Topic: UCX based piano rig crashes regularly after two years of loyal service
Hi RME users,
I just sent a mail to the RME support about this issue, but perhaps you have also some profitable experience to share regarding it.
I am the very happy user of an RME UCX, that I exclusively use for my digital piano rig based on a Kawai VPC1 piano controller and a Gigabyte GB-BXi7-4770R NUC PC running Windows 7 64bit and the Ivory II American D virtual piano. The Kawai VCP1 has its own power supply and the PC too. The PC and the UCX are connected through one of its four USB 3.0 connectors, while the Kawai keyboard is connected to the UCX through a DIN MIDI connector.
During the past two years, my setup worked like a charm without internet connection or upgrades. No problem, so no need to change ANYTHING to my setup !
OK, no problem, except sometimes, when opening or closing my motorized rolling shutter. In this situation I often get a crash of Ivory Cantabile which is part of of the Ivory II American D virtual piano and which runs the VST. Ivory Cantabile crashes when the UCX doesn't respond anymore, because its sound engine relies permanently on it. Restarting Cantabile after the rolling shutter issue, worked fine until now. But a few weeks ago, things went more difficult, because of crashes with a higher rate and even without opening or closing my rolling shutters. Indeed, now, whatever I do, when playing and after a while... the app crashes. Only Cantabile crashes, while Totalmix always goes on to work without crashing. It is sometimes very sudden, and sometimes some noise is produced before the app crashes. After a crash, it is sometimes enough to restart Cantabile to make my setup work again. But some other times, it is even not enough to shutdown and power off everything before restarting the piano rig to make it work again. I then have to power off everything and wait a certain time until I can play again.
In order to make things better, I added an APC 325A surge protector and battery backup device on my piano rig, but it didn't change anything. I was so sure that my UCX could be cleared of suspicion, that I bought a brand new computer of the exact same model and only reused the SSD and RAM for testing purposes. And the result is that I still have the same crashes !
I am now suspecting the UCX :-(
I didn't check the firmware or driver version I use, but it is probably old enough for you to give me the advice to upgrade it. But remember that my setup is isolated from the rest of the world and it worked like a charm during the two last years.
Any idea for helping me to diagnose what could be wrong with my piano rig ?