Ultralite Mk 3 Hybrid - Intermittent Audio Problems

[neiljhardie]

Hello everybody, just joined the site and would appreciate your help. I've trawled through earlier topics but no luck.

I just bought a new PC with Windows 7 64-Bit, and am in the process of trying to set up to use Reason 6 and Pro Tools 9. I downloaded the latest drivers for my Ultralite from the MOTU website and installed with no apparent problems, but I am struggling with intermittent problems getting audio out, either from Windows, Reason or Pro Tools.

The first problem appeared as I was trying to get Reason set up. The following error message came up - 'Your audio driver has stopped working. Go to the Audio page in the preferences dialog and choose a different driver.' Reason would then crash with a further message stating 'Engine not responding. Please exit and check your installation and sound card'. I reinstalled the Ultralite drivers and tried again and managed to get it to work for a time. However, later the next day, the same problem occurred. I then tried playing a sample tune and CD through Windows Media Player, and it wouldn't work either. A further attempt and re-boot seemed to work, and so I tried installing Pro Tools. All seemed to go OK at first, but later Pro Tools would not re-open - error message 'The selected ASIO audio device could not be initialized. Please choose another audio device'.

What is puzzling me is the intermittent problem. For example, when I started up this morning, everything worked fine - Windows Media Player, Reason and Pro Tools. I heard some of the Windows start-up sounds, loaded up a Reason file and fired up Pro Tools OK. I was in the process of setting up my MIDI keyboard for Pro Tools when I needed to restart the program - when I did so, the same error message came up. I've also noticed some cracking from my monitors and headphones (when the monitors are turned off).

I'd be grateful for any advice. Let me know if you need any more information.

Best Regards,
Neil

Windows 7 HP SP1 64-Bit
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz
MOTU Hardware Version Number 4.0.4.8697

Not sure if relevant, but I have a few other things installed on the PC - Norton Antivirus, Apple Quicktime, and Novation Automap.

[torrentg]

Hi.

Use the Norton removal tool to remove it, in safe mode.

Norton is the worst a/v company of them all, and I say that based on 10s of thousands of machines I've analyzed and fixed on the net.

Norton invents problems that somehow are not even possible lol.

Enjoy.

Recommend MSE as a replacement.

[neiljhardie]

Thanks torrentg,

I'll try that. Stupid question though - could you tell me how to go about uninstalling Norton as you describe in safe mode? A bit of a novice I'm afraid.

Thanks,
Neil

[torrentg]

Sure thing.

First, you have to Google for the Norton Removal Tool, download the correct one at their site for your version and save it where you know it will be, such as your desktop.

Then reboot.

As the machine is booting up, continuously press F8 on the keyboard until a choice menu arrives. Choose safe mode. Go to where you saved the tool, your desktop as the example above shows, and then run it by double clicking on it.

When it is done, reboot and try out your MOTU. If and when it is well, Google MSE and install that from Microsoft.

Your issues will likely resolve and your PC will not be nearly as slowed down as it had been with the overly oppressive Norton.

[neiljhardie]

Hi torrentg,

Thanks for your help so far. I'm afraid it hasn't worked though. Once I had uninstalled Norton as you describde everything seemed OK at first (for a short time), but as soon as I installed MSE and re-booted, the same problem came back.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Ultralite drivers, and again it initially worked. Coming back an hour or so later and re-starting Pro Tools, the problem occurred again. I'd appreciate any other thoughts or suggestions you might have.

Best Regards, Neil

[torrentg]

Hi torrentg,

Thanks for your help so far. I'm afraid it hasn't worked though. Once I had uninstalled Norton as you describde everything seemed OK at first (for a short time), but as soon as I installed MSE and re-booted, the same problem came back.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Ultralite drivers, and again it initially worked. Coming back an hour or so later and re-starting Pro Tools, the problem occurred again. I'd appreciate any other thoughts or suggestions you might have.

Best Regards, Neil

Perhaps your PC is not working up to its specs for whatever reason, thus causing any antivirus at all to create a problem. (Meaning hardware not set well causing the issues.)

It's quite common for at least the memory settings to be incorrect on builds.

What you can do is go into the bios and set it for Optimized Defaults and then save. This will set the memory and CPU speeds at the manufacturers' set speeds.

Your motherboard manual will have info on how to do this. On many motherboards, continuously tapping Delete key on system boot gets you into the bios and F12 saves. They're all different though.

[neiljhardie]

Thanks again,

I haven't gone down the memory settings route as yet as I've made progress ... sort of. It looks like the problem might lie with my MIDI controller. It is a Novation Nocturn 25, and I downloaded and installed the driver and Automap software version 4.2 as advised on the Novation website just after I had initially installed the Ultralite drivers.

I tried using the software set-up option in Automap to set up my controller for both Reason and Pro Tools, but it does not seem to work. You can work through the steps, but at the last step Automap is not able to connect to either Reason or Pro Tools. Reason will then normally come up with the 'audio driver stopped working' error message, and Pro Tools with 'Pro Tools is unable to communicate with HUI. Power-cycle HUI and check its connections'. There were also problems with Automap wrapping some of the RTAS plug-ins, which the program then had to disable.

Through various attempts, it seems that whenever I run Automap and plug in my controller, the Ultralite problems occur. Pro Tools also in particular seems unstable, with errors referring to the program not having closed down properly, and requiring a re-boot before restarting the program (despite having closed a session and exited in the usual way). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Automap, but the same problems occurred.

Finally, I uninstalled Automap again and tried using my MIDI controller without it. Initially I could get Reason to work (and recognise/use my MIDI controller, but even without Automap, I still seem to lose the Ultralite when I switch on my controller. This requires the controller to be unplugged and the Ultralite to be restarted to get it to work again.

Again, I'd be grateful for any thoughts on this one.

Best wishes, Neil