Glitches on my Dell (Not XX related)

[PeterSt]

If they can't be plugged to a 400 connection ... no.

In this picture (backside) in the thrid sectrion you can roughly see the 1 800 and 2 400 conections. They are different.

I think a physical 800 ceonnection will pass through an actual 400 logical connection, but you'd have to solve the cabling conversion.

[Chris V]

Thanks Peter

Think I've finally found what I want
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=1038

[Chris V]

Right, Dell just phoned me.

Here is the plan we have agreed.

1. They will replace the entire motherboard (inc firewire stuff) on Thursday of this week.
2.  If this doesn't fix it, but the new Expresscard (that I will order) does fix it, then Dell will try for a full refund of the cost of the new Expresscard for me.
3. If neither works then the problem is to be elevated to the next level of support at Dell

I like a good plan

[PeterSt]

Now I think of it ...

Supports asynchronous and isochronous data transfer modes

It could very well be that your current card does not support this. Or better : if it doesn't, the result might be what you hear (just guessing, but it seems logic to me).

Edit : I meant the Isochronous; Asynchronous is normal.

[Chris V]

Hi

Here is a new observation.

I was sitting listening to music with the Fireface Settings box open. When the first drop-out occurred an Error message appeared in the normal empty space above the AutoSync box. It read Error 1.

At the next drop-out it changed to Error 2 etc. There were typically 3-5 errors per track.

When the track ended this error message reset and disappeared till the next drop out in the next track.

The Error messages are explained in the manual under Firewire Audio (37.3 in my manual) but its far too technical for me to understand.
Is this just making a record of what I  am hearing or is it a clue as to the source of the drop outs.


PS
Here is their more technical info sheet:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fwaudio_rme.htm

I have just read my way through it and here are the main conclusions they make.

1. Here is the prime candidate for drop-outs:
Loss of data due to overloads on and flawed performance of the PCI bus

2. Here is their advice if you have this problem:
When suffering from such effects, the best advice is to get a new computer.

I have written to Dell asking them why my new PC is not fit for the purpose

[BertD]

I think a physical 800 ceonnection will pass through an actual 400 logical connection, but you'd have to solve the cabling conversion.

Such cables are for sale at most places...I am using my 3x 800 FireWire card with such a cable to connect it to the FireFace.

No problemo...

Bert

[BertD]

I was sitting listening to music with the Fireface Settings box open. When the first drop-out occurred an Error message appeared in the normal empty space above the AutoSync box. It read Error 1.

At the next drop-out it changed to Error 2 etc. There were typically 3-5 errors per track.

I have such errors when my samples are set too low..... If you change the sample rate in the FireFace settings window then you'll have to restart XX to have any effect. Perhaps you have it standard set to 128 samples and have restarted XX several times so that my post doesn't help but still...

Good luck and Dell seems to do well with their service, afterall... 

Bert

[Chris V]

I have such errors when my samples are set too low..... If you change the sample rate in the FireFace settings window then you'll have to restart XX to have any effect. Perhaps you have it standard set to 128 samples and have restarted XX several times so that my post doesn't help but still...
Bert

Hi Bert

I've been running with the buffer set at 256 for a couple of weeks, so i dont think I'm pushing the limits.

[PeterSt]

Chris, you won't believe this, and I hope it is to your advantage somehow;

The last few days I was working on my "storage system", which is about RAID stuff and SATA. This is mainly about changing things in the BIOS, and from there on trying things get to work (which in my case hopelessly fails so far, but never mind that).

Yesterday, after 3 night of hobbying with this, I found that my Vista PC (where all this was occurring), suddenly had glitches ...

For several hours I was working on the solution to that (it worked for ages before, *and* I never experienced it anyway on either PC), until as some last resort I removed a driver which I shouldn't have ...
Many hours later of trying to get my system to rebooting again, I had to temporarily solve it by mounting another disk with the Vista OS on it (from another PC), and right away the glitches were gone again.


At having the glitches this was always in parallel with the disk lamp coming up, and in fact I couldn't touch anything on the PC or I had one (including an additional error in the Fireface data).
The things I had been doing the pas few days (without playing music from that machine) was related to installing motherboard Raid and disk drivers I hadn't installed before (so before it used generic/general drivers) in various versions including those who didn't work at all (like XP drivers which were just accepted, but did not do their job). Besides that I have been changing the BIOS all over the place, but which was all set back (and even reset to a before default) in the end. All to no avail.

I hope this helps you somewhere.
Peter

[Chris V]

Hi Peter

I would like to think it was something I had done wrong in the drivers/software/Bios domains but my machine glitched from brand new out the box.

The Dell engineer just spent 90 minutes installing a new mobo, only to find a hard disk error which indicated the new board was 'Dead On Arrival'. Just my luck .

He will be back tomorrow with another new one. 

[PeterSt]

[BertD]

Many hours later of trying to get my system to rebooting again, I had to temporarily solve it by mounting another disk with the Vista OS on it (from another PC), and right away the glitches were gone again.

Yeah, that was a long night! Glad to be of help... 

I do hope that all is working as before (except for the glitches!).

Bedtime...

Bert

[Chris V]

Further update:

The man from Dell has just been to replace the mobo again. This time the PC fired up OK and we connected it to the Hi-Fi.

The drop-outs are still there.

The Dell man left, I waved him goodbye and returned to find the PC had turned itself off.
Any attempt to restart it, results in 3 flickering lights, but no action on the screen which is blank. After one minute it turns itself off again.

I think I will go for a lie down in a darkened room.

[PeterSt]

Oh man ...

Well, I just finished an email to the Internet company that delivered my SATAII (6 piece) hot swap disk tower. After months and a couple of 100 hours of trying, I came to the conclusion the thing flaws. I asked the company politely to refund my money ...
That's btw why I never started something myself in the "Music Storage" board, because I thought to have this theoretical nice solution to have working a long time ago. This is also why in a last attempt (day before yesterday) I started to have glitches, which by itself caused that my development PC has to be setup all over again, which ... COMPUTERS !!

Are we all sure this is the way to go ?

... but since this morning I have my 2x 1TB (1TB storage, 1TB backup) working in another way, expandable to 2 x 2TB without troubles (and to 2 x 3TB with some relatively more money, but still without troubles).

[Chris V]

Oh man ...
Are we all sure this is the way to go ?

Well if XX wasn't the best sound I had heard from my system, I might have to agree with you

Dell have agreed to replace my computer with a completely new one, but I have said that I dont want the same model again if it has got sound issues through firewire.
They assured me it would not, but as this is the first instance they have heard of this, and since they dont know the cause, how can they give me that assurance?
They have gone away to think about it