1 Topic by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-23 17:22:13)

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Topic: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Hi, all

I received two days ago my first RME unit, a Fireface UCX, and proceeded to its installation with an USB connection. Beside the fact that the driver CD was almost unusable (more than 10 minutes needed to make the RME driver installation window appear), I finally got the driver installed, after downloading the 1.164 version from the RME site and it seems to work correctly, according to the Windows device manager.

The problem is that the ASIO doesn't work, this, either with Cubase 6.5 or Reaper 5.91. I get these messages :

- Cubase 6.55 (in the Devices>Device setup>VST Audio System... pane, trying to change the ASIO Driver) :
Audio Engine Error: could not activate ASIO driver (following few symbols not european)

- Reaper 5.91 (as soon as Reaper is ready to be used) :
There was an error opening audio the audio hardware
Error loading ASIO driver
In Reaper Preferences>Device pane, choosing ASIO Fireface USB leads to no inputs or outputs available, making it unusable.

Seeing this, I tried to uninstall completely all what was RME related and reinstalled the whole stuff again, using another USB port for my UCX unit : same thing...

I must be missing something here. Thanks for any enlightments that could help making my Fireface UCX usable...

FWIW, my system configuration :
i870 / P7P55D-E / 16 Gb RAM / AMD Radeon HD6450 / Ethernet adapter / No other soundcard installed, HDA disabled in the BIOS / Windows 7 (64), SP1.


EDIT : I do get sound when using a mp3/wave file or an internet sound source.



UPDATE ! Seems that the ASIO driver is perfectly loaded when using an Windows administrator account. Until now, I was testing/configuring the unit with my usual (and limited) one. Now, the challenge is to make the ASIO driver also loaded with it...

2 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-16 19:23:29)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

It's becoming a nightmare...

Seeing this topic (https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=25846), I tried to set all what was related to RME or totalmix to run as administrator, as well as Reaper itself : still the same issue...

Beside this, in the readme.txt file bundled with the driver, I read the following :

V 1.113 (01/10/2018)
...
- Change in the Installer to prevent ASIO rights problems with non-admin accounts

As my first attempt led to the installation of the 1.099 driver version, I thought that maybe some files weren't updated properly when applying the 1.164 update. So, I uninstalled everything that was related to RME, manually deleting all the files which could be related to it in the users\<username>\AppData\Local folder, after having checked that the files related to the driver in Windows\system32 were also deleted. Additionaly, I removed all the RME entries in the registry, before installing again the 1.164 driver version. Result ? Exactly the same thing...

So, I'm left with an almost unusable device, unable to work properly with a non-admin account, when ASIO is involved. Any help would be welcomed...

3 Reply by MC

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Please do this: go to Windows\System32\fireface_usb_asio.dll (and asio_64.dll). Right click on this file and choose Properties. Go to tab Security. You can now see the rights that are assigned to SYSTEM, Admins and Users. For Users, only 'read,execute' and 'read' are checked. That is Windows default.

Does it help if you use this dialog to give that file(s) full rights for the 'Users'?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

MC wrote:

Please do this: go to Windows\System32\fireface_usb_asio.dll (and asio_64.dll). Right click on this file and choose Properties. Go to tab Security. You can now see the rights that are assigned to SYSTEM, Admins and Users. For Users, only 'read,execute' and 'read' are checked. That is Windows default.

Does it help if you use this dialog to give that file(s) full rights for the 'Users'?

Hi, Matthias, and thanks for chiming in...

Sadly, it doesn't help. I did again exactly what you were suggesting, just in case, giving the full rights to 'Users' from my administrator account and rebooting the system : the issue is still the same. Actually, I already tried this before the last reinstallation of the drivers...

FWIW and as a precision, the actual Windows version I am using is the 7 'Professional' one with Service Pack 1.

5 Reply by MC

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Here is another method to try:

First take over the file:

takeown.exe /f filename

then change the rights:

icacls.exe filename /grant Users:(GR,GE)

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

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6 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-17 19:32:52)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

MC wrote:

Here is another method to try:

First take over the file:

takeown.exe /f filename

then change the rights:

icacls.exe filename /grant Users:(GR,GE)


Hi again, Matthias

Still no joy... First, I launched cmd.exe from my administrator account, but the message resulting of my first attempt to use takeown.exe was leading to make this account as the owner of the file. So, I went to my user account (Lambda) and obtained the following messages in cmd.exe window :


---Microsoft Windows [version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. Tous droits réservés.

C:\Users\Lambda>takeown.exe /f c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio.dll

Opération réussie : le fichier (ou dossier) : "c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_
asio.dll" appartient désormais à l'utilisateur "i870\Lambda".

C:\Users\Lambda>takeown.exe /f c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio_64.dll

Opération réussie : le fichier (ou dossier) : "c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_
asio_64.dll" appartient désormais à l'utilisateur "i870\Lambda".

C:\Users\Lambda>icacls.exe c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio.dll /grant Lamb
da:(GR,GE)
fichier traité : c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio.dll
1 fichiers correctement traités ; échec du traitement de 0 fichiers

C:\Users\Lambda>icacls.exe c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio_64.dll /grant L
ambda:(GR,GE)
fichier traité : c:\windows\system32\fireface_usb_asio_64.dll
1 fichiers correctement traités ; échec du traitement de 0 fichiers


Seems that everything went right, but the ASIO driver is still not loadable with this account, even after a system reboot...

7 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-07-17 19:31:20)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Strange, I am also running Win7 and never experienced these kind of issues.
My recording interfaces so far: UFX, UFX+, RayDAT, ADI-2 Pro, so I used USB as well as MADIface driver.

Latest Driver which I used for the UFX (same driver as UCX) was: driver_usb_win_1097

I activated Administrator account and removed admin rights from my user as well.

Are you perhaps running a 3rd party internet security software which might block things on your system ?

I only ask because I sometimes wonder, when people complain about RME driver installation i.e. on Win10.
I never had these issues, so I am wondering whether this could be system related ...

Did you do any form of system hardening or optimizing for audio which maybe does the wrong thing ?

Am just in "guessing mode" ...

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

ramses wrote:

Strange, I am also running Win7 and never experienced these kind of issues.
My recording interfaces so far: UFX, UFX+, RayDAT, ADI-2 Pro, so I used USB as well as MADIface driver.

Latest Driver which I used for the UFX (same driver as UCX) was: driver_usb_win_1097

I activated Administrator account and removed admin rights from my user as well.

Are you perhaps running a 3rd party internet security software which might block things on your system ?

I only ask because I sometimes wonder, when people complain about RME driver installation i.e. on Win10.
I never had these issues, so I am wondering whether this could be system related ...

Did you do any form of system hardening or optimizing for audio which maybe does the wrong thing ?

Am just in "guessing mode" ...


Hi, ramses

The driver version that I installed at last is the driver_usb_win_1164, downloaded from the RME site. This, after uninstalling the 1.099 version which was on the bundled driver CD.

And no, I'm not using any internet security add and it's one of the reason why I am using regularly a limited account. It has worked for several years (eight, actually) without a single problem, virus or malware related. I do this to avoid any problem or interference between an eventual 'security' stuff working in the background and the MIDI/audio setup of my system.

Beside this, no special optimization and no overclocking or such of any kind.

I have to say that my previous audio interface was an E-Mu 1616m (PCIe) and I never had a problem such as this one, using its ASIO driver. Sadly, its MIDI part has died two weeks ago and I had to replace it...

9 Reply by MC

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Both methods not working are a sign that the 'admin' theory is wrong and the reason for ASIO not working lies somewhere else. Which reminds me of this one:

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=27115

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

10 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-18 18:25:57)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

MC wrote:

Both methods not working are a sign that the 'admin' theory is wrong and the reason for ASIO not working lies somewhere else. Which reminds me of this one:

https://www.forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=27115

Could be, but what I see is that the ASIO driver is loaded only under an admin account...

Beside this, I downloaded and installed the MS Windows KB4284826 update, as suggested by pschelbert in the topic you mentioned above, and hoping that the solution could be there.

Took me nearly one hour to download and install it. Contrarily to pschelbert case, the issue is still the same, with the same error messages...

11 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-07-18 18:42:11)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

I have a certain "gut feeling" that smth with your Windows installation could be wrong.

I think it would be helpful to test against a vanilla Win7 installation on your system.
Otherwise I fear we are going in circles.

Do you have some/enoug rest space on your disk for a 40 GB partition  or another disk,
where you could perform a "vanilla" Win7 SP1 installation ?

Make backup 1st using Disk Imaging System (i.e. Macrium Reflect)

On that new partition or separate disk: Installation of Win7 SP1 and basic mainboard drivers
(i.e. for USB2/3, Ethernet, chipset driver).

Unplug ethernet / connection to internet. (to test 1st Win7 SP1 without any updates).

Then fresh installation of RME drivers (from USB stick) and test (with reboot).

Finally reactivate Administrator account and take away admin rights from your user, retest.

Parametrize Windows Update to perform only the important and security updates,
then connect PC to internet again and perform the upgrade to latest patchlevel, then retest.

Many thanks for your kind cooperation upfront.

Or does somebody have a better / different idea how to sort out,
whether there is a Windows deployment issue or an issue with RME installer / driver ?

I think if there would be a generic problem with RME installer or driver, we should see more people with such problems...

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

12 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-19 09:42:41)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Hi again, ramses...

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not doable on my end for several reasons :

1) I don't have an available partition at my disposal. Actually, I have two WD black Caviar drives (1 Tb each). They both have three partitions which are using the whole capacity of the drive. Beside this, I don't have another disk available.

2) If I was technically in the situation to be able to do so, I probably would try, just to see if my Windows installation was indeed the culprit, which I doubt. But if it was really the case, I would then have to reinstall Windows and, among others, all the softs that I use (there are many of them...) and especially the VSTis : each one has its proper installation process, three of them involving two dongles (e-Licenser and iLok). Some of them are no longer available : Alchemy, mainly, even if I downloaded the installation stuff from Camel Audio at the time, and also Emulator-X3, which is no longer supported by Creative (who has patiently and efficiently killed E-Mu, year after year...). This would take me at least two days, with very uncertain results...

3) Overall, is it worth trying this, as my present setup has been fluently working for nearly eight years ? I've been often thinking how lucky I was to have such a stable system, seeing all the problems exposed by other users in each and every audio related forums I'm regularly browsing. And again, my E-Mu ASIO driver was perfectly working on both administrator and user accounts, so, why the RME one isn't able to do same thing ? That's what I'm trying to solve and it seems that RME technical crew also, considering Matthias answers in my thread and in the one he was talking about in post #9. Seems that I'm not the only one who stumbled on this issue, if we include the thread I evoked in post #2...

At the end, I must be honest : I'm afraid to have to reinstall everything to obtain erratical results. I prefer delaying the hassle when I'll have to change the whole DAW in three months, one year, or five, I hope. As often said, "If it ain't broken..."...

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Here is one way to make sure that all RME drivers are removed from your system. You need to go through *all* steps:

- Uninstall the RME driver via Programs & Features. Restart Windows.

- After the restart go to Windows Device-Manager. You will notice that the UCX is still present and active there. It might even still use the latest driver that you just tried to uninstall via Programs & Features (I just had that here).

- Right-click on the UCX entry in Device-Manager and choose touUninstall it (not deactivate!). You will get a popup window where you need to *enable* the option to also uninstall the driver. Restart Windows.

- Again, after the restart go to Windows Device-Manager. You will notice that again the UCX is still present and active, but this time it will use the driver version that you installed prior to your latest driver version installation. If you installed several version between 1.099 and 1.164 then you have to repeat the "right-click -> uninstall" steps for every version you ever installed.

- Once you uninstalled all previous versions using this method the UCX will show up as inactive with a question mark in Device-Manager. Now you can do a fresh installation of the latest driver version.

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Timur Born wrote:

Here is one way to make sure that all RME drivers are removed from your system. You need to go through *all* steps:

- Uninstall the RME driver via Programs & Features. Restart Windows.

- After the restart go to Windows Device-Manager. You will notice that the UCX is still present and active there. It might even still use the latest driver that you just tried to uninstall via Programs & Features (I just had that here).

- Right-click on the UCX entry in Device-Manager and choose touUninstall it (not deactivate!). You will get a popup window where you need to *enable* the option to also uninstall the driver. Restart Windows.

- Again, after the restart go to Windows Device-Manager. You will notice that again the UCX is still present and active, but this time it will use the driver version that you installed prior to your latest driver version installation. If you installed several version between 1.099 and 1.164 then you have to repeat the "right-click -> uninstall" steps for every version you ever installed.

- Once you uninstalled all previous versions using this method the UCX will show up as inactive with a question mark in Device-Manager. Now you can do a fresh installation of the latest driver version.

Thanks for the suggestion. But now, the driver simply refuse to be reinstalled properly. I get an 'Unknown device' in the device manager and totalmix is no longer available as it was previously. Not your fault : I probably made a mistake, at some stage, unhooking the device too soon or too late, I guess...

Overall, I'm sick and tired of all this : I'm going to ask for a refund at Thomann and, even if I can't, I will probably resell the whole thing as a second handed one, hoping to not loose too much. End of RME road to me...

