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RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → FF400 and Windows 7 will it ever work right??????
I did everything, updated drivers, switch the FW controller, changed many system settings but it still have problems!!!
Enybody ever made it work smooth without scratches on Windows 7??? or will it ever work right?????
Please be more specific about the nature of these problems...
Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME
I Updated to firmware revision 1.70 and i have installed win_fire_29991.zip.
If i leave the controller as it is and i play an mp3 on media player or any other player or in Cubase 5.1 makes pauses for milliseconds and then it goes on again and sometimes some crackles. when i change the controller to legacy mode it goes like fast forwarding it. Today i bought a pci to fw400 controller to see if the problem will go but steel the same.
Is it windows the problem?
Please give me some help.
Thanks in advanced,
George
+1 here... exactly the same problem.
I have the latest drivers, a new computer with win 7, cubase 5 V5.1.1.
The sound is making small micro pauses all the time.. 
I have a client (using win7 x86), was reporting some issues with his fireface, surprisingly so far using the older firmware & 2.86 got him off my back (for now ..),
try it.
I'm having the same problem too.
Pauses and crackles in my playback.
Win7 64 bit, RME Fireface 400.
- I tried reformatting, with no luck
- I was using the onboard VIA chipset but just bought a SIIG PCI-E firewire card and the issue persists
- Win7 is as stripped down and ugly as possible (though I shouldn't have to do this to make things work really)
- Tried both drivers (legacy trick)
I'm 9 days into 2010 and all I've been doing is troubleshooting and trying to get this thing to work.
I'd love some answers/advice from the experts right about now. Thanks.
Me too...
I have installed all driver on my HP pavilion dv7 1428ca computer...and updated firmware of the FF400...
Always get a blue screen...
Something is definitely wrong with RME's driver latest driver and firmware updates...
I have a Texas Instrument Chipset on a Express Card...
I use to run everything cool..on vista...
I recentyl Installed a fresh Win7 Familly edition
and problems persists
What's going on ?
Please Help
Thanx
R
--------[ R?sum? ]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ordinateur:
Type de syst?me ACPI x64-based PC (Mobile)
Syst?me d'exploitation Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack du syst?me -
Internet Explorer 8.0.7600.16385
DirectX DirectX 11.0
Date / Heure 2010-01-16 / 21:22
Carte m?re:
Type de processeur Mobile DualCore AMD Turion X2 RM-74, 2200 MHz (5.5 x 400)
Nom de la carte m?re Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
Chipset de la carte m?re AMD M780, AMD K11
M?moire syst?me 3840 Mo (DDR2-800 Registered DDR2 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Micron 16HTF25664HY-800E1 2 Go DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (6-6-6-18 @ 400 MHz) (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)
DIMM2: Micron 16HTF25664HY-800E1 2 Go DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (6-6-6-18 @ 400 MHz) (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)
Type de BIOS Insyde (08/17/09)
Moniteur:
Carte vid?o ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics (256 Mo)
Carte vid?o ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics (256 Mo)
Acc?l?rateur 3D ATI RS780M
Moniteur Moniteur Plug-and-Play g?n?rique [NoDB]
Multim?dia:
Carte audio ATI RS690 HDMI @ AMD RS780/RS880 Chipset - High Definition Audio Controller
Carte audio ATI RS690 HDMI @ ATI SB700 - High Definition Audio Controller
Stockage:
Contr?leur IDE Contr?leur IDE standard double canal PCI
Contr?leur IDE Contr?leur Serial ATA standard AHCI 1.0
Disque dur ST9500420ASG ATA Device (500 Go, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
Lecteur optique HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T50L ATA Device (DVD+R9:6x, DVD-R9:6x, DVD+RW:8x/8x, DVD-RW:8x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:8x, CD:24x/24x/24x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
?tat des disques durs SMART OK
Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 452.1 Go (377.3 Go libre)
D: (NTFS) 14009 Mo (2137 Mo libre)
Taille totale 465.8 Go (379.4 Go libre)
Entr?e:
Clavier Clavier 109 MCIR Microsoft eHome
Clavier Clavier MCIR Microsoft eHome
Clavier Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard with HP QLB
Clavier Touches de clavier de contr?le ? distance Microsoft eHome
Souris Souris HID
Souris Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
R?seau:
Carte r?seau Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
Modem Agere Systems HDA Modem
P?riph?riques:
Imprimante Fax
