M2N SLI Deluxe - Sound still not working right....

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Sep 14, 2004
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I noticed a few problems using the onboard sound that came with the M2N SLI Deluxe. Its rare, but in certain programs its noticeable. For instance, the game Oblivion has a "popping" sound at times, actually, specifically when mudcrabs approach.
Also, I notice that the PC Probe II has a popping sound as well when clicking through the configuration settings.

I was wondering if anyone else has had these problems or anything similar. I've updated to the latest drivers for SoundMax from the Asus site. I've also contact them and received an email stating the following:

Something like this is going to be a ground / shorting issue or a hardware failure. Take it out of the case first and put it in a cardboard box or phone book. Test the system. If the problem disappeared you will need to reinstall the board but isolate it from the case using electrical tape on the underside of the board near the standoffs.

Somehow I doubt this is the issue since the sound is rare and happens only in very specific instances in games and programs, notable the ones I listed.

Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to have to RMA this board since everything else is working perfectly well. Would updating my BIOS make any difference perhaps?
 
I have an M2N-E SLI and the same "popping" occurs. What you do is use the sound manager software (comes on the motherboard drivers / software cd) and change the speaker settings to something else, and then change it back. The popping goes away after that.

*There is like 6 settings - Headphone, 2 speaker , 4 s, etc. Just change it to 2 speaker and then back to whatever you were using and you should be good. Driver update could fix it too - I haven't had much success though. (That's why I'm getting a Creative card for Christmas 😛 )

*edit* If that doesn't fix the popping - it could be poor speakers / headphones or even the connection between the speakers and the PC. I know this one headset I used to own had a smaller than normal 3.5mm plug that didn't quite make full contact with the PC slot which caused annoying popping.

If you're sure it's not speakers or headphones, then I would consider a MB fault.
 
So weird, rgeist! As your email notification popped up I was in SoundMax going through the very thing you suggested!

For some reason, my speaker system was set to stereo system or something. But I have a 5.1 logitech system. So I switched it.

But are you saying to change it to something else, apply it, then change it back to what it was?
 
Yep, that's what I do. Since I use headphones I just click from headphones -> 2 speaker (which usually stops the popping right away) -> headphones.
 
Its weird, because its only a problem in a few instances in games. So I doubt its the motherboard or the speakers.

But hopefully this will help. Thanks again rgeist!
 
One other thing I noticed: I have been reading all over the place online about disabling digital output in SoundMax. Should I try this if nothing seems to work?
I'm kind of clueless in this area. What exactly does digital output do? Will disabling it affect the quality of game audio, DVD, etc?
 
You know... I've played around with that option, but I really didn't notice much of a difference either way, so I left it on digital. I think the digital signal has less degradation in sound, but it may not sound quite as good (if that makes any sense?)

I thought of something else as well - popping can also be the result of the speaker wire passing too close something that generates micro / radio waves. (Cell phones, router, microwave - which would also scramble a wireless routers signal 😛)
 
Hmm, maybe that jumbo antenna on my wireless card is causing issues.

Again, the only thing that makes me wonder is that it happens at very specific instances. If it were random or frequent I would likely believe something like mobo failure or interference.

I'll test everything and hopefully it it will work fine. Otherwise, I may get myself a Creative card for Christmas! :wahoo:
 
Again, the only thing that makes me wonder is that it happens at very specific instances. If it were random or frequent I would likely believe something like mobo failure or interference.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the fact that you find it in specific instances also has me thinking you issue is different, but it's worth a try. Especially since I experience it at very random intervals.
 
Figured out a cure, rgeist. And this is something that has worked for other sound issues of other games on OTHER computers of mine. Just flipped the hardware sound acceleration level bar down two notches in dxdiag to basic. Now there is absolutely NO problem with Oblivion and I'm assuming everything else that had or could have a "popping sound" issue.

However, as I am unaware of what the hardware sound acceleration level does, I'm not sure what I'm losing by doing this. Sound quality? Surround sound? That would suck, if so. Hopefully nothing.
 



Tried that and it works perfectly!! But i dont get 'popping'; at random moments the sound goes way up and all i hear is static untill i lower it. The first time this happened was while playing gta iv (just got it too) and i thought that the game broke my system lol. (it's not as crazy as it sounds gta iv has broken ps3's and xbox 360's)

BTW i've had problems with this board since day one, from RAID problems to overheating, refusing to boot and now sound... should've read some reviews b4 buying it 🙁
 
I too use a M2N-SLI board but suffer from the "NO SOUND" at all problem. :??:
I've tried changing the output from C-media CM6501 like sound device to the ATI HD Audio rear output & Upgrading the drivers.
But still get no sounds. I'm only using a basic 2 speaker setup as I don't need all the other speakers.
I've tried the headphone settings - no luck there.
Can anyone help me with fixing this problem. :)
 
I have also had various issues with the ASUS M2N-SLI onboard sound. My sound stops working mysteriously for no reason and I also lose sound whenever the system is restarted. 2 different things happen in each situation. When the system restarts the audio device is missing. When the sound disappears while the system is on, the device is still there, but there is no explaination why it has stopped working. I play WoW and use vent, that is when I lose sound most often. I have had this system for about 5 years and it only started doing this in the last 2 yrs. Everytime this happens I am able to reinstall the drivers and get the sound back. I also get the Windows compatibilty warning whenever I reinstall and wonder if that has anything to do with it. BTW I am running XP pro and I built this system myself.
 
