• Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Topic: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

Hello,

I have been wrestling with a unit for a month or so now.

It has had intermittent issues with playback dropping out and crackles. As well as the occasional stutter. I am on the latest version of the firmware and drivers in Windows XP 64bit. I am wondering if there may be a hardware issue.

Cheers,

Josh

  • From: Nashville
  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 43

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

Hi Josh, could be anything at this point.. There's not enough info there for anyone to make a guess at.. list your system specs and what you're doing when these things happen.. Crackles and pops in a project with dozens of tracks and virtual instruments at a low latency may be caused by one thing where crackles and pops playing back a project containing only one track would be something different, for example..

FF800, i7 970, 12GB Ram, Win 7 64, Cubase 5, WaveLab 7
  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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  • From: USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-21
  • Posts: 4,619

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

What results do you get in DPC Latency Checker?

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Also could be related to a bad FW cable, bad performing FW chipset (Texas Inst. is preferred), or IRQ sharing on the FW controller (sharing with the video card or NIC is trouble).

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

Hello Jeff and Sid and thanks for your reply.

The system specs are as follows:

MOBO: INTEL DP45SG
Processor: Intel 3.4ghz core duo
RAM: 3.99Gb
NIC: D-Link DGE-530T Gigabit
(On Board) NIC: INTEL 82567LF-2 Gigabit
Graphics: Nvidia Quadro FX 570
Video Playback: BlackMagic Design Intensity Pro
FW: Agere Compliant 1394 Host Controller
Intel 4 Series Chipset PCI

Now the things that ring a bell to me are the Agere chip which after some reading I am finding to be less than stellar.
There is some IRQ sharing going on which also may be at fault. Both NIC's are in use for the LAN as well as interfacing a console with the system. So which card is at fault is anyone's guess. One thing that has been brought to my attention is that using the internet (tsk tsk) and visiting other machines over the LAN cause the bad behaviour to rear it's head more often than not. I'm feeling like it is network related. The other thing is that there are several audio devices installed. On board audio, ASIO for the FF800 as well as the BlackMagic Audio device drivers.

Any thoughts are welcome. I will run latency checker ASAP and get the results posted.

Cheers,

Josh Vamos

  • Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

Just got through running the DPC latency tool. It's a great executable!
Some logging would be nice though. It appears the issues are related to the NIC card that is on board. When enabled spikes are random at times possibly due to activity within the LAN from some other machine. It seems to balance out when this NIC is disabled. Can anyone lend any advice as to what would be the best solution to get this machine as stable as possible?

Josh

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
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  • From: USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-21
  • Posts: 4,619

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

Just disabling the NIC when you are working with audio should be enough.

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 24

Re: FF800 dropping out (playback) and crackles

The results are not yet conclusive as I haven't had time with the system myself. It could yet be unstable when in operation for extended periods of time because the tests haven't really gone long enough to satisfy me. I will let you know. It seems to be the D-Link PCI NIC card. If we have another day of zero issues I will try switching slots and re-enabling the card.