Imprimante Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Contr?leur USB1 ATI SB700 - OHCI USB Controller
Contr?leur USB1 ATI SB700 - OHCI USB Controller
Contr?leur USB1 ATI SB700 - OHCI USB Controller
Contr?leur USB1 ATI SB700 - OHCI USB Controller
Contr?leur USB2 ATI SB700 - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
Contr?leur USB2 ATI SB700 - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
P?riph?rique USB HP Webcam
P?riph?rique USB P?riph?rique USB composite
Batterie Adaptateur secteur Microsoft
Batterie Batterie ? m?thode de contr?le compatible ACPI Microsoft
Batterie Batterie composite Microsoft
DMI:
Distributeur du BIOS Hewlett-Packard
Version du BIOS F.49
Fabricant du syst?me Hewlett-Packard
Nom du syst?me HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
Version du syst?me 1
Num?ro de s?rie du syst?me CND9232636
UUID du syst?me 9E8B4AEC-39A511DE-809B0023-5A9F6ACA
Fabricant de la carte m?re Compal
Nom de la carte m?re 30FC
Version de la carte m?re 01.99
Num?ro de s?rie de la carte m?re CND9232636
Fabricant du ch?ssis Compal
Version du ch?ssis N/A
Num?ro de s?rie du ch?ssis None
Identifiant du ch?ssis
Type du ch?ssis Notebook
--------[ DMI ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ BIOS ]
Propri?t?s du BIOS:
Vendeur Hewlett-Packard
Version F.49
Date de sortie 08/17/2009
Taille 1024 Ko
P?riph?riques de d?marrage Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM
Fonctions disponibles Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD
Standards respect?s DMI, ACPI
Possibilit?s d'expansion PCI, USB
[ Syst?me ]
Propri?t?s syst?me:
Fabricant Hewlett-Packard
Produit HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC
Version 1
Num?ro de s?rie CND9232636
SKU# NV207UA#ABC
Famille 103C_5335KV
Identifiant unique universel 9E8B4AEC-39A511DE-809B0023-5A9F6ACA
Type de d?marrage Bouton marche/arr?t
[ Carte m?re ]
Propri?t?s de la carte m?re:
Fabricant Compal
Produit 30FC
Version 01.99
Num?ro de s?rie CND9232636
[ Ch?ssis ]
Propri?t?s du ch?ssis:
Fabricant Compal
Version N/A
Num?ro de s?rie Aucun(e)
Type du ch?ssis Notebook
?tat au d?marrage En s?ret?
?tat de l'alimentation En s?ret?
Conditions de temp?rature En s?ret?
Conditions de s?curit? Aucun(e)
[ Processeurs / AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-74 ]
Propri?t?s du processeur:
Fabricant AMD processor
Version AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-74
Num?ro de s?rie NotSupport
?tiquette FFFF
Num?ro du type de composant FFFF
Horloge externe 200 MHz
Vitesse d'horloge maximale 2200 MHz
Vitesse d'horloge courante 2200 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 1.4 V
?tat Activ?
Identifiant du socket Socket M2/S1G1
[ Caches / L1 Cache ]
Propri?t?s du cache:
Type Interne
?tat Activ?
Mode d'op?ration Write-Back
Associativit? 2-way Set-Associative
Taille maximale 256 Ko
Taille install?e 256 Ko
Type de SRAM g?r? Synchronous
Type de SRAM courant Synchronous
Correction d'erreurs Single-bit ECC
Identifiant du socket Cache de niveau 1
[ Caches / L2 Cache ]
Propri?t?s du cache:
Type Interne
?tat Activ?
Mode d'op?ration Write-Back
Associativit? 16-way Set-Associative
Taille maximale 1024 Ko
Taille install?e 1024 Ko
Type de SRAM g?r? Synchronous
Type de SRAM courant Synchronous
Correction d'erreurs Single-bit ECC
Identifiant du socket Cache de niveau 2
[ P?riph?riques m?moire / SODIMM 0 ]
Propri?t?s du p?riph?rique m?moire:
Forme SODIMM
Type DDR2
Type d?taill? Synchronous
Taille 2048 Mo
Vitesse 800 MHz
Taille totale 64 bits
Largeur de donn?es 64 bits
Emplacement du p?riph?rique SODIMM 0
Num?ro de la banque BANK 0
Fabricant Micron Technology
Num?ro de s?rie 2C000000000000000F0916DE2FEA08
?tiquette Inconnu
Num?ro du type de composant 16HTF25664HY-800E1
[ P?riph?riques m?moire / SODIMM 1 ]
Propri?t?s du p?riph?rique m?moire:
Forme SODIMM
Type DDR2
Type d?taill? Synchronous
Taille 2048 Mo
Vitesse 800 MHz
Taille totale 64 bits
Largeur de donn?es 64 bits
Emplacement du p?riph?rique SODIMM 1
Num?ro de la banque BANK 0
Fabricant Micron Technology
Num?ro de s?rie 2C000000000000000F0916DE2FEA09
?tiquette Inconnu
Num?ro du type de composant 16HTF25664HY-800E1
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1916973
Well I can attest that the FF400 *can* work well with Windows 7. In fact, going from XP to Win7 resulted in a huge performance boost. I could run plugins that always caused crackles beautifully.
Everything was perfect until I upgraded the drivers from 2998 to 29991 yesterday. Then my VIA chipset IEEE 1394 interface would simply disappear from the device list and it was as if I had no soundcard.
So I ran out to Bestbuy and bought a PCIe FF card and now the FF 400 is recognized again, but I get the Blue Screen of Death within seconds if I have the RME FF400 connected. I've tried rolling back driver to 2998 without any success.
