MOTU 828 mk2 firewire gone silent

[flashychicken]

Greeting Motunation members,
I wonder if anyone can advise
My Motu 828 mk2 has ceased making sound, i am using windows 7 with a 32bit & 64bit build on a dual boot, both OS's are affected.
Windows believes that it is sending sound to the soundcard however the MOTU is making no sound on any outputs or flashy lights indicating sound.
i have updated drivers and factory reset the soundcard to no avail.
the sound card is powering up and i can see MIDI useage when i play on the piano so to some degree the device is not dead..... just earily silent.

Has anyone else encountered this? how did you resolve tihs?

any assistance would be greatly appriciated

kind regards
Flashychicken

[torrentg]

Unfortunately, it is very likely that the firewire chip inside the unit is blown due to a plug having been inserted upside down to the unit or pc at some time.

You can easily tell if this is the case or not by checking the Device Manager.
Is the MOTU present there or not?

If not, MOTU can repair or replace the unit at a cost. You'd have to contact their tech support.

[flashychicken]

Hi Torrentg
Thank you for your reply and advice.

The soundcard powers up and I can see it in windowes device manager, I can also change the sample rate and see the change on the front of the unit.
When i play the piano i can also see MIDI activity on the front of the unit.
However when i run asio checks when selecting sound card it loses sync.

Do you know anybody who has been through the motu repair process?
Are they only based in the US or UK too?

many thanks
FC

[flashychicken]

ps/

Any ideas what firmware version is the highest?
I cant find ant on ther motu site either for the mk2, plenty for the mk3..
thanks
FC

[torrentg]

You're welcome.

Nice then. Based on your descriptions of the problem, the firewire chip is definitely not damaged at all.

I too checked MOTU's site and do not see any firmware revisions for the mkII.

First, I would make sure that your intended output is set well in Windows itself. Right click the speaker icon near the time, then choose playback devices. Set this well if not already.

Second, make sure that whichever program you are trying to play audio from is either set to use the Windows default output OR set it to how you want it precisely instead.

If neither of those things fix the issue, I would visit my motherboard manufacturer's site to download and install the latest chipset driver package they have on offer for the board.

See how these things go and let us know the outcome. Perhaps I and others will have more suggestions if needed.

Good luck!

[flashychicken]

Thanks again,
funnily enough that is my current course of action, struggline to remember motherboard model... lol

When i play audio through an input (ie:keyboard)it passes it to the main mix or headphones or any outputs for that matter.
i get flashy lights! !

it perplexes me further that both dual boot operating systems on both 32bit and 64bit went down at the same time

it is not possible for any windoze driver to have auto updated as the machine has no network connection.

I have noticed that when i go into the config for the 828 the window blinks every few seconds, if i play audio via any application i can see the same blink and hold in the vu meters.
however when i switch to the onboard soundcard that has been installed and selectable and working for years, the audio plays fine.

I have
unistalled device
deleted drivers
restarted
installed new drivers from website
restarted pc
hadda cuppa tea
restarted soundcard and restet default setings
connected with replacement firewire cable
reinstalled firewire driver
googled for hours and days....
couldnt find any firmware dirvers to update, loads for the 828mk3 tho!
checked internal fuse on 828
opened a beer!
contacted tech support
and now... scratching my head talking to you lol

thanks
FC

[j_e_f]

both 32bit and 64bit went down at the same time

Got to be hardware (or maybe BIOS) related if it simultaneously affected 2 operating systems.

So, did you add any new hardware to your system? Doesn't matter if it's not a firewire device. Any new hardware could affect the system. For example, a new device may need an IRQ, and if there's no free one, your BIOS may have forced your firewire port to share its IRQ. (And badly written device drivers have trouble with that).

[flashychicken]

Nothing has been installed, net even a USB memory still plugged into it, have checked the otw and tiz only devece on that irq...
Confused?
Me too

[flashychicken]

Anyone have an archived firmware update?
I am on the 1st firmware 1.0 lol

[mjc]

Hi flashychicken.

The latest Firewire driver software is Version 4.0.48697, dated 2011/08/09. It's good for the 828 mkII and many other legacy devices - there is a complete list on the Downloads page. You should install this driver.

The firmware is (I think) on a ROM chip and updating requires a chip change. You can search this site for confirmation of this. In the USA it means a return to MOTU. In the UK, MusicTrack is the MOTU distributor and you should contact them.

Good luck!

Mike

[flashychicken]

Hi Mike

Many thanks for advice, I have updated the driver already with no joy.
Am glad to hear the firmware is not flashable as I thought I was going nuts not able to find one on their site.
I have noticed that both mr FireWire port and pci-express graphics card are sharing the same virtual irq, have tried to swap slots or reassign but win 7 ain't like old versions. I have now ordered a pci FireWire card to see if it will assign that to a new irq and maybe clear the fault.

If not,,,, many thanks with the heads up of a Uk repairer.

Thanks again, any further advise wwelcome.
Many thanks
FC

[mjc]

IRQ sharing really does sound like a Windows or PC hardware problem rather than a fault with the 828. 'Fraid I'm on a mac so no help at debugging such things.

Mike

[flashychicken]

I got a new pci FireWire card, disabled the inboard and installed it. This gave the FireWire it's own IRQ, however it still did not work, I have it boxed up to take to a friends to try or send for repair. Just not hot round to either...
Gutted, why are you haveing trouble too?
thanks for reply
FC