• Registered: 2022-03-12
  • Posts: 9

Topic: HDSP9632 freezes up on Windows 10 system. Please help.

I have an HDSP 9632 with a SPDIF breakout cable & a balanced lines I/O & MIDI I/O breakout cable. I'm using driver version 438 on a Windows 10 Pro system. Core i7 3.4GHz CPU, 32GB RAM, a 1TB Samsung SSD 860 QVO boot drive & a Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Rev1.3 motherboard. I installed the drivers about 1 week ago & that went smoothly. I read everything I could find on the card installation process first, so that probably helped. I installed the drivers. Shut down & powered off my system. Installed the card. That took 2 hours because the card didn't fit in the PCI slot opening of my chassis. It got hung up on the breakout cable connector on the card. I finally had to get a big hammer & just pound the .... Ok. That's what I felt like doing. What I did was take lots of breaks & finally just did a little mod to the opening to gain the additional 1/4" required to allow the card to fit in the space requireed.

I put things back together & booted it up.TotalMix was installed, the driver was installed correctly I think. I didn't get any errors. I rebooted after the installation & TM & the info came up when the desktop loaded.

That was in the evening. I came in the next morning to find that I couldn't bring that system back to life. I only let Windows turn off my monitors. I don't allow my system to actually turn off any hard drives or go to sleep. I wiggled the mouse & pressed a few keys on the keyboard & nothing helped. I tried logging in via VNC from another system on my network & that didn't work. None of the other computers could see that one on the network, I couldn't ping it, so I could only press the reset button. Which I did.

At first the system would only run for a couple of hours before it would just lock up. I changed a few things in the BIOS & now it runs from a couple of days & then locks up. A big improvement. But not enough.

I checked on this site to see if others have had similar problems & there have been 2 or maybe 3 over the last 15 years or so. Thank goodness. If I would have found that this is common, I would have been kicking myself for not doing enough research before I purchased this. Oh, I forgot to mention that I just bought it a couple of weeks ago.

Also, it not only locks up my PC, after a couple of lockups the Totalmix software won't start & then when I look in device manager I find no traces of the HDPS9632 ever being installed. It's just disappeared. Last time, I reinstalled the drivers & things started working. This time, I thought it a good idea to stop here & see if I can get some help.

Anyway. If anyone has an thoughts or advice on my next move with this, I would greatly appreciate hearing it. Good advice may even keep me from just jumping up & down on my PC or finding the tallest building I can & tossing it out the window. I've been doing this a long time. I've had my eye on the RME products for a VERY long time. I finally decided to pull the trigger & purchase a few. I WAS very excited to try this stuff out. While it's working, it sounds great. I just can't keep reinstalling the drivers each week & powering off my computer without shutting it down ALWAYS makes me nervous. One day it just won't start again.

Sorry for the speech. I'm done now. Hopefully someone with provide a solution for me & I'll be back to recording... Thank you -b<

  • Registered: 2019-10-01
  • Posts: 675

Re: HDSP9632 freezes up on Windows 10 system. Please help.

Hello!

Which Firmware version do you have?
You can check it at the "About" Tab of the HDSP Driver Settings!

RME Gear: Digiface USB, HDSP 9632

3 Reply by BreakerFix (edited by BreakerFix 2022-03-16 11:45:25)

  • Registered: 2022-03-12
  • Posts: 9

Re: HDSP9632 freezes up on Windows 10 system. Please help.

Thank you for your reply. Of course it would be WAY too easy if the firmware rev was simple to find. I looked in the "About" tab of the "Hammerfall  DSP Settings" applet (is that what were referring to?) & it's not there. The revision of the driver (4.38) is shown, but no firmware rev. I looked all over, but never found it with the driver. Then I remembered reading about a Firmware updating tool, so I thought that may help. Of course THAT would have been handy. I looked & searched everywhere & finally just stumbled across it. Then I forgot where I download it & had to go find it again. The second time, I just went right to a totally different place that had the latest driver & firmware & 10 seconds later I was done.

Anyway, I looked that readme.txt file & it said that running the flash tool would tell report the current rev of the card & then ask about updating. I thought it would be more like flashing the BIOS on a PC. They always say "Do NOT use this unless..." & warn you 30 times that it could damage your system for good & do their best to freak you out. THIS tool, was NOT like that. I ran it, it popped up window (just like it said) & my rev was 154. Since the readme also said that the updates are backward compatible with the old cards as well & there was no need to down rev your firmware for anything. I decided to flash my card to 155 which is the current latest version. I just had to power down my PC & cold boot it.

The readme said to "reset" the cards after flashing the firmware, but then it explained that just basically meant a cold boot. Power of & was a few seconds & fire it back up. I did that & my card is now at rev 155. Hopefully this will resolve my freezing up problem. I should know later today. Yesterday it locked up 4 times. It's a good thing I have an SSD at least it won't crash the platters when I just power it off.

I'll report back if it happens again or if it goes 3 days without locking up. If it locks up by the end of today, I'll be back for suggestions. If it hasn't locked up by the weekend, I'll consider it fixed.

Thank you for your reply. As well as for any help you might provide in the future.

cheers

OK. I just had to add this one last thing. I logged off this site, started the DSP Settings app & looked on the Global tab. In the BIG box under where it says "Change Card Order" it shows the following:
HDSP9632 (1), Bus=6, Device=1, Revision=155

Of course, now that I don't need to know it, it's right in front of me. Right where it always is or has been for probably 10 year. I'm just blind... I don't know how I missed that so many times. Anyway. NOW I'm done for a while. I'll report back with results.

  • Registered: 2022-03-12
  • Posts: 9

Re: HDSP9632 freezes up on Windows 10 system. Please help.

A few hours after I last posted, my system froze up again. I decided to do a bit more troubleshooting & found that when I removed the 9 pin DIN connector, my system stayed up & worked fine. Since I just purchased the card, I contacted the store I bought it from & explained what was happening. Although it may just be a bad cable, it may also be the connector on the card or something along that bus or any number of things, so I asked for a replacement & they agreed. Of course, now I have to be without my card until they send me another HDSP9632 & cables.

Thank you... if only I knew how to mark this as resolved. I'll just leave it right there for a bit & be...