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[terrym@tassie]

I've recently built a HTPC which includes an ASUS D2x soundcard and have been having issues with stuttering when using ASIO rather than WASAPI. The stutter occurs if any action occurs on the system (such as opening a browser window).
I have discovered that if I run MC19 as administrator the problem goes away and ASIO is quite usable under any normal system load.
Looking more closely using Process Explorer I discovered that when MC19 is run with normal user level the main process priority is elevated to High but the ASIO driver thread is set to very low priority 1.
When MC19 is run as administrator (check Run as administrator in compatability settings tab in the shortcut) to my surprise the main process is elevated to Realtime priority and the ASIO driver thread is set to High priority 16.
I've attached screenshots of Process Explorer illustrating this behaviour.
When using WASAPI MC19 main process never elevates above Normal process priority but the WASAPI thread is allowed a variable priority between 5 and 24 (I think this is controlled by the Multimedia Class Scheduler service).
So why don't I just use WASAPI? Well the ASUS unfortunately does not support sample rate switching in WASAPI exclusive mode and I am not a big fan of resampling either by the card or by MC.
I have been running in administrator mode without any problems (and sttutter free!) but I gather it generally considered "a bad thing" to have any application running at Realtime priority under Windows.
I have tested on MC 19.0.117, 121 and 125 with the same results, the HTPC is running Windows 7 x64.
I wonder if any other ASUS users could confirm what I am seeing?

[glynor]

Likely a driver bug.  Have you checked for updated drivers from ASUS?

[terrym@tassie]

Yes I am running the latest Cmedia ASIO driver. I don't think it is generally considered to be the drivers job to set application thread priority?
Edit: I've attached a screenshot showing the same driver being used with Cakewalk Sonar- thread priority is set to 8 not 1 as in MC19

[mojave]

See my thread from a couple months ago:
ASIO driver may require JRiver to be "Run as Administrator"

Try turning off User Account Control (UAC) in the control panel instead of running MC19 as Administrator.

[Awesome Donkey]

I rather run as Administrator rather than turn off UAC, honestly.

[terrym@tassie]

Thanks for the feedback- I had missed Mojave's post re: turning off UAC. I have opted to do just that as the system is a dedicated HTPC and is a well controlled OS environment.

I also agree with Glynor that this is almost definitely a driver bug- I see the same priority lift using FOOBAR in admin mode/UAC off (and stutter in user mode/UAC on).
 
I'm guessing that apps like Sonar and Ableton call the ASIO driver via Windows Multimedia Class scheduler which might insulate them from it's rogue behaviour.
I've also tried every available driver release (including the Unified Xonar releases) to no avail.

In fact I have opted for a mix'n'match of ASIO and WASAPI using zones in MC19.
I've set the ASUS D2x to 48khz sample rate as most of the time I'm viewing video when I use the ASUS card and use WASAPI for this sample rate (with MC19 at normal priority) and then use zone switch to change to ASIO for higher or lower sample rate material (at which point MC19 goes Realtime priority).
I've also got an SPDIF connected ARCAM DAC for "proper" listening

These ASUS cards are real "curate's eggs", pretty good HW for the cost with terrible idiosyncratic SW and drivers. Should have done my pre-purchase research more thoroughly

[astromo]

Likely a driver bug.  Have you checked for updated drivers from ASUS?

If this is the right card, then I'd say it's not really on the ASUS radar:
http://www.asus.com/Sound_Cards_and_DigitaltoAnalog_Converters/Xonar_D2X/HelpDesk_Download/

The latest info for Win7x64

Version 7.12.8.1794
Description    Xonar D2X driver for Windows 7

1. Fix playback issue when using Sequel2 with ASIO setting.
2. Fix GX version error issue.
3. Fix the error message "CmEnhance.exe stop working" may pop out during the driver installation.
4. Fix compatibility issue with "Call of duty:world at war".

2011.06.27

Not exactly hot off the press.

Their forum may bear fruit:
http://vip.asus.com/FORUM/topic.aspx?board_id=21&model=Xonar+D2X&SLanguage=en-us
Probably small fruit if it does. For your sake I hope it's a mango (or at least a Kiwi fruit) and not a single grape.

[Awesome Donkey]

Yeah, this 'issue' also affects the STX card I have too so I'm forced to run MC19 as administrator to workaround the skips when opening web browsers. However there's a couple 'side-effects' from doing so, e.g. the taskbar peek/hover controls don't work when running as admin.

[mwillems]

Yeah, this 'issue' also affects the STX card I have too so I'm forced to run MC19 as administrator to workaround the skips when opening web browsers. However there's a couple 'side-effects' from doing so, e.g. the taskbar peek/hover controls don't work when running as admin.

@Awesome Donkey - Have you tried using the unified Xonar drivers for the card?  http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/ .  They're third party drivers that include some bug fixes that Asus doesn't care enough about to fix.  Since most of the Xonar cards use similar chipsets, the drivers for the newer cards can be hacked and backfitted to the older cards, so you also get better support on modern operating systems/environments.

