Asus Xonar DX randomly stops working

[Aionism]

The Asus forums are worthless and filled with spam right now.

I recently got some new parts (motherboard, RAM, CPU, power supply). Now my Xonar DX will stop working whenever it feels like it. I can hear the card click and then there's no sound. The uh...spectrum analyzer thing you see when you adjust the volume in Windows constantly shows that there is sound. Doing something that would make sound doesn't make it move or change at all. Something that makes this stop happening would be best but even a fix to make it start working again until it decides to stop would be very helpful. Currently the only way I know how to fix this is to restart my computer.

Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 Rev. 3.0
AMD Athlon II X4 640
G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Sapphire HD5770 1GB Vapor-X
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Antec Earthwatts EA650

I'm using these drivers: http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

 

[gamerk316]

I can hear the card click and then there's no sound.

The clicking generally occurs when the relays on the card switch modes; for instance, on my Xonar Xense, if I swap between Headphones, analog, or Digital output, I get a click from the card. Is it possible the output mode is somehow getting changed? [I doubt it if the Control Panel is showing the output comming from one device...]

You could also try swapping the active device [IE: Setting digital, then back to analog again] to try and force the card the reset itself.

Also, check the power cable and make sure it is firmly connected.

Check the Guru3d forums, as I think a new version of the Unified Drivers just released; could potentially fix your issue. Worst case, you could give the offical drivers a try, just in case...

 

[Aionism]

I don't know why the output mode would be getting changed. The last time this happened I was playing Grand Theft Auto IV for a couple minutes. It happened in the middle of the game, not when it was starting or anything like that. Other times I was either not at the computer or not doing anything worth remembering.

I'll probably check the power cable tonight. Unless the Unified drivers are posted on Guru3d before the blog, then I should have the newest one (1.31).

 

[gamerk316]

1.31 is the latest.

Output probably isn't changing, at least in software. Thats what the clicking generally indicates though, which is why I'm interested to see if switching modes restores the audio. Probably something else though...

Also, was this issue happening prior to using these drivers? Might be a bug that was introduced...[could give the official ones a shot]

 

[Aionism]

It never happened with the official or unified drivers before I upgraded my computer.

 

[gamerk316]

What was the upgrade? Clean format or no?

Could be power related; if the GPU is taking too much power, its possible the DX is getting starved of power, if even for a split second, which could cause this issue.

 

[Aionism]

Abit IL9 Pro -> Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 Rev. 3.0
Intel C2D E6400 -> AMD Athlon II X4 640
Corsair XMS2 2GB -> G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600
Epower ZU-500 -> Antec Earthwatts EA650

Everything else is the same. I left my second partition completely intact and reinstalled Windows on the first with whatever the option is that makes the Windows.old folder. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I turned off PCI-E link state power management yesterday. I'm still waiting to see if the Xonar will stop working again.

 

[gamerk316]

eeek, Intel to AMD without a format? That could explain the problem, depending of the old low-level motherboard related stuff got properly updated...At the very least, that increases the number of things that could be a problem...

 

[Aionism]

It happened again so apparently turning PCI-E link state power management off didn't do anything.

 

[Aionism]

Official drivers don't make a difference. Happened while watching a YouTube video.

 

[Aionism]

I put it in the second full size PCI-E slot instead of the top x1 slot (the lower one is blocked by the video card) a while ago. I haven't had any problems yet.

 

[gamerk316]

...odd if true.

Again, the fact you didn't format after a mobo exchange is worrying to some degree, so I can't rule that out as a problem. But if it works in a different slot, then I guess your OK...

Again, the clicking on the card typically happens when switching output modes, so it sounds power related in some way, but could still be something within Windows or drivers.

 

[Aionism]

It's been like 9 days without a problem so I think I can call this one solved. It's a bit annoying that both of my motherboards have had strange PCI-E slot issues. My video card wouldn't work if I put it in the top x16 slot in the old motherboard. At least this problem isn't nearly as bad as that.

 

[gamerk316]

Maybe the PCI-E 1x slot isn't getting full power? Don't really know what else it could be if moving to another slot fixes the problem...

In any case, gald to hear its fixed.