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Firewire audiophile problem
 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-11 15:41 [#01839107]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



my soundcard problems are upsetting me, can anybody lends
me some helpful advice and/or a shoulder to cry on?

i bought a M-Audio Firewire Audiophile a few days ago, and
have been plagued with a problem since I installed it
through a PCI Firewire adapter card with 6-pin sockets so
the Audiophile is bus-powered (no mains). It seemed to
install fine, and I was using the divers off the CD, when
after about an hour of playing music through Winamp 5.09 the
sound cut out and the song stopped playing in Winamp, and a
DirectSound error was displayed. The clock in Winamp
disappeared, and the spectrum analyser fell away, and the
usually steady blue power light started flashing. Pressing
play on Winamp didn't do anything (seemed to ignore my
request), and music wouldnt play through any other program
either. Only restarting my computer or the soundcard
resolved the matter, till the next drop-out.

I tried updating the drivers from the website, swapping the
PCI slot my Firewire adapter is in, and changing which 6-pin
socket i'm plugging into and now the music stops playing but
isn't accompanied by a DirectSound error, and the blue light
on the Audiophile remains steady. When I press play on
Winamp after a drop-out now, the clock and spectral analyser
work for about 2 seconds, then disappear. Again, it resolves
itself after a restart.

I am running Windows XP Professional on an eMachines 610,
which has an MSI K7N2GML (MS-6777) motherboard with an
Athlon XP 2600+, 512MB RAM, attaching the Audiophile to a
Newlink IEEE 1394A PCI Firewire adapter.

I hope I included enough information for somebody to be able
to advise me what to try... would the performance with a USB
Audiophile be significantly different? I plan to use the
card for is playing music through Winamp, and using Reason
2.5 and Traktor 3.


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:07 [#01839385]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



no idea, could be a million reasons
guess you should get help from m-audio: customer support,
forums, whatever, and then probably reinstall windows


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:09 [#01839386]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to big: #01839385



that was very useful, thank you
*cries*


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:12 [#01839387]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



like, you checked for virusses?


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:12 [#01839388]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker



M-Audio aren't known for customer support, from what I have
heard. Try using the forum here. Someone will know
what to do.


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:13 [#01839389]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



yeah, i have 6 of them!

but AVG refuses to remove them.. its so stubborn.


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:14 [#01839390]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



delete them manually (go to file through avg, delete)


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:15 [#01839391]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker



Maybe its the firewire port that you installed. If that
isn't it, try taking it back to the shop and get something
else?


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:16 [#01839393]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to Taxidermist: #01839391



yeah, thats what i was thinking. i bought it from a crappy
printer shop in my backwater village.. the guy had a sly
smile, he better give me my money back the slimy toerag


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:16 [#01839395]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker



But Big is right about the first thing. It could be millions
of things. Its probly not a virus. Viruses are more likely
to attack your ram or internet stuff than they are a
soundcard you had just installed.


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:17 [#01839396]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



my firewire audiophile pops loudly sometimes, i think it's
the optical connection


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:17 [#01839397]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to Taxidermist: #01839395



i'm totally piddled off with this, tempted to go USB if
changing the firewire adapter doesn't help.


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:18 [#01839398]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker | Followup to leftblank: #01839393



Yeah. Its even harder with computers now adays, because if
you buy it from a large company, they have 100 different
ways around their own warranties, and if you buy from a
small company, they are most likely going to rip you off.


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2006-02-12 06:21 [#01839399]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker | Followup to leftblank: #01839107



Have you got service pack 1 installed? I seem to remember
that that added support for firewire interfaces, ports etc.
Although the fact that it works for a bit makes it seem
doubtful thats the problem.


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2006-02-12 06:22 [#01839400]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker | Followup to clint: #01839399



If you haven't got it installed though, def give it a try.


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:23 [#01839401]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to clint: #01839400



yeah, got SP2.

what would i lose by going USB?


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:24 [#01839402]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker | Followup to leftblank: #01839401



Bandwidth


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:28 [#01839406]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker



I'm going to point out something that someone once pointed
out to me. Companies like behringer and maudio are able to
produce products at very low prices because they use cheaper
components.


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:30 [#01839407]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker



SP2 might be the problem... a lot of these companies still
haven't written drivers for sp2


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:31 [#01839408]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i bought my firewire card cheap for 15 euro or so because
the ok shop recommended it


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:31 [#01839410]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to Taxidermist: #01839406



i bought mine from thomann in germany, so even lower prices.
but if i send it back its gonna be expensive. they're really
efficient though.


