Reseat PCI 424 card fix!

[Marc7777]

Hey all,

This may be a DUH to some of you, but it wasn't for me, so I thought i'd share in case it helps others out.

I have a PCIe 424 card with 4 2408's attached to it. Recently, I've had several problems with my 2408's, like random channels not working, random banks of ADAT not working, weird glitchy noises and static noises.

I've just been working away under tight deadlines and dealing with the problems, but today I don't have a deadline and I put my doctor hat on.

I took out the 424 card and put it into a different PCIe slot (the middle one of the 3). Just to see what would happen. After that, I had to redo all my PCIe Configurations (took 3 minutes). Loaded up a project, and BOOM! All of my channels work now! even the ADAT banks that didn't work are now pumping audio through them!

So, lesson learned, if things start going funky with the 2408's, try reseating/changing PCIe slots on your Mac Pro first! Might be just the trick you need!

Hope this may help..

Best,

[mikeka]

You may want to try reinserting into the bottom slot as I believe the bottom slot is 16X, the two PCIe slots above being bandwidth limited to 4x. I may be wrong on the numbers (it's been a while since I've been inside my Pro) but I believe it's best for audio throughput to use the fastest PCI slot (and they're not all equal). BTW a clean pencil eraser is a good way to clean the terminal strip that goes into the slot (this from my old analog days cleaning dodgy terminals in old consoles). Glad you're up and running again!

[James Steele]

You may want to try reinserting into the bottom slot as I believe the bottom slot is 16X, the two PCIe slots above being bandwidth limited to 4x. I may be wrong on the numbers (it's been a while since I've been inside my Pro) but I believe it's best for audio throughput to use the fastest PCI slot (and they're not all equal). BTW a clean pencil eraser is a good way to clean the terminal strip that goes into the slot (this from my old analog days cleaning dodgy terminals in old consoles). Glad you're up and running again!

AFAIK, the PCI-424e doesn't operate any faster than 1x? I need to check, but I'd bet that it makes absolutely no difference if you're in the 4x slot or the 16x slot when you're dealing with audio. Perhaps, if you had multiple audio interfaces each pushing 96K audio out 24 or more outputs simultaneously.

[mikeka]

AFAIK, the PCI-424e doesn't operate any faster than 1x? I need to check, but I'd bet that it makes absolutely no difference if you're in the 4x slot or the 16x slot when you're dealing with audio.

Thanks James. I'm not sure of the answer myself. Always thought faster PCI buss was better for audio but if the card is only operating at 1x then there'll be no difference certainly. Maybe the 16x slot is all about video or large RAID arrays then? Dunno. This is a good question though …. maybe one of our resident geeks can give a definitive answer.

[Marc7777]

Yea I called MOTU after I read about the 16x and 4x and they said it doesn't matter for the 424 card. They didn't say anything about 1x or anything, but the guy said it's all good to put it into whatever slot.

Things are working, so I'm not going to test my luck with testing between the two.. Maybe for a braver soul out there.

[James Steele]

All I know is when I had it in my MacPro 1,1 and ran Expansion Slot Utility (or whatever it's called) it gives info on the card and purports to tell you how fast the card can potentially operate. I vaguely recall that it said it only needed 1 "lane" or whatever the terminology is. Pushing audio around is a lot less demanding than a graphics card pushing pixels. So the slower slot is fine for the PCI-424e. Save the 16x for graphics maybe. I put my OWC Accelsior SSD card in my 16x slot.