896 troubles...

Z

Zeppelin456

Banana Co
Hi, my MOTU 896 has recently been acting up pertaining to when I turn it on. I turn it on and the red, orange, and green lights (the ones that normally blink on the LED meters during startup) won't stop blinking and my computer refuses to recognize that the MOTU is plugged in. A few days ago, it was working fine and now all of a sudden it has stopped working suddenly. I figured I'd ask here now and call tech support later so if anybody has ever had this problem before, what can I do?
 
Hi dwillis, thanks for the help there. I searched that board too and missed that post. Although it gave me a little insight on the problem, my problem is a little different. When I turn mine on, it just blinks, even if it's not plugged into the firewiire cable or the computer. Could it be the ports on the machine are bad and are causing it to do this? I would assume that if the ports were bad, I'd at least have to plug it in to get that error? Any help appreciated!
 
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Are all the lights blinking? Or just the ones indicating the sample rate? If it's just the sample rate indicator, that's far less sinister than all the lights. It probably indicates that the 896 is waiting to receive sample rate information from the computer or another digital device and can't find that information. You say in your reply that "it just blinks, even if it's not plugged into the firewiire cable or the computer." If it's not linked via firewire, the 896 probably can't receive sample rate info from the computer and, thus, it blinks. Are you trying to use the unit in some type of stand-alone configuration without linking it to the computer? Or was the firewire unplugged for troubleshooting purposes?

I would also make sure that your MOTU software "control panel" (that's what it's called on a Mac) is set to use the 896's internal clock and that your recording software is setup with the appropriate sampling rate. You may also want to unplug any digital devices that are linked to the 896 and might be sending conflicting sample rate info. And check to see if there are any other settings on your computer that could affect the sample rate. The post I sent above mentioned an OSX dialog box that set sample rates for the firewire port. I use OS9, so I'm not familiar with that issue and I'm not even sure you are using a Mac or PC. The other issue might be the sequence that you use to start the computer/interface. My MOTU 828 likes to be stared before my computer (iMac 800MgHz flat panel) and I've had "blinking" and firewire recognition issues when the computer starts first.

Let me know how it works out.
 
It's all of the lights, not just the sample rate ones.
I'm using a PC (brand new, 2.8 GHZ, 1 gig of RAM, running XP Home, etc, etc...).

I had it unplugged for troubleshooting purposes. Up until a couple of days ago, I would usually turn on my computer, turn on the MOTU, and plug it in and the computer would quickly recognize the hardware and I'd be off and running. Then 3 days ago, I turned the MOTU on and everything started as usual, with the lights blinking for a couple of seconds and then settling down. However, my computer refused to recognize the MOTU as plugged in. I checked all the connections, still no luck, then I restarted and turned off the MOTU. When I turned it back on, it wouldn't stop blinking and that's how it's been since. I've turned it on and off probably 20 times since then and only once did the lights stop blinking, but Windows still wouldn't recognize the MOTU. Now it's back to the blinking and I feel sorta out of luck. I'm pretty sure it's not the computer, which is under two weeks old.

I just recently bought this MOTU off of ebay (seems like a dumb idea now) and I've begun to take this problem up with the seller. Still, I'd like to try to solve it, but it's looking more and more hopeless by the second here. Thanks for the help you've given so far though!
 
Is there any possibility that your PC firewire card is incompatible? MOTU support has the following technote on their web site:

828/ 896: NEC chip on PCI/PCMCIA firewire cards
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There's an incompatibility between the NEC chip found in some Firewire cards and the motu firewire line of interface. <br><br>If the firewire installer warns you that you're running a Firewire card with the NEC chip, you should replace said card with a card that uses the TI (Texas Instruments) or Lucent chip. Keyspan, Sonnet and ADS are a few of the many brands using the TI or Lucent firewire chips. <br><br>Please check with the manufacturer of the firewire card before purchasing it to ensure it has the TI or Lucent chip.
 
I don't think it's incompatible, only because it worked for about a week and a half perfectly well before it started malfunctioning. I also am pretty sure I'm not running the NEC chip :-\
 
No, that'll be my next step but I don't think it will solve the issue of the actual hardware seeming to have problems. Anyways, I have to step out now for a bit but I totally appreciate the help you've given me, thanks alot for the help, my next step is to try my luck with tech support.....
 
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