Tascam USB issues with new desktop build

whirlwindRA

whirlwindRA

Member
Hello all, I'm having serious issues with both of my Tascam interfaces (a US-1800 and US-200) since I built a new rig, and I am desperate for ideas on how to get them working again.

The issue sounds very similar, if not identical, to the one mentioned here: Help with US-1800 | TASCAM Forums

Basically, the interfaces will work for a few seconds up to a few minutes, and then one or more of the following happens:
  • Audio stops playing entirely
  • The USB light turns off and/or Windows says "a USB device has malfunctioned"
  • The last second or so plays on loop like a broken record until it fizzles out and stops playing
  • Odd distortion and digital blips occur in the sound until it fails
  • Absolutely horrible white noise at full volume, plus a squealing noise

Note that this happens whether I am using my DAW (Cubase 9) or just playing Spotify or whatever. I can temporarily get sound back by playing with settings in the device's control panel, but it does not last.

I have tried completely removing and reinstalling all variants of the drivers.

The real kicker is: it's something to do with my new desktop build, as it works fine on my old hardware (plus my laptop) but not the new hardware. I have both desktops sitting side-by-side on the floor, so it's still possible to intertwine their individual components to test things. As such, I've connected the hard drives with the original Windows 10 install back to the old motherboard, a MSI H87-G43. Everything works like normal and I can mix all day. When I plug the interface back into the new board, an ASUS Prime X470-Pro, I get the aforementioned issues. So, it must be something with the new build, and I suspect something USB-related. The new board does not have any USB 2.0 ports (although I understand that the USB 3.1 Gen1/2 ports on the board should be backwards compatible), except for the ones on the front panel, but they behave in the same way.

Besides the motherboard, it's not a CPU issue, as my Ryzen 2700X runs below 5% utilization most of the time. I've also added a second PCIe graphics card, and several more drives, and I do not believe these to be issues as far as I'm concerned. USB hubs are configured to not be put into power saving mode. The UEFI BIOS has some USB settings, but they don't seem applicable here.

Any ideas or suggestions I can try to get things working again? Is there something I haven't tried? Could a powered USB hub somehow alleviate an issue? If not, I might end up getting a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 to replace these interfaces.
 
The MSI has usb 3.0 ports per MSI’s specs on the website, the new board has 3.1 and 3.0 ports. I would be sure to use the usb 3.0 ports on the new board, take any bios updates available for the board and driver updates for the chipset and certainly anything usb related. Essentially get all the latest drivers installed first. You may have to check your audio interfaces mfg website or call support, may be a known issue with some usb chipsets, maybe not. Actually, peeking at the Tascam website, for the 1800 anyway, looks like there is a firmware update, it’s pretty old but worth a shot. Just be sure to perform the update on the old computer that works : ) there is also a 32 bit and 64 bit driver, be sure your using the 64 bit driver if needed.
If updating mobo drivers and firmware don’t do the trick you could drop in a usb 2.0 card for a few bucks. I would hesitate to drop the $$ on a hub as you may just run into buffering issues leading to the same or similar issue, your call. Either way, I’d drop the money on a 2.0 add in card first. One last thought, try a different usb cable.

If none of that works, looks like the end of the line for old faithful : )

Best of luck!
 
cecerre said:
The MSI has usb 3.0 ports per MSI’s specs on the website, the new board has 3.1 and 3.0 ports. I would be sure to use the usb 3.0 ports on the new board, take any bios updates available for the board and driver updates for the chipset and certainly anything usb related. Essentially get all the latest drivers installed first. You may have to check your audio interfaces mfg website or call support, may be a known issue with some usb chipsets, maybe not. Actually, peeking at the Tascam website, for the 1800 anyway, looks like there is a firmware update, it’s pretty old but worth a shot. Just be sure to perform the update on the old computer that works : ) there is also a 32 bit and 64 bit driver, be sure your using the 64 bit driver if needed.
If updating mobo drivers and firmware don’t do the trick you could drop in a usb 2.0 card for a few bucks. I would hesitate to drop the $$ on a hub as you may just run into buffering issues leading to the same or similar issue, your call. Either way, I’d drop the money on a 2.0 add in card first. One last thought, try a different usb cable.

If none of that works, looks like the end of the line for old faithful : )

Best of luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Tascam's website is a bit unhelpful, as the "firmware" update is actually just another driver package, and I've tried all of the x64 drivers, most of which don't seem to work even remotely as expected (the newer drivers after 2.02 seem like a complete messup, as my DAW can only see two in and out ports on the device). I also imagine their support would be minimal since the device is discontinued.

I may add a USB 2.0 PCIe card to test, but I don't have very much space between the 2 GPUs. Or sell this stuff and buy some newer hardware, which sounds more exciting anyway.
 
You'll never believe what worked. So my new desktop also dual boots into Fedora, from where I can run the exact same instance of Windows using KVM. I passed though an entire USB controller to the VM, plugged in the US-1800, and it immediately worked in Cubase without the above issues. Didn't even touch the drivers.

Not sure why this works because same hardware, same drivers, same USB controller, same Windows instance. But maybe I'll stick with it, as long as the VM performs well. Latency isn't noticeable, which is something I was afraid about using a VM for this.

That said, I've not rebooted into bare-metal Windows to test, but I feel like things won't have changed.
 
Dude that’s awesome. More than likely the generic VM driver for the USB chipset is what saving you there or perhaps it is it is buffering at the data at the software level.

Maybe consider opening a ticket with the motherboard manufacturer. Sounds like they need to correct a bug in their USB driver or firmware. If it’s Working with the generic VM USB then it is most likely not hardware.
 
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