1 Topic by userd (edited by userd 2016-04-13 11:57:31)

  • userd
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Topic: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

Dear RME! All! Need your help. I bought DELL Precision T5400 for my RME DIGI96/8 PAD. Unfortunately I can not start the device hence can not use the card on Windows XP Pro SP3 (x86). Sometimes get a blue screen before boot to OS or after some time of use. The configuration below.

DELL Precision T5400:
- Intel 5400 Chipset, dual socket 771 LGA
- Intel 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub (ESB2) handles PCI buses
- Two quad-core Intel Xeon E5410 @ 2.33 GHz (two physical CPUs, total 8 cores, total 8 threads - without Hyper Threading support)
- Quad memory channel architecture (FB-DIMM DDR2 667MHz ECC, 8 slots, without RAM risers)
- Powered with 32 Gb of RAM (8 identical modules per 4 GB each)
- One onboard PCI slot (32bit/33Mhz) (PCI Rev 2.3 Specification at 33 MHz according to datasheet for controller hub)
- Discrete NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290 graphic card - the only card among the all slots (3*PCIe, 2*PCI-X, 1*PCI)
- Onboard ADI sound chip (ADI 198x)
- System BIOS A09 (released 27 Jun 2011)

- Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 (x86)
- All official drivers from DELL for this model were applied (fresh install)
- Intel AHCI (mode using memory space) driver was installed during OS installation
- 3.25 Gb of memory is visible for 32 bit OS
- DEP and PAE are enabled by default

- RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI card) was recognised as sound card in BIOS in the appropriate PCI slot. Labeled on PCB as "Rev. 1.2". S/N 221******

Was found that after initialisation of RME card the BIOS turn off onboard ADI sound chip by default. So I just enable it by hand. The default value was "AUTO",- now "ON". Then the volume icon appeared in system tray of Windows XP. According to Sound and Audio Devices (control panel) default device for audio playback is ADI. Device manager show RME card with yellow icon. Here are tabs of Propeties window:
- GENERAL: "This device can not start (Code 10)"
- RESOURCES: "This device isn't using any resources because it has a problem"

DIGI96 SERIES DRIVERS information (for 2000/XP):
- File with drivers "w2k_211.zip" (version 2.11, 06/14/2004) was installed through PnP scheme
- Green icon of RME appears near the clock. But it is not possible to open setting panel of this driver. Just "Exit" works.

This RME card worked in the old configuration with no any problems before:
- Intel Desktop Board D865PERL
- Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz (Prescott/Northwood, with Hyper Threading support, socket 478)
- DDR400 4 GB (4 modules per 1 GB each, non-ECC, non-REG, non-FB)

Here is album with screenshots:
http://imgur.com/a/sLYAG/all

HELP!!

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
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Re: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

Sounds like either a BIOS or PCI bridge chip issue. Nowadays the first if more likely than the second. You could try a third-party PCIe-to-PCI bridge card. This not only circumvents the internal PCI bridge, but sometimes also problematic BIOS behavior. No guarantee that this will work, though.

3 Reply by userd (edited by userd 2016-04-13 12:17:45)

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Re: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

According to datasheet for Intel 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub

PAGE 40:

PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.3-compliant with support for 33 MHz PCI
operations

PAGE 42:

Enterprise South Bridge Interface (ESI)
Enterprise South Bridge Interface (ESI) is the chip-to-chip connection between the
Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and I/O Controller Hub functions of the Intel ® 631xESB/
632xESB I/O Controller Hub. Maximum realized bandwidth on this interface is 1 GB/s in
each direction simultaneously, for an aggregate of 2 GB/s. Base functionality is
completely software-transparent, permitting current and legacy software to operate
normally.

PAGE 43:

PCI Bus Interface
The Intel ® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub PCI Local Bus interface provides a
33 MHz, Revision 2.3 implementation. All PCI signals are 5 V tolerant, except PCICLK
PME#. The Intel ® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub integrates a PCI arbiter that
supports up to seven external PCI Bus Masters in addition to the internal
Intel ® 631xESB/632xESB I/O Controller Hub requests. This allows for combinations of
up to seven PCI down devices and PCI slots on this interface.

One onboard PCI slot (bus) is mechanically and hope electrically native PCI slot (bus)

4 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur Born 2016-04-13 13:19:48)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
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Re: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

Which would then leave the BIOS as most likely culprit. Unless your RME card is broken in a way that makes it work one PC, but not in another, which is entirely possible.

5 Reply by userd (edited by userd 2016-04-13 15:02:37)

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Re: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

Currently the most possible reason is "PCI bridge technology" which is a part of chip set architecture (this case with Intel). "PCI link" (or slot) on the new mainboard does not mean the native "PCI link" on the hardware level. The *ucking issue among the web. I shall try to make some bit more research if this can be fixed. Seems its hardware level but can not exclude bios/firmware/driver updates.. I shall report with addition

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=12432
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-c … oards.html
http://techreport.com/review/20190/sand … and-msi/10

etc

6 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur Born 2016-04-13 16:41:41)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
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Re: HELP! Terrible issue.. resources? Driver? RME DIGI96/8 PAD (PCI)

I just ordered one of these PCI bridge cards to try them out (Asmedia based):

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Internal-PCI-E-S … Sw8RJXB1S-

I also own this Pericom based one, which works well with my Gigabyte Z87 based system:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/PCI-E-express-X1 … XQrhdTVPhS

I suspect that the one with the case is the very same, just with a chassis. More useful for most people, but also more expensive:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sintech-PCI-expr … 4adad41d41