Essence STX II ASIO Issue

IggyStooge

IggyStooge

IggyStooge

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Hello

I've posted this over in a recording forum hoping to get a solution but so far no luck so thought I'd try here too.

Basically I've had a new sound card (STX II) and its working great except for an issue in Ableton Intro 8. When I try to select the sound card as audio device I get the message "Failed to open the audio device Essence STX II ASIO(64)"

I was advised to uninstall the card and re-install which I've done but the problem remains. I'd very much appreciate any advice you can offer me. I'm on Windows 7 64bit.

Thanks

Iggystooge
 
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I used to use my STX for Ableton years ago now, but kept stumbling into ASIO issues.
I just went and bought a separate external IO device in the end. The Tascam US-1800, works a treat.
 
Just so you know I had an Asus Xonar D2X installed before, I don't know if that would cause any problems.

One thing I've noticed is when I right click on the Essence Audio Center it says Asus Xonar ASIO which as far as I can recall was what it said when the D2X was installed. Is this correct for the Essence?
 
I did attempt your solution robbobloke but couldn't get the command line to work, probably my fault. I have this afternoon re-installed windows 7 in the hope that a fresh start would fix the problem but it hasn't. Still getting the same "Failed to open the audio device Essence STX II ASIO(64)" At least I know it's not the old sound card drivers causing the problem. Any more ideas?
 
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The STX is already set as default. I've been onto ASUS and said I'm not very happy and they basically said use ASIO4ALL. So looks like I'll have to try that. Thanks guys.
 
I said to select a different device other than the STX in Windows control panel. Even in ASIO4All you will have this problem because it seems to need exclusive access to the card for ASIO to work.
 
Only other device in control panel is AMD HDMI Output and I can't select that. I've been told that ASIO4ALL only mimics ASIO and still uses MME drivers. If that's the case I'd prefer not to use it.
 
I'm currently using the sound card on another PC due to technical issues (with my main PC). This PC had the on board sound installed and I have gone to Sound>Playback and selected the HD Audio Device as default. This hasn't made any difference at all, I get the same message in Ableton as I did before. I've tried the UNi Driver and I get the same message. Thinking now I should just send the card back as it doesn't do what its supposed to do. What else is there to try?
 
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The last thing I can think of is to actually disable the ASUS Xonar Essence STX Speaker output in Windows Sound Control Panel. If your STX device disappears from the list after doing this, then right click on another device and tick 'Show Disabled Devices'. It should still be selectable as an ASIO device in Live even after disabling it in Control Panel. If you also install ASIO4ALL just to test it, then it will appear as a separate ASIO device in Live without messing anything up.

I actually loaded up Live and tested ASIO myself for you after not having done so for a long time and it worked without having to do anything in Windows Control Panel, but I'm using Windows 8.1 with the latest updates and Xonar Drivers.

Edit: actually, now that I think of it, my previous solution to getting ASIO working may have required disabling the output entirely rather than choosing another device. Damn, that would have saved us some time if my memory hadn't have failed me!
 
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Tried disabling STX along with everything else in playback devices and I still get the same message.

I installed ASIO4ALL and it showed up in Ableton but I selected it and couldn't hear anything when I played a few notes. I installed the trial of Ableton Live 9 thinking it might be a problem with Intro 8 but I get the same message so its not that. What about the recording devices option? Should they be enabled or disabled?
 
I don't think I ever messed with any recording options to get ASIO working (it wasn't working for me at one point) so I'm all out of ideas. I've only got the original STX rather than the STX II.
 
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