Audio Express Driver random freezes and crashes

[geomic788]

Hello!
I am coming here after a long road of effort to fix an issue i had with my audio express since day 1.
ince the day i bought Motu Audio Express it freezes randomly even without using a DAW at the time.I.E while watching a video on youtube.
It manifests in various ways.
1.The speakers start cracking and hissing randomly
2.No sound at all and playback timers in all applications using audio freeze
The second is more often.Often as in once in 2-3 hours.
It often happens after the system wakes up from hibernation.
It can be fixed with either of two ways:
1.System restart
2.Card reset from the button (works 50% of the times)

I made a ticket to motu tech support and i will post the coversation below.
If you dont want to read the long version you will find the short version under the long one

Added by Campbell on 2014/09/22 16:41:04 GMT-4
State change from 'Unread' to 'In progress'
Hi George,

If you haven't already, please make sure to download and run the installer for driver version 4.0.5.9644. If this doesn't change anything (or if you're already running this driver version), I would recommend repairing your driver installation:
1. Disconnect any MOTU hardware from your computer.
2. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
3. Right-click on "MOTU Hardware" and select "Change".
4. In the MOTU Hardware Setup window that comes up, click "Next" and then "Repair".
5. Restart your computer and reconnect your MOTU hardware.

If this doesn't change anything, can you confirm whether this issue comes up whether the Audio Express is connected via USB 2.0, USB 3.0, or FireWire?

Best,
Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/24 10:28:20 GMT-4
Hello!
Sorry for the late reply.
I tried the suggested steps and i installed the driver you linked.It seems that i wasnt able to find this specific version in your website unti you linked it for me.
Since i cannot find a way to reproduce the error i am not sure it is ok yet.
No problems until now though which is a good sing cause my pc hibernated overnight.But this is not conclusive since the problem doesnt occur always.
When or if it happens again i will let you know in this thread so please dont close it yet.

I am using my Audio Express through USB 2.0
Added by Campbell on 2014/09/24 10:30:11 GMT-4
OK - keep me posted!

- Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/24 10:47:05 GMT-4
Right now the dirver froze again and my speakers strated emmiting a high pitched sound and i had to reset the card from the button.So it is certainly not fixed.

Please advise.
Added by Campbell on 2014/09/24 15:12:18 GMT-4
Hi George,

Just to check, does your computer have USB 3.0 ports (whether or not the Audio Express is connected to them)? If so, try turning off xHCI in the BIOS.

If this doesn't change anything (or if your computer doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports), please let me know the make and model of your computer in your next response.

Best,
Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/24 16:04:03 GMT-4
Hey Campbell.
I just checked online if my motherboard has usb 3.0 support and it doesnt.
My motherboard is quite old :Assus P6T and my processor is an i7 920 ,one of the first i7s released.
I checked bios just in case and the only similar feature was EHCI which was enabled.

Regarding the model and make of my computer , that was a custom order part by part.

I can sum up as many information as i can and you can request what you need:

MO/BO : ASSUS P6T
CPU: I7 920
RAM: 3xDDR3x2GB at 1333mhz
OS : WIN 7 Ultimate x64



Added by Campbell on 2014/09/24 17:24:06 GMT-4
Hey George,

Thanks for the info! It looks like your motherboard has a built-in FireWire port: are you able to get the same issue to come up if you connect to the Audio Express via FireWire?

If it isn't checked already, make sure to check the option to "Use WaveRT for Windows Audio" in MOTU Audio Console.

Best,
Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/25 12:46:04 GMT-4
Hey Campbel
I did all the suggested steps and i wait for it to happen again.

Thank you

George
Added by Campbell on 2014/09/25 12:51:06 GMT-4
Alright - let me know what happens.

- Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/28 14:44:16 GMT-4
Attached file: http://techlink-attachments.motu.com/ti ... 4/Motu.m4a
Hello again Campbell,
I connected my card via firewire.
It lasted 1 day and a half and then out of the blue (while on the champion selection screen of league of legends) it started making wierd noises again.I recorded some music playback for you so you can see for yourself.

I can provide any information you need to resolve this.

Best Regards

George
Added by Campbell on 2014/09/29 10:28:10 GMT-4
Hi George,

Thanks for sending that file over! Can you find a consistent "recipe" to get this noise to come up (e.g. does it come up every time you go to that screen in League of Legends), or does it seem to happen at random? Does this seem to happen more or less often when the Audio Express is connected via FireWire?

Best,
Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/29 10:43:37 GMT-4
It happens randomly.When browsing youtube,when playing league of legends,both on ram or processor intecive procedures , some times when the computer is idle, after a hibernation( this most of the times lead to no sound at all)
I noticed that it happened less frequently when i was connected by firewire but im not sure if thats a random event or it happens for a reason.
I dont know if it is useful but i will point out some facts about this:
1.During a freeze all streaming videos play for 3-6 seconds and stop (with no sound)
2.Media players like WMP and Spotify are stuck at a certain timer
3.CUE FX Mix levers go crazy up and down, columns disapear and reapear
4.Audio Console says so device is attached
5.Most of the time Phantom power is on on my microphone since i use it for communication so i dont know if this is relevant
6.Crashes were happening since October 2012 (when i bought it) consistently
7.When i unplug the usb durring a crash and plug it in again fixes the problem 50% of the time.The rest require a restart since the unit is still dead after repluging the cable or it is still making wierd noises.
8.I have tried updating both drivers and firmware.

