That one didn't work and caused my computer to freeze, slow down and what not:

http://www.siig.com/it-products/firewir … scard.html

What's next? No idea, sell the f***ing Fireface?! Probably. Let's see.

Hmm, let me think... You mean after I did weeks of research on which chipset I might need to get a really expensive soundcard work with a computer that works really well otherwise, after spending days of running around shops checking notebooks for their Firewire chipset and after buying one which has the required TI chipset for an aweful lot of money and it still doesn't work?
And I'm not even talking about the time I spent e-mailing the support afterwards or the 4 weeks of trying to make it work by all means, including the reinstallation of two OS on a dualboot which set me back for days or buying different firewire cables and so on until I couldn't return it anymore. Now the expresscard that doesn't work as solution either, which uses TI on the card itself & in the slot of my computer...

Of course, I totally understand that RME can't test all laptops/computers and that the whole firewire issue in general is not RME's fault but I must say other Firewire interfaces from e.g. Apogee or Presonous do work on the same computers I tried. And last but not least, in years of working in audio I met NO person which didn't have at least on problem with their computer + Fireface (400 or 800); and I know quite a few people trying/using it. Obviously, it must work for other people but for me, unfortunately, the Fireface, of all the RME product I have and will buy, was a big waste of money I wish never happened.

I'll have to think and see what I do. Maybe I sell it and get another Octamic which goes with the other into my HDSP9652; which is in a Magma chassis going via cardbus (TI chipet) into the same computer - working fine without any trouble.

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks for your reply Frets, appreciate it! Yes, I guess I read all of the threads here in the forum and have already disabled pretty much everything one by one including Wifi, webcam, LAN, cardbus, card reader etc etc. I also put it to the suggested 'Always on' energy profile, tried the legacy driver, disabled battery monitoring, IRQs look good etc but still, I get dropouts during recordings in the DAWs and error messages on the Fireface panel every now and then but can't say where from. That simply makes it too unreliable for work.

I also used DPC etc to figure out what's happening but after everything is disabled now - there is simply nothing left. The SIIG Express card makes the system freeze or crash. Without it, with the inbuilt firewire port, I can at least kind of playback and record. I guess if nobody has another idea it means either I get another laptop (which I can't afford) or sell the Fireface.

Thanks again,
Peter

Cheers. I feel the same about giving up when I don't want to and I wish it was different since I really like the idea of the FF!

DPC is green most of the times on XP but sometimes a high yellow or rarely even a red peak occurs and I get the dropouts. No idea what causes it. Under Vista it looks different since I use the Wifi etc and it's mostly yellow anyway. There I get even more dropouts and glitches but I don't mind too much since I mainly use it for normal office and smaller editing stuff (where I don't mind the odd glitch here and there).

On XP, is there maybe anything else I could do? I think it's SP3, not 100% sure though.

Ok, DPC doesn't show me what causes it. Which of the 'Mon' softwares could show the culprit? Most likely it's a CPU peak caused by a process I guess but how do I see it exactly that moment or even better afterwards? The normal performance monitor in XP doesn't do the trick. So how can I see like a CPU peak hold on processes? Any idea?

Cheers,
Peter

Ah, a new version! I remember I used that a long time ago where it didn't help much but I while give it another shot. Thanks!

EDIT: Damn, doesn't run on XP where I'd need it. But thanks anyway.

Ok, will try that too, thanks!

Hi Laurence,

Yes, it came with Vista and I haven't tried it with W7 since I thought XP gives me better performance (W7 not being too different from Vista). Maybe as very last resort but I'd much rather see XP work to be honest.

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks for the information, I'll definitely keep that in mind! The main reason to have that laptop working are on-location recordings where I don't need much apart from the quick/clean/working OS + Fireface and Samplitude. Therefore I didn't mind XP where I had a license. But I'll certainly keep that in mind and may get rid of Vista and replace it with W7 at some point.

RATTV3 is next.

Cheers,
Peter