I'm suffering from similar problems. I've had this motherboard for about a year with no noticeable issues, but since Christmas (roughly around the time I ran Windows Update...) I've had nothing but issues in videogames. Some (like CIV4) start off fine and gradually get more and more crackily until they crash to desktop, and others (like L4D2) randomly mute the sound completely. Changing the speaker set up does work to bring the sound back, but within 30 seconds it's gone again and I have to do it again. Very annoying. Either the board's on the brink of dying or there's something in the recent Windows Updates that it doesn't like.

I'm running XP Pro too.
 
I'm suffering hard at the hands of this issue. I tried the dxdiag and numerous other fixes that have done nothing for my crackling and popping issue. What's worse is that it lags me during online game play.

I experience this issue with all forms of sound. Music, game sounds, videos ect. I have also had my m2n-sli deluxe for about 1.5 years now and had not experienced any of these issues until a windows re-install. If I reinstall the sound drivers it works for about 2-7 days then the issue returns.

I'm short on cash so I can't get a sound card atm, any other suggestions are very much appreciated.
 
Don't know why... 🙁 but I have an M2N32 Sli Deluxe WiFi Ap Solo and an M2N32 and they have both not given me problems in 3 years. Not one problem, to top it all I even went and tried the Athlon II X4 In the M2N32 Sli Deluxe and posted my findings here a year ago.....
But for all of you having the sound problems, I'd suggest going to the Asus support site and download the BIOS that has the sound issue patched in the text file. Don't remember which one it was.
 


I'm going to try installing a new bios but I'm new to it. Hope it's not difficult.

Just got around to reinstalling Oblivion. At this point, I have a whole new video card along with some other things, but same motherboard. Still having this same issue that only the DxDiag fix helps. But that fix is not preferable because it lowers the sound quality in the game completely. Plus, having to go in and change it every time is slightly annoying.

 
OK, I finally got around to solving the issue. Not sure how many people this will help since it's for an m2n-sli deluxe motherboard that has had sound issues with games such as Oblivion, but here goes.

As noted in my OP, I was having sound issues with the onboard audio, particularly with Oblivion. Music was fine, speech was fine. Sound effects were sometimes distorted - footsteps sounded like they were cut off; popping noises when enemies approached. Just generally annoying sound issues.

I uninstalled my asus audio driver which was the "SoundMAX_Audio_V51016110_32bit" driver. This is the latest one available on the ASUS site. I then installed an older version, the "AD1988_32bit_V51014530J". I only installed the driver without the soundmax software stuff. Just went into control panel > system > hardware > device manager. Then scrolled down to where the (!) in Sound, video, etc. was showing and updated the driver by manually searching for it (I just left it in my download folder). It's in there somewhere. Just select through the folders until you can hit ok.

Anyhow, the older driver made the sound problems go away. This is something I've been searching to solve for a long time. Never found an answer in any forum. But this worked for me. And if this doesn't help, there's an even older driver on ASUS's download site that might do the trick for you.

Lesson learned: when no other solution works, try a different driver (older or newer).
 
I spoke too soon. 🙁 I didn't have my 5.1 enabled and there is still a problem with sound stutter, noises, etc.
Going to try to disable some codecs to see if that helps. So depressing. I don't want to set the audio hardware acceleration down to basic because then it renders 5.1 meaningless. But it's apparently the only way to get the sound to work "correctly" (no popping, stuttering).

There has GOT to be another way to go from here. If lowering hardware acceleration provides a temporary fix, there must be some other REAL solution to the problem (other than installing a separate sound card). Anyone?
 
funny, i'm having this problem.

so many issues with this motherboard. it's my second one and i've had it for about two years.

apart from SLI not working at all -- which I gave up on after trying everything and just didn't even bother returning the board (for the second time; didn't think it was worth it considering I was lucky enough to get a working board as opposed to a useless one previously) -- the sound card is basically non-existent (it worked a year ago, but I have since wiped my hard drive and installed XP) at this point and I tried driver scanning software and it doesn't even detect a sound device present. I tried downloading realtech audio (which is what i believe used to be on this computer and working a year ago, but after installing it, which I did about three times, I restart my computer and it doesn't even take effect. No sound card. No sound. Nothing...

Sure, it's not a big deal being soundless whilst playing WoW but watching silent porn is a bit debilitating. Just a tad...
 
m2n-sli motherboard
amd athlon x2 6400+ proc.
4gb ddr2
500gb sata hard drive
bfg nivida 8800 gts oc 512mb
750w modular

i can play
battlefield 3
battlefield bad company 2
sniper ghost warrior

what you need to do is download the

c-media cm6501 like sound device drivers
that should fix you problem for the sound
the sli issuse i know u need to go in the bios my hitting the delete button and go to sli configureation and set it to dual cards
abd it wouldn't hurt to check your pcipnp i think it is and make sure it set to pci-e

also i run my sound through my headphone port, because i cant afford a powerd 7.1 surround sound system
 
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