MOTU FW Audio worked great under XP SP1, flawless I would say. SP2 it was broken for many users: sync issues with multiple MOTUs, audio drop outs, stutters, squeals... and these problems get worse as your lower your buffer size. SP3 was the same thing, Vista is the same thing. Drivers 3.6.7.x seem to be favorites for those in XP, while drivers 3.6.8.x seem to work better for Vista because of the new windows RT support (which is similar in nature to OSX's core-audio. The new 3.6.8.x can mess things up for 828mk1, 896mk1 users though). Running a pair of identical MOTU FW units is the best barometer for measuring FW stability. On system idle - with no DAW loaded - the sample clock LEDs should be locked and solid on the same rate. They should NEVER blink (and it's worth noting that they will hold for up to 30 seconds or more and then blink a couple of times as they fall out of sync).
One workaround that seems to work for many users under the XP platform is to replace the ohci1394.sys and 1384bus.sys files from SP2 with the versions from SP1. The main problem with the SP2 drivers being that Windows crippled FW performance from down to 100mbps. A patch was provided that subsequently required registry editing SidSpeed values to SidSpeed value #3. This combination of replacing Windows SP2 FW bus controller drivers with those from SP1, in conjunction with manually editing the registry to allow for full bandwidth 1394/firewire was the fix.
Along comes SP3 now and unfortunately the above fix does not work as predictably and success is not as repeatable (trust me I've been pulling my hair out for the past few days). The problem is that upon SP3 Windows said that any previous 1394 issues were automatically included as part of this service pack upgrade. Then came a press release saying that they had actually broken it again, and apparently in a different way. They provided a patch however it doesn't fully resolve the issue.
Then came Vista which is a hell-ish nightmare unto its own that is never convinced enough that I am indeed the owner of the computer and can do whatever the hell I want. But that's another can of worms. (Runny Vista on my mobile-recording laptop)
Unibrain - UbCore
So here I am now recently discovering that a 3rd part company called Unibrain that seems to specialize in FW PCI cards, FW cameras, etc has developed their own XP and Vista Firewire Bus Controller Drivers. There is a handy little application that comes with it to easily flip back and forth between the Microsoft and their "UbCore" drivers. These drivers have recently received "digital signing" from Microsoft as well!... which basically means that Microsoft stands behind them as legit replacement drivers. But it's not all rainbows yet. I installed the drivers and, while it detected my FW Hard Drives, it could not identify my MOTUs. Nothing I could do could convince XP or Vista to install the MOTU drivers for this unknown device.
However, I just found this post from 2007 on Motunation (the user owned a UniBrain FW card which, by default, requires the UbCore FW bus controller drivers to be installed):
I am going to try what this user probably should have tried which is to manually edit the "Motu_fw.inf" file so that it will recognize the UbCore controller Windows FW bus properly. I'll do this when i get back to the studio later today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as these drivers support both XP and Vista and would possibly help a great number of users.I just figured out the problem! Turns out it was a driver issue. If you open the Motu_fw.inf file (located in the folder C:\Program Files\MOTU\Audio\MOTUDriver), you can see all the devices listed in the group called [DeviceList.ntx86]:
[DeviceList.ntx86]
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&1 ; 828
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&2 ; 896
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&3 ; 828mk2
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&5 ; 896HD
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&9 ; TRaveler
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&A ; traveler updater
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&D ; ultralite
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&E ; ultralite updater
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&F ; 8pre
%AUDIO828%=DriverInstall828,1394\1f2&10 ; 8pre updater
The bits at the end of each line ("1394\1f2&3", etc) is the Firewire device ID which Windows uses to find the proper driver in the MOTU .inf files. However, my SIIG card was using the UniBrain Firewire drivers, wich gave the ID of the MOTU unit as "UB1394\1f2&3", so Windows could not match the Firewire device with anything in MOTU's list.
So, I uninstalled the UniBrain drivers and let Windows use its own drivers which give the correct ID for the MOTU unit, and the 828mkII is back in business!