Asus Driver for Realtek Audio.

sandyt said:

Does the generic driver give you digital out?

Absolutely.

Then you are all set. I was afraid that you would lose digital out with the generic driver.

Pollensa1946 said:

My ASUS PC came with the ASUS Realtek driver installed, this also installs the Realtek Console, Sonic Studio and Sonic Radar. A recent auto update to Sonic Studio took place and immediately my analogue output to the desktop speakers was dead, the digital output to my hi-fi was OK. When Sonic Studio is started up it flashes a screen then aborts. So I uninstalled the complete package and tried a fresh download from ASUS, same problem. So downloaded a driver from the Realtek site...

Download Realtek HD Audio Drivers 2.82 – Realtek drivers download

This driver works fine and it does not install Sonic Studio or Sonic Radar, neither of which I am interested in. However, it also does not install the Realtek Console which is a nice to have. So, can you point me at a Realtek driver which includes the console and does not install Sonic Studio/Radar?

This R2.82 driver package is a traditional "legacy" HDA or non-UAD audio driver, Pollensa1946.
It contains version 6.0.1.8186 dated 6/14/2017, which was made a few years before the Z390 board came out

The ROG STRIX Z390-F Gaming board uses newer UAD/UWP drivers, which are in a different format than legacy HDA (nonUAD) drivers.

In order to use the Realtek Audio Console UWP app from the MS store, you need a Realtek UAD driver, not the HDA driver like R2.82 [hence there's a topic in this forum titled "Realtek Audio Console REQUIRES a Realtek HD (UAD) Driver"]. try using pal1000's unofficial Realtek UAD driver v6.0.8856.1, which is 100% WHQL certified by MS (all other versions that pal1000 made are not fully 100% WHQL compliant). You will need to completely uninstall the 2.82 version first before installing the 8856 UAD version.

Thanks. Following the occurrence of the problem I became aware and understood all of that from my research on the web and posts on this thread. The problem is that at the time the problem arose (immediately following updating Win10 to the January 1909 updates) I already had in place a fully working copy of the latest UAD drivers from the ASUS support site...

ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING Driver & Tools | Motherboards | ASUS United Kingdom

Despite that the problem of no sound on the analogue output arose and could not be cured. So I am reluctant to pursue alternative drivers from other sources, the UAD driver from ASUS does not work so whats the odds from other sources (see my post on hours spent cleaning up orphan files to ensure a clean uninstall).
Meanwhile I have raised the issue with ASUS via their support line. Waiting a reply.

- - - Updated - - -

erpster4 said:

... try using pal1000's unofficial Realtek UAD driver v6.0.8856.1, which is 100% WHQL certified by MS...

Many thanks. I bit the bullet and installed that driver and the Realtek Audio Console appeared also. All working. Bookmarked and I'll now sit this out until another fully WHQL level appears there.

Pollensa1946 said:

Many thanks. I bit the bullet and installed that driver and the Realtek Audio Console appeared also. All working. Bookmarked and I'll now sit this out until another fully WHQL level appears there.

Do you remember the exact nahimic auto update that cause you trouble? I felt like an idiot for not thinking that you can just update the a-volute nahimic software components by searching in Microsoft Update Catalog.

If you are able to install an UAD driver, the Realtek Audio Console and Sonic Studio 3 has been successfully then you can just go to Microsoft Update Catalog and update EVERY SINGLE driver + software components. It will take you multiple searches.

Search:
realtek 1903 media for the actual driver (newest is 8858)
realtek 1903 for the realtek software components (just find the one with the latest date 11.0.6000.742 realtek audio effects --- AND it has the OTHER 2 software components inside that file)

a combination of search terms like nahimic or a-volute (with or without 1903) will give you nahimic 3 APO (1.6.3.0) and Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer (10.38.41.588).

Run Microsoft Store to pull and update the realtek audio console app and the nahimic app.

sandyt said:

Do you remember the exact nahimic auto update that cause you trouble?...

No idea. The sequence of events ran like this...
Took delivery of new PC last May. It contained the ASUS driver pack of Realtek driver, the Audio Console, Sonic Studio and Sonic Radar.
August I updated to all the latest drivers, BIOS and utilities on the ASUS site, including the Realtek pack.
A few months later I decided to uninstall Sonic Studio & Radar as I had no use for them.
Late December I updated to Win 1909. Everything on the PC working OK.
Mid January there was MSoft update Tuesday, some updates to 1909. Also around that time I got a pop-up on Notifications saying "Sonic Studio updated" Other than thinking "Ehh, I uninstalled that thing" I did not think much about it as I was busy.
Shortly after I noticed no sound from the desktop analogue speakers. Investigation showed up the problem which started this thread.
I now have the UAD driver from Github, the console from the MSoft store, I don't want Sonic Studio/Radar and everything works. So happiness and I am much better clued up on Win10 audio.

The a-volute "software components" inf may have stayed in your computer's inf database even after you uninstalled the app. So that will eventually act up.

sandyt said:

The a-volute "software components" inf may have stayed in your computer's inf database even after you uninstalled the app. So that will eventually act up.

As I explained earlier I spent hours on cleaning out orphan files and Registry entries. So hopefully it will not arise again. The ASUS pack uninstall routines are clearly defective so I won't be installing any more ASUS audio drivers.

sandyt said:

The a-volute "software components" inf may have stayed in your computer's inf database even after you uninstalled the app. So that will eventually act up.

If that is true, use Driver Store Explorer (RAPR) to remove both the A-volute "extension" and "software components" [select the "Force Deletion" option in RAPR and click on Delete Driver to completely uninstall them]. Then uninstall the Sonic Studio & Sonic Radar UWP apps if they still exist.

I found not only the a-Volute but the other components like Nahimic left over, even after using IObit to uninstall once... and when that failed to remove Revo left the same parts.... I'm having this very same issue on my ROG Strix X570-F.... Something screwed up on an update to an audio driver and on trying to uninstall to reinstall nothing has worked right after. Almost exactly the same description of issues. Worse, It won't recognize the Sonic components anymore. My guess is due to the left overs it thinks they are already installed. Going to try this Driver Store Explorer and see if I can use this to help. (Rollback didn't even help...)

- - - Updated - - -

Well, found DTS was still hanging around, thanks to that nice little tool. After that was removed tried reinstalling the last posted audio updates from ASUS, 6.0.8751.1 and well what do you know.... it actually found Sonic Studio automatically once more, I had my ability to upmix stereo to to surround again... though I had to manually hunt down and install the worthless Sonic Radar (if I can ever get it to install...)

I just hate this driver version.... it tends to get distortions and noises from time to time during upmixing. It WAS at one point working fine with the 8899.1 unoffical then I HAD to try to upgrade it to the 8900... and all hell broke lose. (I need to remember the 'if it's not broke, don't fix' it saying...) It's kind of fixed for now.