• Registered: 2007-05-29
  • Posts: 7

Topic: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

I'm having a weird problem with my FF400. It simply stops working at some point, just like that. What I mean by that is that it doesn't output any sound. There isn't any rhyme or reason to it that I can see. It used to work just fine for quite a long time but not anymore. I haven't installed any new hardware.

The only way I have found to fix this problem is to uninstall the driver and  then uninstall the device in device manager, reboot, reinstall driver, reboot. Then it works again but sooner or later this happens again. Last time it happened right after I had finished listening to an album in foobar2000 (a music player software). I don't know if it helps any but when the problem happens, foobar2000 gives the following error: "Unrecoverable playback error: Unknown error code (0x8889000F)". Other software don't seem to give errors but just stop making any sound.

I have the latest firmware update and the latest drivers.

Any ideas are welcome.

  • Registered: 2007-05-29
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

I would really appreciate some help. This is still happening even with a new computer and new Win 7 installation.

  • From: Finland
  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 15

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Does the Host LED turn red when the sound disappears? And can you access the Fireface Settings or Fireface Mixer?

Torniojaws's Website

4 Reply by klawrence (edited by klawrence 2011-02-11 17:17:35)

  • Registered: 2009-01-11
  • Posts: 6

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Just to give you an idea of what is out there:

I have two win7 64 installations on one machine.  For one installation, putting the machine to sleep and then waking up can result in unpredictable behavior, no audio (rare), or most common, blue screens when I turn the volume/output selector knob, or sometimes as soon as any analog input is provided, like pressing some keys on my stage piano.  I can prevent the blue screens if I move some sliders in the Mixer before turning the knob -- after I do that, there is no problem at all.  For the other installation, there are different problems with going to sleep and waking  -- mainly what I notice is not the knob issue, but midi won't be received until I reboot the OS.  Audio gets into Cubase, but no midi.

5 Reply by weemies (edited by weemies 2011-02-14 04:16:42)

  • Registered: 2007-05-29
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Thanks for the replies.

No, the LED doesn't turn red. Nothing happens, except the audio device just stops responding, and many apps start giving an error about it when trying to play something. The mixer and the settings window still open as usual and there is nothing weird going on there visually.

I have discovered that this problem seems to happen (though not every time) when I have multiple programs using the FF400 open at the same time. Or to be more precise, the problem appears (sometimes) the exact moment that I open a program that requests FF400, while there is already another program (or programs) open that is using the FF400. For example if I open a media/video player when I already have for example a browser with a youtube vid open (say, paused) in the background.

I haven't found any way to fix this other than the method I explained above. This happens maybe every few days or so. It's just very annoying. Restarting the computer doesn't help. I haven't experienced any blue screens or anything. The problem just happens when it wants to and I haven't found any consistencies in how the problem appears apart from the one I described above.

It's hard for me to believe that the FF400 hardware would be giving up just because of this... Should I try re-flashing the firmware? Maybe try an earlier firmware, or is that even possible? Could it help to try a new firewire cable? I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 btw.

Any more ideas are absolutely appreciated.

6 Reply by Drewcipher (edited by Drewcipher 2011-02-18 00:19:29)

  • Registered: 2010-11-01
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

I'm having the same problem. I have to admit, after all the hype I heard about RME's drivers being so stable, I'm more than a little disappointed. It looks like a lot of people are having problems on Win7 64bit. My FF400 didn't exactly have spectacular performance on my WinXP32 machine, either...  Makes me seriously consider going back to my Mackie ONYX 400F which had about the same level of stability on my old system, and allowed me to use a 2048 buffer size...

Here's a question I've seen posted on this forum before:  RME - any plans for a driver update that works on Win7?

  • Registered: 2010-11-01
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Weemies, are you using an external clock source? I'm using an Apogee Rosetta AD and I wonder if that might have something to do with it...

  • Registered: 2007-05-29
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

I believe I have solved the problem. It seems that at random points in the "Fireface Settings" panel the sample rate / pitch automatically changes slightly and that is what causes the problem. When I bring the sample rate back to 44100 Hz (0.000% pitch), the problem is corrected.

Now my question would be: what could cause this automatic change and why didn't it happen under any previous operating systems such as Windows XP (32 and 64 bit)? The issue is no longer as pressing because it only takes a few seconds to correct the sample rate but it's still annoying and if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

Btw I'm not using external clock source.

9 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,447

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Your driver and firmware version?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2007-05-29
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Well I already said they were the latest, so... Driver: 3.034. Firmware: 1.70.

  • Registered: 2008-04-19
  • Posts: 8

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

The fireface windows 7 drivers are a complete crapshoot. They may work, they may not. Depends on the windows 7 laptop or system you are running. Mine is an acer 8943G-9429 and they don't work for me. My audiofire 4 is working flawlessly on the same laptop so I've left my fireface 800 behind.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,709

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

If your laptop or configuration won't work correctly with the FF800, the drivers are not to blame...


Regards,
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2010-11-01
  • Posts: 7

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Thanks for the tip Weemies, I'll look out for that. I have a separate computer for my internet connection, and I'm routing the sound from it into my built in sound card, and then out my FF400. It seems that this problem develops shortly after I set up the routing for this..

Daniel, would you care to justify the following bold (and dare I say presumptuous) statement:

If your laptop or configuration won't work correctly with the FF800, the drivers are not to blame...

If not, then what is to blame? It seems pretty logical that it would be the drivers.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,709

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

I thought I was quite clear: "If your laptop or configuration won't work correctly with the FF800, the drivers are not to blame".
There are a number of laptops that have shown to be quite unusable for audio purposes.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

15 Reply by Mesa4x12 (edited by Mesa4x12 2011-04-04 18:12:34)

  • Registered: 2011-04-01
  • Posts: 15

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

Your symptoms sound similar to mine.  Except I'm not using a laptop and I don't see any correlation between multiple programs since mine takes a sh*t while in my DAW without any help from anything else. 

RME Support I think saying it just won't work with your computer is BS and more or less a way to dodge actually helping.  Rather than say not suitable for audio, you should say not suitable for the drivers we've written and the product we sell.  It also would be cool if you guys would do something to make things like this right without leaving someone else holding a $1k-$2k paperweight.

16 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur 2011-04-04 19:47:36)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: FF400 just stops working in Win7 64 bit

If Weemies is still reading here: Try changing the power-profile of Windows from "Balanced" to "High Performance". Does that help? If so there is one setting in the other profiles that needs to be changed.

Do you know what Firewire chipset is built into your computer and does changing the Windows Firewire driver to "Legacy" help?

Last but not least, W7 Service Pack 1 includes a number of Firewire related fixes that previously have only been released as on-demand hotfixes.