I've spent about 10 hours on this so far and am pulling my hair out.
Does the 2.9991 driver change any registry entries maybe?
Not at all. Disappearing FW ports are a known problem in Windows Vista, maybe 7 too. They can be brought back to life by a cold reboot and 'search for changed hardware' in the Device Manager AFAIK.
Registered to add my own complaint, unfortunately.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate (X64) on a Mid-2009 15.4" MacBook Pro (Model A1286 - Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz, 4GB of RAM) connected via the FW800 port.
The Fireface 400 has been flashed to 1.70 and currently it is running 2.9991 though I had also installed the revision prior to this and cleanly removed every trace of that driver package using pnputil before upgrading to 2.9991. The firewire driver is the LSI 1394 OHCI host controller (1394ohci.sys) though I did try the legacy mode without change in my issue before swapping back to stock.
As it might theoretically be relevant, the chipset drivers and everything vendor specific came from the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD and was installed by hand, by running the setup.exe inside of the BootCamp directory on the disc as opposed to the autorun executable (which will block you instead of treating the machine like Vista 64), just on the off chance you wish to replicate this exact setup for testing. The only other unusual hardware connected is a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, a Razer Lachesis mouse, an Apple full-sized slim keyboard, usually my iPhone and an E-Mu Keystation Pro 88 -- all via a powered USB hub. However, the presence of the hub being connected has not changed this problem.
The Fireface can be safely hooked up and it is recognized by everything it should be. On the previous driver revision to current, it would play a LOUD buzzing sound after ten seconds of normal audio playback. If the firewire cable is not pulled out of the port a few seconds later, it causes the OS to bluescreen with "IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL". On the current driver revision the same behavior is observed however it also pops and cracks during playback up until the loud buzzing.
The Fireface does behave normally under OS X and is usable, so this leads me to believe there is some sort of driver bug or interaction issue occurring when I boot into Windows. Unfortunately, I have to do a lot of work under Windows so this is a bit of a showstopper lately for using what's essentially an expensive paperweight at the moment.
I'd be more than happy to provide more data, such as the dump file Windows generates, upon request.
Hi,
there is a article about BootCamp 3 and Windows 7 from Apple
hopefully there will be a update soon !?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3920
regards S-EH
Hello S-E,
I'm pretty sure that the BootCamp drivers have very little to do with the situation, I am just mentioning where I sourced my drivers from for the sake of being complete. At best the next BootCamp release will just be an updated installer check that specifically allows Windows 7 and some updated driver packages, though most of the hardware devices in my laptop are still using the same Vista 64 drivers for Windows 7 right from the vendor websites, so I don't expect much to change there beyond maybe the Apple specific drivers for controlling the fans might finally work without third party applications.
Just to stress this, the laptop has been functioning flawlessly with Windows 7 and the drivers I am using seem stable. Every other application and function I rely on function fine, minus the fan thing I just mentioned. So no, the next BootCamp release isn't very compelling for me nor do I think it's relevant to the current situation with the Fireface really.
I successfully installed and ran the FF400 on bootcamped Windows 7 64-bit on a late 2008 15" MBP, a mid 2009 15" MBP, a mid 2009 17" MBP and a current Imac 21.5" (TI chipset) all with "(legacy)" Firewire drivers.
Well, Timur, I wish I had your success story here. Can you provide more details about the firmware and drivers you are using on the mid-2009 MBP? This issue is very much real on my end and apparently not an isolated issue if you look at other threads here.
EDIT: To clarify, Timur -- If you could provide more relevant details it would go a long way to figure out if there is a bad interaction or not out there.
If you could mention more specifically how you set up your Mid-2009 MBP post-installation, that'd be insanely useful. Did you not install any drivers other than maybe the nVidia video card driver? Did you try getting Apple's own junk installed off of a DVD or download (and if you did, which DVD or download)? Did you immediately switch to the legacy Firewire driver (even though RME currently says that is not required with this latest set of drivers)? Which firmware on the FF400? Which FF400 driver package are you currently running?
Having these details of a known-good setup on the same hardware would be great.
Thanks in advance.
I'm using it on Vista right now and the last time I used the FF400 on Windows 7 was on the TI based Imac 21.5" with the RTM version of Windows 7 Enterprise (TI chipset, still needs legacy drivers to work with Firmware 1.70, driver 2.9991).
I am using Bootcamp 3 from the DVD, running the installers in Vista compatibility mode where necessary and apply my own workaround for Apple's driver issues as explained in detail in this thread: http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4320
I will be doing a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit installation on the 17" MBP (latest model) and report back to you.
Thanks Timur! Very much looking forward to hearing from you after your experience. I think the mid-2009 17" and the 15.4" are effectively the same hardware wise so it'll be just as good.
As a heads up, the BootCamp 3.1 driver package just hit. I'm about to back up important junk and blow away my BootCamp partitions.
