How to update the 828mkII Firmware Bios? What is current ver

mixmastaroberto · Post by **mixmastaroberto** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:41 pm

My 828mkII firmware is v1.00.

What is the current firmware for the Firewire 828mkII?

How can i update it?

Both my Mac and PC will not detect this unit. I've tried numerous installs/re-installs of the drivers and i get the same error when i launch Cuemix 'no device detected'

My problem might not be caused by 828mkII's firmware v1.00, but i'd still like to know what is current and how to update it.

Thanks

computer 1
Mac PPC dual G5 2.0ghz (PCI-X version with 8 memory slots)
OSX 10.4.8

computer 2
Asus P4P800, P4 3.4ghz prescott (hyperthreading ON)
Windows XP SP2

I am not using any other firewire devices. The 828mkII plugs into the 'built in' firewire ports on both computers.

Atardecer · Post by **Atardecer** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:25 am

You cant update the firmware (right?) although the newer 828MKII's are shipped as v. 1.01. My older 828 MKII (bought a couple of years ago) was faulty and I had to get it replaced - that was version 1.00. The replacement is 1.01 and that works fine. My LCD screen also died after a couple of months and i heard that this was common to the older MKII's. Did you buy this unit recently? If you did, that sucks, because i would imagine that all units sold nowadays should be 1.01. I dont know if this really makes any difference regarding your problem though. Again, MOTU does not share with us any release notes for updates so we can only guess at what the difference is.
What brand firewire port do you have? I have a feeling that Asus boards ship with VIA firewire chips which MOTU claim are no good for their products (made no difference to me). There is also the issue of XP Service Pack 2 and the firewire hotfixes. As for the Mac side of things, sorry cant help you there!

Regards

mixmastaroberto · Post by **mixmastaroberto** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:14 pm

Yes, you are correct, the Asus P4P800 motherboard uses the 'VIA' firewire chipset and is NOT compatible.

How do i know what firewire chipset is used on my MAC's buit in firewire ports?

In the OSX system profiler all it says is 'Firewire 400 800', it does not tell me what chipset is being used. I've searched the apple support website and there is no information on this. I've read on other forums that some people have firewire issues after they upgraded to Tiger OSX 10.4

I bought both my MAC and MOTU 828mkII used and i have no documentation for both.

My MAC is a dual G5 2.0GHZ (not dual core / not intel).
It has PCI-X Slots and 8 Ram slots.

Can anyone tell me how to find out what Firewire chipset i have on my MAC?

my next step is to buy a PCI to Firewire card that uses a Texas Instruments chipset, but before i do this i at least want to know what firewire chipset is being used on my MAC.

Any MAC people out there, Please help!

Thanks

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:53 pm

Did you update the drivers for the Mac? You should have no problems with the Mac FW chipsets. I've never heard of issues with them.

Go here, register, download current drivers for both OSX and XP.

http://www.motu.com/download/

I ran both verion 1.00 and 1.01 828mkii interfaces on my G5, G4 powerbook, and G3 iMac with zero problems You just need the right drivers.

Jeff

mixmastaroberto · Post by **mixmastaroberto** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:15 am

Thanks for the replies. I really want to use the 828mkII with my MAC.

The 828mkII firmware is version 1.00 and the unit works in stand alone mode.

I did the factory reset or factory default settings on the 828mkII.

I've tried installing/re-installing both the Universal Binary drivers and the older driver that i downloaded from the motu website.

I've unplugged everything from the MAC and only have the keyboard/mouse and the 828mkII and it will not detect.

When i look in the system profiler, it does not show the 828mkII, it only says 'up to Firewire 800' or something like that, but it is not detected.

Why won't the mac show what firewire chipset it is using?

the apple support website also does not say what firewire chipset is being used. (i've searched the apple discussion boards and can't find this info).

My Mac serial number is G85090YUQPR
Power Mac G5 (June 2004)
http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac ... _2004.html

When the MAC is turned on and the 828mkII firewire is connected, then i turn on the 828mkII, it will start up, but it gets stuck and the screen says 'cuemix dsp'. It gets stuck at this screen and i can't change any of the front panel parameters.

is there a certain order that i'm supposed to turn things on/launch cuemix?

This is my understanding, please correct me if i'm wrong:

1. Uninstall drivers then turn off MAC
2. Turn on 828mkII and to the 'factory reset/default' - then turn off motu
3. Turn on MAC and re-install drivers (latest version from motu website) - restart MAC.
4. Turn on 828mkII
5. Launch cuemix software on MAC

I get stuck between steps 4 and 5. On step 4 the motu does not fully start up, it gets stuck and the LCD screen says 'cuemix dsp'.

i've tried step 5 before 4 and it still will not detect.
i've also tried both the front and rear firewire port.
i've also tried 3 different firewire cables (6pin)

Should i buy a pci-firewire card (texas instruments chipset) or should i try to get my money back from the person i bought it from (craigslist)?

Any advice is appreciated.

gearboy · Post by **gearboy** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:37 am

a few things:

If the unit is getting stuck between "Cuemix DSP" and locking to to Mac, then I am assuming that either the connection is bad (fw cable), the FW bus is bad on your Mac (do any other drives etc work?), or the unit is bum. I am sure that MOTU can fix this 828mk2 for a price. Most likely that price will be for a newly refurbished unit, which they just did for me to replace a bad screen on a three yr old unit.

I do not know anything about the Mac fw chipsets, but I'll eat my hat if this is the problem. There are plenty of folks on here using the MOTU FW interfaces with a variety of Macs, and the idea of native Mac chipsets has never come up as a problem (to my knowledge... PC is another story). I can tell you that I have used the same version 1.00 828mk2 on several Macs (iMac G3, PB G4, Dual 1.8 G5) and have never had a problem as long as drivers were correctly upgraded (jaguar to panther to tiger). I have three years experience with the 828mk2 and own two units.

Sorry if none of this helps. It seems to me that you may have a bad 828mk2. Obviously, if you can use another FW card/bus (which you can if you want to separate the 828 from a fw drive) then I would try this out. Please post the make/model of the card, as I would like to pick one of those up as well and have never researched. Thanks.

Jeff

mixmastaroberto · Post by **mixmastaroberto** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:55 pm

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried a few more things to narrow it down and i think the 828mkII is the problem.

I connected my friend's Lacie firewire hard drive to my MAC and was able to recognize that with no problems. So this proves that my MAC's firewire bus is working correctly. (my friend said that my MAC's firewire uses the Oxford 922 chipset which is OHCI compliant).

I tried connecting the 828mkII to his MAC laptop (G4 running OS 10.4.

and it would not recognize. (yes, we did nstall the current drivers before connecting it).

So i'm pretty sure the problem is the 828mkII.

Before i try to get my money back from the seller, is there anything else you can think of to get it to recognize?

MOTU has not replied to my email. i'll try once more.

Atardecer · Post by **Atardecer** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:36 am

It does sound like it might be a bad unit unfortunately. I am curious: does it work in standalone mode when not connected to the computer? Try running a CD player thru it and see if it works. If your having problems at that level then it doesn't look good.

Regards

mixmastaroberto · Post by **mixmastaroberto** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:35 pm

Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies. They were helpful.

After going through the motions with Motu Tech support (on the phone),
it has been determined that my 828mkII has a defective firewire port.

It does work fine in stand alone mode but will not detect on my Power Mac G5 (and it won't detect on my friends Mac laptop).

Motu offered 'Return Authorization' for $79, so i will hopefully get the person who sold me this unit to pay.

in the mean time i'll use my old m-audio interface

Thanks everyone, and for the record, MOTU has good customer support.