828 MKII USB,pops,squeals WORKAROUND-READ ENTIRE THREAD!

[thehowler]

Just thought I'd let you all know my experiences with this issue...

I was having problems that seem to be quite common with the MOTU 828MKII USB and Windows XP SP2. It was occurring in Sonar 6 and 7, and Windows Media Player.

The solutions I attempted were:

1) Try a PCI-based USB expander card. No joy.
2) Rebuild USB stack by deleting / letting Windows re-add them. No joy.
3) Tried VIA chipset special USB filter patch. No joy.
4) Messed around with different Sample Rates and Bit Depths. No joy.
5) Changed USB cables / ports. No joy.
6) Factory Reset on 828. No joy.
7) Re-install Windows XP SP2 to bare-bones - just OS, Graphics, MOTU, LAN, Chipset. no joy.

As you can see, it was a real ball-ache. Then I noticed that the problem seemed to be in sync. with changes the UI e.g. minimize and maximise the Sonar screen whilst playback was occurring. So... I removed my GeForce 7300 graphics card from its PCIExpress port.

PROBLEM SOLVED! I am now running on the Motherboard's in-built graphics controller and everyting is great!

I don't know if this will solve your problem, but as you can see, I went through a bunch of solutions to find it so it might save you all some time.

Howler

[thehowler]

Just for kicks, I have an open TechLink with MOTU to see their advice - I'll post their response(s) in due course...

[SkyBarstow]

Realy good to see you fixed yours. I would do exactly that except im running on a laptop. I can see that the usb2 bus thingy is sharing irq 16 with 4 or 5 other devices inkluding graphics device so there it probably is.
I have also a techlink with motu..so im waiting to see what thay say.

[splatterbass]

wohoo.
xp wont let you change what irq and memory range something uses.

[SkyBarstow]

Well techlinks guy told me to try "resetting" the digital inputs , this is what he wrote:

Have you tried resetting your 828Mkii's ADAT ports? You can reset the 828Mkii's ADAT ports by going to Applications/ Motu Audio Setup, setting the Optical input and output to None then ADAT and then back to None.

_________

I tried this last night and it actually seemed to run smoothly, no dropouts or high pitched noise. Im not convinced yet though, will try it tomorrow at band rehearsal for a longer test.

[rpw198]

Thanks for the pointers.

I have just bought an 828 MKii USB. My machine manages about 30secs-5 minutes and then blue-screens and re-starts. (XP SP2)

So far my investigations have reveiled that I can get anywhere up to an hour with my USB modem unplugged, but then BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!

I was going to invest in a dedicated USB 2.0 PCI card, but it sounds like that's not necessarily the way forward.

Has anyone else been suffering blue-screens?

Rich

[robleighton22]

Thanks for the pointers.

I have just bought an 828 MKii USB. My machine manages about 30secs-5 minutes and then blue-screens and re-starts. (XP SP2)

So far my investigations have reveiled that I can get anywhere up to an hour with my USB modem unplugged, but then BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!

I was going to invest in a dedicated USB 2.0 PCI card, but it sounds like that's not necessarily the way forward.

Has anyone else been suffering blue-screens?

Rich

i get the blue screen error.

leaves a msg mentioning 'motufwa.sys failed', happens randomally when actioning audio. ive had nothing but constant audio dropouts and crashes since i bought my motu 828.

[rpw198]

My machine has now completely died, owing to my raid array no longer seeing one of its disks. This followed a blue-screen error just like the one above, while actioning audio.

My theory is that the motu needs it's own interrupt. Mine was sharing one with a load of mobo integrated things including my raid controller!

Does anyone think there may be any merit in this theory?

[harrison]

I have an 8pre and have enjoyed the pops and crackles for about a year now. It seldom happens in XP, more so in VISTA. It is related to screen actions as stated. I had a ATI card and replaced it with Nvidia and it was better. It still happens but I go to the MOTU utility and change the sample rate and then back again and it is OK. I had a ticket opened when the drivers were beta and I have had not real resolution.