My plan will be as follows:
1. Install Windows 7 Ultimate (x64), totally fresh installation, stock.
2. Install the BootCamp 3.1 driver pack.
3. Install the Fireface 400 2.9991 driver.
4. Test any sort of playback since even basic WDM playback via Foobar2000 is currently tripping this issue for me.
Step 4 might take me a day or two to try out as I had just loaned out my Fireface 400 to a friend who wanted to try it out in his studio setup. I am fairly positive this very act is why Apple dropped the BootCamp 3.1 release this morning. 
I will not be switching the firewire LSI driver to legacy mode, as stated by MC in this thread, it is no longer necessary and I'd prefer to minimize any sort of changes I am making to the system to try and isolate a potential issue. I, of course, will do this later if the issue still persists and someone from RME proper suggests I do this.
I did everything, updated drivers, switch the FW controller, changed many system settings but it still have problems!!!
Enybody ever made it work smooth without scratches on Windows 7??? or will it ever work right?????
Hi Radiation,
My gear:
Windows 7 Prof. 32bit, Cubase 5.12, Sonar 8
AMD 4600+ Dual Core, 4GB, Nvidia Geforce7 7900GS, RME FF400 (1.70/299.8) 256ms (magnificient sound!)
I can report it is working fine down here. The crackles I first got were by moving a screen with contents set to on, to another location inside Cubase 5. Since I disabled this I've no more crackles anymore. My system is responding very smooth and fast onto Windows 7. My FF400 is responding like she should be doing it: Great results in combination with Cubase 5 and Sonar 8. Latency set to 256ms though. The only thing I did was replacing the MS standard videodriver with the one from Nvidia itself.
I think that the cause is not within the RME FF400 but within the stuff that uses a lot of DPC's, possibly the SATA drivers or the driver from the wireless NIC. Especially Broadcom gear can often demote the whole system performance I've heard. There are some forums on the net who discuss these problems. With my Vista Ultimate OS I never managed to eliminate crackles though!! It was a complete disaster and it forced me to switch to XP again.
I can advise you to activate proces explorer from Winternals to see which part of the system or drivers are using a lot of CPU when the crackles occur again. This helped me to solve former problems in XP too!
Lot of success.
Robert (Holland)
Some quick tests with Stereo output on bootcamped Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit using Bootcamp 3.0 + 3.1 Update. 3.1 fixes lots of DPC issues, but the NVidia driver still causes the same problems and either needs to be forced to a fixed performance mode via Rivatuner or replaced with the Standard VGA driver.
Working on a mid 2009 17" Macbook Pro (LSI/Agere rev. 7 Firewire chipset). FF400 firmware 1.70, driver 2.9991.
Output of my Fireface 400 works with all three Firewire drivers (non legacy and legacy) with WDM (System sounds and Windows Media Player), DirectX and Wave (Ableton Live 8) and ASIO (Ableton Live 8). Using ASIO I can get down to 48 samples buffer and upto 192 kHz sample-rate.
The only quirk happening was when I switched from the default Firewire driver to legacy and then to the other non-legacy one and then back to the default driver the FF400 was not detected anymore after the last driver change. After deinstalling (and thus redetection) the Firewire driver via device-manager and rebooting all works again.
Only the Fireface Settings window still cannot be opened from tray from within the DAW unless it already is open in the background.
Those people with problems seem to be owners of Cubase/Nuendo. Is it possible that the USB key is messing things up? Did you try to remove it and maybe even uninstall the copy protection software coming with it (just for finding the culprit)?
The only quirk happening was when I switched from the default Firewire driver to legacy and then to the other non-legacy one and then back to the default driver the FF400 was not detected anymore after the last driver change. After deinstalling (and thus redetection) the Firewire driver via device-manager and rebooting all works again.
You should turn of the fireface whenever changing the busdriver.
/Uwe
I disconnected it every time as far as I remember, but maybe I forgot once.
1. Today I got a Blue Screen when switching on the FF400 via its switch (to bus powered operation).
Circumstances:
- FF400 was daisy chained to an Oxford based HD, the HD itself was connected via FW800 to the 17" MBP 2009
- FF400 was used earlier that day and then disconnected, Windows 7 went to standby/sleep for some hours before the computer was reactivated
2. I noticed that it is not possible to activate 24-bit output for "shared" mode while all sample-rates are available. Since shared mode is used by media players (I'm using Media Player Classic with the K-Lite codec pack/ffdshow) I'd really like to use 24-bit for any video that comes with it (like DVDs).
How can 24-bit playback for Windows system sounds and shared mode be enabled?
I actually don't use Cubase or have any USB dongles of any sort attached. At the moment, unfortunately I have been a bit too busy to grab my FF400 back and test. I've already got Windows 7 (x64) + BootCamp 3.1 installed and have otherwise left that installation alone, I just need a spare moment.
That was user "Radiation" with the Cubase installation, no idea if he's still reading?! fryingpan
Im still here guys but i still don't have any helpful answer so i have installed XP again.
