Issue with MOTU 2408mkIII/PCI-424 [SOLVED]

jasedee · Post by **jasedee** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:23 am

Hey all,

Great place you have here!

I've been having an issue with my 2408mkIII/PCI-424. I'll outline the rest of my setup first:

MAC G5, 1.6GHZ PPC, 2GIG RAM OSX Tiger 10.4.11

I've done the usual fixes, repair permissions, run disk warrior, downloaded the latest drivers from the MOTU website etc...

Anyway, basically every now and then when I turn the 2408 on, it will go through the power up sequence and then the 'clock' sign will start flashing. This renders the 2408 unusable. It only happens every now and then, the rest of the time the unit works fine.

Anyone else out there had this issue? I've emailed my local distributor for tech support, and I guess the next step is emailing MOTU directly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Jason

jasedee · Post by **jasedee** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:01 am

Anyone have any suggestions at all?

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:39 am

The 2408 units seem to have gotten better at this with each model, Jason.
The unit's unusable 'cause it's waiting for a recognisable clock signal.

Back in the early days, I had to power my MkI and later MkII units up in a specific order (I think it was after the O2R but before the Mac at the time).
Perhaps you could try booting it before/after the Mac, whichever you're not doing.
Sorry. That's all I've got.

Welcome, fellow Aussie!

Nicky

jasedee · Post by **jasedee** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 9:07 pm

Thanks for the advice Nicky... that's something I haven't thought of doing actually. In the past I've always booted the Mac first.

jasedee · Post by **jasedee** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:02 am

Just thought I'd update this incase anyone in the future has a similar problem. Also, it was in fact the 'Meters' signal that was flashing and NOT the 'clock' signal as I previously stated.

After turning on the 2408mkIII and having the 'Meter' sign flash, I decided to open up the PCI-424 application and was met with an error message stating that the application could not find the PCI card. I decided then to open up the G5 and make sure that the PCI card was connected solidly. I gave the card a push into the connector, closed up the G5 and turned on the 2408 and it WORKED!

Hopefully that was really the issue, and not just a temporary fix.

And, just for the record, MOTU rocks! It has been the most solid piece of equipment I purchased, over 5 years ago now. I wish the same could be said about other pieces of equipment *cough cough* Edirol MIDI controller *cough cough*

Jason

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:05 am

Ripper Jason!

Funny you should mention MOTU's reliability, 'cause when I ran consecutive 2408s for 5 years+ I only ever had one incident where I thought something had clapped out.
Turned out that after shifting my gear around or whatever I'd done, I'd forgotten to plug the AudioWire cable from the 2408 into the PCI card.

Good news, man.

resomedia · Post by **resomedia** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:50 am

Just to confirm this... I am having the same issue with the blinking meter light on both my 2408 and 24I/O after booting. The order of who gets powered up first doesn't seem to matter. I generally have to restart the Mac once which then solves the problem. When I first purchased the 2408 unit, I had several worrisome days of "crackle and pops", before finding the right combination of which FW/Audio Wire port to use and amount of wiggling of the 424 card to make it go away. I'm now leery of opening up and tweaking the card. It seems the Mac isn't "seeing" the devices (and/or the PCI card) on a cold start for some reason.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:22 pm

I would remove the PCI Card, de-dust the PCI slot, spray the edge connector with Caig DeOxit/ProGold (which works great on all conections/plugs, use MCL on faders), re-seat, then repeat for good measure. Failures in cold conditions suggest a marginal connection.

resomedia · Post by **resomedia** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:07 am

Perhaps you could try booting it before/after the Mac, whichever you're not doing.

After a few days of experimenting with this, I think the problem occurs only when the computer is powered on first--BEFORE the 2408. The 2408 is recognized properly (with no flashing lights) when I turn the unit on first and let it cycle on with its loud screech. Then I power on the Mac. Everything seems fine then. In the past I have always powered the 2408 and the Mac on within seconds of each other, and that I think has been the issue. The 2408 needs to be on and ready for sync when the Mac is powered on.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:03 am

Exactly, resomedia!

I had nightmares turning on my gear back then; there was a definite procedure I had to follow or else I copped a mad, loud and always consistent feedback through my monitors or 'phones.
It wasn't pleasant or funny.

I stumbled across the power-up order's significance quite by accident; a fluke, really, especially as there were the additional components of the desk's clocking and ADAT ins and outs involved.
All techs I spoke to said they'd not heard of such a problem and blamed it on my having done something wrong, perhaps with clocking the desk to the 324 card.

Finally I've been able to help someone by sharing the fruits of this experience; it not only makes it all worth it, but it doesn't get any better than this.
I'm really glad this was helpful, reso.
Yay!

Dave Bourke · Post by **Dave Bourke** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:30 am

Whoah, guys, playing with fire here. Your monitors should be the very last item you power up (or fade up). If you use headphones, they should be kept unplugged until the studio is up and running. Not just for the sake of your tweeters, but more importantly for your ears.

At least, that's what I was taught.

Kind regards.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:53 am

Good call, Dave, and you're right of course.
However, the items we're talking about order-juggling don't include the monitors, thank God.

It's more a case of allowing the various digital components time to see and clock to each other.