Hi there,

I just subscribed to this forum to share my experience about making work my fireface 400 on Windows 7 64 bits.

I just bought a new PC and and I wanted to connect my good old fireface 400 that was working fine on Windows XP sp3 ans Asus P5W-DH Deluxe motherboard.

My new configuration includes an Asus P8Z77V-Deluxe motherboard.

First of all, this motherboard does not include firewire port so I has to buy a PCIe firewire board. A quick forum search made me understand I would have to use a card equiped with a TI chipset.

I bought this one that seemed to me the best one (including Firewire 800 as well in case for later) : http://www.nitroav.com/store/nitroav-4- … apter.html

I installed the card without problems. Then i plugged the RME fireface 400, downloaded the last driver from RME website and followed the installation process. Everything fine, it could even run then the firmware updater, so I had my setup up to date.

I ran Cubase 5 32 bits, swithced to Fireface Asio and NO SOUND, NOTHING. Not even my midi notes going to my VSTs !

I spend hours on the forums, trying different tricks then :

1) The legacy driver DID NOT WORK. The Fireface was not even Hosted by the PC (HOST LED lighting RED), at least it was the case with the TI driver
2) I went in my BIOS to activate a function that gives more power to the PCIe ports (sacrifying 2 Sata Grey Connectors), this option is still ON in my actual WORKING SETUP
3) I even tryed the classic non legacy driver (Host Red Led inactive but crazy behaviour in Cubase, HOst Led sometimes flashing, Frequency switching everytime, no sound)
4) I had many weird thiongs happening, Host Led Flashing, Blue Screens, Frequency changing, Cubase freezing, and no sound at all, I even would have appreciate in this case some clic or glitch but NOTHING !

Finally I found the answer there :

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3874

I had bought a shorter firewire cable for a cleaner installation. As a last attempt before hating, I tryed to plug the fireface with the good old original Firewire cable included in the original box and it worked !! I loaded a Cubase session with a midi tracks, VSTs and various inserts everything is going fine.

So basically here is a working setup for Fireface 400 (800 as well I guess) on Windows 7 64 Professional bits :

Motherboard Asus P8Z77V-Deluxe
Firewire PCIe Board NitroAV 3-Port FireWire 800 PCI-X 64-Bit Host Adapter ($50 at Amazon)
OHCI 1394 Texas Instruments Driver
Original RME IEEE1394a cable 4 m (13 ft)
Latest RME driver ans firmware
For Windows Sound, mp3, videos, etc I'm NOT USING THE FIREFACE, I'm using an old Tascam US-224 (and as a controller in my DAW) I think it's important to have a separate audio interface for the system and multimedia, even the onboard one, and keep the fireface exclusively for your DAW.

working well in Cubase 5 32 bits

I hope this will help people that want to buy a compatible new PC or solve problems in their actual setup
I would be glad to answer any questions about the setup, in my case, THE CABLE WAS THE ONLY PROBLEM FROM THE START AND EVERYTHING ELSE I TRIED WAS A LOSS OF TIME BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS WORKING WELL NOW WITH ALL R3ECOMMENDED AND MOST UP TO DATE DRIVERS

Does anyone have an idea of what was going wrong with the cable lenght ?

Regards and thanks RME for the good gear (I had to say that, sorry it's my first post)

PS : here is a screenshot of my working setup :

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