I have an Asus ST and an Asus DX and had terrible problems with latency, stutter, pops, etc. with the stock drivers.  All was fixed by the unified drivers.  The unified drivers also include a special "low latency" build that's even more stable (that's the version that solved my last remaining problems).  Definitely worth a try, the low latency build fixed literally all my xonar driver issues for me (although it sounds like it didn't work for terrym@nz).

[Awesome Donkey]

AFAIK, the Unified drivers use the ASUS ASIO driver so it probably won't make a difference. But seeing as I haven't used those drivers for 6+ months, I'll give them another shot and reply back with my results.

[mwillems]

AFAIK, the Unified drivers use the ASUS ASIO driver so it probably won't make a difference.

The Asus control panel software causes a lot of latency and drop outs by itself (over and above any actual driver issues).  The unified drivers have a version that runs without the control panel (the low latency version).  I can boot without the control panel and get nice low latency, no dropouts, etc., and then load the control panel and watch a latency monitor spike almost immediately.  If you haven't tried them, it might be worth your while.

Check out this chart for more info: http://maxedtech.com/uni-xonar-features/ . The stock driver and control panel introduce very significant latency which can manifest as dropouts, stutter, etc.

[Awesome Donkey]

Interesting, so far it seems to be working pretty good. Thanks!

EDIT: Scratch that, unfortunately I had to increase ASIO latency to 20ms because it stutters when opening Google Chrome.

[mwillems]

Interesting, so far it seems to be working pretty good. Thanks!

EDIT: Scratch that, unfortunately I had to increase ASIO latency to 20ms because it stutters when opening Google Chrome.

Well it was worth a shot. Does it still stutter with the higher latency setting?  If not, that's still potentially better than the stock driver.

[mojave]

My work computer has the Asus Essence ST and H6 daughter card. I use the Unified Drivers with ASIO output and haven't had any issues.

One thing I've noticed is that the lower the latency the hardware, the higher the ASIO buffer needs to be set in Options > Audio > Audio Device > Device Settings. I have to have it set to 250 ms for the Asus. The Asus Control Panel is set to 20 ms.

With UAC set to Never Notify the ASIO thread priority is set to 16.

Checking with UAC on now. With UAC set to Default, the thread priority is now set to 1. Double clicking on the thread causes it to stutter. However, I can't get any stuttering with opening closing programs, browsers, or anything else. It seems like if I'm going to get stuttering with ASIO, it is caused by browsers.

[Awesome Donkey]

Well it was worth a shot. Does it still stutter with the higher latency setting?  If not, that's still potentially better than the stock driver.

Had to up it to 40ms, same as with the official drivers - no noticeable skips then when opening browsers but I'm sure it'll still do it. That's the main reason I don't like to use ASIO but for me it's a necessity - when using (exclusive mode/event style) WASAPI webpages (like YouTube or anything that uses sound) in Google Chrome cuts out the MC19 WASAPI exclusive mode/event style audio which is very weird considering it's supposed to be running in exclusive mode/event style and the option to disable event style isn't checked.

[terrym@tassie]

One of the odd effects I found when using the unified Xonar drivers was that they no longer switched sample rate from the control panel (ASUS, Cmedia or Xonarswitch)- you can test by running these audio sweep files from http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_highdefinitionaudio.php.
If you set the card to 96khz SR using a control panel with ANY Unified Xonar release loaded and then run the 48khz sweep (96khz SR) the card produces audible aliasing at the end of the sweep, so at around 46-48k it produces an audible output. If you run the 96khz sweep (192k SR) then you will hear aliasing at around 46-48k and again at 94-96k.
Using the ASUS Windows drivers 1794 from the website (not ASIO) the control panel definitely switches sample rate eg if you set 96khz then there is no aliasing from the 48 khz (96k SR) sweep but audible aliasing from the 96khz (192k SR) at 94-96k. If you set 192k SR in the panel then the 96khz (192k SR) sweep runs silent as well.
This has been reported on the Unified Xonar forum but they weren't very forthcoming with a response.
I use the ASUS drivers with all panels and effects removed from the registry (so they don't start) and control the card using the Xonarswitch application (which has a nice profiles feature as well). This gives me a system latency during playback of 100us versus 400us when the control panels are loaded. I use the ASIO driver from the Unified Xonar 1.72 release (Cmedia rev 2.0.0.12)- just overwrite the ASUS cmasiop.dll (Cmedia rev 2.0.0.7) in the windows\syswow64 folder (for windows x64). The system latency during ASIO playback is 40us.

[jodokus]

Terry! You're my hero! I searched for ages for a solution for the asio stutter (Asus Essence ST) that drove me mad. Tried everything, from bios settings to playing with drivers and other registry settings. And now......it's solved!!! Fantastic!

[terrym@tassie]

You are very welcome- it's a very time consuming process chasing this type of problem-which is why I thought I would share what I had found initially.
 
Happily an even better answer emerged from other members' feedback. I've been running with UAC turned off without any issues or sstutter for some time now.

It is what is really good about this forum.

[jodokus]

I turned of UAC off as well in the registry key, works like a charm! I think Cavendish from Maxedtech and maybe Asus and Microsoft should be notified about your fix as well.