828 mkII 12khz squeal

[Hard2Hear]

Just wondering who out there is having this issue or has dealt with it. Its pretty much a showstopper. The unit emits a squeal, or series of squeals at exactly at 12kHz, full volume, then locks up or stops producing sound. Have not found a solution, or even exactly what is happening. Ive seen this happen on 4 different units now, so I know other people out there must be dealing with it.

[thehowler]

Did you ever get anywhere with this?

[thehowler]

Did you ever get anywhere with this?

[Juancho]

Hi,
I've had this problem too, recording on my laptop.

I thought first it was that i had too many channels running at the same time but tried even with only one and still the same....the problem is that it seems random so i cant really say when or why it happens...i hopw someone has come up with a solution....

To me it seems like a FW sync problem...

[Hard2Hear]

Never could figure it out between me and our tech guys and MOTU and theirs. Seems totally random. That tour had to switch all 5 units to RME Fireface 800's. Sorry MOTU, I tried.

[splatterbass]

defective unit.

[zwhitaker]

Even after doing the reset, my 828 mkII fw is still producing this squeal on a random and infrequent basis, for about 3 seconds each time, returning to normal afterwards.

I haven't tried operating the unit at 48 khz, so I'll report back when I do. It seems to squeal more often if the CPU and/or I/O bus are in heavy use. This machine is an Intel E4500 dual-core, G33 chipset, and ACPI is active. FW is a TI chipset on a PCI card.

Oddly enough, with my laptop, a 1.8 Ghz Centrino, the 828mk2 used to squeal occasionally after I connected an ADAT optical in, then one day it just stopped and hasn't done it since. It was always operated at 44.1 khz with the laptop. FW is a TI chipset for it as well.

So what is this? CPU not giving the PCi bus enough love? Some kind of sync problem? Is it symptomatic of a future failure?

I bought mine used off the 'bay so the warranty is likely expired. What's the policy if I want mine fixed?

[zwhitaker]

A little more progress troubleshooting this:

When I have the laptop and this desktop networked behind a Linksys router and have File Sharing enabled between them, if audio is playing when I first open the remote computer's file share(s) via Explorer, the squeal occurs. This also sometimes happens in Ableton Live when opening and using its File Explorer if I have already opened a remote file share.
I don't think it's a hardware interrupt problem, because the network card and firewire device have different IRQ's.

The random occurrences of the squeal could possibly be the remote computer occasionally checking in for a file share refresh.

Certain Macromedia Flash animations in Firefox also trigger the squeal if audio is playing, but not every time they are started on a web page.

[Juancho]

My intention is not to crush the theory of your....but..

I've tried using my Motu on both a laptop (with loud squeals) and my stationary computer (no problems), both had newly installed winxp pro systems. while the laptop has these probs from the start my stationary comp doesnt. I think the filesharing is on by default so i doubt it has something todo with that...

I suspect the fault is in the drivers and not in the hardware.

Best regards,
Juancho

[zwhitaker]

Speaking of drivers, I forgot to mention these are FW/USB drivers version 3.6.7.3. All I can say about the file sharing is the moment I click on the file share in Explorer the first time while audio is playing, I get the squeal. It happens nearly every time. I have no idea about why Macromedia Flash in Firefox is causing it.

I am getting another noise that sounds like digital noise mixed in with a quieter version of this squeal that randomly sounds whether audio is playing or not, and it has turned out to be the SPDIF input/output when the 828mk2 is connected to an SPDIF device,both its input and output, while that device isn't powered up. Either pulling an RCA jack or opening Cue Mix stops the noise. Unlike the louder squeal, this problem appears whether the PC is on or not, and eventually just stops after the 828mk2 has been powered on for some time.

[xodus phoenix]

I get this too. i had settled on just living with it- since i've had the 896HD for years with no problems. -Figured *maybe* it was just getting old.

It's still random, but started to occur a little more often so I called and was told of a remedy.
High Pitched Whine: Audio set up (896HD) page change Meters to ADAT and then back to none.

It comes back after some time so I don't know if this needs to be done [again] everytime the unit is powered off and powered on or only when the PC is shutdown/turned on.

I also getting a brand new audio drop out and stuttering during recording.
I've tried tons of remedies to fix this.
New OS Windows XP
Windows cache and memory settings/priority
Different brands of Ram in different seats/combinations
Audio App Settings
Fresh installs of drivers
There's even a new motherboard

I'm thinking there's some conbination that's not happy- since I have so many USB devices and MOTU MIDI boxes. Micro Express and MIDI express 128, but MOTU says that's not it.

It's definately annoying cause sometimes it trips during recording.
Continuing search for an answer...

[bgranaghan]

I've heard a $14000 BSS DSP do this...I don't think it's a MOTU problem. I have encountered this when I'm dong alot of processing and I mess with something. I think it probably has to do with the computer not being able to fill the buffer in time.

[xodus phoenix]

I got the MOTU stuttering problem fixed by using USB hubs and removing all the PCI cards. Now there are fewer components sharing IRQ numbers.

I was told IRQ conflicts were a thing of the past since XP. I guess not.