1 Topic by 19 frets (edited by 19 frets 2009-12-30 04:05:40)

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 127

Topic: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Hi:

New user here.  I recently acquired two Fireface 800's for my home studio.  I have a Dell XPS M1530 laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.66 Ghz with 4 Gb Ram.  I also have two hard drives for the laptop.  One has Windows Vista SP2 32-bit and the other has Windows 7 64-bit loaded on it.  The first Fireface 800 in the physical daisy chain is connected to the laptop via a Firewire 400 cable through an internal Ricoh 1394a interface in the Dell laptop.  The second unit is daisy chained via a Firewire 800 cable.  Timing sync is set up by a BNC cable from WC Out on physical unit one to WC In on physical unit two.  Unit one is set to Master and unit two is set to Auto Sync with a WC Preference.

I started out using the hard drive with the Windows Vista SP2 32 bit OS and installed the latest drivers (ver 2.9991) for the Fireface 800's.  I made sure that the two units were flashed with the latest firmware (2.77).  The unit with the highest numbered serial number registered (my term) with the RME Settings software as Fireface (1) and the unit with the lower serial number registered with the RME Settings software as Fireface (2).  I have only used the preamp inputs with my mics so far, but I was able to simultaneously record all eight preamp inputs for an hour with no drop outs or other problems at 24 bit/44.1 Khz.  Things seemed to be working fine. 

My ultimate goal is to be able to also use the Firefaces with Windows 7, so I proceeded to remove the hard drive with the Vista OS and install the drive that has Windows 7 in the laptop.  I went through the same process to load the latest version of the Fireface drivers.  After restarting the system, I proceeded to run the Fireface Settings application and immediately noticed that the two Firefaces had reversed their registration on the Windows 7 system.  Now the lowest serial numbered unit is registering as Fireface (1) and the highest serial numbered unit is registering as Fireface (2).

I believe I read in the manual that the "oldest" serial numbered unit will always register as Fireface (1).  Shouldn't the lowest serial numbered unit register as Fireface (1) under both OS's?  It is a real pain to get things set up in Sonar, change hard drives (and OS's) and have to swap all the inputs and outputs around in Sonar.  If they are both using the same 1394a Firewire interface, drivers and RME firmware, why would they register differently with just changing the OS?  Shouldn't they always register the same, regardless of the OS being used, if all other things are equal?

Any thoughts or suggestions for a resolution are greatly appreciated.

BTW. Love the audio quality of these units.

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Fwiw - I've had my 2 FF800s swap registration under Windows 7 x64 as well. Been quite a pain as I'm dualbooting with XP atm.

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Gr8h8m:

Thanks for your reply.  I guess it is nice to know I am not the only one.  :-)

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Anyone else confirm this?

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 127

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Bump...

Anyone from RME have any thoughts on this?  Thanks in advance for your time.

Kindest regards,

Jim

  • Registered: 2008-06-26
  • Posts: 152

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

In Sonar what interface are you using,  WDM kernel streaming or ASIO?
/Uwe

7 Reply by 19 frets (edited by 19 frets 2010-01-08 16:45:15)

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Hi Uwe:

Thanks for taking the time to respond.  I am using Sonar Producer Edition 8.3.1.372 with the ASIO driver.  If you need more detail, let me know and again, thanks for taking the time to inquire.

Jim

  • Registered: 2008-06-26
  • Posts: 152

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

I would like to know in which of the following case the ordering of the devices switches with the os:

1) settings program -> please check by switching the phantom power of each device
2) the mixer program -> please look at the input level meter of each card
2) the asio driver -> playback someting and listen
3) wdm -> playback someting and listen

/Uwe

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Fwiw my experience is that the 2 FF800s number themselves consistently within XP, and also within Win7 64x, just the wrong way round. I'd like them to remain in the same order regardless of the OS being used please.

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 127

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Yes, that is what is happening for me too!  The two units consistently register in one order under Vista 32-bit OS, but when I boot up in Windows 7 64-bit, they register in the reverse order.  Plays havoc with your system cable routing.  I will try to find time to run another test this weekend using the WDM driver just to see if there is any change.  Thanks.

11 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Please, is it so hard to answer the above questions?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

12 Reply by 19 frets (edited by 19 frets 2010-01-12 07:01:25)

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Mathias:

Perhaps you missed my post above where I said I would get in the studio first chance and run a test to answer the questions.  Am I missing something?  Don't you want me to try and reproduce the problem with both the ASIO and WDM drivers?

Thanks

Jim

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Matthias,
no time yet to test wdm driver,
but 1,2,3 all yes.

14 Reply by MC

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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

It seems MS has changed the name handling in the new Win7 FW driver. We will try to adress this. Until then it should be sufficient to use the Legacy driver instead, see here:

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5305

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 127

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Thanks MC.  This makes me feel better that I am not going crazy or doing something wrong!!!!   I appreciate you getting back and updating us on your findings.  Knowing you are working on it is sufficient for me.  I can work around it for now.  As a new Fireface user, I was concerned that I might not have things set up properly or that I was not understanding the way the units work.  Once again, thanks for the feedback.

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Thanks for the swift response Matthias. Its not a showstopper, just irritating, so for the moment I'll work around it.

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
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Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Bump!!

Thanks MC for posting the updated driver to address this.  I will try it out this weekend and let you know how it goes.  Appreciate the prompt response and feedback!!

18 Reply by 19 frets (edited by 19 frets 2010-02-01 03:19:53)

  • Registered: 2009-12-30
  • Posts: 127

Re: Dual Firewire 800's Registration Problem

Mathias:

Thanks to you and the RME team for following up on this issue.  I tested my two FF800's this weekend with the new driver version 2.9992 and everything is working normally now.  I can set up the two FF800s on my laptop with Vista and make changes to each with TotalMix, then shut down, and power back up with Windows 7 on the laptop and the two FF800s remain ordered the same.  They do not reverse order as with the previous driver version.  Thanks again for taking care of the issue!!!