Fix for gaps, squeals and pops

[APADRecordings]

I suffered for several months with all the MOTU Firewire problems others have mentioned but determined to find a solution.

I could not find any Core 2 Duo or dual core machines that would stream audio correctly. So I went back to older Pentium 4, IBM Netvista and Thinkcentre computers and had no problems. It is not necessary to modify the OS and/or unload programs. In fact, I was able to record using Sound Forge or Vegas at the same time I was burning CDs with CD Architect. These older machines can be had quite inexpensively on ebay. These machines all have integrated video, by the way.

Still, it hacked me that I had a new Dell D830 and couldn't use it. Not only would it not stream audio reliably but turning a MOTU device on or off would cause a Blue Screen. I also noted that even when the MOTU units worked the video display on the Dell would flicker in conjunction with HDD I/Os. The D830 video, firewire, and cardbus connections all share the same IRQ. This is not changeable but everything should work. I reasoned that the Nvidia driver might be hogging CPU time. So I disabled "hardware acceleration" (right click on the desktop screen, select "settings tab", click on Advanced; then click on Troubleshoot and move "hardware acceleration to None.) and discovered that eliminated the problems mentioned earlier. Latency of the Nvidia driver was indeed the problem. The D830 can now record/playback while running other programs and can also run 3 MOTU devices simulataneously. The only drawback I've found is that on boot up I get an annoying dialog stating that "Nvidia control panel is unable to start up." That, of course, further confirms that Nvidia was hogging the IRQ and CPU.

I have reported this to Dell and, hopefully, they will take it up with Nvidia.

[squareape]

Hi,
what kind of firewire chip did you have?

this could help me.

greetings,

luuk

[reeper]

use a pci card with Ti chipset. worked for me. (have a 9800GTX+ btw)

[ahavah]

what about for laptops. pls the advise and direction are not same in my laptop. pls be more clear when it's time to describe the fix. too much details on all the hell you went through but time to clearly and carefully explain the solution is often too assuming that everyone understands. some of us are new to all these computer complications. And wonder why those who manufacture these hardwares such as motu would not fix or address these issues. but only interested in our money. pls help how do i fix these gaps noises and shits with motu ultralite mk3???
iam vista, asus m51 sn, 3 gb ram....
thanks you good people!!!