[Kadavr]

samething here, I've had the device for a few months now, and pops and cracles seem to be a regular thing, especially when I am using my MIDI keyboard. Several weeks ago I started getting the blue screen with the motufw error, it would happened every time I would turn it on, however unplugging it from the pc and turning it back on and off, and then plugging it back in seems to, i won't dare say fix by rather bypasses the error, i still got a blue screen after that a couple of times, but it's been about two weeks that it hasn't happened. But now the card decided that I shouldn't stay content with it for too long, and now it gives me random bursts of high pitched noises when I play vst's. I am quite puzzled that it started doing this just now, so is it a hardware problem with the card, or a sowftware issue? As I understand there haven't been any solutions to this, apart from taking out the graphics card, but that isn't really a solution (plus I don't think I am gonna get rid of my 8800 gts). I have a dedicated hard drive with tiny xp for production, so it's not something that i have installed on it that could have caused this. Sort of starting to regret not going with RME...

[thehowler]

OK, it's been a while so it's time for an update....

After some frustration at not being able to use any video card i like, I've come to the conclusion that the removal of the video card is only half of the picture.

I'm becoming more convinced that the problem lies with Windows XP's IRQ sharing model. In a nutshell, regardless of how your BIOS is configured, if Windows XP detects (on installation) that you have an ACPI capable motherboard, it will install the ACPI Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) which utilises IRQ sharing technology. Also, when this HAL is in use you cannot change IRQ mappings in Windows XP. Based on much research with hardcore gamers and computer audio dudes, it seems that this IRQ sharing is not consistent with the kind of high performance required for a PC acting as a Digital Audio Workstation.

So, tonight I'm gonna change the HAL to a non-ACPI one so I can control my IRQs from the BIOS and Windows, re-shuffle my IRQs so that the Graphics Card and USB controllers are on totally independent IRQs.

I'll let you all know how I get on.

[Juancho]

Hi,
I'm having this prob too, high squeals and sync errors...and i have a FW version of the 828MKII. I'm starting to regret that i actually bought this damn thing!!

plz let me and the rest know how it did got for you...

Best regards,
Juan

[thehowler]

Okey-dokey.... Time for an update.

So, I went through the software rebuild using a non-ACPI HAL. It made no difference, to be honest. Perhaps the most annoying thing was that I still had no control of the IRQs in Windows i.e. the option to change them was disabled.

So, after about 16 hours of rebuilds, backups, and testing I was stumped.

However, after SO MUCH testing, I became 99% convinced that the problem was video card related.

I decided to completely cripple my Nvidia NVS 280 PCI video card by turning off all of the 3D crap that I don't need - that made no difference either.

Then I stumbled upon a Microsoft HotFix for a USB problem related to switching between different USB transfer speeds -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908673

I managed to get hold of the HotFix and installed it - hey, I was unbelievably desperate at this point.

A reboot later and EVERYTHING IS WORKING. I tested the hell out of it for an hour - scrolling SONAR screens up and down, minimizing, maximising, dragging, jumping thorugh different Track Markers quickly...

I immediately backed everything up so I can restore the Hard Drive and Windows to this state.

For the 1st time, I have everything working acceptably. I wonder how it'll be in a couple of days?

[Juancho]

Hi,
Great to hear that it fixed your problems! But this is because your card is USB not FireWire right?

I have decided to sell my unit secondhand, hopefully to a Mac user...
I did buy another unit, the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 i/o.

Used it in a recording session yesterday and it worked flawlessly on the same pc system where the Motu failed.

So i'm keeping this one and getting rid of the Motu. Aint got time for trying to find a solution, especially when i believe its all related to the windows drivers.

Thanx for the update.
I'll keep checking.

/Juan

[thehowler]

Tested again last night, and everything is STILL OK!

Blimey, could the pain finally be over?