matter what you plug into that jack, it always happens. In my opinion, without having the board in my hand, the best I can guess is that the board should be replaced.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was hoping its not the board... its $850 and the RMA process will be a complete bitch, not to mention reseating everything
 
This helps explain what's going on:

"A separate audio codec is exclusively utilized for the audio jack on the front I/O panel. The chip used here is ESS's ESS9018Q2C, which is paired with an AMP to help drive deep bass notes to headphones."

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/asus-rog-zenith-ii-extreme

The front and rear audio jacks have different circuitry.

I have to agree with the post above that says it's RMA time. :meh:

The other option would be to disable the onboard sound in Device Manager and add a sound card.

ETA: Can you swap the mobo with the retailer or is it too late for that?

.
 
Spartacus said:
This helps explain what's going on:

"A separate audio codec is exclusively utilized for the audio jack on the front I/O panel. The chip used here is ESS's ESS9018Q2C, which is paired with an AMP to help drive deep bass notes to headphones."

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/asus-rog-zenith-ii-extreme

The front and rear audio jacks have different circuitry.

I have to agree with the post above that says it's RMA time. :meh:

The other option would be to disable the onboard sound in Device Manager and add a sound card.

ETA: Can you swap the mobo with the retailer or is it too late for that?

.
Click to expand...
Its too late unless I open the box and do a switch-a-roo from a physical retailer :/
 
So I used a headset plugged into the front of the case... and after about a week of use, I got static out of it just now today. so BOTH jacks are getting it.

Thoughts? :3
 
Ok, I finally got around to plugging in mine. I get some static on test sounds, but music/etc plays fine (the test tones from windows have static). It's like the initial connection is weird. Does that match yours, or do you ahve static all the time?
 
lopoetve said:
Ok, I finally got around to plugging in mine. I get some static on test sounds, but music/etc plays fine (the test tones from windows have static). It's like the initial connection is weird. Does that match yours, or do you ahve static all the time?
Click to expand...
So at this point, I would say "sometimes" there is no crackle/static and then after hours of use it starts. I was able to reset the device (in sounds) and then it would go away immediately but after a week of doing that, it stopped working and a reboot fixed it.

It starts out as dissortion / static to FULL BLOWN, EAR PIERCING MEGA LOUDWHITE NOISE.
I thought I would lose my hearing at one point because I had volume at 100%
 
Definitely not happening on mine - and I'm using 20 year old Cambridge soundworks speakers from the early 90s.
 
Kainzo said:
I'm lost, ugh. I think RMAing it or reinstalling again may fix it.
Click to expand...
Kainzo Did you ever get this case solved?

I'm experiencing just the same issue, same motherboard (Asus Zenith ii Extreme, Ryzen 3970x) , except i can get the problem not only on the 'front' jack but also on the audio jack at the back of the PC.

Essentially it goes like this
- Sound playing all fine and normal (either back or front),
- Suddenly i can hear a small distortion to the sound, little 'ticks' and a funny edge to the sound - this state may continue for a while, perhaps an hour
- Then, all of a sudden, it switches over to very loud full-on white noise (well, perhaps pink noise or whatever color). This noise then plays on and on.

If i then do something to the sound settings, such as disabling and re-enabling the device, the sound is back to normal.

In that brief period when it switches to white noise, there can be s short moment, say 5-10 seconds, where the audio sounds like it is a 4-bit sampling or similar.

My uneducated guess is that this is a driver/motherboard issue/bug - nothing is broken, no electrical problem, but rather a software / signal transport problem at some very hardware-low level.

Any ideas anyone?

A few more clues to the case:
* The windows 10 taskbar volume slider exhibits a slightly "laggy" behaviour as if having "communications problems with the sound chip".
* Switching Win10 default output between speakers/headphones while playing music does not mitigate the faint distorted, "crackling", ticks sound,
* However, when full-on static noise mode has kicked in, switching the output to headphones does resolve the noise issue (and also the crackling/ticks!),
* Switching output has a slight delay, around a second
* Some days none of these problems are present at all. (reboot / hibernate between)


* UPDATE *

It appears a way to trigger the issue is to switch Windows power plans from standard to power saver and back. I think this is a major lead
 
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Technocrat said:
Kainzo Did you ever get this case solved?

