Bizarre popping issues...

[KvltKitty]

Hello everyone,

So I have been fighting with getting my MOTU F/W 8 pre working with my Windows laptop for WEEKS now. I have it (sort of) working now. Here's the weird thing

So I am running Windows 7 laptop connected with a 4pin to 6pin cable (so the micro end is in my laptop) and I have been having bizarre issues with this. I am running Reaper as my DAW. Basically this is the issue:

I have the legacy IEEE driver installed
I always ensure that the MOTU device is disabled in the sound preferences of window itself to ensure that there are no sync issues there
Within Reaper I have the audio preferences set to:
ASIO Driver: MOTU Audio ASIO
Request Sample rate and block size on
Pre zero output buffers disabled
Ignore ASIO reset messages disabled
Audio thread priority ASIO Default/MMCSS Pro Audio/Time Critical
Allow projects to override device sample rate off

Here's where it gets weird
The crackling and popping seems to be completely arbitrary
but I know this (can't) be the case
Essentially here's what seems to be going on
Say I'm in Reaper just input monitoring one of the analogue ins
Suddenly I will hear the popping start
If I don't open up the preferences, it will continue to do this until it finishes, and then after that everything will become horribly distorted static noise
If I open preferences, and click okay without changing anything, this seems to fix it
This is where it gets more weird
This only fixes it SOMETIMES
sometimes it will just start to crackle and pop again, the part before everything becomes distorted, so I essentially keep opening the preferences and clicking okay without changing anything until this stops happening
And then everything is fine
What's really strange is that I had a period of about 4 hours the other day with no issues at all, and today I can't seem to get more than 15 minutes

Does anyone have any suggestions?
I'm supposed to be recording a record next week with this, and I really don't want to have to haul my desktop
As the risk of it deciding "NOPE" and then shooting high pitched static into our ears is not something I want to deal with
I tried calling MOTU about it, but they didn't really help much. They just told me the same thing the forums said "legacy driver, blah, blah"
Everything I've already done

[BKK-OZ]

Check that your sample rates are matched.

[KvltKitty]

Check that your sample rates are matched.

Yup, they are matched

[KvltKitty]

It has been relatively stable for about 20 minutes now. I'm really uncertain what causes it. If I close my DAW and reopen it, sometimes it doesn't make the horrible noises, sometimes it does.

I'm at a loss, and frankly really disappointed that MOTU doesn't provide more support for Windows users. I called their number and they basically told me I was •••• out of luck.

[BKK-OZ]

Could be a cable problem too - if you have alternatives swap the cables and see what happens.

Sorry, not on Windows myself, can't help much more.

[KvltKitty]

Unfortunately I do not. I was considering getting some sort of powered external hub interface, to see if maybe that would solve the problem. I hate the idea of spending 40+ dollars though, for something that might not even fix it

[bayswater]

Unfortunately I do not. I was considering getting some sort of powered external hub interface, to see if maybe that would solve the problem. I hate the idea of spending 40+ dollars though, for something that might not even fix it

Maybe things are different in the world of Windows but I don't see how you could operate without a powered hub.

[petetopkevinbottom]

Do you know what firewire chip is in you laptop? The problems you are having are most probably related to an incompatibility issue between FW chip in the laptop and the one in the 8PRE.