A Computer, a Firepod, and a Man's journey through hell

aaroncomp

1-20-2009
What you are about to read is long and changes tenses several times. This is about the hell I have gone through with my computer and getting my Firepod to work. No hate to my Firepod - I want this thing to work. Since Friday, I have spent approximately 50 hours on the problem described below. Actually, I should have probably posted this in the Cave, but, oh well...


Well, I have living in hell since last Friday. My computer has brought me to tears and thoughts of suicide. I recently got a Firepod and all was good. Working in Audition 1.5 with latency down to 1.5ms if I wanted (but I kept it higher anyway). All was good. That lasted about 2 days. So then one day I'm doing something unrelated on my computer (I use it for purposes outside of recording also), and I get a lockup, crash, or something. No biggie. Restart, run my registry fixer (VCom) like always after a crash. I then fix the errors...but, I forgot to uncheck this registry entry VCom always picks up for Audition. So, for Audition to work I have to completely uninstall it and then reinstall. No biggie, done it a million times. So, I get everything set back up - plugins ready to roll, inputs/outputs are a check, a million new ideas to record. Then, the my journey to hell begins...

With the exact setup as before the reinstall, I start playing a session. While the clock keeps pushing along, the audio comes and goes with the rare pop and click. Hmm, I thought. Okay, let me up the latency a bit for the Firepod. Nada. CPU adjustment. Nope. Hmm. So I decided to do a fresh uninstall/reinstall of the Firepod drivers. Didn't help. Oh, and just to cross check, my internal soundcard (SB Audigy 2 Plat.) played normally. So at this point I began to think of what may have changed that I'm not accounting for - nothing came to mind. So, I then install the Cubase LE that comes with the Firepod as a reference check. Same thing. So the big option presents and I choose it...format, reinstall.

Back in college, I probably did a fresh format/reinstall every 1-2 months. Now that I'm running 5 HDDs and more hardware, it's not so fun. So, clean install. Yeah, everything installed to perfection. I'm OCD about my computer environment, so I'd say after getting all drivers, all patches, options adjusted, etc. we're talking about 4-5 hours. Then the test....dammit, still having the problem!

About my setup: P4 3.0E, ASUS P4C800-E, HT enabled, 512x2 3200 OCZ DDR, HDD!: 2 WD Raptor 10k as RAID0 on the mobo's Intel ICH5R controller - for OS, hardware apps, and audio apps (including the aforementioned ones); 2 WD 7200 - one for programs, the other for sample storage (DFH, Trilogy, etc.); 1 WD 7200 on mobo's Promise controller - for track and session storage. Firepod is connected to the motherboard's native Firewire port via a brand new 10' Planet Waves cable. Windows XP Professional. Prior to the reinstall, I was running without Microsoft SP2 installed. On the reinstall, I opted to give it a shot. So...

For those still reading, I will continue. So, fresh resintall with no help. Agghh. I'm not a complete master of computers, etc. but I'm typically the one fixing the computer problems of others. So, at this point, I'm getting pissed and tired. Google this and google that. Hmm, try this and that. No help. Then I come across a suggestion that I hadn't tried. Change my CPU settings in control panel from ACPI Multiprocessor to APM Multiprocessor. Yeah, that was an awesome idea! Thing is, I'd tried this change in the past for another soundcard (not Firepod) issue - didn't work, changed back, no prob. This time however, the ol' computer was not happy. "Press OK to restart computer for changes to take effect." Alrighty. Restarting. Tick tick. Ok. Umm, where's my mouse? Dammit. Restart. Grrr. Adjustments followed by restarts x 10 or more. Finally, used the keyboard to reenter XP. Made the change back to ACPI, and restarted. Phew, that could of sucked I thought to myself (btw, this novel will be available in a softback edition next spring). Restarting, mouse is on, YES! Ok, things are loading up, cool...looking good...freeze. Umm. Ok, my mouse is still moving, but I can't click anything. Ok, restart. Again, restart x 10plus. Finally, I decided to let it hang there after freezing. Poof! Suddenly, everything's going as it should. I immediately bombard my computer with everything I can think of: registry fixer, disk fixer, Spyware removal, Virus removal, blaster removal, etc. etc. Restart. DAMMIT! So, the googling continues for a new problem (oh, I'm sure Mr. Firepod or whatever still has his problems, but I've got new ones for now.) So I finally conclude that Office was loading this language tool bullshit that was doing God know's what. Work through that, things a little smoother, but....restart? Yep, still screwed up. More googling, more ideas, more everything to no avail. So, here I am with my fresh install, everything setup to my liking. Sigh...reformat and reinstall...again...

