Z170Z Gaming 7 Audio Problem

[wiggly1uk2000]

It didn't make any difference for me

Oh well, worth a try!

[Elsie]

Whilst I have had the audio issue, it's not happened for a few days. I did try the switching between 2.1 and 5.1 but that didn't cause the issue. However, I am using the front panel jacks; not sure if when it happened the last time I was using my Rockat Kave headset plugged into the back panel ports. I'll try again tonight using the headset plugged into the back panel. 

[Saruman]

Front/back port is ininfluent for my system: the problem appears whatever port I use. The switch between 2.1 and 5.1 deactivates and activates the issue once onboard audio goes mad, before rebooting. And since the swith disables the issue, you can avoid to reboot anyway.

Now testing my system on beta BIOS F7r and 16-bit 44khz audio quality. It's been stable for the last four days. In the meanwhile, reports of the issue continue growing on Amazon and Newegg. On the former, you can read a lot of posts about distorted audio on Gaming 7 even as feedback to other motherboards: for example one guy gave Asus Maximus VIII Hero 5 stars on Amazon with the premise that he bought it after asking for a refund for a Gaming 7 having this serious audio issue.

I find quite shocking nobody from Gigabyte posted anything here for a premium product of theirs, while on the other side, a guy from Creative crew took notice of the problem when he read about it on Overclock.net forum and told all of us, up there, that he was going to inform their OEM guys and try to get in touch with Gigabyte to ask for clarifications. So, it seems that Gigabyte's terrible implementation of SoundCore 3Di - due to a bunch of faulty hardware (OP-AMP?) or, more probably, to bad drivers/software, especially on Windows 10 x64 - is becoming embarassing and unbearable for Creative too, because it makes one of their chipset appear a bad product while on the paper its specifications are really good.

[DC42]

Hey all,

So I am getting real annoyed over this. Just had to reboot and lost my sound again just like every other time. Going to try to post something at Creative (forum) and see what their response is if any.

DC

Hello...

I lose the on-board audio upon a reboot. Happens every time. Uninstalling the Creative drivers, reboot, install the latest drivers from the GB site (tried the disc' as well) but this has not resolved the issue. Pretty vanilla set up (more music orientated than games these days), web surfing, basic tasks etc..

Lost faith in Creative some time ago but never like Realtek audio so gave this a shot. If there are no immediate fixes will have to get a sound card.

F6 bios 12/16/2015. Any thoughts? Quality of audio once back up and rolling is good. Have some Klipsch 2.1's with sub so it sounds pretty sweet.

DC42

GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I56600K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 04G-P4-3967-KR 4GB SSC GAMING w/ACX 2.0+

Rosewill Capstone-G750, Capstone G Series 750W Modular Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI & Crossfire

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300)

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 256GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE256BW

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM

[Saruman]

DC42, your problem is really different from the one stated here by us others. Our problem is the distortion of the audio all of a sudden while playing.

It's a problem that is going on for a lot of Gigabyte motherboards based on Sound Core3Di, especially when running Windows 10. It's time Gigabyte takes its responsibilities and does something. Read the post of this guy in August 2015 on this same forum, with Sniper M5 (mounting Sound Core3Di) and listen to his audio sample, that it's the same garbled sound we have from time to time.

[DC42]

Yeah sorry just getting a bit frustrated. I opened a ticket with Gigabyte and we shall see how that goes. Creative would be no help as there was not even a good location in the forum to post. I'll follow this issue and wish you all the best. Any good news with mine I will create a new thread. 

DC42

DC42, your problem is really different from the one stated here by us others. Our problem is the distortion of the audio all of a sudden while playing.

It's a problem that is going on for a lot of Gigabyte motherboards based on SoundCore 3di, especially when running Windows 10. It's time Gigabyte takes its responsibilities and do something. Read the post of this guy in August 2015 on this same forum, with Sniper M5 (SoundCore 3di based!) and listen to his audio sample, that it's the same garbled we have from time to time.

[Elsie]

It's happening on my PC again right now. Tried switching between 2.1 - 5.1 but it makes no difference.

Gonna have to reboot.

[Saruman]

It's happening on my PC again right now. Tried switching between 2.1 - 5.1 but it makes no difference.

In my case, I must do that not only once, but a few times untill all magically come back normal (and appears again if I continue switching...)

