Right, so I bought myself a Asus Xonar DGX as I cant stand the quality of audio my on-board provides, but had a small budget. The card has made difference, not as significant as I had hoped, but it has certainly made my games sound crisper and adds a certain depth or even warmth to sounds. Been using it for the past two days or so. Unfortunately the sound card seems to be causing a number of my games to crash and has managed to confuse my old 2.0 speakers, with the left thinking its the right and the right the left. More importantly however, there is a constant static buzz of sorts coming from the set, that was not there with On-board. Its audible from about 40% volume and up. Turning Smart off volume seems to make the sound much less audible - but its still there, plus I like the effects of SVN. Briefly, I also don't really understand how to get EAX effects working. On older games you can enable it, but new games as I understand use windows own system. So do I just need to have GX mode enabled in options, and leave it as that? or must I enable something else? Thanks in advance as always
I assume you mean Xonar DG, the DG and DX are two separate cards As for eax emulation, that's likely the primary reason your games crashing. Try disabling it and see if it makes a difference. Also if that doesn't help then consider alternate drivers for the card. As for the buzzing I had the same problem with my Xonar DG when using SVN - it caused it to be hearable but just barely. and thats only when there is no other sound playing. Without SVN I couldn't really hear it from my headphones, so tbh I'm not sure about your speakers. As for the left right confusion that makes me lol
Thanks for the reply. The Asus Xonar DGX is the PCI-E version of the DG, it was released mid April I think. A completely silent release so unless you where trying to buy one, id doubt youd come across it. Its the exact same card as I understand it, just uses PCI-E as opposed to PCI. I had considered alternative drivers, as I had heard that there are some non Asus developed drivers that work well for the card. Had a quick look and could not find anything, with the only link I found leading to the pirate bay - which ofc has been blocked, so not much I can do there. I tried plugin the 2.0 pair in my on-board sound, and the buzzing disappeared. So its definitely something to do with the card. I currently have the card in my spare 16x PCI-E slot, if that makes a difference. Unfortunately I cant access the x1 or x2 slots as my Graphics card and Thermaltake Frio cooler make it impossible. Edit: After disabling GX mode, I played a bit of Oblivon/Nehrim and was able to have a few conversations and rest without the game crashing and getting stuck on a sound loop. So that defo seemed to help.
I got the DX2 amd the only issue i have is if a program or game crashes, the card goes mental woth really load white noise and only a reboot helps. Have been looking for a way to just reset the sound card. I have not had any luck though. Sent from Bittech Android app
Okay, from what I know of sound cards, the fact that Asus may have hacked on PCI-E support to an existing PCI chip suggests that the input power source isn't clean. IIRC one of the Xonar cards (I think DX) used a floppy power adapter to overcome this issue by taking power direct from the PSU. I doubt your card does that. I'm not certain but if they use the same audio processing chip as in the DG then I think this is the cause, and that could be causing the buzzing. But don't know how Asus would dare release a card with that problem, so something must have been done. I'm probably wrong
I cant imagine they'd release a card like that, then again, perhaps that's why it was such a silent release haha. Hoping that no one with media power will notice the cards issues. They also released a PCI-E version of the DS. Theyd have to be fooling themselves if they thought they could re-release two of the most popular budget sound cards to work on the latest systems without anyone noticing that there is some kind of issue with the design. @ MSHunter - Thats a issue I was getting with Oblivion, the game was crashing and getting hung up on a whiny, slightly high pitched noise, it only disappears after a reboot. Stopped happening for me in Oblivion when I switched the GX effects off from the Asus control panel.
Metaporic, I also have the Xonar DGX. I have a problem with it that you can help me with. The EEPROM on my card is incorrect and so the Device ID is read wrong. When I have the correct Device ID number, I can install the proper drivers for the sound card. Can you look up via windows device manager, the XONAR DGX sound card properties, under details tab, the Hardware ID numbers for me please?
Welcome to the forum NarDmw. Below is a screenshot of my DGX's hardware id's. Hope its of some use. In case you cant see the image: The id's are as follows - PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_8788&SUBSYS_85211043&REV_00 PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_8788&SUBSYS_85211043 PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_8788&CC_040100 PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_8788&CC_0401
Remove the horrible Asus drivers and install the Unified Xonar drivers. That will more than likely fix some problems. Unified drivers: http://brainbit.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/ Secondly, never use the EAX/GX feature. It sounds bad, causes crashes and isn't at all worth the hassle. Ever. Xonar cards are fantastic as long as you don't use the stock drivers and avoid GX mode like the plague.
Cool. Thanks Metaporic. I will update you if I encounter or not encounter the same audio problems as you do. I did not realize that the Xonar DGX was so new that there is so little documentation and support for it.
Thanks a lot for that link. Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Not installed it just yet, but when I do il post back.
Disable on-board sound To you Xonar owners. It's better to disable on-board sound (in BIOS) when installing an add-on sound card. The third party Xonars drivers are called "Unified Xonar Drivers" and are at the website Brainbit. Removing the on-board sound's drivers/software might help to.
Hey, just to followup. I'm not experiencing any Xonar DGX problems yet. Contacting Asus tech support may take a few days to get an RMA done, Metaporic.
I hate to say it but this ^^. EAX/GX is a brand thing only. No game in the last 5 years has ever used EAX in any significant capacity, but the branding still persists as it's synonymous with gaming audio and users demand it. You really don't need it though. The floppy power cable is REQUIRED on the earlier PCIe models and disabling the onboard audio in the BIOS is advised if you're experiencing errors.
I still use EAX 4 when playing Third age Total War (Lord of the Rings Submod for Medieval Total War 2) amongst a few others, it's the main reason I've not thought about getting a Xonar.
Please link where we can find these newer models with no need for floppy power. Need a low-profile, low power sound card for my HP Micro server. So I can connect it to my Analog amp. (there literally is only a PCI express slot left and no extra power cables.
That does sound like there's some form of interference creeping in. Possbly from the power, but then the only fix might actually be a new power supply, simply to try and clean up the incoming power. Try looking around for something like 'Spread Spectrum' in the bios, disabling that might at least make the noise a bit more consistent, if it's what I believe it may be. On the Xonar GX mode debate; I use the 3D effects a bit, those do not work without the Xear 3D mode enabled, I know it crashes some games, but on others; it makes positional sound a damn sight better. It's a bit of a gamble, but I simply have to do a little trial and error. The only game I know of that will definitely crash under Xear 3D is Fallout 3, and New Vegas as an extension, that's simply because those two games are so sensitive, Skyrim seems to be fine, on the other hand.
Most recent DGX appears not to have: http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_DGX/ Email me with this question: richard _ swinburne at asus dot com and I can forward it to the audio unit and they should get back with a reply to confirm