At this point I'm really pissed at myself for changing the CPU driver, but like I said, I'd done it in the past with no problems. New install, things loading good. Loading more drivers, no problem...wait, my Audigy drivers won't work. Whatever, no biggie, I've got bigger fish to fry, for this is simple to fix later. Sigh (hindsight is indeed a bitch). So hours down the road, I am at the all-is perfect state of my computer, aside from the Audigy card. Why even care about the Audigy now that I have the Firepod? I prefer to use it for everything outside of recording and mixing (e.g. games, music, etc.). To abbreviate, I spend the next 5 hours working on the sound card - uninstall, reinstall, Driver Cleaner programs, reinstall, different drivers, moving its PCI slot, everything with no resolution! And why? Because soundblaster drivers are a piece of shit and on my system require you to install them at a very specific chronological point in reinstall-time. Reinstall? Oh yeah!

You'd think I'd be lying, but I then begin to have problems with reinstalling XP. Yeah, we're talking clean format. It would get to the part of the install where it actually enters the OS and give me some "Out of resources" of similar message within 2 minutes and immediately reboot. I then formated, AGAIN, but this time decided to use a different CDROM and used the longer NTFS method (non "quick")...

As I stated above, I started on this Friday (it's 3am Wednesday as a write). So, fresh reinstall, Audigy working correctly, everything perfect....test time. Still having the problem with Firepod. At this point, it's about 5pm this afternoon (10 hours ago). I've basically got the computer back to where I like it aside from being able to use my Firepod correctly.

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Basically, I'm looking at the Firepod as the culprit at this point. Just a few hours ago, I revisited Presonus's website to find new drivers and a new flash memory for the unit. I thought my prayer's had been answered. No help. Actually, instead of having the sound come-and-go, it would just have a continual whispy scratch of the recorded material, and was too slow - the sync was off. I played around with the Firepod's control panel and found that when I switched it to SPDIF (i'm not using any SPDIF inputs though) while a session was playing, it would temporarily fix things. However, I couldn't get it to last. I found out about the Firewire patch for SP2 users and installed it. It didn't change anything. Also, I downloaded an app from Intel that Presonus's website suggested for those using Intel RAID devices. No help. So, I reinstalled the packaged drivers. So, this would be the older drivers, but on the newer flash. This basically made things exactly as they were with the old drivers and original flash. To add, I do get a slow Blue light to Red light change in this setup which Presonus suggests is and SPDIF issue. But I'm not using SPDIF!

Temporary fix - I have found that if I choose SPDIF as the input in the Firepod Control panel, things work. I have only tested this for a short period, but it works. I will be calling Presonus tomorrow.








To whomever actually read this, thank you. If you have any suggestions, please shoot them my way.
 
I was going to suggest reverting to a previous Restore Point, but it's a bit late for that.

I feel your pain man. I had issues with my Firepod, and my Delta 44 before that, that only an XP reinstall resolved. I'm OK now....I can barely remember back to those hellish days, I think I've blocked them from memory.

One difference I may have spotted in your saga between when it used to work and now: originally you had Audition already installed, then you installed the firepod drivers. After your first crash, you reinstalled Audition with the firepod driver already installed. Often the order things are done is important, as maybe a registry entry is left lurking around, or a device picks up a different IRQ...

The only thing I can suggest is to forget about the Audigy card, and try get the 'pod going. The problem I had was in my registry, with orphan references to old sound cards
 
Finally!

I am now the happiest man on earth. I spoke with Presonus tech support today about my problem. He was really confused and surprised that the S/PDIF setting was more stable for me. So, he suggested I next purchase a PCI Firewire card rather than use the motherboard native one.

IT WORKED! The thought crossed my mind before, but I kept doubting - surely my less than one year old computer's Firewire ports were stable, etc. But sure enough, I'm rolling now. Not only that, my video camera's DV output that I thought was broken actually isn't - it was the computer's port! So, I'm so freaking happy right now. Presonus tech support rocks!



Drinks on me.









P.S. Warble - I should have taken your suggestion you mentioned in a previous post. ;)
 
might wanna call your motherboard manufacturer when you get some down time, get that board rma'd for one with working firewire ports, key term: less than one year old. And frankly, it should work as stably

but, kudos on getting it working.
 
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