[el jefe 77]

I too was having this issue and may still have it.  I updated to the beta F7r bios to see if that fixes it, but I think it may be a matter of time (other F7r users have reported it).  Under F6 bios, reducing the Windows shared sound output to CD quality seem to prevent it from happening or at least make it less frequent.   

Hopefully, if enough of us complain, we can get some sort of response from Gigabyte.

[ZedZedski]

Thanks everyone for replying and following up on this. It seems that this is a major problem and Gigabyte should recall all these motherboards. I'm in the same shoes as others mentioned here, using this PC build not only for gaming but mostly for work. Gaming is just a way to getaway for an hour or two and relax in the evening after work.

I guess Gigabyte will not do anything until people really start waking up and spamming them with e-mails about this problem.

In December when I bought Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 GPU I was about to return the GPU to the store for an exchange to a different brand and buy a new motherboard from ASUS or MSI. I regret now that I didn't. This is the first time I went with Gigabyte over the last 10 years. My first Gigabyte product was back in 2002. Since 2005 I haven't been buying anything from Gigabyte. I thought I will give another shot 10 years later but I guess this is the last time I'm buying anything from Gigabyte if this is how they are treating their customers.

[ZedZedski]

Same!

And guess what? This audio chipset isn't new to this ****: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb34Vamv9kw

This is the exact problem I get. Thank you for posting this video.

[ZedZedski]

So after having this board since September, 2015 I decided to sell the board. It was an annoying and frustrating 6 month with no solution to this problem from Gigabyte. So, I sold the board today March 27, 2016.
NO MORE GIGABYTE FOR ME.
Will be also selling my Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 soon, once the Pascal and Polaris is released. I don't think that I will go with Gigabyte anymore.

Thanks but no thanks.

[Leppermessiah]

Is this only affecting those who are using 5.1 audio or headphones?  I've never experienced this problem, but I have a 2.1 setup and use bluetooth headphones.

I think it's ridiculous that Gigabyte doesn't monitor their own message board.

[ZedZedski]

Is this only affecting those who are using 5.1 audio or headphones?  I've never experienced this problem, but I have a 2.1 setup and use bluetooth headphones.

I think it's ridiculous that Gigabyte doesn't monitor their own message board.

It is happening no matter what you use, headphones, 2.1 or 5.1 or even Optical.
Also, Gigabyte's BIOS is annoying. The mouse is laggy and from time to time the whole BIOS would crash for no reason at POST.
I just replaced my motherboard to ASUS Maximus Viii Hero and I regret that I did not go with that motherboard from the very beginning.
Gigabyte really need to learn first how to respond to their customers and find solutions for major problems to their products (just like ASUS does, just checkout Amazon comments section on their products). Moreover, Gigabyte need to find better software developers cause most of their software either is buggy or is not working as expected, not mentioning BIOS, where they can't even fix lagging mouse by a simple BIOS update (I used all available BIOS versions).
The reason I picked Gigabyte motherboard when I was building my rig was the Creative Audio chip. On the paper it is the best on the market but Gigabyte screwed it up and made it to be the worst. On my new ASUS motherboard the sound is so much better and no stupid crashing.

I'm glad at least that my Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 is not giving me any issues yet and works flawless. At least something from Gigabyte that works right.

[Saruman]

Asus Maximus VIII is a very good motherboard, but terrible for audio. Asus forums are really full of complaints about it because it emits pops and clicks now and then, so consider yourself a lucky boy if yours does not exhibit this issue, ZedZedski

I think MSI is the safest solution for Z170, at the moment: that's at least what I'm suggesting to friends of mine, lastly. It's a pity, because on the paper Gigabyte's motherboards are superior both to Asus and MSI. If it weren't for this terrible audio implementation...

(Oh, incidentally, it's true that the mouse in BIOS, on Gaming 7, is laggy, but only if you don't update the BIOS to latest release).

That said, I'm on my 18th day without no more a single problem with the audio on the Gaming 7 (*crossing fingers*). What did I change, you ask? Simple: I disabled ALL the Windows enhancements AND ALL the audio enhancements in Creative panel too, both for playing and recording (including Crystal Voice, alas).

Sure, audio quality is worse than with the enhancements on, but still good for my 2.1 speakers and my HyperCloudX headphones.

If it'll continue working fine in the future days, it means that the audio problem resides certainly in drivers (poorly coded by Gigabyte crew) and is not hardware-related.