asus essence stx 2 causing system restarts/blue screens? possibly new dac recommendation?

[Nexus18]

Long story short, ever since doing a clean install of windows 11, I've been getting restarts of windows when starting for example discord (you hear the clicks of the soundcard changing or whatever that clicking noise is) and tonight I had the first blue screen which give me the error:

STXII.sys failed

So not sure why this has started to only happen after a fresh install of w11?

I've tried the official drivers and also the uni xonar drivers and still same issues.

Any ideas?

I'm considering maybe even getting rid of the soundcard and possibly just get a DAC? Any recommendations, don't want to spend too much so anything that would offer comparable sound quality. It's being paired with edifier rt1600 active stero speakers.

 

[Timber]

I've never owned an Essence STX/STXII - so can't offer any advice on how to stop it misbehaving in Windows 11. I know it's a decent Soundcard so there may be an argument for trying to fix it albeit I'm not sure how hard that would be.

If going external DAC/AMP - what's the budget?

As for DAC/AMP recommendations I think the obvious usual candidates; Topping DX 3 Pro + (£200), Fiio K7 (£190), iFi Zen DAC V2 (£200; these do seem to have increased in price). I currently own the Fiio K5 Pro (£150) and S.M.S.L C200 (£175) and think either of these are also likely in the same tier as the above. Not every single one of these are exactly the same in terms of features; i.e. the iFi Zen DAC doesn't have optical input, the Fiio K7 can do balanced headphone output etc). None of these recommendations have microphone input, just plain, straight up stereo DAC/AMPs. There's also something new from Fiio called the K11 (£120) which appears to be getting good early reviews and a rep confirmed in the first of their new replacements, so this replaces the K5 Pro. This might be a very good budget option. Certainly one to keep an eye on.

If the budget is £100 or below, I think it's going to be things like the Fiio K3 (I can't find a good price on this one, should be £90), Creative Labs SBX G6 (£90; will require drivers for all the software features like surround sound & does have mic input) and potentially the Topping DX1 or iFi Uno (smaller,cheaper well reviewed DACs).

If the budget is more than £250 then separate DAC & AMP units starts to become an option.

Most of the above are all plain DAC/AMPs. There are going to be other options from Creative if you want more software/gamery features. But hopefully that's a good starting point.

 

[Nexus18]

Yeah the essence stx 2 issue is very weird since it's only started happening with a clean install of w11 and not before especially when it's not exhibiting any issues outside of starting up dc (and even then it's not 100% always going to restart the pc here either)



Thanks for the variety of recommendations there, ideally would like to keep it to as little as possible and to the point I wouldn't notice much, if any difference to what I currently have (I'm not an audiophile so probably wouldn't notice if there was a slight drop tbh). In terms of connections:

- I don't use a mic
- I have got AKG K612 PRO headphones (although don't use at the moment but be nice to have the option to if this changes in future)
- speakers are wrong in my op btw, I have Edifier R1600T Studio Plus 2.0 Monitors (which are my main speakers for use)

In terms of sound setup/settings I use/prefer, I always go with the most accurate/natural setting so with the essence stx 2, I use the hi-fi eq/setting (and have bass on my speakers quite low)

Would prefer something without having to setup any drivers on windows.

 

[Timber]

Yeah the essence stx 2 issue is very weird since it's only started happening with a clean install of w11 and not before especially when it's not exhibiting any issues outside of starting up dc (and even then it's not 100% always going to restart the pc here either)



Thanks for the variety of recommendations there, ideally would like to keep it to as little as possible and to the point I wouldn't notice much, if any difference to what I currently have (I'm not an audiophile so probably wouldn't notice if there was a slight drop tbh). In terms of connections:

- I don't use a mic
- I have got AKG K612 PRO headphones (although don't use at the moment but be nice to have the option to if this changes in future)
- speakers are wrong in my op btw, I have Edifier R1600T Studio Plus 2.0 Monitors (which are my main speakers for use)

In terms of sound setup/settings I use/prefer, I always go with the most accurate/natural setting so with the essence stx 2, I use the hi-fi eq/setting (and have bass on my speakers quite low)

Would prefer something without having to setup any drivers on windows.

I can see other users struggling with the STX with Windows 11 and on one forum the suggestion is a Windows Update had caused an issue (sounds similar to your situation).

To me it sounds like the iFi Uno may be adequate for what you need. £80, RCA outputs for the speakers (I have the same ones btw - got them in a cheap deal on Overclockers years ago), headphone output, USB powered and given you don't have any uber hard to drive headphones will be fine with the AKGs. Very small and unassuming device, although definitely check out some Youtube/Reviews of it.

I don't know how the sounds will be compared to the Essence but I'd wager it'll probably be indistinguishable or better. Personally I'd be tempted to pay the extra for the Fiio K11 (again very new) to have the extra power, slightly better specs, external power supply. But I do love the Fiio DAC/AMPs I've owned previously. Most Fiio DAC/AMPs recommend their own Windows 10/11 USB Drivers for full UAC 2.0 support (I think it's to do with ASIO, higher PCM sample rates and any software features). My Fiio K5 Pro will work with the default Windows 11 UAC 2.0 driver, although it's been a while since I've run it this way (My recent SMSL C200 also has USB drivers but I haven't installed them and Windows 11 has been fine so far).

