• Registered: 2018-04-21
  • Posts: 10

Topic: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Hi,
I was experiencing frequent loud machine gun from all the outputs, and after trying to power cycle, the continuous power on cycle with leds flashing. Following other threads' advice, I changed the internal power supply, which seems to have solved the power on cycling issue, but I still get the machinegun bursts every time I open a project in Cubase.
In other words.
-Interface on and working, sample rate 48 khz
-Opening Cubase, when it loads the ASIO driver, the burst occurs. Cubase defaults to 48Khz, so no sample rate change occurs
-Loading a project, new burst, even though the project is still 48khz, so no sample rate change occurs.
-Stability lasts for about an hour, after which, I experience ASIO overloads and pops.
-When closing Cubase a new burst occurs.
-Rebooting and powercycling FF brings us back to point 1, stable but bursting on Cubase/Project open.
System is x299 i9-7960x on windows 10, latest RME driver, off a PCI x4 TI-chipset FW800 card.
Problem occurs  both over FW800 and FW400, and with both Legacy and non-legacy FF chipset drivers.
Any suggestions? My only concern is safety for the speakers, as the machine-gun sound is broadband and VERY loud

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
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  • Registered: 2007-04-06
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Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Exchange the FW cable, and /or try different FW ports on FF800 and computer.

You don't need to reboot the FF800, simply reset the ASIO driver within Cubase. Or change the buffer size in the Settings dialog up and back down. Also in there try higher buffer settings and disable any WDM device.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

3 Reply by marcovalerio1 (edited by marcovalerio1 2018-12-22 07:11:04)

  • Registered: 2018-04-21
  • Posts: 10

Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Already tried different cables unfortunately and ports, I even switched computers, same story. I'll try the no-WDM scenario though. One more detail: when I change buffer size, it won't apply the new size if a project is open, I need to restart cubase or do it first thing when I open it BEFORE loading a project. Not sure if this helps. A sfar as buffer is concerned, I work at 512, so it's quite high for this system already

4 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

I have never encountered Cubase to not react on buffer size changes in realtime - that is strange. Unless a WDM record/playback is going on in parallel, then our driver blocks this. What was that other computer?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2018-04-21
  • Posts: 10

Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

The other one is a Gigabyte motherboard x58a-ud7 rev.2 with onboard TI Firewire 400-only chipset. Will try a live sample rate change without WDM streams and keep you posted. Now, on the x299 I am running off a combo card, which I know it's not ideal, but it doesn't seem to be the issue for me because I have the same problems on this other computer which is 400-only: do you recommend running FW800 or 400 for stability? I know performance wise there's no difference.

6 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Use what works better for you...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2018-04-21
  • Posts: 10

Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Thank you very much for your support. I can confirm that live sample rate change seems to work at 0 WDM Devices

  • Registered: 2009-04-21
  • Posts: 13

Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

I am *very glad I found this post! I am having some of the *exact* same issues on my system, but using Reaper (machine gun sounds, glitches, difficulty changing the buffer size etc)

Is your system still exhibiting this behavior? Did you manage to fix it by turning OFF your WDM devices?

9 Reply by marcovalerio1 (edited by marcovalerio1 2020-05-19 03:24:41)

  • Registered: 2018-04-21
  • Posts: 10

Re: FF800, new power supply, still machine gun

Yes and no, the machine gun sound hasn't shown itself for a while now.
The buffer changes in real time were inhibited by having WDM devices. I gave up on using WDM pairs and it's now working.
One thing I never managed to solve is maintaining buffer size on system reboot, it always reverts to 256. RME folks suggested that the utility is not allowed to write to the registry, but I have no registry protections, fireface.exe is allowed full access via HIPS firewall, and I even tried to run it elevated.
Does anyone here know what's the registry key saving buffer size on windows?