[XonarSquealer]

I've had the Xonar essence stx for nearly 5 years, and never had this issue until I upgraded to Windows 10 a month ago (win 7 home premium previous)

No overclocking or any changes to the system or software that I can think of, just the Win 10 upgrade.

Why would I have not had it before?

Happens randomly when opening a new Youtube video in Chrome.

Using stock drivers from Asus.

*just had it happen again with latencymon running... everything in the green, didn't seem to be any latency problems

 

[singularhippo]

Just wanted to post and say that I experience the same thing. I've had an Essence STX for several years, almost all of that time has been on W7 Pro 64. Every once in awhile this would happen when some player on a website would start, primarily flash based. That is the only time I ever noticed it happening on W7 and it would happen at most around once a month, sometimes several months in between occurances.
 
Since upgrading to W10 Pro 64 about 6 weeks ago though, this has started happening much more than I am finding comfortable, even up to several times a day. The difference I notice on W10 is when it happens. Namely, it has happened while going to a game page within the Steam client, it has happened when I got a UAC prompt to install a program, and it has also happens when opening web pages that play videos like Youtube or TwitchTV.
 
This last time was noticeably louder than the others. After I chucked my Sennheisers off my head and sent them hanging over my chair I realized I need to make a change. For the time being, as I currently don't have another sound solution that gives atleast the same quality, I am downgrading back to W7. I guess it's time to look for a proper DAC/Amp combo as I'd rather not have any long term hearing issues. 
 
And also big thanks to others to posting your experiences.

 

[Undesirable]

*just had it happen again with latencymon running... everything in the green, didn't seem to be any latency problems

 
I thought it was too good to be true that it would be an easy fix like reducing DPC Latency.
 
Well I've got my Powercolor Devil HDX sound card now. Been running it for 4 days in Windows 10 without issue. The drivers are OK, but they don't offer any gain / impedance setting for headphones so I have to turn the volume down to 15% (rather than 35 - 40% with the STX) to get a reasonable volume. If you forget to turn it down when switching from speaker mode, then your eardrums are blown out unless you have high impedance headphones (sounds familiar 

). There's also no 3rd party software / drivers (such as Uni Xonar Drivers or XonarSwitch) available for this card at present so you're currently at the mercy of PowerColor / CMedia.

 

[bcschmerker4]

Thanks for the update on the new product.  Contact MaxedTech® to place a feature request for UNi XONAR® Audio Software™ 1.9, as the C-Media® CMI-8888DHT is already in a specific Asus® product, viz., the ROG® XONAR® Phoebus™; the Powercolor® Devil HDX™ may be supportable.

 

[Steelpony89]

Just wanted to perhaps pitch in with what I've experienced. Had a Xonar Essence ST installed with all kinds of different drivers in a Windows 7 64-bit machine, now Windows 10 64-bit.
Had the screech since I started using the card, both operating systems.
 
Get it almost exclusively while opening, skipping through or opening a youtube video.
The last time I got this though I noticed that the youtube HTML 5 player seemed to crash in chrome and automatically changed to the old flashplayer just as the screech occured.
 
Did not run "core parking" with windows 7, still got the noise though not as frequently as in Windows 10 IIRC.
 
Like many of you I've been in contact with Asus to no avail, they blame it on a core problem in the Vista audio stack.

 

[f0oster]

If any of you are using ASIO, make sure you disable the output you are using in the Windows volume mixer and Audio device manager. This is so windows doesn't try to use the device while it is busy.
 
I use Coax out (WASAPI, was using ASIO) for Foobar exclusively, and I swap to the USB input on my DAC for all my other tasks, such as YouTube, gaming etc..
 
The above was the cause of the random loud ringing for me, and it hasn't happened once since I did what I mentioned above. Seems it's a bug in the drivers -- no surprise, ASUS truly are terrible with their drivers. The sound card driver doesn't like it when multiple applications/the windows volume mixer tries to take control of the hardware when it's supposed to be exclusively controlled by the ASIO driver.

 

[trooper05]

I know this might sound silly, but have you guys ran windows update, those of you who are getting screeching in YouTube? The YouTube screech has never happened  to me, but it was always when using Foobar or Jriver. I have always had the latest updates installed. 
 
I'm surprised ASUS didn't fix this issue with the STX II and if it is a actual Vista audio stack issue why hasn't Microsoft fixed the issue?   
 
Also those who uninstall the drivers should run this batch file afterwards and restart: 
 
@ECHO Cleaning...
@ECHO ON
taskkill /im HsMgr64.exe /f
taskkill /im HsMgr.exe /f
taskkill /im AsusAudioCenter.exe /f
taskkill /im MXmon.exe /f
taskkill /f /fi "WindowTitle eq Hidden PCIX Main Window"
taskkill /f /fi "WindowTitle eq Hidden PCI Main Window"
DEL /F /Q %windir%\Cmicnfgp.ini.cfg
DEL /F /Q %windir%\Cmicnfgp.ini.cfl
DEL /F /Q %windir%\cmudaxp.ini
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\CmiFltr.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\HsMgr64.exe
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\HsSrv64.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\HsSrv642.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\HdavFltr.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\cmiHDAV.ini
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System\CmiCnfgP.cpl
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\CmiCnfgP.cpl
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\CmiCnfgp.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\CmiFltr.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\cmudaxp.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\cmudaxp.sys
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\CmiInstallResAll64.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\System32\CmiInstallResAll.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\CmiCnfgp.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\CmiFltr.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\Cm_Oal.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\cmasiopx.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\cmasiop.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\cmasiopx.ini
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\cmasiop.ini
DEL /F /Q %windir%\system32\drivers\cmudaxp.sys
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\Cm_Oal.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\cmasiop.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\cmasiop.ini
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\HsMgr.exe
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\HsSrv2.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\Cmpaoxy.dll
DEL /F /Q %windir%\SysWOW64\VmixP8.dll
Reg delete "hklm\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v Cmaudio8788 /f
Reg delete "hklm\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v Cmaudio8788GX /f
Reg delete "hklm\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v Cmaudio8788GX64 /f
@ECHO Done cleaning...
 
Save as a .bat file.

 

[halcyon]

 
Well I've got my Powercolor Devil HDX sound card now. Been running it for 4 days in Windows 10 without issue. The drivers are OK, but they don't offer any gain / impedance setting for headphones so I have to turn the volume down to 15% (rather than 35 - 40% with the STX) to get a reasonable volume. If you forget to turn it down when switching from speaker mode, then your eardrums are blown out unless you have high impedance headphones (sounds familiar 

). There's also no 3rd party software / drivers (such as Uni Xonar Drivers or XonarSwitch) available for this card at present so you're currently at the mercy of PowerColor / CMedia.

How do you find the multi-channel audio to headphone virtualization in 3D games (CS:GO, BF, COD, GTAV, etc)?

Does it have accurate 3D positional sound via headphone when used in multi-channel sound mode?

Thanks for any and all impressions!

 

[bcschmerker4]

   
...Well I've got my Powercolor Devil HDX sound card now. Been running it for 4 days in Windows 10 without issue. The drivers are OK, but they don't offer any gain / impedance setting for headphones so I have to turn the volume down to 15% (rather than 35 - 40% with the STX) to get a reasonable volume. If you forget to turn it down when switching from speaker mode, then your eardrums are blown out unless you have high impedance headphones (sounds familiar 

). There's also no 3rd party software / drivers (such as Uni Xonar Drivers or XonarSwitch) available for this card at present so you're currently at the mercy of PowerColor / CMedia.

Thanks for the progress report.  I'm currently on the hunt for headphones for my own XONAR® STX, and I'm after at least medium-Z (viz., ≥120Ω) and preferably something closer to 600Ω, as Zo=10.7Ω for the STX' Texas Instruments® TPA6120A2.  Same no-attenuator problem applies to the Creative Laboratories® SB1500 and SB1520 PCIe 3.0 x1 cards, which also REALLY want something better than 600Ω.

 

[Booki]

Since my post in this thread (few pages back) I have not even tried using my STX in fear of having that high pitched scream.
 
Problem is, onboard sound just isn't cutting it. Its just not as nice on this cheaper mobo I have...
 
Anybody have a alternative card that does NOT have this issue? Cause this issue in general is absolute rubbish.

 

[rvcjew]

  Since my post in this thread (few pages back) I have not even tried using my STX in fear of having that high pitched scream.
 
Problem is, onboard sound just isn't cutting it. Its just not as nice on this cheaper mobo I have...
 
Anybody have a alternative card that does NOT have this issue? Cause this issue in general is absolute rubbish.

Since using rev 2 of unixonar and now on rev 3 I have not had the screech. UNi Xonar 1816/1823 v1.80a r3 is the version you want, I also have test mode on windows enabled all the time as the watermark does not bug me and its flawless with installing it. http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/ I'm also using the low latency cmedia panel option.

 

[Booki]

I have updated my drivers to the ones you posted and will give it a shot...if it happens again I think i might start looking for a new sound card.
 
Not sure if you can adjust the amp gain on C-Panel though, or if i can have it on "hifi" mode as I like no effects on my audio.

 

[rvcjew]

  I have updated my drivers to the ones you posted and will give it a shot...if it happens again I think i might start looking for a new sound card.
 
Not sure if you can adjust the amp gain on C-Panel though, or if i can have it on "hifi" mode as I like no effects on my audio.

Hit start then type xonar and open the old panel then set your gain then close it and then close it again in your system tray so it stays low latency.

 

[mindbomb]

So I think there are at least one culprit here: The audio renderer of the application. Directsound, without using the GX feature, doesn't seem to be able to cause this. Wasapi, which is the newer interface, seems to be where this happens.

 

[Suncatcher]

I use the Xonar Essence STX since 2013.
 
I only had this screaming noise two times because of lack of attention, when I left the card accidentally half-connected to the PCI slot—I have no computer case, motherboard is laying over a table and the cards are not secured to any structure or support—and when the noises happened, the computer would BSOD instantly. Since only the PCI slot on the motherboard is holding the cards I have, this mistake can happen fairly easy. This was in 2013 and after the fact, never happened again.
 
So, I have never had the problems you guys describe. I'm still running Windows 7 x64 since I bought my Essence STX and have used original drivers till half of 2015, then discovered UNi Xonar and I have been using it ever since. No bugs, no screaming noises. The card is always generating sound 24/7 for 3 years—even when I sleep, on rain/wind sounds I run on the KRKs—and the card just works flawlessly, nonstop, with astonishing sound quality.
 
I'm preparing backups to install Windows 10 this week and I will let you guys know if I start getting any problems, since on Windows 7 I have never had any.