The combination Bootcamp and FireWire is known to not work as desired. Maybe that changes one day.

Hi Matthias-

Not sure what you are alluding to...I have a Fireface 800 and Sequoia working here like a champ running Boot Camp...

Parallels is not supportig Firewire yet...

Macbook Pro, XPSP2 mit Bootcamp, FF400 und Sam 9.1.1:
Hatte gro?e Probleme mit Sam9, FF400 unter XPSP2, da die Wiedergabe br?ckelte, viele Asio-Buffer-Verluste.
Abhilfe bot neue TreiberCD mit Bootcamp1.1.3 (neue Intel-Chipsatztreiber etc), neuste RME-Treiber.
L?uft nun wie geschmiert, Sam9Demo mit einigen wenigen % CPU-Auslastung.

Nur eins bleibt merkw?rdig:
Buspower funktioniert nicht, alledings nach vorherigem Betrieb mit Netzteil und dann Umschalten auf Buspower dann doch?!
Am FW-Port des meines PCs alles normal.
Hat noch jemand Efahrung mit Buspower am Macbook pro?
Oder Erfahrung mit einer Expresscard34 mit FW-ports?

///

Macbook Pro, XPSP2 with Bootcamp, FF400 and Sam 9.1.1:
I had hugh problems with FF400 with XPSP2 with bootcamp: no constant audiostream, many asio-buffer-losts.
No more problems with a new Driver cd with bootcamp 1.1.3 (new intel chipset drivers etc.) and newest RME drivers.

Strange is the buspower option. Doesn't work, but when I use the external power and switch then to buspower, it works?!
Either with OS X 10.4.10
anybody else with eypearinces with buspower with macbook pro?

According to other posts you need to apply the firewire patches from microsoft on the bootcamp side:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904412

I replyed earlier to a post of mustgroove which issues the same problem.
It looks like the problem I have with my HDSP pcmcia card on a MBP via a dueladapter.
Matthias, others, could this have to do with the same issues or do I have to look in another direction? I'm stuck now. Don't know which options I can try... Don't know if it is the combination of the intel chipset with bootcamp, if its the duel adapter with the rme. No clue whatsoever... Anyone maybe?

Finally I think I've got a fix for this... Both of these things seem to work:

1)  Disable all video hardware acceleration & write combining:  right click on the Desktop and select Properties->Settings->Advanced->Troubleshooting, and slide the slider all the way to the left (disables all hardware acceleration) and untick "Enable Write Combining"... this will make some GUI elements of some plugins/DAWs sluggish, so it's not the ideal solution, but it does the job...

2)  Disable Nvidia PowerMizer - right click on the Desktop and select Properties->Settings->Advanced->Nvidia 8600M->Mobile->Change PowerMizer Settings->Not Manage My Power Consumption...  this will make sure the video driver is running unhindered at all times...  This seems to fix the problem even when hardware acceleration & write combining are fully enabled, so this one is definitely the better way of fixing it IMHO...

I think disabling PowerMizer might help a lot of people out actually, it seems to be enabled by default in Bootcamp, so many people may not have turned it off... has definitely smoothed things out for me, no more annoying stuttering & buzzing all the time

Matthias - I can maybe give it a try on a quiet day when I'm not so busy...  will definitely post results in this thread

Thanks for the feedback. Please note that you notebook still lacks performance. On my machines I do not see any peak higher than 1000?s.

I have decided to do some further testing, based on Matthias' comments... here are my results:

Firstly I decided to test the "background" latency, because Matthias suggested that it was too high on my machine even with Powermizer disabled...  so I decided to do a background reading - no audio apps running, just wiggling the mouse around while the Latency tester is running:

Powermizer off
(video) Hardware acceleration on Full
Write combining enabled
Testing: Background latency (just wiggling mouse around in Windows)

Looks pretty bad...  so I started to turn off things in the Display->Properties->Troubleshooting tab one by one, and tried the same thing:

Powermizer off
(video) Hardware acceleration on Full
Write combining DISABLED
Test: Background latency (just wiggling mouse around in Windows)

Much better!  But in the testing I did in my previous post, just turning off write combining had no effect on the loud glitches I heard - they were still occurring all the time... So I decided to do the same test as above (1. Opening Ableton Live, 2. Dropping a track (32 bit 44.1) onto an empty audio track,  3. Inserting a plugin which always caused the kind of weird buzzing I was talking about in the original post) with write combining disabled but with Powermizer both on and off...  here's the results:

Powermizer ON
(Video) Hardware acceleration on Full
Write combining DISABLED
Test: inserting plugin on project with 1 audio track

The background is quite low, but that massive spike coincides with inserting that plugin, and a big screeching noise of the kind I spoke about in the original post...  so for one last test, I tried turning off both Powermizer and write combining, and performing the same test again:

Powermizer OFF
(Video) Hardware acceleration on Full
Write combining DISABLED
Test: inserting plugin on project with 1 audio track

Totally fine!  The small bump is when the plugin was inserted, but you can see the computer didn't skip a beat...

OVERALL:  So basically, the lessons to be learned here are:
1) Turning off Write Combining (right click on desktop->Properties->Advanced->Troubleshooting) ensures the lowest possible background latency
2) However, when it comes to actual performance in audio/DAW applications, disabling Powermizer has the greater effect...

CONCLUSION: Macbook Pro (and possibly other nvidia notebook) owners should disable write combining and Powermizer for ultimate performance!  

Matthias - can this tip be stickied or something?