 

[Nexus18]

I can see other users struggling with the STX with Windows 11 and on one forum the suggestion is a Windows Update had caused an issue (sounds similar to your situation).

To me it sounds like the iFi Uno may be adequate for what you need. £80, RCA outputs for the speakers (I have the same ones btw - got them in a cheap deal on Overclockers years ago), headphone output, USB powered and given you don't have any uber hard to drive headphones will be fine with the AKGs. Very small and unassuming device, although definitely check out some Youtube/Reviews of it.

I don't know how the sounds will be compared to the Essence but I'd wager it'll probably be indistinguishable or better. Personally I'd be tempted to pay the extra for the Fiio K11 (again very new) to have the extra power, slightly better specs, external power supply. But I do love the Fiio DAC/AMPs I've owned previously. Most Fiio DAC/AMPs recommend their own Windows 10/11 USB Drivers for full UAC 2.0 support (I think it's to do with ASIO, higher PCM sample rates and any software features). My Fiio K5 Pro will work with the default Windows 11 UAC 2.0 driver, although it's been a while since I've run it this way (My recent SMSL C200 also has USB drivers but I haven't installed them and Windows 11 has been fine so far).

Yup I seen those too but apparently that was the 22h2 update that had the audio stop working entirely (which got fixed by a windows update supposedly), weirdly I didn't encounter this problem though



Thanks again for the info and recommendations, I've done a few changes to windows 11 so will see how things go but if the restarts/bluescreens start again, I'll go with one of your recommendations, sounds like either the iFi Uno or Fiio K11

 

[Timber]

Yup I seen those too but apparently that was the 22h2 update that had the audio stop working entirely (which got fixed by a windows update supposedly), weirdly I didn't encounter this problem though



Thanks again for the info and recommendations, I've done a few changes to windows 11 so will see how things go but if the restarts/bluescreens start again, I'll go with one of your recommendations, sounds like either the iFi Uno or Fiio K11

Good luck - given that it sounds like you're happy with your setup it probably would be good to sort it. Maybe some other Essence owners on Windows 11 do chime in at some point.

Yea I think your use case is quite easy to meet and therefore a budget offering with RCA/headphone output will probably work well, if you have to replace the soundcard.

 

[JasonM]

Yeah the essence stx 2 issue is very weird since it's only started happening with a clean install of w11 and not before especially when it's not exhibiting any issues outside of starting up dc (and even then it's not 100% always going to restart the pc here either)

It's possible it's software only issue.

Have you tried disabling completely the on-board audio in the BIOS?

I presume you used the Asus 64bit Windows 11 drivers?

 

[Nexus18]

It's possible it's software only issue.

Have you tried disabling completely the on-board audio in the BIOS?

I presume you used the Asus 64bit Windows 11 drivers?

I have not, will do that over the weekend. Since changing some things in w11, it hasn't happened again since but it's so random so may still happen....

And yes used them and give the xonar uni drivers a go too (still have them installed)

 

[JasonM]

The other thing to try.

Disable any parts of the Asus STX II that are not in use. For example, disable SPDIF passthrough device, disable front line output, disable microphone. Leave the card so it's only sound options are on the Speakers (RCA outputs).

Also Asus control panel disable SPDIF out put (uncheck it).

Also restrict the card to 24bit 48Hz (it sounds better as the DAC has lower THD in this setting).

Set Speakers (Asus Essence STX Audio Device) as default for audio.

In other words, your setting your audio to only output from the cards rear RCA's and disabling anything else.

 

[Nexus18]

The other thing to try.

Disable any parts of the Asus STX II that are not in use. For example, disable SPDIF passthrough device, disable front line output, disable microphone. Leave the card so it's only sound options are on the Speakers (RCA outputs).

Also Asus control panel disable SPDIF out put (uncheck it).

Also restrict the card to 24bit 48Hz (it sounds better as the DAC has lower THD in this setting).

Set Speakers (Asus Essence STX Audio Device) as default for audio.

In other words, your setting your audio to only output from the cards rear RCA's and disabling anything else.

Good shout!

Will do all that tomorrow and report back, thanks.

 

[JollyJamma]

Had the same issue with a different ASus soundcard on AMD with Windows 11.

Asus stopped developing any drivers for the sound card ages ago and it worked fine in Linux but not in Windows. Ended up getting an iFi Zen DAC V2 second hand and haven't looked back, it's a fantastic sound card.

 

[Nexus18]

Had the same issue with a different ASus soundcard on AMD with Windows 11.

Asus stopped developing any drivers for the sound card ages ago and it worked fine in Linux but not in Windows. Ended up getting an iFi Zen DAC V2 second hand and haven't looked back, it's a fantastic sound card.

Yeah also read that it was an amd (on b450 MB) combined with w11 thing.

So far since doing @JasonM steps, not had any issues but still early days, that clicking noise when starting up dc or turning pc on from cold boot is gone now (which is when the pc would restart or bluescreen) so hopefully that's it sorted.