MOTUnation.com

I was wondering if it makes any difference wether if you install the driver of the PCI-424 card with the card already installed in the computer or if you install the driver first and then install the card in the computer.
I can't seem to figure out what the benfits are from installing the driver prior to installing the card in the Pc. I have a lot of performance issues with my PCI-424 card and the 24IO. I wonder if installing the driver before installing the card makes my problems go away... Any idea's?

Hmmm... I'm a Mac user so probably not very helpful, but I can't see the point of installing the driver BEFORE installing the card. I think though that at least on the Mac side, MOTU assumes you do have the card installed, but they DO say to TURN THE INTERFACES OFF when installing or updating a driver. But then again, as I said, that's on the Mac side. Hopefully some of the knowledgeable Windows users on this site can help out.

It's common under Windows, with hardware that requires a shutdown like a PCI card, to install the driver before installing the hardware so that the Plug & Play system will be "primed" and able to recognize the new hardware upon reboot. It can make the installation process smoother... first you install the drivers/software, then shutdown and install the hardware, then reboot and everything comes up first time.

However, the order is not (usually) required (though some crappy driver software can be sensitive) and should make no difference once everything is up and running. (I used to write Windows drivers.)

The big reason that MOTU makes you install the SW first is 1: They want to be on top when Windows starts to load its msconfig file. This file will have all the apps and drivers loaded as the Windows interface is being brought up. Now, seeing that MOTU's driver is at the top it is less likely to crash or implode. Ah but 2: The drivers are suppose to work with their devices and because you have plugged your firewire cable to the 424 card Windows will say that there is new hardware on or attached to your computer it will ask you to install the drivers for the device.

Does anyone out there see the approaching conflict ? You have already installed the SW and now your suppose to re-install the drivers again ?

There are little programs written out there that will extract the drivers from the installation CD but the damage is done. On some systems the way the msconfig is written it doesn't matter when you load the SW as the drivers for the interfaces are being corrupted by apps that are loaded before and/or after them.

Sounds confusing, you should talk to MOTU about it.