No digital audio output with Asus Xonar DG

I've purchased an Asus Xonar DG as replacement for faulty onboard audio in a Medion 8822 as it has an optical output which is all I really need to feed my HTPC.

I uninstalled the previous drivers/devices, switched the PC off, inserted the Asus card, powered up, disabled the onboard audio in the BIOS, then installed the driver that came on the CD (same version as on Asus' website as of today) and everything went perfectly - no errors.

I set the audio devices up in Windows and in the Asus utility (SPDIF enabled, 6-ch audio) as I would expect to see them work, but the only thing is I have no digital audio from test tones within Windows/the Asus utility, PCM audio or Dolby Digital from DVD. Analogue audio is fine.

I've uninstalled things and reinstalled a couple of times now, as well as trying almost all combinations of analogue/digital outputs but can't get it sorted.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get this working? This card has just been released so there isn't much out there to go on.

Notes:

The light on the toslink port is lit.
OS is Vista 32-bit SP2 and all up to date, pretty much a fresh install with almost no 3rd party applications installed
This page seems to suggest that a digital output device in Windows is not needed with Xonar cards as it was with the previous Realtek so I have it set to Analog. The only other output device is S/PDIF pass-thru

Lunatik

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 4 973

I'm having the same issue, no SPDIF audio out at all. Don't know what to do. Tried everything possible. Tested cables and everything with my other device. Still no luck. – M_R_K – 2014-09-11T23:49:34.743

Answers

Had the same issue, solved it;

In the Xonar Audio Center, under 'Main', make sure SPDIF Out is TICKED and PCM is selected.

Hope this helps.

acidtwin

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 91

Thank you thank you thank you!!!! This is exactly what fixed it for me as well! – Eddified – 2017-12-18T00:00:31.033

that helped me out as well but I can't get sound on my 5.1. I think because SPDIF is only mono/stereo (correct me if I'm wrong). I could have reproduce the sound using my 5.1 home cinema then? – Dani – 2019-02-06T11:08:49.573

I had no digital signal but got spdif pass through activated and a peak while playing music or audio. I then opened the DG audio center. In the main area I clicked on "spdif off" located beneath this dropdown menu. After a second I got sound back.

I had a Xonar DG with Logitech z5500.

panda

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 11

All that I can suggest is to right click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and choose Playback Devices. From there, make sure that S/PDIF is set to enabled and possibly default.

Next, also you may want to check the cable is working ok - try it with another device, and more importantly, make sure that the device you are using with is enabled and working fine - on a friends AMP, we were trying to get it working for a few minutes before we figured that the S/PDIF port required selecting in a special menu and it is not on / detected automatically.

William Hilsum

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 111 572

1v As I mentioned in my finalnote, the Xonar cards seem to work differently to most other cards. Instead of having a digital output listed within Windows, they only have an analogue output but this is 'mirrored' to the S/PDIF based on the number of channels you select in the Asus utility.

Cable is fine, tested with an Xbox, as is receiver. – Lunatik – 2010-09-27T10:19:19.790

I would suggest still just double checking, in the playback devices, right click on a empty space and choose "show disabled devices", however, I have never dealt with one of these so cannot help you further - sorry. – William Hilsum – 2010-09-27T13:01:27.987

You might download and install the latest Asus Xonar DG Vista 7.12.8.1790 driver.

You can also try the patched and improved non-official version of the driver in
ASUS XONAR Unified Drivers 1.11 & ASIO 1.0 patch

Take normal precautions to be able to rollback the driver change, such as creating a system restore point.

harrymc

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 306 093

The card is new to market (mid-August) and there is only one version of the unified Asus driver that supports the DG. The unofficial driver fails to recognise the DG during install and forces the installation to exit. – Lunatik – 2010-09-27T10:21:21.690

For a new card, why don't you get help from Asus Support (http://support.asus.com/) ?

– harrymc – 2010-09-27T10:40:34.013

Have done that, they're as stumped as I am and suggest it might be faulty, but gave no assurance that another wouldn't be exactly the same. – Lunatik – 2010-09-27T10:47:20.113

It wouldn't hurt exchanging the card, unless that means that you can't be reimbursed. – harrymc – 2010-09-27T12:54:07.080

Tried card in another PC, working fine. Given up now tbh. – Lunatik – 2010-10-04T05:44:10.627

I'm just taking a wild stab here, but if you have only tried test sounds, it could be that the optical link isn't sending data for long enough for the HTPC to initialize the sound.

This might not be relevant to all devices, but with my Logitech Z5500s (I know, I know, boooo) they take about a second of audio playback with optical before you actually hear anything.

I'm just thinking that if you've only tried test tones, that could be the problem, if you've tried music or something, completely disregard this.

Azz

Posted 2010-09-23T20:22:18.677

Reputation: 3 777

"..I have no digital audio from test tones within Windows/the Asus utility, PCM audio or Dolby Digital from DVD." :( – Lunatik – 2010-09-27T10:16:39.870