Windows Not Recognizing Motu 828 Mk I - Unsolvable?

[access4193]

I'm a previous Motu user and have had good luck with their products. I have also been a reader of Motunation, but this is my first post. I'm putting together an audio kit (on a shoe string . . . again) and will be using two Moto 828 Mk I devices connected to a dual port firewire card.

The PC has a full install (not an upgrade) of Win 7 Pro 64 SP1 in a new partition on a SSD drive using a USB flash drive for boot-up. Cue Mix FX, MOTU Audio Console and MOTU SMPTE Console appear under Start/All Programs. The Motu entries in the Device Manager seem to install correctly, however no sound devices are available to Windows.

I have spent many hours (20+) attempting to figure this out. I have read many, many posts on this forum and others. It seems other people have also experienced difficulty with Firewire on Windows 7. Others seem to be having trouble with sound in general on Windows 7. The tips/tricks I have read looked promising, but none seem to work so far.

At this point, I'm not sure what horse to curse. Is this a Motu problem? Is this a Firewire problem? Is this a 32bit/64bit problem? Is this a Windows problem? Is this a Motu/Firewire/Windows trifecta? I'm willing to entertain ANY suggestion. I'll even re-try a step if you think I may have missed something. Please offer any advice or referral you might have. I have exhausted all my ideas and don't know what else to try. Is this problem unsolvable?

Below is a summary of hardware, software, testing and notes. Yes, it's a long list . . . but I have been at this for days. (nights, actually) If you have questions about the setup, fire away. I'll pull together any additional info and revise the post.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Scott


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Hardware:

A.1 Supermicro machine in a 11" deep 1U rack mount case
A.2 Integrated mother board with (1) processor socket and (4) memory slots
http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... L-LN1_.cfm
A.3 Processor is 1x Intel Quad-Core Xeon X3220 2.4GHz 8MB L2 Cache 1066Mhz
A.4 Memory is 4GB (2 DIMMs x 2GB) DDR2 PC2-5300E
A.5 160GB Solid state drive for OS - Intel 320 Series Internal 2.5" SSDSA2M160G2HP
A.6 160GB Solid state drive for audio data (future, same as above, not yet installed)
A.7 (2) Motu 828 Mk I Firewire IEEE 1394 Interfaces
http://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/firewi ... al_Win.pdf


Have tried these tests below with no luck:

B.1 Tried Windows Sound Playback Troubleshooter. 'Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem'.
B.2 Successfully updated to the latest BIOS (r1.3b) for mother board via USB flash drive.
B.3 Tried (3) different length (3ft, 6ft and 14ft) and (2) different mfgr IEEE1394 cables.
B.4 Have tried (separately) the (2) different Motu 828 Mk I devices I have on hand.
B.5 Have tried both of the two connector positions on (3) different IEEE 1394 cards. (No daisy chaining, and just one 828 at a time.)
B.6 Checked for duplicate audio devices. The mother board does not have integrated sound.
B.7 Using the latest Motu drivers. (4.0.5.5333) Installed before connecting the device.
B.8 Using the IEEE 1394 Legacy driver as recommended by Motu, here:
http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technot ... -windows-7
B.9 Have tried an LSI IEEE 1394 PCI card (Lucent/Agere). H924H945018B, FW0A94502FS Have tried two identical cards.
B.10 Have tried a Dell/Adaptec IEEE 1394 PCI card with an unknown chipset from my parts bin. 0Y9457, AFW-2100/Dell, 2092300-R F 0635, DP/N 0F4582, FW0A6350AUW
B.11 Tried disabling IE before driver install to avoid possible conflicts.
B.12 Tried this change via command line.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/the-m ... em-solved/
B.13 Confirmed the following services 'Windows Audio Endpoint Builder' and 'Windows Audio Service' are Automatic and Started.
B.14 Tried setting service 'MOTU_ZeroConf' to Delayed Automatic start.
B.15 Confirmed the 'Power' service is set to Automatic and Started.
B.16 Checked for IRQ conflicts as suggested here:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_U ... g/en405225
B.17 Cleared CMOS memory via jumper on mother board.
B.18 Confirmed the position of configuration jumpers on mother board.
B.19 Changed disk battery on mother board and confirmed +3.0 voltage.