My pc :
Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9650 @ 3.00GHz
System
Mainboard : Gigabyte Technology EP45T-EXTREME
Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Video System
Adapter : 2x ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 (1GB, PCIe 2.00 x16, PS3.0, VS3.0)
Storage Devices
WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR1 74GB (SATA150, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 69GB (C:)
WDC WD5000ABPS-01ZZB0 500GB (SATA300, 3.5", 5400rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (D:)
WDC WD3200YS-01PGB0 320GB (SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 298GB (E:)
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 64kB Cache) : N/A (G:)
Peripherals
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : VIA VT6306 VIA Fire II IEEE-1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 2 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
I have installed fut_win_fire400 1.67, 1.69, 1.70
And w2fire_2993, 2998, 29991.
I did tests between the drivers and firmware but i still have the same problems on Windows 7 x86 & x64 and Vista x86 & x64.
So is there enybody with the same problem solved??? or will it ever be?
Anyone from RME can tell me what to do?
What is the secret of Windows Xp and it works so smooth without crackles and pauses???
Thanks,
George
Pretty complex setup you've got there, maybe you should ask a professional IT expert to have a look at it. Alone the 2 x ATI cards setup screams for all kind of problems. Here are some hints at where to look:
- Remove one of the ATI cards and try the "VGA Standard driver", if that works you know where to look for the culprit.
- Remove 2 of your 4 memory modules
- disable one of the two Firewire ports both in hardware and device-manager
- turn off any potential dynamic overclocking in BIOS
Just as an update -- while I didn't get specifically my Fireface 400 back, I did borrow my roommate's and got a new Firewire 800<-->400 cable from Fry's just due to not having a spare. Mind you this is on a completely fresh Windows 7 (x64) install that has been set up like this:
1. Entire boot camp partition removed, reinstalled from scratch.
2. Snow Leopard DVD inserted, Boot Camp 3.0 drivers installed. (this is per Apple's own directions)
3. Boot Camp 3.1 driver update installed.
4. Connected a completely different Fireface 400 and cable.
5. Installed 2.9991 driver, rebooted, verified proper firmware revision (1.70) on the unit.
6. Launched Foobar2000 1.0 to test a track.
Playback went a bit longer than normal before I hit a bluescreen. This has now resulted in a new and exciting bluescreen message "IRQ_GT_ZERO_AT_SYSTEM_SERVICE".
Needless to say I'm pretty dismayed. I've not only reinstalled Windows 7, applied the new Boot Camp 3.1 drivers, but then tested it on a completely different Fireface 400 unit with a brand new cable. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my laptop or the hardware involved, it's a standard brand new MacBook Pro and the Fireface 400 is 100% solid under OS X. This is definitely a driver bug of some sort.
I'd not mind hearing from an RME rep at some point in this thread and not another user lurking here.
What "Output Format" did you use in Foobar? Does it happen with other output formats as well?
Did you try to force thje NVidia graphic driver into a fixed performance mode yet? Several people on Apple discussion reported that this helped them get rid of Blue Screen with the combination of Firefox and the trackpad, so there seemingly is some connection between the NVidia driver and instabilities.
Also have a look into your system log please, what does it say about the time the Blue Screen happened? Does it have any ACPI error entries around that time?
Standard WDM output from Foobar. Given that this isn't the only way to trigger this, simply having a browser open (I use Chromium, not Firefox, for the record) and Youtube playing is enough to cause the issue, that's unacceptable and not worth testing any other form of output. I'm not going to babysit and make sure WDM doesn't go over this device to prevent my laptop from locking up.
Seriously, Timur, I know you're trying to be helpful here, but if you really think me mangling drivers, especially a video card driver that has been tested on two entirely different revisions provided by Boot Camp and should actually be reproducible if it actually WAS the cause given how standard my setup is -- and reinstalling and doing voodoo here is actually a good thing... That it's actually worth hobbling the performance of everything else in my system just to accommodate this one device when I've had other high-end gear behave under these rather normal conditions under Windows... I'm going to wait for an actual RME employee to reply to this thread and at least acknowledge the issue. The hardware is off the shelf, consistent, common and I've set all the variables as neatly as possible together as I'm going to now for a reproduction.
Seeing as that last post from me seemed a bit more confrontational and uncooperative than I really wanted to be, I've done the following to try and accommodate Timur's post.
[img align=C]http://spiraling.org/firefaced.jpg[/img]
A. Laptop is plugged in and on. Nothing else hooked up besides that barely visible Firewire 400 <-> 800 cable to the FW800 port.
B. Process list after a fresh boot.
C. I even rolled my NVidia driver back to the Standard VGA Adapter, which is why I'm at a fresh reboot.
D. I killed the Bootcamp.exe process just to further minimize my surface window here.
E. Ignoring the (now stale) Bootcamp notification tray icon, this is what is also present.
F. Ye Ol Foobar 2000.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. Nuff said.
I have also emailed RME's support at this point. I'm not really looking for a fix at this point, just an acknowledgement of 'Okay, that's a problem' or 'We're aware, sorry'. I'd be more than willing to be patient over this with just a simple reply along those lines. It sucks I don't get to idly jam during breaks at work for the moment, but my boss probably prefers it that way anyway.
