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Armory Crate Ruining Wireless Bluetooth Sound Quality on ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO

Go to solution Solved by GuiltySpark_,
21 minutes ago, cleric_warlock said:

I installed armory crate to do driver updates...

This is where you went wrong. Garbage software that really can screw up your system with all the stuff it installs and changes. Its also entirely unnecessary for installing drivers, your motherboards support page is all you need and there are only a couple. 

 

The official uninstall tool that will remove far more of that software plague than just uninstalling it with the built in uninstaller: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1041654/#1-2. How to uninstall Armoury Crate

 

Even after running that you'll have leftover windows services that it adds.. its truly terrible.

 

 

I've been having a bit of a troubleshooting nightmare with my headset sound quality over bluetooth. Everything else is working perfectly fine including the hd audio outputs from the headset jack and spdif optical output. I'm running the aforementioned motherboard with an intel i9-12900KS cpu on windows 11. Initially I thought that something could be wrong with my my main bose nc700 headset so i decided to try headsets and speakers of different brands, and all had exactly the same audio problems my bose was having. Those issues are a total loss of sound directionality, drastically lower sound quality, interference, and sudden dips and fluctuations in volume. I've been using this video to test both sound quality and directionality: 

 

Spent quite a bit of time on ASUS support yesterday and it was looking like i would need to RMA my mobo so decided to mess around with my wifi/bluetooth antenna to make sure it was screwed in and well positioned. I turn my computer back on, and suddenly my bluetooth audio is as good as the HD audio I was getting from the hard outputs. Thinking my problem was solved, i called it a night. When I powered my system on this morning, the issues were back. Now doubting that it was my hardware, I wiped my boot ssd and did a clean install of windows 11. I let all of the automatic windows updates go through and said no to the prompt for auto installing armory crate. Watched the above video and my sound quality and directionality were perfect. I installed armory crate to do driver updates and such and tested the sound again after installing just armory crate and nothing else. All the problems came back. I went through the complicated manual process of uninstalling everything armory crate put on my computer and did a normal restart and suddenly my bluetooth audio quality was perfect again. Is there any way to use armory crate without these audio problems or is it better to just go without it?

Current PC:

  • CPU
    Intel i9-12900KS
  • Motherboard
    Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero
  • RAM
    Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6600 MT/s, 2 x 16GB, (CL32-39-39-76, 1.40V), CMK32GX5M2X6600C32 for gaming or
    G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5-6000 MT/s, 2 x 32GB, (CL30-40-40-96, 1.40V), F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K for heavy multitasking
  • GPU
    Aorus Xtreme Waterforce RTX 3090 TI
  • Case
    Corsair 7000D Airflow
  • Storage
    2 x 2TB WD Black sn850 SSDs
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1600W P2, Fully Modular
  • Display(s)
    34" 1900R Alienware AW3418DW Black, 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 240Hz
  • Cooling
    Arctic Liquid Freezer ii 420, Built in 360mm gpu rad, 7 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14's (4 used as full case fan set, 3 used to upgrade CPU rad fans), 4 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12's (3 used to upgrade GPU rad stock fans, 1 used to fill last remaining case fan slot)
  • Keyboard
    Fidio Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
  • Mouse
    Asus Rog Spatha X
  • Sound
    SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game DAC Wired Headset
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
  • PCPartPicker URL

 

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21 minutes ago, cleric_warlock said:

I installed armory crate to do driver updates...

This is where you went wrong. Garbage software that really can screw up your system with all the stuff it installs and changes. Its also entirely unnecessary for installing drivers, your motherboards support page is all you need and there are only a couple. 

 

The official uninstall tool that will remove far more of that software plague than just uninstalling it with the built in uninstaller: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1041654/#1-2. How to uninstall Armoury Crate

 

Even after running that you'll have leftover windows services that it adds.. its truly terrible.

 

 

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When using a bluetooth headset on windows, make sure to select the "stereo" device for output, not the "hands-free". Windows registers a bluetooth headset as different audio devices for media playback or voice calls, and you want to use "stereo" for media, "hands-free" for voice. 

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8 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

This is where you went wrong. Garbage software that really can screw up your system with all the stuff it installs and changes. Its also entirely unnecessary for installing drivers, your motherboards support page is all you need and there are only a couple. 

 

The official uninstall tool that will remove far more of that software plague than just uninstalling it with the built in uninstaller: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1041654/#1-2. How to uninstall Armoury Crate

 

 

Thanks for that link! the uninstall tool was totally buried. You'd think they'd bother to write better software for a mobo this pricey.