Notes:

C.1 CueMix FX does not recognize any audio devices. Error 'No MOTU Audio Devices that support CueMix found' It is understood CueMix and CueMix FX are not supported with the Motu 828 Mk I.

C.2 Have not tried an unrelated IEEE 1394 device (external hard drive or camera for example) on the IEEE 1394 card. I don't have one on hand.

C.2.1 Have not yet tried a IEEE 1394 card with a Texas Instruments chipset. Have one on order and will update with any new results.

C.3 Have not tried an alternate PCI slot. The mother board only has one expansion slot. (A Supermicro riser card is in place to mount the IEEE 1394 card horizontally.)

C.4 Motu Audio Console functions and appears to communicate with the 828 Mk I. For example, changing from 44.1KHz sampling to 48KHz in the software changes the LED indicator on the front panel of the 828.

C.5 Motu entries are present in the Device Manager under 'Sound, video and game controllers'. The three entries are 'MOTU Audio', 'MOTU Audio MIDI for 64 bit' and 'MOTU Audio Ave for 64 bit'. Properties on all entries look normal and show 'This device is working properly.'

C.6 Hovering above the 'speaker' icon in the tray shows 'No Audio Output Device is installed'.

C.7 Right clicking on the 'speaker' icon in the tray brings up controls for Playback/Recording devices. Under the Playback tab 'No audio devices are installed' appears. Right clicking in the field shows options for showing 'Disabled Devices' and 'Disconnected Devices'. Both boxes are checked, yet no devices are shown. The same results occur under the Recording tab.

C.8 Windows Media Player (version 12.0.7601.17514) does not play any audio and does not see any sound devices. Error message 'Windows Media Player' cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly.'

C.9 Audacity (2.0.3) was installed as a cross check. No audio devices are visible there.

C.10 The Supermicro machine has no floppy, CD or DVD drives. The only I/O is via (2) USB ports, a serial port, Ethernet port, KVM ports and a single horizontal expansion slot.

C.11 Windows Defender is disabled, there is no antivirus/firewall software installed and the machine has not been (nor will be) connected to any local or outside network. There is no wireless hardware installed. The PC will be rack mounted in a mobile case and dedicated to audio only.

C.12 As a another cross check, Windows Vista Business 32bit was installed in a new partition and Motu 32 bit drivers were installed. (The previous Win 7 partition was deleted.) The behavior appeared identical (non-functional) to the Win 7 installation.

C.13 Both 828 Mk I devices and both LSI IEEE 1394 cards appear to operate correctly in a Dell R5400 running Windows Vista Business 32bit.

C.14 Article for reference.
http://www.presonus.com/community/Learn ... Production

Original post made 3/21/13

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D.1 Since the original post, I have been able to test a two port IEEE 1394 PCI card with a Texas Instruments chipset. 287476-001, P56240EAFP835C, 231848-107, Following the normal installation procedure, the device manager shows the card functioning normally. However, the same audio symptoms exist. It appears the card with the TI chipset has had no effect. Troubleshooting is continuing. Will edit again with any updates.

D.2 Have noticed that process 'audiodg.exe' is not started and not running. The event log has not shown anything obvious. It's not clear this is causing the problem, but I'm checking it next.

D.3 Ran the System File Checker via command line and received clean results.
sfc /verifyonly

Edit made 3/26/13

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E.1 Tested a three port SIIG IEEE 1394 PCI card with a Texas Instruments chipset. N2E8924X0263, NN-400012-S8 Following the normal installation procedure, the device manager shows the card functioning normally. However, the same audio symptoms exist.

E.2 The process 'audiodg.exe' is still not running. At the moment, this appears to be the most suspicious clue and is still being checked. Relevant dependencies and the event log are my main source of info, but I'm approaching the limit of my knowledge in this area. If you have any ideas and/or suggestions for tracking this down, please post.

Edit made 3/28/13