Hi MC - very many thanks for response.

I tried both cold and warm boot but no success.

I have checked the computer BIOS and spoken to HP (the computer supplier) and confirmed that there is no facility to disable the PCIe buses for power saving.

I have download and installed the latest drivers from RME.

Not really sure what to do next. Surely the computer ought to at least recognise that something has been added to the PCIe bus even if there is a fault on the card?

Daniel - As I mentioned above, unfortunately I do not have another computer with a PCIe bus nor do I know of anyone who does. And as my new computer refuses to accept that the card is even fitted, I have no idea of how to check what firmware version it is. I have fitted many sound cards to other computers with ease but I have now spent three days trying to get this one to work. I even had a Hewlett Packard technician today trying for two hours to work out what was wrong without success. Surely there must be a simple solution to this.

Daniel - I spoke to the HP technician yesterday when she was trying to solve the problem and she told me that HP had discontinued the BIOS PCIe power saving facility for their Windows 8 computers.

After a lot of searching (Windows 8.1 is new to me), I found a facility in Device Manager to force the computer to try and accept the sound card. Of course the whole system then crashed! It would appear that the system then created a lengthy error report which it sent to Microsoft but I am unable to find it on the computer - not that I am likely to understand it anyway! Oh well. Time to move on - we composers have to earn a living and I have given far too much time already to this issue. I will put the card back in its box and perhaps come back to it another day. My thanks to MC and Daniel for your advice and help.

Best Regards
Malcolm

Daniel - In the Device Manager, the "Action" menu usually has just one option - Help. But when I highlighted the "Sounds, video and game controller" section, additional options appeared in the Action Menu, one of which was "Scan for Hardware Changes". Having just checked, this is the same on my old Windows XP system. But on the new computer, what happened was that a narrative started to add a device. Clearly the system did appear to recognise that something new had been added. One of the options was RME and then I was able to select the right RME card. I then clicked "next" and it all went wrong! The uptodate drivers are on my system so it should have been able to find them.

Without going into too much detail, I live on quite a small island and the majority of people I know are like me, retired. While I will not say that technology has passed us by, few of my friends have a mobile phone (and neither do I!). Sending an email is a major triumph for many and I am considered to be one of the more computer-literate! Asking any of them to let me open their computer and mess around with it would be greeted with horror!

OK, there are computer 'consultants' on my Isle and I could go to one of them for help. But why should I go to that cost? I bought what is for me a very expensive item. Surely I have a right to expect it to work without having to delve into the complexities of computer hardware and software or to pay other people to fix it for me. I have carefully followed the instructions in the manual. I have even involved HP in trying to solve this problem. Why should I do more?

Daniel - You are right about shipping. I am in the UK (or rather "off the coast of England"!) and I bought the card as new from a reputable supplier in Germany via the internet.  I take all your points and am grateful for your advice. I will continue to puzzle away at the various issues raised by the failed installation and certainly have not completely given up hope - as I am sure you are well aware, on-board sound systems supplied with computers tend to lack the capability to cope with a full Symphony Orchestral in a DAW - so I do need the card!

If I do manage to solve the issue, I will of course report back. Perhaps someone else may be grateful for the information. Until then, I think we can close this thread. Again my thanks.

Best Regards
Malcolm

Daniel - there are three eight digit numbers on the card itself:

a. On the top of the card (where all the electronics are), next to "HDSPe AIO Made in Germany Rev. 1.4" is a bar code. Under the bar code is 23695933 (this number and bar code are also on the end of the white box that the card was contained in).

b. On the reverse of the card, next to a sticker that says "Quality Inspected Warranty Seal" is a 'square' bar code on another sticker with the number 25488484.

c. Again on the top of the card, on a 'square' bar code sticker, the number 25488283.

(Sorry, yet another edit!) Looking at the card, where it plugs into the PCIe socket on the computer, it is in two sections. On the back of the card, all the gold strips in both sections are the same length. But on the front of the card, one section has 11 gold strips all the same length. The other section of 7 gold strips has one strip shorter than the others. Is this normal?

Many thanks.

Until Monday!

Best Regards
Malcolm

Daniel - Very many thanks. That does narrow the issue down. I will have to see if I can pick up a cheap PCIe card locally and check out the two PCIe buses and then go back to HP and see what they can do.

Again my thanks for all your help.

Best Regards
Malcolm

Malcolm,

we could easily turn this around and declare the HP machine to be incompatible, as it is apparently unable to provide the card with a working environment... Other than the system's inability to disable PCIe power saving, and the possibility that it will even ignore the card's firmware signalling that no such thing is to be applied, I see no obvious reason for an "incompatibility", not considering defective hardware.

Have you tried all available PCIe slots?

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME