1 Topic by redstudiosx (edited by redstudiosx 2021-02-04 03:54:36)

  • Registered: 2021-02-04
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Topic: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

I have a RME Hammerfall DSP MADI PCI. I never had issues until I bought this long cable.

When I first plugged it in I started to smell a burning smell from the hammerfall's pci board. My computer wouldn't even power on.

I took out the ram and rebooted several times and finally got it back working but now the computer won't even recognize the hammerfall.

I can install the divers but I can't get the firmware updater to open up when I click it. Yes I tried opening as admin as well. I see a green light on the hammerfall though but I can't get the asio working and can't open up the mixer. This is really weird.

  • waedi
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

A burning smell ?! Ouch !
What I would do now :
Disconnect the power cable. Take out the PCI card.
Taking a close look to that card, is there smelling ? Is there some black ?
if yes, making a good photo and post here.
Looking also at other components of the computer, RAM, internal power supply, etc.
I would probably disassemble the whole computer until i find the part that smells burnt.
I assume the failure of your computer has nothing to do with the madi cable, it is just coincidence and a computer damage happened.

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue

3 Reply by redstudiosx (edited by redstudiosx 2021-02-04 05:39:50)

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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

waedi wrote:

A burning smell ?! Ouch !
What I would do now :
Disconnect the power cable. Take out the PCI card.
Taking a close look to that card, is there smelling ? Is there some black ?
if yes, making a good photo and post here.
Looking also at other components of the computer, RAM, internal power supply, etc.
I would probably disassemble the whole computer until i find the part that smells burnt.
I assume the failure of your computer has nothing to do with the madi cable, it is just coincidence and a computer damage happened.


Yes.

I have a Dell OptiPlex 980 windows 10. i bought it used about 6 months ago. I am saving up for a rme madiface. This had a pci slot and I had the haammerfall I could use for madi so i went for it and had been using it to record.

It was working fine earlier today. With my 10 foot madi cable then my 50 foot madi cable came in I unboxed it nd I moved the cpu to the other room and I was very very careful too. I didn't drop anything. I powered it on and the madi cable went from my a/d into my rme and all I heard was beeping followed by a burning smell. I thought it was the computer at first but when I sniffed closer  and it turned out to be the card. Right by the chip in the middle of the card. I don't see any burnt marks or anything though.

Now the computer powers on but it won't read the hammerfall. and the updater and fimerware updater won't show up because none of the pci slots on the optolex reads the card. I tired them all. The card shows a green light though when inserted on the slot and doesn't have a burning smell anymore but the card is also not being read by my computer so I am not sure what's going on. My computer or the card is fryed...

  • ramses
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

Optical or Coaxial MADI cable ?

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

5 Reply by redstudiosx (edited by redstudiosx 2021-02-04 05:50:09)

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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

It was working fine eariler today, I was recording with no issue using this cord.

https://daleproaudio.com/products/alva- … e-50-meter  <---- except it was 10 meters.

I wanted to move my cpu further away so I ordered the longer  50ft cord above^


andiamo a/d --> madi hammerfall. I powered the computer on and bam I saw a orange blinking light and beeping sounds  form the optilex and burning smell from the hammerfall and I unlugged immediately.

6 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-02-04 06:02:16)

  • ramses
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

So this is an optical cable.
The good news, with an optical connection you have full galvanic / electrical isolation.
So this issue has not been induced from outside, you can be relaxed it has nothing to do with the new longer cable.

I assume this is a bad accident that happened when powering on the machine, that would also have happened with the old or even no cable / device connected at all.

EDIT:

You say that the machine still powers on, only the card is not being recognized...

Based on that I tend to say, that this might be an issue of the PCI socket or card bad seated in the PCI socket.

If the PSU would cause issues, then I think you should still have issues with the PC, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Nevertheless, I would send this PC to inspection, maybe somebody can give you a qualified answer what happened, otherwise I think you won't trust this machine anymore ... and not plug any card to it anymore.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

7 Reply by redstudiosx (edited by redstudiosx 2021-02-04 06:01:15)

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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

ramses wrote:

So this is an optical cable.
The good news, with an optical connection you have full galvanic / electrical isolation.
So this issue has not been induced from outside, you can be relaxed it has nothing to do with the new longer cable.

I assume this is a bad accident that happened when powering on the machine, that would also have happened with the old or even no cable / device connected at all.


Okay well that's good to hear! That's so unfortunate this happened and weird it happened the moment I got this cable. 

I am running diagnostic test on my machine via the BIOS and so far no problems have been found. I am not sure why my computer is all of a sudden having issues reading my hammerfall.

8 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-02-04 06:08:22)

  • ramses
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

Either something on the card failed due to component aging or maybe the card has not been seated properly into the socket for whatever reason. Not properly seated (so that the card was not completely in the socket) or  not correct mounted mainboard, missing screw or whatever bad can happen in this range.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2021-02-04
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

ramses wrote:

So this is an optical cable.
The good news, with an optical connection you have full galvanic / electrical isolation.
So this issue has not been induced from outside, you can be relaxed it has nothing to do with the new longer cable.

I assume this is a bad accident that happened when powering on the machine, that would also have happened with the old or even no cable / device connected at all.

EDIT:

You say that the machine still powers on, only the card is not being recognized...

Based on that I tend to say, that this might be an issue of the PCI socket or card bad seated in the PCI socket.

If the PSU would cause issues, then I think you should still have issues with the PC, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Nevertheless, I would send this PC to inspection, maybe somebody can give you a qualified answer what happened, otherwise I think you won't trust this machine anymore ... and not plug any card to it anymore.

I think that may be the issue as well. In the meantime until I have enough money to buy a new machine do you know if a pci to pcie adapater will work with the hammerfall?

My main cpu only has pcie.

10 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-02-04 06:28:37)

  • ramses
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

You talked about a burning smell ...
The question is, whether the PCI card is still functional or whether it has been damaged.

You say the card is not accessible anymore and can't be flashed in this PC.
This can be either a card or a PC/PCI socket issue.

I would either send this card to RME for inspection or try it in another PC with PCI socket.
Or maybe even better, give this PC - as is - for repair to a local repair shop...

Maybe they have even another PC with PCI card and can check whether the card is being recognized there.

Its maybe not the best idea to get this PCI to PCIe socket and put this possibly damaged card into your working PC.
Maybe the pins of the card are corroded or there is somehow a connection between pins and this might create another short in the other PC .. I can not explain it better, but I would be careful and not simply put this card into another working PC if this is your main PC ... give it better to inspection.

We can only make remote diagnoses here, which is not easy with such a thing, someone with knowledge has to look directly into the device and check it...

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
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Re: I just bought a 50 foot madi cable now I am getting issues

ramses wrote:

You talked about a burning smell ...
The question is, whether the PCI card is still functional or whether it has been damaged.

You say the card is not accessible anymore and can't be flashed in this PC.
This can be either a card or a PC/PCI socket issue.

I would either send this card to RME for inspection or try it in another PC with PCI socket.
Or maybe even better, give this PC - as is - for repair to a local repair shop...

Maybe they have even another PC with PCI card and can check whether the card is being recognized there.

Its maybe not the best idea to get this PCI to PCIe socket and put this possibly damaged card into your working PC.
Maybe the pins of the card are corroded or there is somehow a connection between pins and this might create another short in the other PC .. I can not explain it better, but I would be careful and not simply put this card into another working PC if this is your main PC ... give it better to inspection.

We can only make remote diagnoses here, which is not easy with such a thing, someone with knowledge must go directly to the device and check it...

Understood. I will call around in my area to see. Thank you!