Firewire issues with 4pre

[codostar]

Hello all, I just made an account here to get some feedback and hopefully some help on my situation.

I bought a 4pre a little bit ago and I'm having issues using the Firewire connection with this. Everything seems to work fine when it's running.... to a point. At some point (very randomly) the audio will cut out and I will get a high-pitched tone coming through my monitors. Sometimes other LEDs light up on the face of the MOTU when this audio cut/high pitch tone happens. I can always get the audio to come back on if I turn off/turn on the 4pre, or just disconnect/reconnect the Firewire cable. Also usually the audio will come back on if I let it sit for a bit. It only seems to do this when connecting with Firewire, not with USB. I've tried multiple Firewire PCI cards and no luck. I have had this unit replaced with MOTU and I get the same issue. I'm thinking it might be a compatibility issue and I'm hoping other users have experienced something similar, and how they fixed it.

I've tried resetting the factory defaults on the 4pre, switching the audio drivers/1394 drivers to Legacy, downloaded some firmware updates for both the 4pre and my PC.

My PC specs:
Windows 7 (64-bit)
AM2 socket motherboard
4 GB RAM
Phenom x4 processor

I can give more info if needed yes my PC is old, but it still runs like a champ. FYI I'd like to keep using the Firewire connection if I can "Just switch to USB and call it a day" would be my last resort here. Thanks!

[mikehalloran]

There is no reason for you to use FW if your PC has USB 2. Intel has never supported FireWire. Apple’s kludge was good and if your PC has a FW card with a Texas Instruments chip, then it might work but there’s still no reason to chase the rabbit down that hole.

Neither is there any speed advantage. All MOTU FW devices operate at FW400 specs, a bit slower than USB 2, even those with the Type B (FW800) port such as yours. Notice that MOTU only advertises “High speed” with USB 2 — there’s a reason for this. RTL (round trip latency) is noticeably lower with USB 2 which translates into lower buffer sizes when tracking and overdubbing.
https://motu.com/products/motuaudio/4pre/body.html

Not all PC FW Cards supply the correct 22–27V bus power (neither did Apple after 2010–12 depending on the Mac).If you’re depending on bus power, that may be your problem.