15 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2018-07-19 15:05:31)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

That might not be a good idea just yet. I have never had issues with drivers from RME (and I did with EMU) but all were fixed in the end. In this state there is no telling what will hapen if you add another device. Even some EMU leftover might be an issue. In my humble experience RME has the best drivers and the best support. Maybe someone from RME can do a remote session and see if they can help.

Did you already try a cold reboot without the rme connected?

Vincent, Amsterdam
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BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632

16 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur Born 2018-07-19 15:25:08)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Maybe try different USB ports and cables now. The USB 3.0 ports on your board use a NEC chipset, the USB 2.0 ports are on the Intel chipset. Try both.

Does it make a difference for device detection whether you switch to/from class compliant (cc) mode?

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

This is what it looks like here when I uninstall all RME USB 2 drivers (French for your convenience):

https://i.imgur.com/htvDLE8.jpg

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

> 1) I don't have an available partition at my disposal. Actually, I have two WD black Caviar drives (1 Tb each). They both have three partitions which are using the whole capacity of the drive. Beside this, I don't have another disk available.

And this is where our support ends. A user that has no backup, where any suggestion to help in good faith might ruin the whole system, is nothing I (no one) wants to be involved in - just to be blamed for or held responsible if it all goes south.

Please return the RME interface.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

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19 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-20 10:33:15)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

vinark wrote:

That might not be a good idea just yet. I have never had issues with drivers from RME (and I did with EMU) but all were fixed in the end. In this state there is no telling what will hapen if you add another device. Even some EMU leftover might be an issue. In my humble experience RME has the best drivers and the best support. Maybe someone from RME can do a remote session and see if they can help.

Did you already try a cold reboot without the rme connected?

Timur Born wrote:

Maybe try different USB ports and cables now. The USB 3.0 ports on your board use a NEC chipset, the USB 2.0 ports are on the Intel chipset. Try both.

Does it make a difference for device detection whether you switch to/from class compliant (cc) mode?


Hi, vinark & Timur Born

I tried to remove all what could have been left by Creative, regarding the E-Mu 1616m and also tried a cold reboot. No changes, but I managed at least to reinstall the RME driver, by changing again the USB port to one of the two 3.0 available. So, I didn't try the CC mode, yet : will do if really needed.

The first issue remains, though : the ASIO driver is loaded only under the administrator account...

Thanks both of you for your help.


MC wrote:

And this is where our support ends. A user that has no backup, where any suggestion to help in good faith might ruin the whole system, is nothing I (no one) wants to be involved in - just to be blamed for or held responsible if it all goes south.

Please return the RME interface.

About the unit return, I have an overall period of 30 days for this, so I still have a little more than two weeks to make my mind.

Beside this, I didn't know that having an available partition on a disk was required to get support : I learned something, here (of course, I have an external drive at disposal, but for my data backup, not the whole system, and I'm not going to compromise my data safety for this). But I have noted that I won't get further help from you.

Have a nice day...

20 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2018-07-20 12:21:19)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Is it possible to create a new user account (without admin rights) and see if that one loads the asio driver? It could be a problem with this specific user account.

And indeed you do need a backup of you windows partition too. I have and I have needed it too. What if one of us gives you and advice that sounds safe but destroys your OS. Or what if your OS drive fails...
Yes creating a new user account sounds safe but what if the system crashes during that and then won't boot any more. Please read MC's reply again carefully! He is saying he does not want to run the risk of ruining your system not that he does not want to help..... And he is right in saying that neither should we but.....

Vincent, Amsterdam
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BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

vinark wrote:

Is it possible to create a new user account (without admin rights) and see if that one loads the asio driver? It could be a problem with this specific user account.

Hi again, vinark

About the new user account, I just tried it. Sadly, I get the exact same error messages. Which, contrarily to MC, make me think that there IS an issue with the driver installer, considering limited account users.

vinark wrote:

And indeed you do need a backup of you windows partition too. I have and I have needed it too.