I'm experiencing just the same issue, same motherboard (Asus Zenith ii Extreme, Ryzen 3970x) , except i can get the problem not only on the 'front' jack but also on the audio jack at the back of the PC.

Essentially it goes like this
- Sound playing all fine and normal (either back or front),
- Suddenly i can hear a small distortion to the sound, little 'ticks' and a funny edge to the sound - this state may continue for a while, perhaps an hour
- Then, all of a sudden, it switches over to very loud full-on white noise (well, perhaps pink noise or whatever color). This noise then plays on and on.

If i then do something to the sound settings, such as disabling and re-enabling the device, the sound is back to normal.

In that brief period when it switches to white noise, there can be s short moment, say 5-10 seconds, where the audio sounds like it is a 4-bit sampling or similar.

My uneducated guess is that this is a driver/motherboard issue/bug - nothing is broken, no electrical problem, but rather a software / signal transport problem at some very hardware-low level.

Any ideas anyone?

A few more clues to the case:
* The windows 10 taskbar volume slider exhibits a slightly "laggy" behaviour as if having "communications problems with the sound chip".
* Switching Win10 default output between speakers/headphones while playing music does not mitigate the faint distorted, "crackling", ticks sound,
* However, when full-on static noise mode has kicked in, switching the output to headphones does resolve the noise issue (and also the crackling/ticks!),
* Switching output has a slight delay, around a second
* Some days none of these problems are present at all. (reboot / hibernate between)


* UPDATE *

It appears a way to trigger the issue is to switch Windows power plans from standard to power saver and back. I think this is a major lead
Click to expand...

Have registered to this forum just to let you all know how I have solved the problem in my case.

Had exactly the same symptoms as in the quoted post above.
In my case was even worse, every switch of the power plan was causing horrible wizzling noise at full power.

So, to the point.

What I did. I have opened a windows device manager and have deleted/unistalled all the drivers related to sound:
1619641399398.png


Restarted computer. Made a clean install of the latest Nvidia drivers, and let windows to install it's own generic drivers for other sound devices.
I did it around 2 weeks ago. Since then, no single case of above mentioned problem.

Hope it will help also the others.

Regards
Aspelta
 
Ok. Just started having similar issues myself on SPDIF high-res audio to some high-end speakers with built-in DAC. Tried disabling USB power states (since the audio device is a USB device on these), no joy. Just tried locking to high-performance power savings too, since this started when I turned off Asus' insane core optimizations and power settings (4.5Ghz all-core OC is nice - 80c CPU temps under light load during the summer are not). Been 30 minutes, stable so far.

Edit: Nope. If I let it go quiet for a bit, it drops still
 
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I just built a new editing rig and the sound is constantly giving me issues. I have used SPDIF optical audio for years without issue on my former system, but with this it randomly cuts out then gives me deafening static. It also causes static and clipping in my Astro Mixamp TR. I have tried numerous drivers and software with no luck. I know Linus built near 20 similar systems and I'm wondering if they have experienced similar. I found multiple forums referring to the issue. Most state it is just a bad driver that ASUS isn't caring to fix. The issue is listed for over a year as seen here. I have tried with their Sonic software and without. With Windows default driver and with Realtek's from last year. Nothing is working.

Motherboard: Asus Zenith Extreme II Alpha
CPU: AMD Threadripper 3960x
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S (with push pull fans)
RAM: Trident Z Neo 4x32GB
GPU: MSI 1080 Seahawk (Backordered ROG RTX 3090)
SSD1: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro (Primary Drive)
SSD2: 2TB Samsung 980 Pro
SSD3: 512GB Samsung 950 Pro
HDD1: Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X18
HDD2: WD Black 6TB
HDD3: WD Black 6TB
PSU: Seasonic PRIME PX-1300
Case: Fractal 7 XL
Case Fans: 6 x Noctua NF-A14 PWM chromax.Black.swap
UPS: APC 2200VA SMT2200C
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Fresh installation fully updated)

HWInfo shows everything is running very cool (Usually sub 60 degrees C) and all hardware shows up as desired in BIOS and Windows.

