The Xonar D2X I recently bought would only output digitally – the analogue output was so very quiet it needed my Hi-Fi separates amplifier on maximum volume to just about hear it.

The fix was relatively simple – it was all down to the cheap and nasty floppy power connector socket on the sound card – which had moved forward of the pins resulting in a partial connection.   The white plastic “socket” needs sliding back over the pins until it can not go any further – the floppy driver power cable then fits much nicer.  I’ve even put a tie-wrap around it now to prevent it sliding forward.

Oddly, the card never told me the power wasn’t connected, so I guess at least one of the pins was making contact – enough for the card to believe it had full power anyway.  I suspect this was probably the ground connection it was detecting.

The flaw with the white plastic “socket” is that it isn’t anchored to the card – so when you remove the power supply you can slide it forward of the pins without realising.  Lets hope Asus fix this in some of their updated revisions, when they come out.

A quick review of the sound card while I’m here:

Pros: It sounds very nice.  Lots of features.  DTS/DD support is nice.

Cons: Its drivers feel bloaty and it’s EAX support is not hardware, but software.  I’m also noticing some sound glitches in games which I assume is the sound cards fault again.  STALKER: Clear Sky is particularly bad when a distant gunshot is produced.  The sound card clicks in and out of its digital modes as a sound channel is created and destroyed.  Why it can’t hold the DD or DTS on I have no idea.

Summary: Nice hardware ruined by rushed drivers – typical ASUS really.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 12:17 am and is filed under Gaming, Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.