I understand this, but how to proceed ? An added external drive will not have the same structure (boot sector, serial number, formating scheme...). Let's suppose that indeed my OS partition could be more or less destroyed. Will an eventual backup of it from an external drive assure me that the whole system will be restored exactly as it was ? I doubt it, for just one reason : each disk has its own structure (sector size, low level formatting structure), so, maybe there is a magical software that allows this, but I would like to see it at work to believe it... Beside this, a lot of software protections rely on the disk serial number, AFAIK. I'm not stubborn, and have considered this, already. Simply, I still don't believe that it's worth the hassle. Beside this, every time we make an update (software, driver, you name it...) the whole system and OS will be modified (files added or updated, registry entries...) : do we have to make, each time this happens a whole backup of it, to assure a reliable one ?

vinark wrote:

What if one of us gives you and advice that sounds safe but destroys your OS. Or what if your OS drive fails....

Then, indeed, I'll have to reinstall the whole thing. I perfectly know (I've been using computers since thirty years ; remember the Atari ST days and its floppy 1.44 Mb disk ?) that no computer system is perfectly safe. I just try to keep a reasonable balance between safety and usability : in this scheme, my own data is essential. After this...

vinark wrote:

Please read MC's reply again carefully! He is saying he does not want to run the risk of ruining your system not that he does not want to help.....

He has been quite harsh when stating it, don't you think ? When I started this thread about my ASIO driver issue, I implicitly have accepted that there could be advices more or less safely applicable. But I think that I know enough about Windows based system to ponder which ones are worth to try and which aren't. Beside this, I appreciate that you and others are trying to help : after this, whether I try or not the suggestions posted is my own responsability.

Thanks again...

22 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-07-20 14:43:41)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

For such backup purposes disk imaging software exist that can also be used for daily backup purposes. Macrium Reflect is the best product for this purpose. Much more reliable than Acronis.
With the rapid delta restore mechanism its very fast on restore as it writes only disk blocks that  need to be changed.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Hi again.  Yes ex atari here too. And yes with proper backup software you really get your system back to that point. Saved me a couple of times cause I like to tweak....
Cheers and have a great weekend.

Vincent, Amsterdam
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BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

@ramses & vinark

OK, I note this and am considering that maybe it would indeed be wise to have a at least an added drive at disposal for such an emergency case. Several questions arise but I'll try to find the needed answers on my end.

Thanks to you both again...

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Is the non administrator user a local account or a Microsoft/Live account?

Did you try to install the RME driver using the non administrator account?

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Good to hear that you understand the importance of a working, full backup. That said and with all risks on your side, here is another interesting way that might shed some light on this unique (!)  problem. But it requires you to have the driver of the UCX installed again (I see no reason why that shouldn't work on the unit showing an exclamation mark, as that is the normal display when no driver is present). After having the driver working again:

Download the free version of Reaper 3.52 as 64 bit version from this link:

https://www.reaper.fm/download-old.php?ver=3x

Install it and start it. Select the Fireface USB ASIO driver. This version of Reaper is special and will start a message box which shows the 'missing' Windows dll. And according to your trial so far it seems it is a different one than the driver's own dll. On this 'missing' file (or files) that most probably are not missing but just not accessible in that user account, you could then perform the above takeown and icacls commands.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

27 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-21 18:48:00)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Timur Born wrote:

Is the non administrator user a local account or a Microsoft/Live account?

Hmmm... I'm rather unease to answer you : Ididn't even think that an daministrator account could be a 'Microsoft/lice' one. So, i guess that it's a local one, but how to be sure ?

Timur Born wrote:

Did you try to install the RME driver using the non administrator account?

I didn't think of this. As far as I can remember, I have always installed new or updated device drivers under my administrator account. Worth a try, I guess...


MC wrote:

Good to hear that you understand the importance of a working, full backup. That said and with all risks on your side, here is another interesting way that might shed some light on this unique (!)  problem. But it requires you to have the driver of the UCX installed again (I see no reason why that shouldn't work on the unit showing an exclamation mark, as that is the normal display when no driver is present). After having the driver working again:

Download the free version of Reaper 3.52 as 64 bit version from this link:

https://www.reaper.fm/download-old.php?ver=3x

Install it and start it. Select the Fireface USB ASIO driver. This version of Reaper is special and will start a message box which shows the 'missing' Windows dll. And according to your trial so far it seems it is a different one than the driver's own dll. On this 'missing' file (or files) that most probably are not missing but just not accessible in that user account, you could then perform the above takeown and icacls commands.

Hi, Matthias, and thanks for chiming in again...

Worth a try also, but just a question, though : should I installed it as 'portable' or as 'normal' ? I ask this because, I actually have these installed :
- Reaper 4.77, installed as 'normal'.
- Reaper 5.91, installed as 'portable' : it's been like this since Reaper 5 'pre' versions and, as it was perfectly working like this, I never bothered to replace the 4.77 version with it, as a 'Normal' installation...