I should add 1 more thing... I turned on my laptop to do some work today, and just decided to run the DPC Latency tester 1 more time to confirm that I was still getting the same results as I just posted...  to my dismay, even with all of the stuff turned off that I was getting such great results with, I was still getting a graph that looked similar to this when I was just wiggling my mouse around in Windows with no apps running:

So obviously something was going wrong today, which wasn't going wrong yesterday... and I think I have narrowed down 1 more fix for us Macbook Pro users - KbgMgr.exe... simply quitting this process instantly turned my background latency graph into something like this

Much lower "floor" and no occasional red or yellow peaks...  KbdMgr.exe is the little diamond-shaped icon in the system tray which allows you to change brightness and onboard sound volume just like in OS X, complete with the little teanslucent graphic overlay in the bottom half of the screen...  just killing that process seems to greatly assist the overall readout...  so the list of tips is now up to 3:

1) Disable Powermizer
2) Disable write combining
3) Disable KbdMgr.exe (Macbook/Macbook Pro only)

I would suggest making this thread a sticky. This is the most complete analysis of Boot Camp for DAW that I've come across.

Uhhpps ! Sorry

For the GeForce 7 Series i have found a new driver on the Homepage NVIDIA, which provides to turn off some parameter.
No weird buzzing noises anymore.

thx and bye

having those same problems on my alu iMac using bootcamp + winXP i went out to try out the suggestions above.

the first thing I tried out did it for me, which was to DEACTIVATE WLAN! (as suggested by OverDogg). no more glitches ...

as for the microsoft firewire patches MC suggested some time ago on this thread. they were hard to get, as microsoft doesn't support the any longer for some reason. i found them though at these links:

http://www.windowspage.de/frame.php?htt … 85222.html

http://www.windowspage.de/frame.php?htt … 04412.html

but be aware, 1. i haven't tried them out myself, 2. there might be a reason why microsoft discontinued offering them.

yes, that's how far i got on the microsoft site too ... but have you actually tried downloading the files? 'cause with me it then says that the page no longer exists.

hi everyone,
I' m new on this forum.
I have a problem, don't want to blame Rme for it but,

I record with Nuendo3 on my new Macbookpro on the Windows partition.
I own a Fireface 400 (also RME Adi2).
bUT unfortunately on the windows partition I can hear all kinds of clicks during playback and recordings.
Errors are numbered in the Fireface settings and are a big problem cause are not professional at all, you understand.
is there a way to solve this completely and recording audio with my Nuendo without instability on the windows partition?
I' m using the firewire 800 port and that improved the situation but did not solved completely.
I updated the drivers both windows and fireface400 but still some problems...
I want to hear the clean pure audio like in the classic Rme style.
Can't stand the audio skipping here and there seems to came back to stoneage!!!
Is the anyone out there with a solution?
Thanks

yOU are right, before I have to try ALL the tips described above!!!
But as far as you guys know, is there anybody working with nuendo on the windows partition of a new Macbook pro?
you mention that bootcamp and firewire are not a good combination yet.
with my Fireface400 you think I can work with nuendo without any problem?
anyway, i 'll let you know the results of the applied tips of the other members.
thank you

diseabling keyboard manager was the solution for me.

now it works fine while recording and playing music with nuendo3.
instead some occasional weird click is still occurring when Windows Media Player is on play.
does anybody have a solution for that.
thank you for helping me find the solution for the main problem above.
with regards francesco marino

Solved

Hello guys. Here is a follow after 1 week. Everything works perfectly.
Now, I'm looking to get an expresscard to eSATA for my HD. That would liberate the Firewire 800 port to put exclusively my FF400.

Have fun.
(The guy who is expecting the next MBP Quad)

Search for my thread about howto get low DPC latencies on bootcamped Macbooks. There is a script in there that helps with KBDMGR. Works better on Vista than on XP though (XP doesn't allow to set CPU affinity via script).

Hello i?m nu to this forum....

i have the same problems...using BC nu MB PRO, FF400 & NUENDO 3.2 (with my MB 13``i had no problems with the same setup...)
tried everything i read here, killing KBDMGR doesn?t help in my case...any suggestions? thanks

Was hier fehlt ist eine brauchbare Fehleranalyse des Problems. Es ruft ja auch keiner beim Hersteller des Waschbeckens an, wenn der Abfluss verstopft ist, sondern man ruft erstmal den Klemptner. Wenn der feststellt, dass es am Waschbecken liegt, dann kann man sich sinnvoll an den Hersteller wenden.

Schick mir Dein Macbook Pro samt Interface und Software (plus Ilok) vorbei, dann kann ich genau sagen, was da nicht richtig l?uft (vor allem im Vergleich zu meinem eigenen Macbook Pro late 2008).

Da unter OS X alles funktioniert sollte das keine Firewire Port Geschichte sein. Probieren kann nicht schaden, aber die ?blichen Probleme zwischen Mac FW Ports und den Firefaces betreffen normalerweise auch OS X (ist eine elektrische Geschichte, keine OS Geschichte).

In so einem Fall hilft das hier: http://www.lindy.de/ieee1394a-firewire- … 32908.html

Was genau soll reichen? Das Lindy Kabel oder das Fireface? Wie gesagt, wenn es unter OS X l?uft sollte es auch unter Windows laufen. Aber ich kenne die neuesten FW Chips?tze der Macs noch nicht aus eigener Erfahrung, meiner ist noch aus 2008.