Fixing Asus Xonar U7 blinking LED issue

I got my hands on a Asus Xonar U7 pretty cheap used but sadly after using it for some time it didnt' work properly. After some research i found a video showing that if you touch a certain area of the PCB it will make the device turn on. So with my electronics knowledge i try to explain and fix the issue going on the Asus Xonar U7

[@81ElDuderino]

Thank you! Because of this video, I could fix my Xonar U7. The soldering on my U7 was rather bad so i could simply take these off the board with a tweezer and a little force. Works flawlessly again!

[@ivanjmg]

You are my hero today, finally i know what's happening to my sound card, regards from Spain.

[@rillucrocodilu5117]

Saved me from throwing away this card.Thanks man!!

[@bansh3ee]

my old Xonar U7 was sitting in my drawer for 4 years and you just saved it. didn't even need to heat anything, sharp point metal tweezers from the fixit kit were enough to gouge those resistors out with ease and zero damage. damn.

[@decee1157]

Amazing to hear! Hopefully it will work longer than mine did!

[@androidgameplays4every13]

@@decee1157 How long did yours work?

[@vladyslavberdnikov4485]

The card start working after deleting of these capacitors, but now I hear "usb device connected" sound every 5-10 sec

[@madd5]

LOL It works! I just removed those two capacitors and everything is working perfectly! Thanks a lot!

[@s8wc3]

I added a 3.3k ohm resistor between pin 1 (oscillator drive signal) of the CM6632 chip and ground, seems reliable for now even when chilled with freeze spray. I think the transistor in the chip is really weak and unable to pull the line low so this gives it a hand to cross the low threshold.

[@decee1157]

Interesting! I need to try that out!

[@lievenvv]

Thanks!! Worked for me :)

[@ph1f1]

Just removed the left capacitor and it now starts instantly again. Before that, i tried to plug it in on different USB ports on my mainboard. Some worked, some didn't. It seemed like the newer Usb Ports with Usb 3.1 worked while older versions of Usb didn't. Maybe this information helps others.

[@FerdiAtay]

Thank you, ı had the same problem ı solved the the problem this video. it worked , echolon series is mine

[@decee1157]

Glad to hear that i helped you fix it.

[@jayfrog5446]

Hello there and thanks a lot for the video. I removed both as you've shown and it worked. Does it still work for you after some time has passed? Thanks!

[@Nick-i-for]

I have the same problem with the U5 (it turns on with a warm-up hair dryer). Can you tell me if it is possible to solve the problem of U5 in the same way by soldering the capacitors?

[@decee1157]

Gave up on mine. The IC is broken. Not worth spending energy on, specially an U5

[@shenkabtc8685]

still working?

[@decee1157]

Mine sadly stopped working again after some time. I've done a lot of hacking, changed the crystal, modified the load capacitors, removed the resistor parallel with each CLK pin, using external generator for clock, measuring different power rails and haven't found anything that would fix it. I even went as far as contacting Asus. Ofc companies don't give a damn and wont tell the actual difference between the "MK1" and MK2 I managed to get to a state where i can put the soundcard into the fridge for 10 min and reproduces the issue What I've concluded doing my debugging is it is indeed related to the IC and not the crystal. If heating either of the top edge corners of the IC the circuit will start operating again but not as easy to reproduce if heating in the bottom of the IC Buying a new IC is just so expensive so i sadly is out of ideas and might give up on mine. I've gone though multiple pictures of the MK2 and the old version and have not been able to find any obvious difference

[@androidgameplays4every13]

I will never buy an ASUS product again, that's for sure.

[@AtikBayraktar]

I tried this, removed both of them with force, its not broken further but its still blinking... I'm using hair drier to heat it up to function again. I may buy U7's mkii version (I hope this problem does not exist on that)... after all these years no usb multichannel dac out there to top this on price/performance. edit: btw mine has passed the method of just touching on quartz to function several years ago.. now it needs hot air to work. maybe thats why this method didnt work on my device.

[@decee1157]

Hmm This might actually explain a bit about the issue, that the capacitive load might not be the issue but rather that the crystal actually is poop quality and have to be replaced in order to fix it for some people. Sucks to hear that it was not resolved by using my method. My initial thought of why the hotair works is that the crystal frequency have drifted over the years and as those crystals are sensitive to the room temperature then by blowing hot air onto the crystal it changes the frequency which causes it to start up.

[@AtikBayraktar]

@@decee1157 well nevertheless we are narrowing the issue down. how can I be sure that they didnt use the same problematic quartz in mkii version? last thing I want is to have that issue again after seevral years on a new mkii if I ever have to purchase.

[@decee1157]

@@AtikBayraktar I'd say they made a mkii for good reasons. It would be weird if they made a MKii and didn't solve that issue

[@SonnietheOne]

i have an u5 and i have this exact same problem, this shit only works if you put some heat on it

[@SonnietheOne]

funny thing is i didnt find anyone with this problem on the u5

[@s8wc3]

The Mk2 uses the CM6632AX chip instead of just CM6632A, I guess it's the same chip but with the issue fixed. And Asus decides that's worth calling it "Mk2", lol

[@kcyeung2580]

temp low still not work ,

[@ukaszswadek3466]

Hey. You need to try reflowing the CM6632A DAC. These two points [capacitors / reflow] will bring this sound card back to life. In the past I had the same problems like you.

[@user-kp5ht6jo1l]

当你移除这两个之后，冷却一段时间后仍然无法识别。但加热后仍可以正常使用，所以我认为你的判断不准确，应该尝试更换晶振。

[@decee1157]

Hello. I have actually also faced issues with my soundcard not working again after some time. After 7 months it started with not wanting to work unless i replugged my USB. I actually was considering replacing the crystal but before doing so i was going to try measuring the frequency as i was curious how much it had drifted

[@idilov]

Hadn't used it for years and today it didn't start (June 2023). Removing capacitors didn't work; warming with hair dryer worked. I write this just for statistics.

[@decee1157]

I've actually done some digging on the problem on another product based on the same chip and concluded that it is indeed the main chip. Nothing really to do about it. It seems like the only solution is swapping the chip. But as always thy are also really hard to get.