1 (edited by DonDavito 2023-04-13 21:34:59)

Topic: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

Hello,

Unfortunately, I have sound dropouts, which sometimes occur more often and sometimes less. Previously had the Babayface Pro FS. It worked great.
Is the issue known?

The problem is present in all programs (Tidal, Spotify, Ableton Live 11, YouTube, etc.)

My System:
Fireface UFX III: USB 20 DSP 7 CC 43* / Driver version 0.9812
Windows 11
Connected to the USB-C cable


Regards,
DonDavito

2 (edited by ramses 2023-04-02 13:03:59)

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

Thanks for delivering some information about your system, but also those are needed / useful:
CPU, mainboard, chipset.

To what USB3 port is your UFX III connected on your mainboard?

Did you already test all USB3 ports? Best, it might work on USB ports coming from the chipset (not add-on / 3rd party USB3 chips on mainboard).

To give you some more ideas, what can cause issues, where to look for…

Do you use WLAN (Wireless network)? Try without or cabled instead, check whether it makes a differnce.

What other devices do you have connected to USB? Sometimes USB infrastructure can be disturbed by other USB or kind of overloaded. In such cases, it can help to get a dedicated USB3 PCIe card with a USB chipset where only the UFX III is connected to. We made good experience with Sonnet cards using the FL1100 chipset. Windows 10 and 11 have a built-in driver for these cards, with good drivers that work very efficient using the MSI method ("message signalled interrupts").
This card: https://www.sonnettech.com/product/alle … 4port.html

Did you check for USB transport errors by keeping the driver settings window open and looking for CRC errors?

What ASIO buffersize did you configure in the driver settings? I think this value is also being used for the WDM part of RME driver. For single speed (44.1/48 kHz) consider using 128 or 256 samples buffersize.

What energy related settings are in use in the BIOS? Did you disable C-States and related settings (see other thread in this forum) to have CPU cores running at high power? Wake-up of CPU cores from sleep states can take too long and cause unwanted latency for audio processing and, in the end, results in higher DPC latencies.

What energy profile did you use on Windows? High or Ultra Performance?

Did you measure DPC latency on your System using LatencyMon? Maybe a bad driver blocking the CPU core where audio related processes are also scheduled to run?

> Previously had the Babayface Pro FS. It worked great.
It has significantly fewer channels and uses a different driver.
24 vs. 188 channels. All audio channels are being transferred, no matter whether they are in use or not.

Usually, no problem if the system is fine (BIOS and Windows settings are well and no bad drivers (-> DPC latencies)).

See, for example, my results with UFX+ - very similar interface - (via USB3) on a well configured (9y old) system:https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … cks-de-en/

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

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

See also: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 78#p191878

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

4 (edited by DonDavito 2023-04-02 14:16:40)

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

I use an Intel Z390 AORUS Motherboard with an I9 99000K CPU.
The USB-C Cable is directly on the Motherboard connected.
I use a buffer Size of 256 Samples.

https://share-your-photo.com/6c7edf85d9

5 (edited by ramses 2023-04-02 15:03:56)

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

There are no CRC errors, so the USB cable / USB connection appears to be fine.
There are other things to check, as I wrote to you.

To turn off energy-saving settings in the BIOS (e.g. C-States)
and choose the proper energy profile on Windows, edit power-plan and disable selective energy saving for USB.

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

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

My Windows is setting on Ultimate and disable selective energy saving for USB.
https://share-your-photo.com/e60276ec65

My Bios were set to AUTO in C-States. I changed to Disabled, unsuccessfully.

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

Maybe reinstalling Windows will help.  several sound cards have already been installed.  I also uninstalled them properly, but maybe not completely.  So that something disturbs.

8 (edited by ramses 2023-04-04 12:09:11)

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

An old / installed driver doesn't hurt if there is no hardware in your system. Then the driver will not become active.
But you could deactivate not needed devices in the BIOS so that no driver is being used for it.
If you do not use the internal sound card of the mainboard, disable it.
I have a server mainboard, I have e.g. none except the UFX+ and ADI-2 Pro.

Did you try all USB ports already?
Before performing such an effort I would check DPC latencies with LatencyMon whether a driver blocks something.

And before performing a new installation a couple of suggestions.

1. get a good working disk imaging software like Macrium Reflect and make a backup of your system.
    If you get the commercial version then you have also options that recovery will be faster as only change blocks
    on SSD will be written, this also reduces the wear of SSDs

2. I would install a 2nd SSD in the system for dual boot, so that you can perform such tests without impact on the
   productive installation. This makes many things easier.

3. I would consider to get a dedicated Sonnet USB3 card with FL1100 chipset as I proposed.
    Then your recording interface sits behind a dedicated USB3 controller.

4. if you have an nVidia Card, check whether disabling energy saving with the powermizer tool
    from a russian developer solves issues. Also check in the original threads what nVidia driver settings are suggested.
    Original thread on Steinberg Forum.

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

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

As suggested above, try all available USB ports, also USB 3.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

10 (edited by DonDavito 2023-04-05 23:45:30)

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

It worked. I found a USB 3 place that works. Thanks!

Edit:
Unfortunately there are still dropouts. However less often.

Have two screens connected via USB3. These serve as a HUB and can even charge laptops via USB C. There are several devices attached. Is that maybe too much?

Re: [Solved] audio dropouts UFX III

The problem is solved. It was actually the 2 PC screens that also served as a USB 3 hub. Apparently they used too much power. Without the USB connection of the screens it runs great!