• Registered: 2011-06-06
  • Posts: 11

Topic: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Hello,

I had been using my Fireface 800 for over 6 months with no troubles.

A couple days ago I was in the middle of booting Cubase 6 and I accidentally shut the fireface interface off. After turning the 800 back on, it started having small glitches, sound would drop out briefly and I would hear clicks and pops. It does this without Cubase active as it has these dropouts even when playing an mp3 in windows media player.

I tried reinstalling the fireface drivers, I updated the firmware, I reinstalled the Firewire PCI card (Siig 3 port Firewire PCI Card - Driver Version 3.0.34.0) drivers and have had no luck.


Operation system (version/service pack) - Windows 7 ( No service Packs)
Mainboard - ASUS P7P55D-E Pro
RAM amount - 4GB
Network adapters - Ralink RT61 MIMO Wireless Lan Card Drivers
Graphic card - NVidia GeForce 8400
Other installed soundcards - None
Which audio software (version) shows the problem - Cubase & Windows Media Player


Thank you for your help,
Court

  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 44

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Hello,
check  FW800 connector in the FF800. In mine's, one is missing and the other recently developed a problem. It still holds in place, but it's giving me problems like yours (check for red lights in the front panel). Using a FW400 connection solves this because the connector is less used and works as it should.
Hope this helps.
regards

  • Registered: 2011-06-06
  • Posts: 11

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Thank you for the recommendation regarding the cable. I switched ports and it does seem to be working now. I have only tested for about 5 minutes but once I have a longer test window I will come back and let the forum know.

Cheers,
Court

  • Registered: 2011-06-06
  • Posts: 11

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Well, unfortunately, in the middle of a recording, cubase froze and a series of static noise erupted from the headphones.

I rebooted the computer and it still had the static effect. Unplugging the fireface from the firewire card would silence the static but it would come back once plugging it in of course.
I felt it might be the firewire card drivers and reinstalled those. The newest Unibrain drivers for the card wouldn't work at all so I had to load back to the old drivers (which don't seem to be intended for Windows 7) which caused the static effect once more.

I switched the cable between firewire ports again and it did not help.

Its weird because the computer had been working fine for a couple months now. I would have the occasional freeze up but not often. How it got to being completely unusable is beyond me. Can anyone chime in with an idea? I was wondering if anyone could spot a problem with this particular Firewire card?

FireWire 800 3-Port PCI
NN-830012-S2
http://www.siig.com/it-products/firewir … t-pci.html

I had heard maybe the unibrain drivers were an issue but not sure if that applies to my computers specs. It shows the TI chipset which everyone says I should be using. Would moving to a PCI-E card help? I've seen someone else on this board recommend the:

Siig NN-E20012-S2 - SIIG 2 Port Firewire 400 PCI-E
http://www.siig.com/it-products/firewir … -pcie.html

and was considering trying it out.

Cheers,
Court

  • Registered: 2009-03-03
  • Posts: 35

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

It's probably a good idea to rule out your firewire card as a culprit. Can you try the Fireface with another machine? Maybe a laptop?

  • Registered: 2011-06-06
  • Posts: 11

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Unfortunately it is my only firewire computer. Anyone have any ideas if this firewire card is problematic?

  • Jeff
  • Jeff
  • Moderator
  • Offline
  • From: USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-21
  • Posts: 4,688

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

You have old Unibrain drivers installed now? I'm surprised it works at all. Uninstall these, and try the "Legacy" FireWire driver provided by Windows.
http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9827

Regards,
Jeff Petersen
Synthax Inc.

Jeff's Website

  • Registered: 2011-06-06
  • Posts: 11

Re: FF800 has begun having audio dropouts and noises

Okay, I'm going to beat my head against a wall soon.

I replaced my firewire card with a PCIe of the following variety:
http://www.siig.com/dp-firewire-2-port-pcie.html

It worked for a couple days okay and then bang, same problem, I then switched over to the legacy drivers per the link mentioned above. It didn't help.

One weird thing that I noticed, when I first boot windows 7 I get crackles every few seconds, definitely not good, but when I open cubase it just turns into constant static. Could that mean anything useful?

I'm at my whits end and considering selling off the fireface so I can get some work done. I don't blame the card, but I cant figure out why my compter is having issues like these.