 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 06:31 [#01839412]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



i have sp2
this is going nowhere


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2006-02-12 06:33 [#01839413]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker



Might be some PCI port conflict thing? I have no idea what
that is really but it caused me problems when I was building
my PC a couple of years ago...

This is tricky - its equally likely that its a software or
hardware issue...


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:34 [#01839414]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker | Followup to leftblank: #01839410



Is it only winamp that causes dropouts? or does that happen
when you are making music?


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2006-02-12 06:35 [#01839416]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker



DirectSound - that DirectX related? You got the latest
update? Try going to run, entering DXDIAG and seeing if that
gives you any clues. Just off the top of my head.


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:36 [#01839417]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



haven't got round to that yet, but media player causes it to
drop-out


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:36 [#01839418]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker | Followup to Taxidermist: #01839402



bullshit


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:37 [#01839419]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to clint: #01839416



yeah i had a look in there.. ran the audio tests and it all
seemed fine. looks like my plan of action will be try a
different firewire card, and if no luck, send it back.

isn't technology ace?


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:38 [#01839421]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker



usb 2.0 has higher bandwith than firewire.

it's just more useful for external disks because it doesn't
buffer the data and has a constant data stream.

check out that one ucon cx
32 channels thorugh usb - and it gets realy good marks.

just don't go usb 1.1 !!


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:39 [#01839422]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker



oh and i would try to change the firewire controler to one
that has a texas instruments chip


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:39 [#01839423]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker | Followup to sadist: #01839418



bout what?

(if its about the maudio thing, I am not saying its bad, but
with music tools you get what you paid for. Its not like you
are paying for advertising like you are with consumer level
home theatre stuff.)


 

offline Taxidermist from Black Grass on 2006-02-12 06:40 [#01839424]
Points: 9958 Status: Lurker | Followup to sadist: #01839421



Crazy. I didn't know that :)


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:41 [#01839427]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



nice one, cheers people!


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:42 [#01839428]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker | Followup to sadist: #01839422



forget that one... if you had a bad controller it would
refuse working from the very beginning and not after one
hour.

seems more like a hardware problem for me. maybe it doesn't
get enough (or to much) power.


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 06:43 [#01839430]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to sadist: #01839428



does the same thing whether i have my mains adapter
connected or not.

this was before i realised i shouldnt have the mains
connected if its running off the bus


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:43 [#01839431]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker | Followup to leftblank: #01839427



i would definately stop using it and not try and try - as
you can see it's already getting worse.

if it's something with the bus power you can easily blow up
the whole thing.

so first - get some solution.


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:54 [#01839441]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker



http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/board/showthread.php?s=250bca0
e52123dde73163a4d61652a55&p=297227#post297227


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:54 [#01839442]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker



http://www.techsupportforum.com/sound-cards/85230-m-audio-f
irewire-problem.html


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2006-02-12 06:56 [#01839443]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker



oh my god... i'm really scared - i mean i wanted to buy a
m-audio interface for myself but when i see these forums i'm
really scared... i mean there are a few bugs and nobody has
a solution for it... bad luck


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 07:02 [#01839449]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to sadist: #01839443



yeah.. its really annoying, bad luck indeed.

looks like nobody has managed to solve this particular
problem, so its USB for me.


 

offline Dannn_ from United Kingdom on 2006-02-12 07:08 [#01839453]
Points: 7877 Status: Lurker



Probably won't help but this sounds similar to what happened
to me. I have a USB Quattro from M-Audio which did this when
I ran it through a USB hub, after a while using it the sound
would just stop and I had to restart (or later I found out
that changing the latency in the control panels also got it
going again). Stopped happening when I realised that I had
to directly plug it into the USB port.


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 07:44 [#01839480]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



whats a good USB2 replacement for the firewire audiophile,
with similar specs?

the m-audio usb audiophile? i'm a bit wary of m-audio now.



 

online big from lsg on 2006-02-12 07:51 [#01839485]
Points: 23729 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



maybe go to kvr or futureproducers or what forums?


 

offline leftblank from manchester/dublin on 2006-02-12 07:52 [#01839488]
Points: 462 Status: Regular | Followup to big: #01839485



cheers will have a look at those


 


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