Glitches on my Dell (Not XX related)

[Chris V]

I'm ready to do the experiment with the analogue out of the Fireface, but a couple of questions to make sure I dont screw up.

1. Do I just plug in any pair of outputs in the FF, say 1 and 2, to get stereo?

2. Has the signal from here already gone through the DAC in the Fireface and is ready to go straight into the  normal inputs of a pre-amp (with volume control).

Thanks Chris

[PeterSt]

1. Yep. But in the Fireface Mixer you have to enable those outputs, similar to SPDIF you did before.

2. Yep.

[Chris V]

Right, got music up and playing

The FF is connected to an S&B transformer volume control then to my valve power amp.

The glitches are still there.

As the TacT (DAC) is no longer being used I think this confirms it has no part to play in the glitches.

The glitches can be heard in the headphones and analogue output of the FF 400, so does that now rule out the FF 400 itself as the source of problems?

Cheers Chris

PS The DAC in the Fireface 400 is really not very good

[PeterSt]

The glitches can be heard in the headphones and analogue output of the FF 400, so does that now rule out the FF 400 itself as the source of problems?

Yes.
The question is though, whether your headphones are connected to an output from the PC itself (and not to the Fireface). If so, it's *also* not the Firewire.

?

[Chris V]

I've only ever plugged the headphones in the FF400.

My intuition tells me its not the FF400

1. Drop outs are not a generic problem you get with this bit of kit. This is distinct from the effect you get when the buffer is set too small.

2. The FF plays perfectly when using XP on a Toshiba laptop computer (through its firewire connection.)

3. None of the FF settings have any significant effect on the drop outs. Some days going to maximum buffer of 1024 seems to help a bit, other days not.

The drop out problem seems firmly linked to my Dell computer and its ability to deliver a good firewire connection in Vista. This is where I will now focus my efforts. Unless you think otherwise.

Cheers Chris
 

[PeterSt]

I don't think otherwise, bot you would PROOVE the opposite if you'd plug in earphones into the Dell, and then it would be glitch free. So you really must do that !!

[Chris V]

Emm didnt really understand the logic, but followed instructions. 

I plugged the headphones in the PC and got no sound. To get it to play I had to enable the internal soundcard and select the internal speakers and headphones under audio settings - this of course disengaged the Fireface 400.

Now the head phones played without glitches.  But, I knew already that the internal soundcard played over internal speakers without glitches.

Have we learnt any more?

Cheers Chris

[PeterSt]

Not since I forgot about that , although incurred from this :

The drop out problem seems firmly linked to my Dell computer

and

and its ability to deliver a good firewire connection in Vista.

of which I did not see the logic, although literally ("deliver") it would be correct.

But okay.
My conclusion would be it's the PC talking to firewire - or the PC-Firewire card. I'd opt fot the last (also because the route is more easy to check).

[electrosound]

Hi Chris,

If you have a scoop, you can check some data streams

Marco

[Chris V]

Thanks for the hint Marco (I take it you mean scope), but I belong to the select few that remain unskilled in the art of electronics and computing.

If you can see it and touch it then I can fix it, but unfortunately electrons are small and invisible

[electrosound]

Hi Chris,

Yes I did mean scope
Shame on you.......that you don't have one hahaha... ,no just kidding, we can not do all the same things

I read your post but can't help you, I have no FF and Firewire
the only thing is that I think that it is your laptop, Firewire, software, but I don't now....... I think it is, because you said it works fine on a Toshiba laptop
Computers are complex things, all the hardware and software must work in harmony, but the are many manufacturers and makers of chips, mother boards, software and so on

Maybe you look at the Dell website in the support page, I was there, and there are many patches
one of them looks very interesting

I copy paste this one:

As of June 1, 2007, a memory leak issue has been identified that affects all MediaDirect 3.0 systems, on both Windows XP and Vista. This results in memory consumption, affecting system performance even if MediaDirect is not used. A patch has been developed that resolves this issue and others. This affects nearly 100% of Dell Inspiron systems (except Inspiron 1501).

But.............. if that it is, I don't now       

Marco     

[PeterSt]

Chris,

When your'e playing with Engine#3, XXEngine3.exe will be visible in Taskmanager;
Suppose you give it high priority (rightclick on the process -> set priority), possibly even "Real Time", does that help you ?
I disabled setting the "thread" priority for #3, just because it shouldn't matter, but supposed it helps you ... I can enable it.

Peter

[Chris V]

Hi Marco
Yes thanks, I did find a list of 57 updates for my computer a couple of weeks ago and downloaded every one . Nothing helped

Hi Peter
Did as you suggested under Task Manager. The PC would only let me set Engine #3 as 'High', but as you predicted it made no difference - worth a try though

While I was there I got in the spirit of things and I set many other things such as Google destop and McAffee security as 'Low'. Nothing made a difference to the drop outs.

Waiting on a phone call from Dell now

[PeterSt]

But you do have another Firewire card on order in the mean time ?

If I were you I'd got crazy ... 
I'm really sorry for you Chris.

[Chris V]

But you do have another Firewire card on order in the mean time ?

Well thats another story. I haven't yet found an Expresscard / firewire in the UK that is guaranteed to work with Vista.

The only one I found (advertised as Vista compatible) so far didn't work and is going back. Two other manufacturers say they might work , but couldn't guarantee it so its at my risk!

One question I haven't been able to get an answer to is, will a firewire 800 card (there seem to be more of them for Vista) operate OK on a firewire 400 system.

And yes, I am going a bit crazy