Mot wanting to start a flame war or anything here.
If you want to use windows, Buy a PC. If you want to use OS-X Buy a mac.
Boot camp is a work around solution.
Also I would make sure that my setup is not overclocked at all, Remove one video card and all bar one stick of Ram. Use the Standard VGA driver. Also unplug all but the system drive. If this works add things one by one until you find the issue. It may be a dodgy power supply!
I'm using windows 7 Ultimate with firewire/PCI/USB devices without issues.
Isaac.
Isaac, please kindly leave this thread if you don't have anything useful to say. I'll be happy to tell you how to spend your money and your work hours if you'd like. If you really think Macs are magic pixie dust coated machines and not a mostly bog-standard PC with EFI firmware, you're mistaken. I'd rather focus on the actual issue here because this is a very standardized piece of hardware that does NOT come factory overclocked nor is it bad RAM. Again, this setup works fine under OS X, it's not hardware, it's software. I'd be willing to believe it's another piece of software outside of RME's control since at the moment I've not installed windbg to try and stack trace this, but I honestly really shouldn't have to.
EDIT: And because you might have missed it, the post above you.
Hello there. Instead of starting a new thread I imagined going here. I am on a Late 2008 MBP and recently installed Win 7 on a newly made partition.
Everything went well and i've installed everything without problems. Using latest apple Bootcamp software and drivers and done all windows update avaible.
Using latest drivers and firmware from RME. I've downloaded them this week.
I can play audio using my Fireface 400 but after a few minutes it will start generating a sinusoidal tone and everything stops. From there it will either go to a blue screen or it stucks there and i've have to manually restart it (power button!).
If I turn of the boot camp app it still behaves this way thought it gives me a couple more minutes before freezing (though this may be a coincidence, i don't know).
Any help?
Hello miguel, I'm afraid I'm in the same boat as you. I've tried to document my issues in the posts above. I don't have any answers, but at least you're not alone, eh?
Standard WDM output from Foobar. Given that this isn't the only way to trigger this, simply having a browser open (I use Chromium, not Firefox, for the record) and Youtube playing is enough to cause the issue, that's unacceptable and not worth testing any other form of output. I'm not going to babysit and make sure WDM doesn't go over this device to prevent my laptop from locking up.
I was rather asking for the output format so that I can reproduce your setup here. I have just been playing a list of OGG files successfully via Foobar 1.0 (januar release) with no additional Foobar components installed. At the same time I played two different Youtube videos via IE8 and Opera 10.5 (alpha). My FF400 is setup to *not* use Interleave and in Windows 7's sound options I set "shared mode" output format to 48 kHz - 16 bit (44.1 kHz is default).
After installing the Bootcamp 3.1 update the only "driver mangling" I still have to do is to fix the NVidia driver to a 3D performance mode (I am using "Low Power 3D") and disable the ACPI Battery driver via device-manager (causes a DPC spike every 15 seconds). I cannot tell yet if the Bootcamp.exe (formerly kbdmgr.exe) only fixes the DPCs or if it also fixes the remaining dropout issues, but that's probably not connected to any BSOD problems anyway.
Timur, I know you're trying to be helpful here, but if you really think me
mangling drivers, especially a video card driver that has been tested on two entirely different revisions provided by Boot Camp
Not only did it take Apple a whole year to fix their Bootcamp drivers even after being given specific informations about it, but they still did *not* fix (or have fixed) the NVidia driver. So, it's less about me who expects you to be mangling with drivers, but Apple.
As I have written before *other* users who do not use any RME gear had freezes and blue screens with their Macbooks that were fixed after using a fixed performance mode.
Anyway, you even used the "VGA Standard driver" without success, so the culprit likely lies somewhere else.
and should actually be reproducible if it actually WAS the cause given how standard my setup is -- and reinstalling and doing voodoo here is actually a good thing...
Given how I have successfully run the FF400 not only on my 17" mit-2009 MBP, but also on a 15" mid-2009 MBP there seems to be something *not* standard and reproducible with your setup! Either some software or some hardware is causing issues that are *not* part of everyone else's system and thus do *not* make their RME driver (or whatever) cause Blue Screens as reproducible as yours.
As long as some users are reporting these issues while others report to have it working with *seemingly* the very same hardware and software setup it's hard for RME to do anything about it (at least not unless they experience the issues themself). So we need to find more informations on what is the difference between the working systems and the non-working ones.
I didn't read the whole thread back, but did you try exchanging the cable already? Did you try to reflash the Firmware and especially reset the stored setting of the FF400 (do a fresh write of both Totalmix and Fireface Settings)? Did you try to use the FF400 *right* after doing the fresh installation of Windows instead of installing all of your software first (Chromium, Foobar, whatever)?
