Question Audio issues on new pc

Kokai

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Hey! I recently built my new PC, and since day 1 I've been having strange audio distortion issues. It seems to only happen when I'm in a discord voice channel. If I launch a game while in a discord voice channel, my entire system audio is heavily distorted. Additionally, it only affects my usb audio mixamp, if I plug directly into the headphone jack I don't get the issue. I'm running windows 11. Sometimes the issue fixes itself after a few seconds, while others it requires I plug the audio device in and out multiple times.
I've tried checking my RAM for issues via the windows trouble shooter
I've reinstalled all audio drivers
I've tried multiple USB slots on my PC, front IO and back.
Plugging the usb device in and out fixes the issues most of the time but not always.
The mixamp worked perfectly on my old PC, and since it only happens due to very specific triggers on my PC itself (launching game in discord) I doubt the mixamp is the issue
Any solutions would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance
 

Mcfckyle91

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Probably other audio drivers conflicting with the USB device. Go to device manager > audio inputs outputs and fire a photo across. Also whilst in device manager check for any flagged drivers.
 

Kokai

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ZRdYF0R.png

Probably other audio drivers conflicting with the USB device. Go to device manager > audio inputs outputs and fire a photo across. Also whilst in device manager check for any flagged drivers.
 

Kokai

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There's a picture of the audio inputs & outputs from device manager, I can't see any obviously flagged drivers but I don't know what I'd be looking for exactly
 

Mcfckyle91

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There's a picture of the audio inputs & outputs from device manager, I can't see any obviously flagged drivers but I don't know what I'd be looking for exactly
Reading a few things now mate about your Astro MixAmp give me 5-10. Could you also check your Human Interface Devices. I've ran into an issues recently with the Hyper Cloud IIs USB adaptor uninstalling and crashing the system as it was conflicting with something, I straight up disabled it and have had no issues since.

This new build of windows or something that has updated recently is causing so many issues with USB headsets that get fixed when unplugging it and using its 3.5mm jack? Got 0 experience with Windows 11 though I am on 10.

Are there any firmware updates for your headset/mix amp? What Motherboard do you have?
 

Kokai

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Reading a few things now mate about your Astro MixAmp give me 5-10. Could you also check your Human Interface Devices. I've ran into an issues recently with the Hyper Cloud IIs USB adaptor uninstalling and crashing the system as it was conflicting with something, I straight up disabled it and have had no issues since.

This new build of windows or something that has updated recently is causing so many issues with USB headsets that get fixed when unplugging it and using its 3.5mm jack? Got 0 experience with Windows 11 though I am on 10.

Are there any firmware updates for your headset/mix amp? What Motherboard do you have?
o2KRx2j.png

Here's a pic of my human interface devices, should I try disabling them one by one? I looked for firmware updates and couldn't find anything for either my headset or mixamp
 

Mcfckyle91

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o2KRx2j.png

Here's a pic of my human interface devices, should I try disabling them one by one? I looked for firmware updates and couldn't find anything for either my headset or mixamp

Absolutely not no. I have done a bit of digging and found the following:

Okay so looking into this there are loads of variants of the A40 Mix Amp. I found this:

One possibility: your motherboard’s chipset might cause the USB 3.0 ports to expect all 9 pins to make contact with a connected cable, which won’t happen with a 4-pin USB 2.0 cable.

Another is the driver(s) for USB 3.0, which might be different than for 2.0.

ASTRO_Vertigo said:

If there are any problems with the USB ports, drivers or general incompatibility for some reason, it will cause issues with audio products, not just ASTRO headsets. We are compatible with USB 3.0 and 3.1, but some manufacture[r]s place bad implementations or drivers, which causes problems.
What motherboard do you have and what USB port is on your mix amp?

You can find Motherboard in System Information. May be slightly different on Windows 11? sure you wont struggle finding it. For me its under Base Board Product or System Model, would also be handy to know your current BIOS version/date.
 

Kokai

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Absolutely not no. I have done a bit of digging and found the following:

Okay so looking into this there are loads of variants of the A40 Mix Amp. I found this:

One possibility: your motherboard’s chipset might cause the USB 3.0 ports to expect all 9 pins to make contact with a connected cable, which won’t happen with a 4-pin USB 2.0 cable.

Another is the driver(s) for USB 3.0, which might be different than for 2.0.

ASTRO_Vertigo said:


What motherboard do you have and what USB port is on your mix amp?

You can find Motherboard in System Information. May be slightly different on Windows 11? sure you wont struggle finding it. For me its under Base Board Product or System Model, would also be handy to know your current BIOS version/date.
Apologies I forgot to include the motherboard make and model, its an MSI MPG x570 gaming plus. Not 100% sure on the type of USB it is, I'm guessing 2.0 due to its age and from some googling.
 

Mcfckyle91

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Kokai

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That's definitely the latest bios as far as I can tell. I suspect a setting or something might be conflicting causing the distorting when higher frequencies are hit? I found the following and it might be worth a shot (if it makes sense or applies to your setup).

https://astrogaming.fandom.com/wiki/How_To/How_to_use_Optical_on_PC
I tried this and while it fixed the distortion issue, the audio quality was significantly worse than when plugged in via USB. I guess it narrows it down to the USB being the issue. My concern now is that it is the motherboard at fault rather than the mixamp
 

Mcfckyle91

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I tried this and while it fixed the distortion issue, the audio quality was significantly worse than when plugged in via USB. I guess it narrows it down to the USB being the issue. My concern now is that it is the motherboard at fault rather than the mixamp
Within link 1 check out Steps 2 and 3. Perhaps disabling the Audio Controller will turn off your Mboards amplifier and that may be causing conflict? If that isn't it maybe check that the HD Audio Drivers are up to date (second link).

  1. https://us.msi.com/support/technical_details/DT_Audio_No_Sound#txt02
  2. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-X570-GAMING-PLUS/support#down-driver&Win11 64
EDIT: Don't think its your motherboard being faulty, I would say its leaning to either a dud USB cable or conflicting drivers/settings, perhaps with Windows 11.
 

Kokai

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Within link 1 check out Steps 2 and 3. Perhaps disabling the Audio Controller will turn off your Mboards amplifier and that may be causing conflict? If that isn't it maybe check that the HD Audio Drivers are up to date (second link).

  1. https://us.msi.com/support/technical_details/DT_Audio_No_Sound#txt02
  2. https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-X570-GAMING-PLUS/support#down-driver&Win11 64
EDIT: Don't think its your motherboard being faulty, I would say its leaning to either a dud USB cable or conflicting drivers/settings, perhaps with Windows 11.
I've updated the drivers along with disabling the HD audio controller on the motherboard to no avail. It is such a strange issue, I feel like I've tried everything bar buying new equipment
 

Mcfckyle91

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I've updated the drivers along with disabling the HD audio controller on the motherboard to no avail. It is such a strange issue, I feel like I've tried everything bar buying new equipment
You could try running Driver Booster even get the free trial and see if any drivers are missing for you system. I would probably Enable the HD Audio Driver again if there was zero change.

https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php

Are you running the Astro Command Centre for the MixAmp? I would imagine you are.

Also make sure Windows 11 is up to date and there are no Optional updates hidden away that you can select.

EDIT:

There are two version of Astro Command Centre you may need the one for Windows 10?

https://www.astrogaming.com/en-gb/support/software.html
 
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Kokai

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You could try running Driver Booster even get the free trial and see if any drivers are missing for you system. I would probably Enable the HD Audio Driver again if there was zero change.

https://www.iobit.com/en/driver-booster.php

Are you running the Astro Command Centre for the MixAmp? I would imagine you are.

Also make sure Windows 11 is up to date and there are no Optional updates hidden away that you can select.

EDIT:

There are two version of Astro Command Centre you may need the one for Windows 10?

https://www.astrogaming.com/en-gb/support/software.html
The command centre doesn't recognise the mixamp as it is too old, I tried installing it anyway in case some drivers came with it but unfortunately it didn't solve the issue. Installing optional windows 11 updates now just in case that works. Perhaps I should try downgrading to windows 10, or else buying more up to date equipment
 

Mcfckyle91

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The command centre doesn't recognise the mixamp as it is too old, I tried installing it anyway in case some drivers came with it but unfortunately it didn't solve the issue. Installing optional windows 11 updates now just in case that works. Perhaps I should try downgrading to windows 10, or else buying more up to date equipment
What MixAmp do you have exactly? Which Model? Did you see that there were 2 different Command Centre versions? Have you tried the version for Windows 10?
 

Kokai

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What MixAmp do you have exactly? Which Model? Did you see that there were 2 different Command Centre versions? Have you tried the version for Windows 10?
I've an astro A40 mixamp, it is very old (guessing around 10 years at least), I don't know the exact model. I downloaded one of the versions, the windows 10 one from the microsoft store failed to install, im guessing because it isn't updated for windows 11.
 

Kokai

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mixamp.jpg

This is the model, I believe it is from ~2010, perhaps it is just not compatible with windows 11?
Although, if it was not compatible with windows 11 I presume it was be distorted all the time? As it is, i'd say 80% of the time it is fine, with the distortion only consistently happening when I launch a game while in discord. It does happen without being in discord or launching a game too, but much more rarely
 

Mcfckyle91

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Although, if it was not compatible with windows 11 I presume it was be distorted all the time? As it is, i'd say 80% of the time it is fine, with the distortion only consistently happening when I launch a game while in discord. It does happen without being in discord or launching a game too, but much more rarely
Ignore my last post(deleted).. I found the correct information.

Check this link and make sure it is your model. Should be the latest firmware :) fingers crossed!

https://help.astrogaming.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031104431-MixAmp-Pro
 

Kokai

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Kokai

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Are you running as Administrator?
I have come up with a work around. I found an audio jack splitter that gives my headphone cord the extra length needed to make it work. I am passing my mic jack through the mixamp to increase voice quality, while bypassing the mixamp and using the headphone jack directly into my pc to avoid the distorted audio. It seems to be working