28 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-22 12:51:25)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

OK, an update...

Timur Born wrote:

...

Did you try to install the RME driver using the non administrator account?

Well, I uninstalled the driver under the administrator account, the reboot the system to go under my non-admin one : the driver won't install : nothing happens and even the "Microdoft Visual C++" messages don't appear : had to end the session and reboot the system...

MC wrote:

...
After having the driver working again:

Download the free version of Reaper 3.52 as 64 bit version from this link:

https://www.reaper.fm/download-old.php?ver=3x

Install it and start it. Select the Fireface USB ASIO driver. This version of Reaper is special and will start a message box which shows the 'missing' Windows dll.

I downloaded the v 3.52 version and installed it. Actually, the installer doesn't ask whether it should be installed as a 'portable' or 'normal' one. So, I just choosed a new F:\Reaper_3 folder for it. Using the administrator account, it behaves perfectly : all the channels shown in TotalMix are also available in the Preferences>Audio>Device pane.

But when closing the session, opening the non-admin one and launching Reaper 3.52 from Windows 'Start>Execute' option, I don't get a message box showing the eventual missing dll files : actually, it baheves exacly as 5.91, with still the same message as previously :

There was an error while opening your audio hardware:
Error loading ASIO driver

MC wrote:

...
And according to your trial so far it seems it is a different one than the driver's own dll....

Could be, but it seems that everything related to Creative has been removed, at least in Windows\System32. Maybe there is a tool that could allow us to be sure of this...

29 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur Born 2018-07-22 13:48:43)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Hm, I created a new "Standard" user (aka restricted account) and installed the driver on my system after previously removing all remnants of earlier installations. No issues here and I do this on customer systems repeatedly (non RME driver related though). Of course I am asked to allow administrative rights once I start the installation, just as expected. If this doesn't happen on your system then I fear that something is broken on said system. What happens when you install other drivers using the restricted account?

You could try to run "sfc /scannow" in an administrative command prompt. Maybe Windows finds something needing to be reinstalled, but I assume that rather some buried (registry) setting is broken.

30 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-22 15:09:45)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Timur Born wrote:

...
If this doesn't happen on your system then I fear that something is broken on said system. What happens when you install other drivers using the restricted account?

I don't have an available driver to install, presently. But again, and as far as I remember, I have always used my administartor account for any software/device driver installation or update.

Timur Born wrote:

You could try to run "sfc /scannow" in an administrative command prompt. Maybe Windows finds something needing to be reinstalled, but I assume that rather some buried (registry) setting is broken.

I get this, from the cmd.exe command window, used with my administrator account :


Microsoft Windows [version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. Tous droits réservés.

C:\Users\Gest>sfc /scannow

Début de l'analyse du système. Cette opération peut nécessiter un certain temps.


Démarrage de la phase de vérification de l'analyse du système.
La vérification 100% est terminée.

Le programme de protection des ressources Windows n'a trouvé aucune violation d'
intégrité.

C:\Users\Gest>exit


So, I guess that everything is right, in my setup, at least system files related. After this, in the registry, who could know ?

31 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-23 17:26:03)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

FWIW, my issue is solved, thanks to karbomusic Reaper forum member. The solution is in the following thread : https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=209257

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

So I understand that the solution was to re-enable UAC (which you had disabled) and then allow Reaper to run as the Administrator user (which is what the popup does).

Now the real question is: Why does your Reaper installation need and ask for administrative rights to begin with? Mine does neither.

33 Reply by aymft (edited by aymft 2018-07-26 08:41:33)

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Re: Fireface UCX : ASIO driver not loadable... (SOLVED)

Timur Born wrote:

So I understand that the solution was to re-enable UAC (which you had disabled) and then allow Reaper to run as the Administrator user (which is what the popup does).

Now the real question is: Why does your Reaper installation need and ask for administrative rights to begin with? Mine does neither.

Hi again, Timur

It's more or less this, yes. With a precision : Reaper also runs as administrator presently, because I setted it this way during one of my previous tweaks/attempts. Which doesn't prevent the UAC to show the pop-up dialog, by the way... I'm wondering if the ASIO driver would be loaded without it, but I'm so glad that all this work as expected that I don't dare fiddling with it more. Will do, occasionaly, but for now...

The real question for me is rather : why did I have to set the UAC as default to make all this work ? It's beyond me, actually. If someone has a better explanation than karbomusic's one...