Yes, I've swapped the cable, the entire Fireface 400 with another one (there's two in my house) and I've done a completely fresh install of Windows. And if you even take a look at the above image I posted, it's pretty standard. Seriously. Please have a look at this post. And the issue is not isolated.
I'm afraid that I've done more than you're even suggesting. I even removed the NVidia driver entirely from the equation.
Anyway, I'm not here to have a fight but I've done exactly what I said I did. Fresh install, the steps listed above. The only additional software installed has been Chromium, PuTTY and Foobar. I did not get a chance to test the Fireface prior to those three apps, however, that'd be irrelevant because none of those things load at boot nor do they change anything at a system level and were not running (minus Foobar) at the time of the crash. Honest.
There's a lot of posts on this forum describing similar issues now. Believe me, I'd like to help here. But I think this requires us to both acknowledge that something works there and something doesn't work here and neither of us are actually idiots.
As soon as my roommate gets back from Japan in next week, we plan on testing this on the latest Mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro he has to see if this issue is reproducible.
I understand the frustration, obviously this is not an easy one.
For the record: besides the two MBP I also successfully used the FF400 in combination with Windows 7 on:
HP NC6120 (1.8 gHz, 1 gb, Intel 915, TI), Windows 7 Enterprise Trial 32-bit (RC or maybe Beta, legacy driver needed)
Imac 21.5" (4 gb, Nvidia 730i/9400, TI), Windows 7 Enterprise Trial 32-bit (RTM, legacy driver needed)
Imac 27" (8 gb, ATI 4850, TI), Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (no legacy driver needed)
And on my 17" MBP I am watched movies via Media Player Classic with the FF400 on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit for the last couple of days. On my late 2008 MBP 15" I successfully used the FF400 with Windows 7 Beta (32 + 64 bit) by using the legacy driver.
So unless we find out what is different between the non-working setups and all of my working setups we wont get any solution.
I just read your mail November, thanks for letting me know and no offence taken!
Hi,
After 5 crashes after installing the latest bootcamp 3.1 I really cursed my ff400 for crashing my macpro 2008 SOOOO hard.
But,
It turned out to be the driver from apple for HFS+ support.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp … ;tstart=-1
after installing bootcamp 3.1 and maybe crashing, restart windows 7 in safe mode and rename 2 the driver files in c:\windows\system32
i gave them a .bak extension.
the files are
- applehfs.sys and applemnt.hfs
They are the cause of my bsod. My windows 7 is not crashing anymore ! and my fireface 400 is giving sound.
Viktor
I should add that the HFS driver does *not* make my setup crash, but it may be a solution for other people.
Im still here guys but i still don't have any helpful answer so i have installed XP again.
My pc :Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9650 @ 3.00GHzSystem
Mainboard : Gigabyte Technology EP45T-EXTREMEMemory Module(s)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)
Memory Module : Golden Empire CL7-7-7 1GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (7-7-7-24 4-33-10-5)Video System
Adapter : 2x ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 (1GB, PCIe 2.00 x16, PS3.0, VS3.0)Storage Devices
WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR1 74GB (SATA150, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 69GB (C:)
WDC WD5000ABPS-01ZZB0 500GB (SATA300, 3.5", 5400rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (D:)
WDC WD3200YS-01PGB0 320GB (SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 298GB (E:)
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 64kB Cache) : N/A (G:)Peripherals
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : VIA VT6306 VIA Fire II IEEE-1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 2 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer ControllerI have installed fut_win_fire400 1.67, 1.69, 1.70
And w2fire_2993, 2998, 29991.
I did tests between the drivers and firmware but i still have the same problems on Windows 7 x86 & x64 and Vista x86 & x64.
So is there enybody with the same problem solved??? or will it ever be?
Anyone from RME can tell me what to do?
What is the secret of Windows Xp and it works so smooth without crackles and pauses???
Thanks,
George
Hi,
I think you will find your solution in the Windows 7 Multimedia Class Scheduler Service. This service organizes priorities in your audiostream. You have to remove some entries in the registry. Mind you that editing your registry may result in definitive system failure and reinstalling your stuff.
Go to the run box and type regedit.
Go to the hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Audiosrv
In the DependOnService remove all entries except RpcSs and then restart your computer.
This was in Vista the major problem and seems to be Windows 7 too. Finally check the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service in process explorer. Often it goes to 25% CPU usage. You better disable this service as well just as the Windows Endpoint Builder Service. Stop these services and swtich them off permanently.
Believe me it helps a lot for smoother audio without any crackles.
Success!
Robert
You don't just want to mess with MMCSS out of the blue, so at least make sure you did a backup of the corresponding registry keys. You *should* check the RME driver setting about MMCSS though (About tab), it should be turned off by default, but maybe you changed it!?
You can disable MMCSS via Windows' "Services" by the way, no need to mess with the registry just to test some things.
You don't just want to mess with MMCSS out of the blue, so at least make sure you did a backup of the corresponding registry keys. You *should* check the RME driver setting about MMCSS though (About tab), it should be turned off by default, but maybe you changed it!?