I am still under return policy with Amazon. Any ideas how to correct this or do I just find another brand and return this? It's so upsetting after having so many good boards and other equipment from ASUS to have such a failure on a $900 flagship board.
 
MavenMotive said:
No way would I pay for a sound card to go with a $900 defective motherboard. I'll just send it back and find another option.
Click to expand...
Sadly I can’t; I didn’t switch to optical till having it for over a year. I’ve got other issues with the board now; I’m waiting for the 5000 release to pick up a different board/brand. Optical is not super functional on TRX40 boards, but the Asus is the least functional of them all. It’s the first implementation of the “USB connected Realtek card” and it’s just flaky. Z590 supposedly has some similar issues too.
 
lopoetve said:
Sadly I can’t; I didn’t switch to optical till having it for over a year. I’ve got other issues with the board now; I’m waiting for the 5000 release to pick up a different board/brand. Optical is not super functional on TRX40 boards, but the Asus is the least functional of them all. It’s the first implementation of the “USB connected Realtek card” and it’s just flaky. Z590 supposedly has some similar issues too.
Click to expand...
What other issues are you running into? Did you not have the audio issue on standard 3.5mm cables?
 
MavenMotive said:
What other issues are you running into? Did you not have the audio issue on standard 3.5mm cables?
Click to expand...
I did not, fortunately. My issue now is that after a video card died, it won’t shut off fully. I have to kill power on the UPS (board rgb stays lit, power lights on the video card flash, etc). The video card fried somehow (sent off for RMA), and seems to have damaged the motherboard as a result. It’s…. Annoying.
 
MavenMotive said:
I just built a new editing rig and the sound is constantly giving me issues. I have used SPDIF optical audio for years without issue on my former system, but with this it randomly cuts out then gives me deafening static. It also causes static and clipping in my Astro Mixamp TR. I have tried numerous drivers and software with no luck. I know Linus built near 20 similar systems and I'm wondering if they have experienced similar. I found multiple forums referring to the issue. Most state it is just a bad driver that ASUS isn't caring to fix. The issue is listed for over a year as seen here. I have tried with their Sonic software and without. With Windows default driver and with Realtek's from last year. Nothing is working.

Motherboard: Asus Zenith Extreme II Alpha
CPU: AMD Threadripper 3960x
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S (with push pull fans)
RAM: Trident Z Neo 4x32GB
GPU: MSI 1080 Seahawk (Backordered ROG RTX 3090)
SSD1: 1TB Samsung 980 Pro (Primary Drive)
SSD2: 2TB Samsung 980 Pro
SSD3: 512GB Samsung 950 Pro
HDD1: Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X18
HDD2: WD Black 6TB
HDD3: WD Black 6TB
PSU: Seasonic PRIME PX-1300
Case: Fractal 7 XL
Case Fans: 6 x Noctua NF-A14 PWM chromax.Black.swap
UPS: APC 2200VA SMT2200C
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Fresh installation fully updated)

HWInfo shows everything is running very cool (Usually sub 60 degrees C) and all hardware shows up as desired in BIOS and Windows.

I am still under return policy with Amazon. Any ideas how to correct this or do I just find another brand and return this? It's so upsetting after having so many good boards and other equipment from ASUS to have such a failure on a $900 flagship board.
Click to expand...
I have same issue on this board as well as my gigabyte TRX40 Xtreme . I ended up buying sound card and issue is gone. I use spdif output on 7.1 surround sound and it would just cut out
 
thenjduke said:
I have same issue on this board as well as my gigabyte TRX40 Xtreme . I ended up buying sound card and issue is gone. I use spdif output on 7.1 surround sound and it would just cut out
Click to expand...
It’s an issue with the first generation USB Realtek card they used, since the Threadripper does not have a built in sound codec (it does, actually, it’s just broken- the linux guys found it). It’s very buggy. I’ve been debating on what to do about it myself.
 
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