• From: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Registered: 2012-02-13
  • Posts: 25

Topic: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

Worked fine through USB but I wanted to try FW. Have a Lacie FW800 (TI chip) with 800 to 400 cable. Installed and updated firmware and drivers via USB per instructions. Reconnected FW only. Windows 7 playback device set to SPDIF/ADAT (1+2) and it shows signal in control panel>sound>playback window. Optical cable connected to UCX SPDIF, faders/inputs as they were when connected via USB but no sound and no signal in TotalMix FX.

I've seen in other posts the recommendation to try both if one experiences pops/clicks so I assume there are no issues switching. Is there something else that needs to be done because of the switch?

I've been out of the recording loop for a while and I'm new to the UCX so perhaps I'm missing something simple. Any suggestions?

2 Reply by sandersd (edited by sandersd 2012-03-17 04:15:03)

  • From: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Registered: 2012-02-13
  • Posts: 25

Re: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

WOW! Started Cubase and reset the driver to reflect the FW driver (ASIO Fireface, not the USB Fireface) and I have signal and sound (from Windows Media Player) in Totalmix! Closed Cubase and still have sound. Please explain why the settings in Cubase affect the Windows playback when Cubase is not even running.

  • From: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Registered: 2012-02-13
  • Posts: 25

Re: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

Doesn't work again. This makes no sense. There is no reason I should not have sound unless the FW driver is just not working properly. I'm getting very frustrated and irritated. I'm going to bed.

4 Reply by sandersd (edited by sandersd 2012-03-17 15:10:35)

  • From: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Registered: 2012-02-13
  • Posts: 25

Re: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

Before I went to bed I switched back to the usb driver and everything works fine. I can only assume there is an issue with the firewire drivers for the UCX since W7 recognizes the card, reports no issues in device manager, and there is signal when playing back media. So the card seems to be functioning.

The next possibility is the 800 to 400 cable. Perhaps the cable is bad (unlikely - brand new) or there is some issue with the 800 to 400 transfer. This seems unlikely since FW800 is downward compatible. Also the audio worked fine in Totalmix for a bit before it quit.

Accordingly the likely scenario is the driver. My computer: Dell XPS8300, 16Gb RAM, quad-core processor, Lacie FW800 card w/ TI chip. As a curious side note, I noticed in the settings panel (from taskbar) there were a lot of fw errors counted. I wonder if that is normal.

I'd like to have the option of using FW. If there is anything else I can check, settings to change, suggestions to try, please advise.

  • From: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Registered: 2012-02-13
  • Posts: 25

Re: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

I'm sure you guys are busy but when you get a spare minute could you address the issue I've described above or should I contact support directly?

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
  • Moderator
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  • From: USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-21
  • Posts: 4,619

Re: UCX -Switched from USB to FW - now no audio

If you are getting errors counted in the settings panel then you definitely have a problem with FireWire on the computer. You should try a different cable, new does not mean 100% working. You should also try using the "Legacy" FireWire driver provided by Windows as described below.

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12742

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website