Topic: Win8: For those needing the 1394 OHCI (Legacy) driver.
Hi,
For those who are running Windows 8 and want to use their RME Fireface 400/800 cards (and other brands of FW cards should apply) and need to use the legacy firewire driver please try these steps.
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, BACKUP FIRST, DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET AS GOSPEL. HUG A KITTEN.
Get yourself access to a Windows 7 computer, if you are running Win8 32bit then you need Win 7 32bit, if you are running Win8 x64 you need files from a Win7 x64 computer.
Locate these files from a Windows 7 machine:
c:\windows\inf\1394.inf
c:\windows\inf\1394.pnf
c:\windows\system32\drivers\1394bus.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\1394ohci.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\ohci1394.sys
Copy all these files into a folder of your choice on your Windows 8 computer.
Then follow this guide on how to reboot without driver signing enabled: http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php … -windows-8
Once you have rebooted with driver signing disabled you can proceed.
You can then go into Device Manager:
1. Expand IEEE 1394 Host Controllers
2. Right click on your firewire controller and choose Update Driver Software
3. Click "Browse My Computer for Driver Software"
4. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
5. Click Have Disk
6. Click Browse
7. Browse to the folder where you placed the Win7 FW drivers and click Open.
8. You can then install the 1394 OHCI (Legacy) driver.
9. Windows will warn you about unsigned drivers, just accept and continue the install.
You will need to reboot, most certainly using the unsigned driver / advanced boot method from the link above.
NOTE: The only problem I'm having is that I have to repeat the bootup process every time I reboot to have audio. The RME Fireface 400 drivers don't seem to play well if I use any other firewire driver. The legacy works - so far, perfectly for me.
So far this driver is working flawlessly.
RME mods/devs - is it possible for you to use your position with Microsoft as developers to try get this driver back into Windows 8 or offer us a solution? I had similar problems in Windows 7 and only the Legacy FW driver resolved the issues for me.
I hope this helps someone.