Current PC:

  • CPU
    Intel i9-12900KS
  • Motherboard
    Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero
  • RAM
    Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6600 MT/s, 2 x 16GB, (CL32-39-39-76, 1.40V), CMK32GX5M2X6600C32 for gaming or
    G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5-6000 MT/s, 2 x 32GB, (CL30-40-40-96, 1.40V), F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K for heavy multitasking
  • GPU
    Aorus Xtreme Waterforce RTX 3090 TI
  • Case
    Corsair 7000D Airflow
  • Storage
    2 x 2TB WD Black sn850 SSDs
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1600W P2, Fully Modular
  • Display(s)
    34" 1900R Alienware AW3418DW Black, 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 240Hz
  • Cooling
    Arctic Liquid Freezer ii 420, Built in 360mm gpu rad, 7 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14's (4 used as full case fan set, 3 used to upgrade CPU rad fans), 4 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12's (3 used to upgrade GPU rad stock fans, 1 used to fill last remaining case fan slot)
  • Keyboard
    Fidio Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
  • Mouse
    Asus Rog Spatha X
  • Sound
    SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game DAC Wired Headset
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
  • PCPartPicker URL

 

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12 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

When using a bluetooth headset on windows, make sure to select the "stereo" device for output, not the "hands-free". Windows registers a bluetooth headset as different audio devices for media playback or voice calls, and you want to use "stereo" for media, "hands-free" for voice. 

are those settings in device manager? i don't see an option to select that in the bluetooth device selection menu

Current PC:

  • CPU
    Intel i9-12900KS
  • Motherboard
    Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero
  • RAM
    Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6600 MT/s, 2 x 16GB, (CL32-39-39-76, 1.40V), CMK32GX5M2X6600C32 for gaming or
    G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5-6000 MT/s, 2 x 32GB, (CL30-40-40-96, 1.40V), F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K for heavy multitasking
  • GPU
    Aorus Xtreme Waterforce RTX 3090 TI
  • Case
    Corsair 7000D Airflow
  • Storage
    2 x 2TB WD Black sn850 SSDs
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1600W P2, Fully Modular
  • Display(s)
    34" 1900R Alienware AW3418DW Black, 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 240Hz
  • Cooling
    Arctic Liquid Freezer ii 420, Built in 360mm gpu rad, 7 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14's (4 used as full case fan set, 3 used to upgrade CPU rad fans), 4 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12's (3 used to upgrade GPU rad stock fans, 1 used to fill last remaining case fan slot)
  • Keyboard
    Fidio Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
  • Mouse
    Asus Rog Spatha X
  • Sound
    SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game DAC Wired Headset
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
  • PCPartPicker URL

 

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2 minutes ago, cleric_warlock said:

are those settings in device manager? i don't see an option to select that in the bluetooth device selection menu

I'm not sure about windows 11, but in windows 10 they're in the sound devices dialog, or if you have the speaker icon in the tray area, you can click it, then click the > next to the volume slider to change output device.

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11 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

I'm not sure about windows 11, but in windows 10 they're in the sound devices dialog, or if you have the speaker icon in the tray area, you can click it, then click the > next to the volume slider to change output device.

hadn't thought to look in that area, thanks! there was just 1 option for audio from my headset and tweaking options in the submenus didn't help either so i guess it's time to get armory crate off my computer now

Current PC:

  • CPU
    Intel i9-12900KS
  • Motherboard
    Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Hero
  • RAM
    Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6600 MT/s, 2 x 16GB, (CL32-39-39-76, 1.40V), CMK32GX5M2X6600C32 for gaming or
    G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5-6000 MT/s, 2 x 32GB, (CL30-40-40-96, 1.40V), F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K for heavy multitasking
  • GPU
    Aorus Xtreme Waterforce RTX 3090 TI
  • Case
    Corsair 7000D Airflow
  • Storage
    2 x 2TB WD Black sn850 SSDs
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1600W P2, Fully Modular
  • Display(s)
    34" 1900R Alienware AW3418DW Black, 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 240Hz
  • Cooling
    Arctic Liquid Freezer ii 420, Built in 360mm gpu rad, 7 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14's (4 used as full case fan set, 3 used to upgrade CPU rad fans), 4 x 120mm Noctua NF-F12's (3 used to upgrade GPU rad stock fans, 1 used to fill last remaining case fan slot)
  • Keyboard
    Fidio Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
  • Mouse
    Asus Rog Spatha X
  • Sound
    SteelSeries Arctis Pro + Game DAC Wired Headset
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
  • PCPartPicker URL

 

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2 minutes ago, cleric_warlock said:

hadn't thought to look in that area, thanks! there was just 1 option for audio from my headset and tweaking options in the submenus didn't help either so i guess it's time to get armory crate off my computer now

Well sounds like Armory Crate is messing with those options, so getting it removed is probably your best bet

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