Topic: Fireface 400 not working after unplugged

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and very new to this device. I'm posting this on behalf of a collaboration partner, who's having some technical problems with his RME Fireface 400 device. A colleague of his accidentally pulled the firewire 400 plug out of his laptop while both the computer and the Fireface 400 were on and being used. After noticing the obvious cause of the problem, we tried to restart the device and computer (multiple times) with no luck in getting the laptop to recognize the Fireface 400 at all.

Has anyone else experienced such problems before? It seems like the rest of the Fireface 400 hardware is fine, and all the software (drivers) needed to run it are definitely still installed on the laptop. I've searched Google and many audio forums already, but I haven't come across anything out there that seems to relate to this problem. My guess is that the sudden unplugging of the Fireface 400 sent an aggressive shock between it and the laptop, though I've no idea where to begin checking this.

We've tested the laptop's firewire 400 port with other devices and it seems to be working as it should. We would like to test the Fireface 400 on another machine but there isn't one currently available that can run the needed software.

Any suggestions, guidance, past experiences, or other tips regarding this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for spending your time reading this post.

[b]Vau?jot Jee?el?ef?eks[/b]
[i](noun)[/i] veejay graphics library effects
http://jeeelefeks.net/

2

Re: Fireface 400 not working after unplugged

Did you check the FF in the device Manager? Windows might have disabled it as it caused a crash and now P&P will not work.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Fireface 400 not working after unplugged

MC,

Thanks for the response. We're actually using the Fireface 400 on a MacBook Pro (intel-based). I did open the System Profiler (Mac equivalent of device manager in Windows) and checked the Firewire information under the Hardware list. Unfortunately nothing is listed but the maximum speed of the port.

We've also just tested the Fireface 400 on another laptop (a MacBook, also intel-based) and it wasn't recognized there either. I'm now very convinced that there is a hardware issue with the Fireface 400. I'm not a newbie when it comes to hardware repair, but I'm wondering what could've been damaged when the firewire cable was unplugged while the device was running. Unfortunately I have no past experience of the Fireface 400 and thus I can't properly asses and fix the issue.

Any thoughts?

[b]Vau?jot Jee?el?ef?eks[/b]
[i](noun)[/i] veejay graphics library effects
http://jeeelefeks.net/

4

Re: Fireface 400 not working after unplugged

Most probably the FW port of the FF is fried. That will need repair.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME