• Registered: 2007-07-27
  • Posts: 2

Topic: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Hello,
I have a fireface 800 running on the following system
E6600 CORE 2 DUO 2.44Ghz 4Mb cache
2 GIG KINGSTON 667 RAM
ASUS P5B DELUXE S775,CORE2DUO,P965,1066FSB,PCIEx16,DDR2.RAID,SND,GbLAN,ATX
160 GIG WESTERN DIGITAL SATA
SONY DUAL LAYER DVD-RW
Asus X550,256MB(512MBs),PCIEx16,DVI-I,TV-OUT,2xVGA
Texas Instruments Firewire (I think)
Running Windows XP Pro SP2
Samplitude 9.1

Every now and then my fireface will drop its asio driver and revert back to that red host light, indicating that the fireface has lost connection. Now I dont think its a firewire bus problem because the actual hardware doesn't lose connection, just the asio driver. Now this problem is easily fixed by switching off and on the interface but as you can see this can be quite annoying.
Now I have already had some product support from the Australian distributer who suggested I do the following things:
Turn off raid
Turn off my lan, serial and parallel ports because I'm not using them
Also because I am streaming off an external hard drive sometimes I should buy a new Sata drive and run off that instead.
Are there any other things I should do that could solve this problem?
I have recently formatted so shouldn't be a driver conflict?
Any help is appreciated,
Thanks,
Joel Heffernan

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,556

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

joelheff2007 wrote:

Every now and then my fireface will drop its asio driver and revert back to that red host light, indicating that the fireface has lost connection. Now I dont think its a firewire bus problem because the actual hardware doesn't lose connection, just the asio driver.

The red LED indicates that it is indeed a hardware interruption of the Firewire connection, not just an ASIO issue. Have you got anything else connected to Firewire?

Regards,
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2007-07-27
  • Posts: 2

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

No nothing else is connected to the firewire bus?
Thanks

  • Registered: 2007-08-01
  • Posts: 1

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

I've been getting that with my FF400. Playing along fine then the red light comes on and audio drops out. I don't even need to unplug and replug it to get it started again, just waiting 10-20 seconds and it syncs back up. I do have a firewire drive plugged into the 2nd firewire port, but I have had one plugged into it since I got it several months ago. This has been happening consistently for the past week. Could it be that I updated to OSX 10.4.10? I'll spend an entire evening with the FW hard drive not plugged in to see if it happens, I haven't had much time to troubleshoot it yet. Thanks.

  • jtm18
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  • Registered: 2012-03-11
  • Posts: 4

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Hey,
   I know these posts are 5 years old, but I've got a FF800 and this issue happens to me exactly like "nickshelestak" explains above. If I'm working at my sequencer for 6-8 hours, it probably happens 2-3 times in that span. Very annoying.

MacPro 12 core 2.66Ghz
Lion 10.7.3
20Gb RAM
Logic 9.1.6

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

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Remove any other FW devices, and then try a different cable if it still happens.

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • jtm18
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Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Hey Jeff,
    Any and all other FW devices? I'm just curious what that will determine, as I obviously need whatever's plugged in via FW. If I remove those devices and this doesn't happen anymore, what are we finding; a conflict b/w those devices?

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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  • Registered: 2007-05-21
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Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Basically, yes. Not every FW device will be a good neighbor and share bandwidth with the rest. If the FF works alone then it's not an RME issue.

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • jtm18
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  • Posts: 4

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Hey Jeff,
   I unplugged the external hard drive from the neighboring FW800 port on the back of my MacPro, as well as the Apple iSight camera attached via FW400 + 800 adaptor to the front of my cpu and the RME worked well all day. My guess is that's it's prob the drive in the FW800 port right next to the port where the FF800 is plugged in, and not the iSight camera. Assuming this is correct, should I install a PCI FW port in an open slot on the back of my cpu? I obviously need this drive plugged in, but can't have it interfering with my music. Thanks-

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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  • Registered: 2007-05-21
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Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

The iSight is known to cause interruptions on the FW bus. You can try with just the drive, and see if the problem returns. If so, the PCIe FW card would be a good solution.

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • jtm18
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  • Registered: 2012-03-11
  • Posts: 4

Re: Fireface 800 drops out - Red Host Light

Thanks, Jeff! I'll look into doing the PCIe fix. Be well!