MOTU 828mkII FW Not Working at High Sample Buffer Sizes

[Bill_Phillips]

Basically the mixing project I'm working on has grown and seems to require a sample buffer size bigger than 192 samples to prevent crackling. When I increase the sample buffer size above 192 samples, my DAW, Cakewalk, acts as if I've lowered the buffer size and stops working. To me it seems like there's a bug in the driver that actually reduces the buffer size for buffer size settings above 192 samples. This is a recent problem. I've recently used sample buffer settings up to the maximum of 1024 samples without problems. I suspect that the problem was caused by a Windows 10 update, but don't have any idea how to address it.

Last year I began having firewire problems that I think were caused by Windows 10 updates and replaced my firewire card with the Syba SY-PEX30016 which has the TI XIO2213B chip. That solved my problem then, but I think I have the latest available card now and don't think that the current problem can be fixed by replacing my firewire card again.

Is anyone else having this problem, which started for me in June I think? Also any suggestions on how to resolve it? I've seen post on the Sound on Sound forum suggesting going to legacy drivers which I'm reluctant to try.

I also contacted MOTU TeckLink and they advised me to uninstall and reinstall MOTU drivers which I did and it didn't help.

The support response also noted that MOTU doesn't support Windows 10, for the 828mkII which to me is very disingenuous. When I was checking for new drivers I noticed that the Windows drivers were last updated in October, 2015 while Mac drivers from 2020 and 2021 are available meaning that the Mac drivers have been updated numerous times since 2015. Now that the 2015 Windows drivers appear to need a tweak, it seems like MOTU could find the time in between their nearly continuous Mac updates to do a once in 6-years update of the Windows drivers.

[mikehalloran]

The support response also noted that MOTU doesn't support Windows 10, for the 828mkII which to me is very disingenuous.

No. It only tells you that they don't support something as old as the 828mkII, the very last of which was made over 15 years ago.

The current MOTU Audio Drivers should work with your mkII. If MOTU listed this, they would be obligating themselves to (see where I'm going with this?) support. As one with the same interface that works with the Catalina drivers on my iMac Pro, I'd start here.

https://motu.com/download

These drivers are not listed in the update matrix for our interfaces, of course.

[Bill_Phillips]

Mike thanks for responding. But what I need is help finding a way, if there is one, to get my 828mkII back working for Sample Buffer sizes over 192 samples. It doesn't appear that MOTU will update the drivers since they dropped Windows support when Windows 10 was introduced. So I'm hoping there's something else I can do. On other forums there has been discussion of rolling back drivers, but that doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Are there others on this forum successfully using the 828 mk2 with the latest versions of Windows 10 and sample buffer sizes greater than 192 samples? If yes, I'd appreciate hearing from them.

No. It only tells you that they don't support something as old as the 828mkII, the very last of which was made over 15 years ago.

The quote above isn't true. MOTU still supports "something as old as the 828mkII" for use with more recent versions of the Mac OS. The two most recent Mac OS driver updates are available at the link quoted below and are dated 2020 & 2021. So MOTU recognizes that the 828mkII is still a useful interface. A 2021 update for the Windows 10 OS would probably solve my problem.

https://motu.com/download

I and other Windows OS users have been using the drivers available at quoted link above since their release in Oct, 2015 and they worked fine until recently.

These drivers are not listed in the update matrix for our interfaces, of course.

I didn't understand this statement. Please explain, thanks.