# I've been having a lot of different driver issues



## Tiplo (Feb 2, 2014)

To the point I'm starting to think it's something hardware related but I'm gonna post my issues here and see what you can make of them.

I have had them since upgrading to Windows 10 (A clean install)

*First*

About three months ago I had this weird sound from my speakers coming from the back audio jack when I powered off my computer. It only lasted a few days and disappeared. You can hear the noise here. https://soundcloud.c.../computer-noise

*Second*

Recently I noticed when I installed the audio driver off Asus website for my motherboard I get louder sound on the left ear than the right. This problem went away when I uninstall the driver but it still worries me since it's also audio related
* 
Third*

My PCE-AC68 causes me to bluescreen at random times. I can have the card installed without the driver for the card installed without any issue while I use my D-Link DWA-140. But if I only use my PCE-AC68 (with any of asus' drivers) I will get BSOD sooner or later. Could take anywhere between five minutes or eight hours but my computer will eventually crash. I've had the card replaced by the retailer and it didn't help.



I made a thread about that issue here http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f299/driver-causing-bsods-regularly-1078802.html

I would appreciate any help 


My hardware

*CPU*
Intel i7 4770k

*Motherboard *
Asus Maximus VI Formula

*RAM *
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1866MHz

*GPU* 
Asus Radeon R9 Fury Strix

*Case*
Fractal Design R5

*Storage* 
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB

*PSU *
Corsair AX 750

*WLAN*
Asus PCE-AC68
*
Display*
BenQ XL2420Z

*Cooling*
Corsair H100i

*Keyboard*
Logitech G710+

*Mouse*
Logitech G400

*Operating System* 
Windows 10 Home


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

That card does seem to have a lot of issues for a heck of a lot of its users... I looked at the reviews over at NewEgg, and most of those with issues stemmed from the driver, and from the 5 GHz band not working well... plus a few with disconnecting issues.

Those who mention success while using Windows 10 either
1) used whatever Windows 10 installs when it detects the card on a system, or 
2) used ASUS Windows 10 driver 2.0.8.8 (a non-beta version)
3) used a Windows 7/8 version of the ASUS drivers.
4) used drivers from Realtek, I believe the chip was RTL8192CE-VA4

Using the drivers on the install disc that comes with the card seemed to be bad news for anyone using Windows 10. Evidently those drivers don't work (for many users, anyway).

If you haven't yet tried any of the four steps mentioned above, see if any of those methods helps.

I've also noticed that if your router is AC capable, you might want to set the connections on that PC to "ac" (rather than "n") in the Device Manager Properties settings for the card ...

Let us know if none of this helps. It sounds like the card works very well in some systems (after all, it should for the price... it's high-end). Let's hope for success.


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## Tiplo (Feb 2, 2014)

OldGrayGary said:


> .



Very nice reply. You certainly got a much better handle on this than me.

1) Windows 10 doesn't automatically install drivers for the AC68. Probably because I have a norwegian/european Windows 10. The european drivers are a little different I gather.

2)I tried that driver and every other single driver on the asus site. Even a broadcom driver from lenovo that worked but capped my bandwith so that's a no go. 

3)I'm gonna give that a go but I'm not optimistic. Seems whatever driver I'm using it crashes.

4) I've looked up the chip on realtek's site. Doesn't mention any 802.11AC support. Only N support. Then again I'm not all that tech savy and I'm probably missing something. I'll look it up again when I have more time.

At any rate if nothing works I'll probably break out my Windows 7 cd and get rid of Windows 10.

And again I really appreciate the help here.


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi again

I posted the Realtek info based on a customer review over on NewEgg - but when checking up on info for your card this morning (on the ASUS site), I see that it is based on a Broadcom chipset. I've also seen notes on some networking tech sites that their "TurboQAM" features operate best (and possibly only) when used in Broadcom to Broadcom communication (Broadcom router to broadcom nic).... But your Asus adapter should work reasonably well regardless of the chip used in whatever you are connecting to (there are basic standards, after all).

An interesting point that I saw while over at the ASUS site is that the European versions of the card have different drivers & utilities than the rest. Depending on which "SKU" your card is, you might do better with an exact-match driver. I imagine you've visited their site a lot lately, but here's a link to their utilities/driver page which serves downloads for all versions. Note that these are listed under "Utilities" ... but in the details for the download, you'll see that some are "drivers only" (probably a little bit of translation awkwardness...) 
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/PCEAC68/HelpDesk_Download/

The one that looks promising to me is the EU-only version at the top of the list *ASUS PCE-AC68 Utility 2.1.1.5* .... it does recommend uninstalling any previous drivers/utilities before installing the new. It is from December 15, 2015, so it's reasonably up-to-date.

Hope it works


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

The first one here is mean to be for EU only https://www.asus.com/us/support/Download/11/1/0/54/5nt5Va5YcRysaXrr/45/


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

P.S. ... Hi there, joeten, looks like we were typing at the same time


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Sure does, I see we both got the same result.


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## Tiplo (Feb 2, 2014)

I've tried all those drivers. Even with and without EU SKU. I don't even know what SKU means. 

But I tried purging my computer of network drivers and installing the newest AC68 driver again. Didn't work. So I'm in the process of installing windows 7. See if I get the same issue then. 

But the AC68 did work fine with windows 10 for a while though when I first got windows 10. So I'll see.


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hope it goes well back in Windows 7. Driver issues aren't uncommon during the first year of the release of an operating system, so if it's fixed before July 29, 2016, you can still upgrade for free then.

And, just as word trivia: "SKU" is similar to "UPC" ... they are specialized codes for inventory tracking. SKU = "*s*tock *k*eeping *u*nit". UPC = "*u*niversal *p*roduct *c*ode". UPCs tend to be barcodes. SKUs tend to be alphanumeric strings. The connection to drivers and operating systems = these vary by region, so that drivers for one region might be quite different than those for another region. The place of manufacture is generally one of the pieces of data in the code.


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## Tiplo (Feb 2, 2014)

OldGrayGary said:


> Hope it goes well back in Windows 7. Driver issues aren't uncommon during the first year of the release of an operating system, so if it's fixed before July 29, 2016, you can still upgrade for free then.
> 
> And, just as word trivia: "SKU" is similar to "UPC" ... they are specialized codes for inventory tracking. SKU = "*s*tock *k*eeping *u*nit". UPC = "*u*niversal *p*roduct *c*ode". UPCs tend to be barcodes. SKUs tend to be alphanumeric strings. The connection to drivers and operating systems = these vary by region, so that drivers for one region might be quite different than those for another region. The place of manufacture is generally one of the pieces of data in the code.


I borrowed a usb cddrive from work and got it installed. Been running fine while updating and has been up for three hours now without issue. Hopefully I'm finally done with this.

Ah I see. I definitely double checked that I had the EU SKU before I downloaded. :whistling:


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Sounds good.

(Let us know if things go haywire again ... that would likely point to hardware ...)


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Good to hear.


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## Tiplo (Feb 2, 2014)

OldGrayGary said:


> Sounds good.
> 
> (Let us know if things go haywire again ... that would likely point to hardware ...)





joeten said:


> Good to hear.


 Yeah I'm gonna give my computer a clean bill of health for now. I'm very relived I don't have to deal with more RMAs. 

Thanks for all the help guys. :thumb:


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