You can disable MMCSS via Windows' "Services" by the way, no need to mess with the registry just to test some things.
Sorry,
There's no tab anymore (1.70 - 2.998- WINDOWS 7)
Robert
You are right, but I just checked and MMCSS is not enabled on driver level, which is the correct way to have it (the audio application has to handle MMCSS by itself).
Disabling the MMCSS service will disable Windows audio as well, but you can still use ASIO. Anyway, MMCSS isn't some esoteric mumbojumbo, it's just a CPU priority system that matters only for applications that make use of it. If you cannot make ASIO work properly after disabling the service then disabling MMCSS for WDM/Wave/DirectMusic wont do you much good.
After several days of successful playback I now also hit the symptoms that November described. Playback works for some minutes (can be 30, can be 3) with both Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player playing back a video file then the following error happens:
1) Buzzing tone. Interestingly it does not sound like the last sample buffer being played in a loop, but always seems to sound the same. There are no dropouts or crackles happening before the buzzing tone appears.
2) The video keeps playing and everything is accessible for several seconds, but then the whole system freezes.
3) 2 out of 5 times a Blue Screen was shown and a memory dump created, the 2 other times the screen just froze without a Blue Screen message or log entry.
4) After the first 2 freezes with Media Player Classic I successfully played back a whole video in Windows Media Player without freeze. Then I started a new video and WMP froze, too.
5) Exchanging the FF400 with a FFUC resulted in trouble-free playback.
The good thing about this is that I can now analyze the issue (as far as I find time beside my paid work ). There have been some minor changes to my setup since I successfully played back the same kind of video file. And I will now go through them and see if I can find some connections.
Oh, I wish I checked this thread sooner. I had been speaking to Jeff Petersen of Synthax Support via email regarding this issue. I had decided to give Windows 7 32-bit a go here. I actually decided to document as much as I humanly could here. With a grainy cellphone, the real tool of the pros.
[img align=C]http://spiraling.org/rme/part-one.jpg[/img]
* We have a legit Windows 7 and Snow Leopard set.
* A laptop that has all updates including firmware applied, though I don't think there's ever been a firmware update for my laptop.
* A careful backup made since this is the part where I go nuts.
* I remove the entire partition. *poof*
* Reinstall OS X.
* The latest Fireface driver.
* A shot of the Firewire 400<--> 800 cable I use.
* Everything is playing just fine with iTunes and an mp3. I have made absolutely zero changes from stock install. I added no programs or touched a thing. You can see the driver and firmware revision of my Fireface.
This has been my setup for well over a year. It behaves just fine in OS X. There are no hardware faults here, nor is it the cable. I've tested this on two cables and two different Firefaces.
Now for Part Two!
[img align=C]http://spiraling.org/rme/part-two.jpg[/img]
* Boot Camp Assistant splits up the existing partition.
* Installing Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate, because Timur had asked if I tried this before installing anything else.
* Grabbing the Fireface driver using Internet Explorer and no right mouse button due to zero trackpad drivers installed.
* Plugging in the Fireface.
* Installing the driver, then rebooting.
* Login screen -- the buzzing sound begins while it's playing the startup chime.
* Blue screen. Before I could *even log in*.
* Reboot with the Fireface unattached, picture of the 'Hey you had a blue screen' dialog.
* Attach Fireface and play back.
* This time you get the buzzing sound and the app hangs and locks up the machine. It did not trigger a bluescreen, but as you can see there is a big white line cutting through Windows Media Player when I tried to close it before the machine locked up.
Now, I immediately afterward put my Windows 7 32-bit disc in and formatted the existing Windows partition and did these steps again. And unfortunately, I got the same exact result. I would make a big photo montage but I assure you it'd be redundant.
I have, however, for laughs, included my cellphone's recording of the buzzing sound.
Again, absolutely nothing has been done to these Windows 7 installations. I didn't install the additional drivers from the Boot Camp package, which I already did a photo montage of demonstrating the same exact result. I didn't install any additional programs. I didn't touch anything on the Fireface settings, even though no possible combination of settings there should ever produce a blue screen.
Anyway, welcome to the club Timur. I've just reinstalled Windows 7 64-bit on this laptop, making four OS installations total today and restored my backups. I'm not inclined to further mess with this, but I gladly look forward to your experimentation and findings.
I will look further into this as soon as I find time. Since I used the FF400 successfully for at least several days (watching hours of Galactica with my lady) it should be possible to find out what has changed to make the FF Blue Screen.
Yeah, if you can think of anything you've done to maybe the Fireface settings panel, that might be a good place to start. I'm getting the bug from like the word go, like not adjusting anything or touching anything anywhere as my excessive photo collages have shown. It's very possible this could be mitigated by a simple checkbox or radio button you press somewhere out of habit.
Thanks you Robert!
I did changed the registry on windows 7 but steelthe same. Where can i stop Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service? or Windows Endpoint Builder Service?
Thanks,
George
RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → FF400 and Windows 7 will it ever work right??????
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