I Absolutely love this card.It made a huge difference in my youtube music videos.I also appreciate the support.I mean your help being fast and consistent.Thank you for that.
In case you need my system information files i can attach it if it helps

Please let me know if you have more ideas

Best Regards

George
Added by Campbell on 2014/09/30 17:42:31 GMT-4
Last edited by Campbell on 2014/09/30 17:44:44 GMT-4
Hi George,

Just to check, does it seem to make a difference if you raise the "Samples Per Buffer" in MOTU Audio Console?

Best,
Campbell
Added by george on 2014/09/30 19:10:05 GMT-4
It is currently at 512 but i have tried all kinds and it still happens
Added by george on 2014/10/06 07:17:12 GMT-4
Hello,
I have not received any update regarding my problem.
In fact i have an updtate for the situtation.
Now that i have my card connected via firewire the behaviour of the crashes changed.
They dont happen that often as when i am using the usb(once a day vs once every 2-3 hours) but the crashes are unfixable , meaning that they always demand a system restart.Also i experience Blue screens and full system crashes during a card crash.
I have become very frustated since i have to restart my computer when i am doing a task that cannot be interrupted.

I am not an expert but since all these happen regardless the connection type, regardless the parameters or the settings i set , it looks to me like a driver conflict or problem.

I seriously need to fix this as soon as possible because it is ruining my mood every single day.

Please advise.

George
Please find a solution for all of these
Edit
Added by george on 2014/10/18 07:15:10 GMT-4
Canpbell its been 3 weeks since your last reply please let me know if this ticket is active so i can open another ticket cause i have an important update

The short version is that he suggested to reinstall the drivers and firmware and change the buffers, switch to firewire and blah blah , stuff that i have already tried several times 2 years now.

The newsflash now is that i bought a brand new computer i installed my hard disks and a blue ray drive from my old one and also my Audio Express.

The problem started again 30 minutes after a clean instalation of motu drivers on a brand new system.

I am stuggling with this for a very long time.

Please help me

Thank you

George

[nsd3]

I'm having exactly the same issues. Moved from an older Windows 7 based PC to a new Windows 8.1 PC and the same problems (just like you have) persist even on two different PCs. I thought I'd had a fix via MOTU tech support, but that proved to be premature.

To return my MOTU hardware to normal operation, I find it easier to just disable the device driver then re-enable it in Device Manager. Saves unplugging/switching off kit or rebooting the PC.

As for as solution, I'm no nearer, and its frustrating.

Steve

[philbo]

Bump...
I have pretty much the same problem. I noticed when i go to 96KHz that any kind of sound (either flash or even system sound)results in a BlueScreen. The other issue with the high pitched screech appears too. Ah well since the first post was from 2013, the problems seems to be persistent.
The only thing that changed for me was that i updated my system recently to the newest version of win7 by installing all optional updates.
Since the second post kinda shows that updates are the problem, i can only assume that this is something that a new driver has to solve.

[marqu]

Have my Audio Express Unit now for almost 4 years and i never figured out a solution to the problem. Tried everything and it was bad enough with windows 7, but on my laptop for live performances which is windows 10, the problem is much worse. Every time i play audio, even for one minute, i get the high pitched noise and then it crashes. The other distorted noise happens too where the only solution is to restart the computer and the interface. I only kept the unit as i thought maybe this issue would have been addressed, but alas no. So very disappointed with this unit, that now i am going to have to buy a new device. The sad thing is it does work for long stretched when in the studio, but you never know when the problem is going to happen again, it is totally random. It happened during a live performance too and since i have had to just use the line out on the laptop which is ridiculous. So the different forms of crashes are : 1. High Pitch Noise and Crash. 2. Distorted Audio which only stops when you turn off and back on, even then i have to do that several times. 3. Fuzzy distortion through the speakers without even playing anything. 4. Sometimes there is no sound when i turn on the computer,and the solution again is to to turn in off and on several times. These things happen on multiple setups and windows 7 and 10, but much much worse no windows 10. Not reliable for live performance, which is the main reason for getting this. Any update on a solution would be great. This is now 4 years since the last updated driver.

[philippe_m34]

I have the same issue with my ultralite mk4 and cannot figure it out!
www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65050

[kdub]

I am also having this exact same issue. High pitch sound and unit freezing. I have a brand new 828ES. I'm running a brand new Win10 laptop with 64GB of ram and i9 proc so this isn't a load issue. Buffer is set to a reasonable 256 samples. But this isn't happening in my DAW...yet. This is happening when watching videos on the internet.

Driver version is 4.0.8.2000 with a date of 9/9/2019 and there's no option to update is so I assume it's the latest. This is being used thru Firewire so isn't a USB issue.

I am sleeping and hibernating the laptop...when it wakes the Motu works for about 5 mins then crashes. I didn't upgrade to a $1000 interface for this to happen.

MOTU Support, can you please comment? Thanks!

[mikehalloran]

I had to conclude that my Audio Express Was defective and sent it to the electronics recycling.

My Micro Express and MTP AV USB never exhibited those problems. I don’t think it’s the driver.